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Oh
What's up, um...
Jonah.
Jon.
Right.
I don't remember.
Bazy Camerican.
Sorry guys.
Jonah.
Yeah, right, Jonah.
A bit of finality to you, though.
A little bit, yeah.
Sorry.
Last time.
Jonah.
Ahhhh.
Jonah.
It's going to be a long week.
They know the name, I'm one and I'm I
Big guy wanna hate I
Move, look, I don't make smite
I can take some life, bring your back up and left me
But how can I back down to get it right?
Are you in a tank?
Moment of change, I want a revival
Switching the game
They know the name, I'm one and I'm I
I can't take it, you ain't right
You manage the human life
It's time to turn it into civil life
It's civil life, it's civil life
It's civil life, it's civil life
Welcome to another week of the EML.
So glad to have you with us.
It's Playday 5, halfway through the playoff chase.
I'm Jonas Rillinger, filling in for Ann this week, along with Fresh and Alphama.
Guys, it's good to be here.
I love the dynamic.
Alphama.
I feel left out. I don't know if we really make it work. I like the dynamic our two broadcasts
kind of have like the banter that we kind of send each other's way while on air, but
it's good to kind of be here with you guys in the thick of it. You know, I agree. I mean,
you know, American NAL you've got, you've got the big woos. You got, you know, the big
Grand Broadcast over here over here in email. We've got a nice competitive region quality first thing
I know you're baited. I will not I will not be baited
But we did see some really good action here in the email last week in case you missed it
You saw the return of the king stompin had a week to remember. Why did we peek an American guy for that? Oh, I don't know
I don't know
Do you know what I picked him because he was in a big slump and he had a fantastic week last week Leo
He got what 22 kills six deaths played up G2 got two wins out of two
Fantastic fun and stompers a huge reason. It's called G2 for reason
They start playing week two and that's on the back of stompin
And it was an amazing week for them all the way on his back on a sleep
It was great to see him perform finally like we expected him to be and yes
It was an American leader
Yes, it was it was we have to admit it. Well another thing we don't see too often is cap can across the I
I ran the numbers on this NAL, SAL, EML. We've seen Capcan once so far in stage two and that time happened last week and it led to this wild moment.
Two seconds, let me drown. Yeah, boxed off, okay, we have a top floor, can we see him?
Cap can't see you, don't need, Cap can't see you, don't need.
Yeah, that's fine, listen to me, I'm gonna leave a metal cam, I'm gonna jump in, somebody hold metal, okay?
Keep them on the jump in, listen to me, okay?
Oh my.
Capcan's on your door, Jack. Capcan's on your door.
Yep, no, had it.
He said it was fine.
He said it was fine.
This is fine.
Yeah.
This definitely is fine.
Very fine.
Honestly, amazing.
What a move from Nafe, to be honest.
And I love that we got the calms on Twitter.
Like, they got what we got there for this.
Even though they lost the game, they still wanted to put it up.
It was content.
You know what?
I will say, that round had two Capcom kills as well.
It wasn't just that one on Nafe.
There was a second one going on.
And Chieftain still managed to win the round.
That round had absolutely everything.
I don't know if there's anything more to say.
Yeah, I mean, he's like, if we got to do this next thing,
I'm going to ignore and blow up to the Capcom.
And you'll not have thought that Leo actually, it's an ideal win.
When you hear things, you're trying to get the calls, you're trying to set a play up,
you're not thinking about your own focus on your own game.
You get told something, you're like, no, no, guys, just listen to me.
And they cost me a...
What he said was this is fine, what he meant was,
shut up, I'm not listening, I'm doing this other thing right now, guys.
He's on.
Uh, well, that team who was on the receiving end of that shifters,
we're gonna chance to see them take on G2 a little later on today,
a game that you should absolutely stick around to watch.
At 8pm CEST, we'll get to see if shifters really is the team
to be right now. Yeah exactly.
And this game is massive for a
variety of reasons. Both teams
are on six points after winning
to and losing to come into the
game in different ones or form,
as you can see from the results
that however, what I will say is
whoever ends up winning it,
they're attacking the top four.
They're really going for it up.
They want to make the playoffs
and they're you know, they're
well set to achieve that whoever
ends up losing it potentially
only on six points after this
play day after more than half
at the stage. It's going to be
struggling and they're going to
have to be fighting so they
guaranteed playoffs either. It's also putting settling them back again in the playoffs race
when we've seen a lot of upsets, the overrables for example. Some of the teams from Meritix as well,
from some of the teams that are all the way at the end of the leaderboard in EML,
there is still that thread that they can take away points, crucial points for you to reach playoffs.
Well something you guys talked about at the beginning of the stage, you talked about Villa
coming in, the other things that Operation Splitfire brought to the table. One of those things
was the Cali changes. How have we seen those impacting play here so far?
So Kali used to be a very, very niche pick, I think it's what I was saying, they updated her,
they gave her the increase, well not an increase, but you can stay scoped in the whole time,
and then also changed the scope magnification as well. What we've seen as a result of that is
every single region, this isn't just the ML specific, every single region has increased
their play of Kali, more than double stage on stage. And you might wonder, you might ask the
question, what does a good Kali player look like? Let's take an example of some of the
very best EML player handling Kali. Solotov for example, when he plays on boarder, he's
so good, he's always staying at that TC door. You've got a couple of examples of that, you
know, removing a TC player here and there. It looks like a Prime movie from Prime Face
2010, look at that. I want some EDM music on that. It feels so satisfying just looking
at it. And then, you know, you look at him and you feel like it's amazing. This is an
an A player in an ALE playing Kali, a little bit of disparity in level I feel like, but
in general I would say it feels very good.
I was wondering if you were going to include that clip, was that Kino?
It was Kino, yes.
Not the moment he wanted to have, but hey, using Kali, increasing the pick rate for your
stats there.
Some other things though, we also saw some changes to some other operators, will my included,
have we seen teams react to that and change the way they've been banning operators?
that. Yeah, we did actually so
last stage. I think we had quite
a flexible band matter other
than Kaden Bandit on the
defender side. This stage we've
got a very, very defined
banning matter in terms of as
army plus one. I makes up for
57.5% of our initial band
phases. Kaden Bandit
increasingly the second place
of the band phases, and then
finally any other combination
of operators is in third
place. What that tells me after
One-eyes utility is so strong. He has a good gun. He's a two-speed. He allows and supplements his army in the power positions
Has a C4 or a shield, maybe should bring it. And also if you do bring the C4
You can throw the one-my-gudge out to counter a factor die rate. Throw the one-my-gudge out and then throw the C4 as well
So so so so strong. So you have three takeaways. I would call that generic bands. Three takeaways from this basically. On any map
That relies a lot on world denial. You take a clubhouse, you take a lair for example
You're gonna see that Bandit and Kate baton very often on all of the maps that that's not the case
You're gonna see the one-eyed on SNRI band because the combination is too strong and the third thing that it tells us is
Mira almost always open your clash always open never banned and from time to time
Almost all trap operators open like Fenrir like Ella like so on and if one of them is bad
Then you have a plethora of other trap operators
So it means that the the meta is very much against as I'm in one way right now
Leaving a lot of stuff open for the rest and if you're at home thinking about how this can apply to your right to games
Really professional players when they ban they target synergies. They don't ban operators individually as army and one-night synergistic
They're so good together K. Don't bond it so good together
And that's how maybe you know you should stop on in your right games kind of in the future
We'll hopefully get a chance to see how these changes manifest themselves in our very first matchup here
I know we're talking about G2 shifters this one should be a good one VP and twisted minds two teams who remained
Undefeated going into playday four and are now well defeated a loss for both of them at the end of our final playday here
So no one in the eml undefeated anymore
But these two teams at the top of the table looking to continue to show why they are the best teams
We have to offer in the eml right now the numbers these guys have been putting up. It's been astonishing
Yeah, we consider both of these teams, you know, top teams fighting out for top four realistically
I think there's a great chance that both of these teams go to the Osaka major. If we take a look at the numbers
We can see that both the attack and the defense for these teams
It is absolutely fantastic in terms of their numbers above 50% on the attack really really strong defenses
Where these two teams excel? They are the first the best team in the world VP
We've talked about it very very often
They're the best coach team in the world that will continue forever more
But actually when they get the entry as well 95% on the conversion
That's only one round in the ML where they've got the entry and the other team has won the round if they these guys get an entry
They are not losing it conversely to twisted minds. We don't necessarily think about them as a plant based team
We think about them as aggressive excited win the round by guns kill actually they're leading the world for not for funds
Not point to two pair rounds. That's one in every five and
This is where we do think about them being a gun place team deaths traded percent twenty three percent second in the world
only after the undisputed Vestim in the world of fights.
And it's been really fun to watch Tristan9's play.
Trust me, I know a lot about plant-based things.
Hi, obviously a Vigitator and myself.
And just looking at them play, you see a dynamic that you didn't see before,
where G'lath calls in a way that is very objective-centric.
When we used to know Tristan9 was this crazy guy from Mana that would just run and gun.
No, actually, he's got a lot of depth in his strategy.
And then on top of that, you've got the same, I would say, firepower
that was the main strength suit of that team.
And then if you look at the other way,
you look at Virtus.4 and you just mentioned
where they were leading, right?
Clutches and entry conversion.
It springs to me one word and that word is discipline.
It's whenever you get the advantage,
being able to make sure that you're snowball
and win that round.
And I think you've seen that consistently
with the level that Virtus.4 have played.
They've been, in my opinion, the best EML team
in terms of consistency in the BO1s across the last,
I would say, kickoff EML stage one
and all the way to the beginning of stage two.
Earlier I mentioned that these two teams right at the top of the table
Let's give you a quick look at how things are looking now that we are just about halfway through the group stage
Nine play days and we are on play day five
So halfway through the day and we will be half way through in the chase to playoffs things are shaping up
I mean things look a lot different than they do in NA with the split of the teams right now because it seems like you have a
Pretty well-defined top six and that bottom four. I mean they're on the outside just looking in
Yeah, clearly an issue of competitive integrity, no, not integrity of competition, I would say.
I'm not compared to an AL, I was wondering why he was going back.
There is a clinic, I like it, I like it.
I like the big split between autumn six and autumn four, I have to say it.
It's okay, it's one game, but still it's very obvious in the games that we watch, right?
It's clear that we have a bottom four, the secret of Nadec Rebels and Heretics.
It's clear that there is a relegations race with rebels and heretics that are in a really dire spot and expected to drop out,
which is kind of sad because they were the two that were promoted.
And then it's clear that in the top six, there is a race for top four.
And that top four, I think, is defined by the game today, of Twisted Minds and Virtus.Pro.
And in the second game that we mentioned is the must-see, the G2 shifters one.
Yeah, lots of that ability for these teams to prove that they belong in the top six,
or maybe a little bit further down the leaderboard.
Well, what we saw last week, these two teams, as I said, taking their first losses, it was
Twisted Minds on Café, VP on border.
Let's find out where we're going to end up here.
It is going to be fortress with Twisted Minds ultimately making the decision from Bank.
Jack, what do you think?
I've got a question for you, actually, Jonah.
Who is the undisputed best team in the world out of any region?
You could say Dynasty Rostock.
Face?
Face, huh?
Okay.
I've got a question for you, Leo.
What the scoreline was when VP played face map on Fortress?
Yes.
What was it?
7-2.
To whom?
VP.
To VP.
OK.
So if you can 7-2 the best team in the world undisputed on this map,
why wouldn't you take anybody down?
Yeah.
Why would you, in my opinion, make this decision is what I'm thinking.
Well, there is a big discreference, I would say, in general.
Best results are not indicative of future Fortress performances.
I am growing old, wow.
But the reality is, it's very much true.
I remember looking at Falcons when they got upset on Café Against Rebels.
And I was like, look at the record for Falcons, they're the best in the world,
they've looked amazing on Café, they have this win streak, they lost to Rebels.
So you know what, in such anything can happen, it's a B01.
And let's be honest, they've been full of surprises ever since the beginning of this stage.
So there's one team that can surprise VP on a 1-off in a B01, why not?
Talk to me a little bit about those surprises, because when we came into the stage,
They made the changes. They bring in blast. They bring in Mowgli.
I've always looked at twisted minds and we've all known them to be this team
that's explosive, aggressive.
They're going to surprise you in the lobby.
Jack, how have these two players shifted the dynamic of this team?
Has it changed at all in half?
I think it comes down to risk appetite.
I think both of these players carry the same risk appetite as twisted minds.
I think that's what makes it quite a natural fit.
They both want to play within a structure.
They both used to play within a structure.
And like Leo said, the way she loves Colin is
is it has structure has depth to it, but they're allowed that individual freedom if they see a gap if they see an
opportunity if they see a risk that they won't stick
They're allowed to take it and I think that's why you kind of seen right now for twisting minds almost like a best of both worlds
They've got that foundation
They've got the team that seems to work and they seem to all have this similar vision for the game
Which is massively important last book about it with his last team that he didn't feel like they have that similar vision for the game
So when you're in a team everyone's got the same kind of vision and you know that someone's gonna look bad because you're gonna go for a gap that
You think so, but ultimately isn't sometimes are gonna look bad
But when it works and when you've got confidence that your teammates back you on it
Then it will work and it will look good and you will find success. Yeah, just going back to to to Blaz and Moogly
I think I think gelat on your screen here the IGL was was bringing
the depth of
Vision that they needed but I think that Blaz and Moogly brought the experience from very different roster
I think Moogly was the most aggressive player on secret and so he's still leaving up to the aggressive play style that
Hashem loves and they pair up really well. Hashem will be the lurker, basically the endvill, and most of the time
you're gonna see the spearhead being Moogly and the hammer, basically.
And then you have Blaz, who was used to being a support player on G2.
The G2 was very fast-paced and aggressive in the era where he was a support.
So he's very much used to being the support of an aggressive team, having to clutch up,
sometimes having to be ahead of a normal support where he would be, just because he has to follow up on the, I would say,
a more aggressive playstyle of their team, right?
And so if I look at these two players,
it was basically a made in heaven, you know,
that collaboration, it was exactly the right timing,
exactly the right team.
So I'm just wondering, you know,
how far can they go with how much time they've had together?
That's a big question because only three weeks together
and they're taking on the most consistent,
most disciplined team in Virtus.Pro.
And I think this is a very good test for them.
Right, I was gonna ask, right?
This is an interesting dynamic now because VP,
Yes, they were like a new combination at the start of the year, but they've shown us throughout Salt Lake City throughout stage one and two
They are incredibly consistent. They are
Incredibly resolute their stalwart like going up against a team like twisted mind who historically has been aggressive Jack
It leads to this very like interesting dynamic of these two teams are coming from polar opposites
What's gonna happen when they combine? Yeah, I think so it makes this game really really difficult to call honestly
I think it's a genuine 50-50 game. I think from a VP perspective that consistency is the biggest strength
Well, it's also in a way kind of being a little bit of a weakness for them
They've been consistent inside of that same map ball inside of the the best of ones really ones
They've got the best of freeze and they've had to come up against a verse your challenges
You know we saw a salt lake we saw it EWC as well
That's where they've had to expand and that's why we've seen them so far in the ML force the same maps over and over again
We've seen them bring border into their map, but we've seen them bring Shelly into their map, but force it in the best of ones
Get those trials and tribulations under the belt
They probably are potentially a reason as to why they suffered their first loss last week
I think maybe they didn't force that map
They might have taken, you know, a different map last week
They might have ended up coming into this which hasn't defeated
But they know that the best of ones really is a testing grounds for them
Because their consistency will get them into the playoffs
It will likely even get them into the top four as well
So they're taking all these little calculated risks with the main goal being
being to improve when it comes to that race, when it comes to that international competition.
And another cool thing that we're seeing from VisualSpro is that most of them are in bootcamp right now,
since Rorik behind Neko is waiting for a couple of players to join the lobby.
It's good news for them that I don't think it's with them when you look at his background,
but most likely what I would assume is a bootcamp for at least this week and the Super Week,
which is very critical to reach players, maybe even a little bit longer to make sure they make it to Osaka,
to Osaka, to be fair, they're kind of expected to reach that after some point.
And honestly, what a turnover if you look at Adidas Pro,
at how dominant they used to be in years like 2024, for example,
but then the big, big moment in 2025 when they were eliminated from WC,
they went completely down, had to rebuild. It was not a given thing that they would manage
to be so consistent at qualifying to all of the STA events,
and it's really proving that we have that ability, I would say,
the ability in EML to provide players that are going to match well together.
And very often, I'm going to say it, two Frenchies joining the core of another nationality,
right, Twisted Minds, VP.
I think it's pulled out of position in terms of playstyle.
The story is similar.
Blaz and Mugli on one side, Neko and Skyez on the other.
They both actually continued the theme of the rosters that they joined.
The one start that I couldn't get over was the 95% conversion rate that VP had.
that is indicative of the previous VP before the naked. You know, when it was full Russian, those guys were so systematic and you couldn't lose an entry
because if you lost an entry pick, those guys were genuinely not going to give you any space in the round. And they just worked with that complete.
What did you call it, Leo? You called it discipline. They worked with that complete discipline that you didn't win the round. VP are still like that while playing current meta today.
And just in mind, similarly, the two Frenchies joined, they kept the theme, the aggression,
the gun skill, the fast pace, the heaviness, but they actually, you know, whilst doing
that, they still expanded the roster.
So I like how, you know, I'm going to agree, really, two Frenchies joining the roster, it's
got that, I'm fine.
But actually both of them have...
Maybe one day we'll see a full French team, like always, you know?
I got in these videos of Idolity, that was, I would say, I have something of, you know,
I don't know, like, wouldn't you like a good team made of only players from the UK?
I mean, it's different for you, because most players will be speaking English, but I'd say it would be pretty nice.
As you probably have gathered, though, we are just waiting for a few more players to join the lobby and having a bit of trouble setting this up.
We're going to get into this game as quick as we are able to, so don't worry about that.
We will give you an update when we have it, though.
But for now, guys, I do want to address, like, not the elephant in the room, but kind of.
kind of, I mean, when you look at these players statistically, I mean between these two teams
they have six players in the top ten of the EML overall.
Do you think that was impacted heavily by the opening day when against G2 when they didn't
have a full five?
Like, do Twisted Minds belong in the top two or are they being boosted right now by that
stat?
I don't think they belong in the top two yet.
They have to prove themselves and what better way to do it than to defeat VP to be honest.
I think I'd like to see them in BO3 to really be the judge of that.
But one thing I can say for sure, it's such a politician way to say it, but I will say
it, they belong in the top four, not in the top two.
I can guarantee you they belong in the top four.
I don't know yet if they belong in the top two.
Have you been watching the news lately?
You're pulling out all the phrases today.
Oh yes, I've been very educated.
Every single bit.
I will say to a certain amount, yes, probably there are slightly overriding by the fact
that one of their four games was against four players.
That is what it is.
You know, in reality, they were gifted a win.
They were gifted free runs.
They were gifted, you know, performance,
I suppose, statistically.
We can't beat around the bush there.
However, what I will say is, would they have beaten G2?
We won't know.
However, I'm doing a lot of howevers right now.
That wasn't our main point.
Mowgli is still not performing at the level
that we saw him on C for it,
despite the success of this roster.
He's still not yet to have that crazy, crazy, crazy pop-up game.
So, yes, are they slightly buffered by the fact that they're 4 men in G2?
Yes, they are, but there's still room for these lads to throw and perform at that level.
So, it's not a surprise that they're currently performing at that level.
As you can see on the screen, Mowgli there, 34, 34, flat even in terms of KD.
That's not the Mowgli necessarily that we compare with Secret.
He was up and down, but he had those big games.
We don't know Mowgli as a flat even player in terms of KD.
And especially given Twisted Minds and their performance as a team,
everyone on the team should have that positive KD right now.
He's just slipping a little bit further behind.
But I would say it's his role within the team.
He's sacrificing himself.
He's the spearhead. He's the one that gets in.
He's the one that goes a little bit crazy, full of risk.
And eventually that will die very often trying to do that.
So I'm not too worried.
I'm not focusing too much on his KD
because I think that the value he brings is good enough.
A few minutes before we popped on air, I was in Ann's stream because she's streaming right
now and she was saying she was playing the game and was having some server problems.
Unfortunately, those server problems have kind of headed our way as well.
So we're having some difficulties getting our players into the lobby at all.
We'll keep you posted as we have any updates on our end.
But let's remember what we're all playing for here.
What the point of stage two is, of course, you're looking for SI points, you're looking
for that cash prize, but we are headed to the Osaka Major after this. And this is a
huge opportunity to compete in front of the Japanese crowd for the first time since what?
2019, we haven't seen it in the modern era of Siege. These teams want this badly. And
I know it would be amazing to see them in person in that kind of environment.
Oh yeah, I mean, I still have like, although it was a terrible results for me, I'm not
going to lie, it's probably one of the worst events I attended as a player, not at all
because of Japan, but because of the way I lost and the way I got benched, obviously.
Japan was amazing. Despite it being like competitively terrible for my career, it was such an incredible
event in terms of like the crowd was crazy, super respectful, always like cheering for
anyone, whether you'd be losing or winning, they'd be really cheering for you. It was
sold out and then the stage was just amazing. Like honestly, I had so much fun there. I
I really hope, like, honestly, I couldn't think of one country that deserved it better than Japan, to be honest.
And it's the one... I always say this, one of my usual things I say is, everyone looks at the calendar for the year and goes,
SI is the one I want to be at. I think there's a lot of players, a lot of teams, a lot of...
A lot of everybody is looking at the Japan Major thinking, that's the one I want to be at. I want to go to Osaka.
Yeah, it might mean you know a little bit more. It's also the first time that we've been back to Asia
In an APAC region in a long long time and of course good news for us Leo
What team one of course the last time that there was an event in Japan
You bring make videos these from that dynamic for me
Yeah, Navi. Yeah for a European team one
I'm saying all I'm saying is it's a good one
And of course any eagle-eyed people amongst you when we showed that graphic for Japan will have noticed the little some
Yeah, should we show that graphic again?
Should we tease a little bit what we've seen on that graphic?
Because I'm pretty sure there was one operator on it.
Yeah, there was a lot of people that got very, very excited if I say an operator on-site graphic.
Yeah, also what he was holding in his hands was very interesting, very mysterious.
I'm gonna honestly baffle that so soon we've seen some teasers of that, yeah.
If we can, the Osocragrap, as we were mentioning, if we could throw that back up really quick,
because we wanted to highlight that operator.
Look at that!
There is what appears to be Doc, with a little, a new gizmo in his hands that I have never
seen.
Yeah, it's a, I don't know, honestly it's kind of hard to check.
It's clearly not the steam that we used to, but I have no idea what the four things are
for.
No.
the E that had that I think shoots thingies but they need the shoots
thingies yeah that's kind of analysis you get here on the EML and it's just a
normal like by the way this is just a normal length of any pre-game discussion
so that's gonna be the case for the entirety of the playday here we should
usually we get between 30 to 30 minutes to one hour before every game of course
yeah just so that viewers really get a lot of time to get their drops as we was
hinting at we're still dealing with some server problems now hopefully we can get
these remedies ahead of what should be a good day here of EML competition ahead.
As we mentioned in our pre show, G2 and shifters will go toe to toe later at 8
p.m. CEST later on fanatic and Rebels, GK and secret will round out the night and
up next, if we ever do get into our twisted minds where this pro affair will
be Falcons and team heretics, maybe a little bit more of a one sided matchup
there Jack anything else stand out to you other than that G2 shifter's game that you're looking for
Do you know what I don't think it's a one-sided matchup?
You don't?
No, and I'm not gonna call it, I'm not gonna call it as much as that, I don't think it will be
Heretics have been slowly but surely improving, including the big upset last week
I think I looked down this whole schedule and if you wanted me to summarise that, I won't do it quickly
because we're obviously waiting
But if you wanted me to summarise, I'd say Twisted mind CP, genuine genuine 50, 50 in my mind
It's about who can impose their own style
the game. The game is
going to be a very, very
difficult. But the fact that
Falcons going up against
heretics should be a comfortable
when most people will think it
will be a comfortable when
however last week last week
Terracid scores upset Falcons
have gone upset in them as we
also saw last week. G two
shifters again. I think the
people so it will go G two. It
always does. They're the
popular. Right? Shifters
even though they lost both
games last week, they went up
I'm afraid our shifters are gonna have that feeling that they're making close against you too. Yeah, they still lose potentially
I'm essentially I do agree with you on that in terms of they might still well lose it
But I don't think it's as clear cut as a game as people might yeah
Yeah, and then the other two games
I think we've got you know realistically some some weaker teams coming in but teams that again
Have and can find an upset. So you feel that rebels fanatic game down the bottom of the table could be quite big just rebels
You know it's the one upset got slaughtered. Yeah, I think
I mean, I think, uh, got a win
but against probably the worst,
you know, on paper team in the
competition and scraped to it
last week. I genuinely can't
call that because I think that
could be one of those games
that is an absolute show. Yeah
and for Fnatic, it's it's it's
it's really important to try and
regain a little bit of confidence,
especially with the newcomers on
the team. You know, obviously
having lost two of the main
stakeholder players of that
roster, the ones that help them
make it to to EWC. I think if
they lose today against Rebels
were supposed to be one of the
in the league, it would really hinder the chances,
even mentally, of thinking they can reach playoffs.
Well, as we continue to get everything settled
and hopefully square it away for this first matchup,
we're gonna give you a little more insight
into one of our favorite EML players, TASC.
They dropped me twice, they have doubted me,
and I'm still here.
I realize the life can put you on a different path,
and we're now on here with the Brazilians laying,
you know, with the Brazilian energy
to dominate the year.
Since I watched the game, I started to aim and be a pro.
I was born watching NASC, Liquid, FaceTime, you know.
My dream was to join Liquid and thank God,
since I hit my teams, Liquid stopped me.
And my first three months playing,
I won the original, the first Brazilian title.
And then after that, I think we won the latter one.
We played like in the Lamp, so in front of our crowd, you know,
and Liquid 10 was like crazy, you know, like always supporting us.
So we also, my family watching, we played in the game.
So it means a lot to me, like it was really, really important for the beginning of my career.
I mean, what I'm looking to say is magical, you know, like you joined the team we were aiming for.
You win titles with the team you were aiming for.
So, bro, I was there, like just enjoying the time, you know, like it was a magical time.
I'm going to be straight honest here with my exit on Liquid and it was a little bit heartbreaking,
like my whole Liquid story.
The first Liquid movement, I don't agree at all, like until now, because I didn't understand
the whole year we end like in third, fourth place, no, we have built some consistent depth.
I think first straight away a lot, the second drop was Liquid, but everything on this life
something, you know, and that's why I treat this like my whole story of liquid life, just
build me like some like maturity.
In basically my whole life changed, like since I joined liquid and I left liquid, so right
now I'm here, you know, like literally my whole life changed.
I think the hardest part is like to move to Europe.
As a person, I adapted to the new country, to be honest.
I came here to Serbia, and everybody's like,
more quiet, eating new food, you know?
Being like alone, literally alone,
because I don't have friends here, you know?
So basically, I think just I have like more adaptability,
like as a person right now, and as a player, you know?
I think the way we think about the,
on Brazil, about the game,
almost like try to hit the perfection you know so try to execute perfectly you know like end the
round perfectly you know and when I come here to you Ruby just saved me like like a sentence
bro stop play perfect you know like just play the game the rounds doesn't ask for you to play
perfect you know since I understand how people think about the game here was making it easier for me
He gets him in the post, into the 1v1, but guess who?
It's Arce, ready to clutch up big time.
They know exactly where he is because of that bulletproof camera.
He quickly takes it down off.
He could go above, and he can actually cover it with his IQ scanner as well.
He also has a breaching charge for Vert in the late round.
So many options here for the Brazilian.
Estjolad gets on the defuse, hits it once.
Does he think it's going deep?
Arce has asked the question, and a response is not given.
Twisted Minds are even finished in EML for this stage.
Being my ultimate at Liquid, like to qualify to the side on that L2Q, like was magical to be honest, like what more can I say, you know?
They dropped me and I just showed them they were wrong, you know?
It seems silly who wins a dragon or a horse and hit up until this final map.
It's been unclear and black dragons punched their ticket to the sixth Invitational.
As a Brazilian, I love to work as a coach, you know, like the strats, you know, like beauty news
strats. I think having like a mixed nationality roster, I think first of all, you think you need
to be on their places, try to put your mind on their places, you know, different regions,
different lessons you know different play styles you know try to extract the
the best of all for the each player that's what we built here right now on
DT I think like beating like Secret was pretty easy to be honest because we
already beat them on the EML and look at that we have place we're gonna face DZ
Arteria or face flat so it's gonna be the back to back as I champion or it's
going to be the last major champion they see, or it's going to be Fjord, which we already
beat on the group stage. So, okay, look at the spot we are now, you know? Like, we just
really lost for the best team in the world. And we are younger, we are a new roster, you
know? Like, if we manage to have more maturity and do consistent, who can stop us?
I think we are on the good spots to prove like the EWC wasn't like a one-off tournament.
Right now, here in Europe with the new roster, thank God with good teammates, good organization,
a good team, and good friends is to be honest.
Me, you cannot take me down, you know?
I'm here, I game on the top.
See you, Osaka.
Let's go.
Will we see him in Osaka?
Hi.
Will we see him in Osaka?
That's the question.
Honestly, I would say so.
I feel like DK have not went down the honeymoon
like that expected.
I basically expected that the roster changes
would have carried them through WC,
and then stage two starts,
and they start to figure out a little bit of problems.
Yes, they didn't lose one match, but after that,
honestly, the team looked really good.
It seems like every time they're losing,
they actually learn and they actually become better
straight after.
So I'm very surprised, but happily surprised
about the level of Gike and their consistency
in the long run.
And ask as an individual has got a fantastic story up.
Obviously, as we just learned in that video there,
about In-N-Out and how he...
Lots of sacrifices.
Lots of sacrifices and everybody kind of evolved
the top level of room and six and then he's what really knows what the sacrifice involved,
but it doesn't make it any less difficult for anybody. Um, and so yeah, he's always
to come over to Europe now. They've got a team of, and I think it's what I've said,
a mesh mesh team. When everyone first thought they went, what, like, ask for a free EU guys.
Don't resemble like a natural synergistic five and they found a style. They found a
way to make it work and they're only getting better. Like you said, they're learning from
that mistake. So, you know, I think I'm looking forward to seeing them. I keep saying it in
You cannot wait to see the playoffs because I think we've got so many teams in and around that same quality
You mentioned earlier, Johnny. We've got
John Johnny, John Arjun, whatever. We've got a different
Change every time I swear. We're not
Bleed I am being bullied and please save me. I'm going back to it. Sorry, John
When those define six get into playoffs because I would be very surprised it wasn't the fan six when they get into playoffs
I didn't think on that day anybody can be anybody so I think we're in for an insane uber-compassive playoff series
Well, we're in for a good matchup ahead
We're hopefully moments away from getting into our first game of fortress
In fact, we are about to load in and get these operator bands underway
So why not welcome in our casters who will be joining us for the duration of the day?
We've got dev and pingu welcome to the podcast
Which is hopefully wrapping up in in just a second guys. How you doing?
you excited for hopefully a shorter day after this first delay. Yeah, I think it's I'm optimistic.
I'm feeling good. I totally agree with what you said before, Jack. I think that in this league,
anyone can be everyone. We have no teams who are undefeated and also no teams who are winless,
which I think is the best spot to be in. And Pingu, we've been casting a lot of A pack. And
unfortunately recently, we've had a lot of one-sided games. I think most of the games we've
We've casted it in 7-0, 7-1, 7-2 as of late, so I'm looking for some bangers.
What even is a 7-5 at this point, right? We don't know it. We had some over times, but that was a 5-8.
Excited as always. We have three players of the MLB between James and I for this stage, so we're taking everyone with 100% excitement
because we don't get to watch these teams all that often, and then even more to love it, because we witnessed the desk for 30 minutes straight today,
which, you know, I have my popcorn out, I have my soda. It's all gone, by the way. It's just me sitting here. I'll wait for things to start.
Well, let's get into it. Why not? I mean, the game is ready to start.
Customs to the start button!
Yep, yeah, Penga, we've been waiting on you to hit the start button, so we will leave it to you guys.
Alright.
Good luck out there. Have some fun.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Johnson and the guys over in the studio in Copenhagen.
Penga, as I was trying to say a second ago, I actually had a noise complaint last week.
I mean the middle of the night because I got so excited for our email playday and guys just for you
I'm gonna hope that we get another noise complaint
I'm gonna hope that we can look off the roof here in email
It's a rematch between twisted mines and vertus pro these two teams pay grew actually met on fortress in stage one
Yeah, and VP took the cake there
We've had roster changes on twisted mines that maybe give them a little bit of hope for revenge coming of fortress
but of course our experts did have a few things to say about just how good VP are on this map.
Yeah, they also said Dominik, Lezzi team too hard, they fall even harder.
British pro, they took FaZe Clan, the only three best team in the world,
they took a victory against them on Fortress and now they might just lose it 0-7 themselves.
So you never know what happens next in professional Rainbow 60s, it must be so exciting.
And Fortress, it's still, I'm gonna say like relatively new to the map pool, right?
So I wouldn't be too surprised if there could be a curveball.
So if a new being attempted right now, try and catch opponents by surprise,
especially because like the next set, the what was the terminology here?
The appetite for aggression, something like that appetite for the play style.
I could really see twisted mind just sending it up against British problem.
Yeah, but of course, VP actually have one of the highest clutch rates
or the highest clutch rate in the world and the highest entry rate in the world.
So they're looking really strong at the moment and always despite being a little bit more of a methodical team
Happy to play with that aggression
Particularly players like Neko and Skyz we've seen that a lot from them in the past Pasha as well
He's such a menace always has been over all the iterations and CP
It looks like we're gonna have a Nord pick now, Pengu, we have not seen a lot of Nord particularly in
in EML, NAL, it's just not been something that people tend to go for, I mean, for example
the first playday where it was actually able to be played in NAL, didn't get picked once,
didn't get banned once.
It was a surprise to me, but people seem to think he's not that powerful, so what's
Dan cooking?
I mean, Dan also likes to play with Kali, I think there's just more about Dan than the
opponent he's playing, right?
He likes to try and innovate and to bring some creativity which I love about him.
And the thing about Nohr that I find problematic is that he's a defender and you have a tag
and re-pick.
So if you pick Nohr as a defending team, the attackers see that and go, guys, they have
a Nohr, let's go off the shields, let's not play into it, let's make the gadget less
valuable because now you get like a sort of a mini plant denial sort of operator or a
really difficult wall denying operator.
If you pre-fight onto reinforce surface, it can destroy the heart breach gadget on the
other side of it, but again, very tricky to get the timing.
However, you can also say that the fact that the attackers who twist their minds aren't bringing any shields,
that is actually giving good as pros and value.
Even if Dan's gacha does get to find a lot of value, they won't be facing the shields themselves.
And that will help out the roamers especially.
Speaking of roamers, not a ton of action.
Got the Flora stones, cutting off their rotation, doing some self-destruction.
We got Blastle, dropping down south of Tower, being met by a Keep up area blocking the majority of his vision,
and a Gunei by the main staircase, but that tiny anchor works out!
He actually finds Rorik when he pushes up the staircase because of that beautiful grenade from down below.
Nice bit of teamwork there from Twisted Minds to make sure that the grenade works together with Blast.
The grenade alone wouldn't have gotten that kill.
Had to be timed and coordinated with the team.
Now they set their sights on Pasha, on Nara's army.
Yeah, it does seem like a gap has been found.
But is there anyone in horse to stop this?
this doesn't seem to be the case. Hashem, a typically hyperegressive player wants to make his move,
finds the timing, does not fade to him though with skies treading him out and with that VP
looking pretty solid until Tricks finds his own gap. So Twisted Minds bring it back into a 3v3 and
are very close to looking for an execute onto the side. Are there last moves going out to
use that with glass covering on the glass cover on the glass rather? Tricks planted with yank
Demo Shaker as well.
Great.
Beautiful cover there from JLAD.
However, the smoke doesn't seem to cover the plant successfully.
And Tricks will be killed before it can be planted.
So Blaz now forced to cover on his lonesome JLAD going for a little bit of a deeper plant,
a little bit of a safer one.
Blaz good for cover on the first one.
It's Dan now targeted by JLAD on the Deimos, the last one standing.
Almost spots the head peeking up from over the desk,
the desk but is not going to find the twisted minds looking very hot in the opening round
on the attack.
Ah, fast with the, honestly fast with the opening of the round but once they got into
the action, once they got rid of their player positions it was a very quick entry into the
action right.
They set about one minute and twenty seconds of pure setup, droning, getting the right
spot, three to one with the grenade, with the glass and tower, gets the first pick and
just push on forward from that moment.
They even had a backstabber, you know, they had, I think it was a Shoma, the Grim, they're going for a backstabber to the horse door, they get shot on unfortunately, but
just the fact that you have all this pressure there, that it was a Shoma, it gives you so much space to win the hallways of the Bomsi, different tricks.
And that gets me, they retreat later on, Jalei gets the kill, swing here as well, they cover the planter,
they pretty much sacrifice a couple of pawns to get the victory.
You see the energy right there, very happy with the result.
I don't know what that was.
Ale! Ale, Ale!
I haven't finished a bit.
Wow, that's great energy from him.
Mowgli is known for his energy. It was great, particularly on LAN back in the secret days.
He's always one of the most energetic players on that old team's secret roster.
Of course, he's made his move on over.
That secret roster has changed so substantially compared to the EWC 2025
winning roster, I mean Mowgli stayed on it for a very very long time, the only one left standing is
Noah but of course Mowgli and Blaz both Frenchmen coming from two different rosters, Secret and
Shift is over the twisted mines this stage and the twisted mines I mean after a strong performance
in Salt Lake City and we have top four, being bottom two in EML stage one and not qualifying for
the Esports World Cup was definitely a disappointment so it's good to see that they're looking a lot
better at the moment, only lost one game so far and even that wasn't over time against heretics.
So it's a pretty massive win for Twisted Minds, especially revenge on Fortress against VP who
beat them on this map in stage one. So let's get up. Here comes the little mine though,
the death spook up the valley and how he can synergize with holding down strong positions.
This here is an example of that. He catches the flash ping, the grenade, the salvo,
It's hard to smoke for me brother
So many things and it's V4 if you really want to go for it could deny the final summer charge
I'm gonna see where that if they go for it just because it's the last one
Wow
No more hard destruction from the ace expensive use of a C4, but in a rare case it will be worth it for a single summer
Yeah, wow, I really respect that VP considering that that is such a large wind condition there for twisted mines
they happen to expend such expensive utility to make sure that that wall does stay solid and now
the question is the twisted minds what do they pivot to now that they can't get that wall open
and they spend their only smoke on these enable blast here on the glass
it kind of feels like it's got down the tricks and jaylatt on the black here in demo's duo
to try and put for something around the bomb side you know get a kill get an entry threaten a plant
But then look at the supportive cast off that one mine.
Smoke from Rorik.
Goyo from Pasha.
Going for a plant here is going to be very, very challenging.
And we spent most of our frag grenades dealing with that wall that didn't get opened up.
So when comes a dwindling, two players dead, three players dead, four players dead.
Stice on site, it's all glow.
They're going to take all five.
They do not care.
It was all about denying the heart breach destruction and just win the round.
Love that.
VP really able to predict exactly where the positions are, what the plays are going to be from Twisted Minds once they got rid of Plan A.
We see Dark in the background, the coach of VP.
Oh yeah.
He listened to the comms with his headset on, got his notepad out as well.
He's ready, calm that side swap, what he might be able to say to the team or if he is to call a tactical time out later.
Or just hit the debrief at the end of the match.
So I really love that.
That was actually one of my personal favorite roster moves.
I'm not sure what this one was.
I didn't keep track of that, but it was off the SI.
I remember speaking to him at SI when he was leaving Fyrax.
So basically before kickoff, like between SI and kickoff in that window.
It basically went between the seasons.
One of my favorite moves, it wasn't about the players or the organization,
and the station was about dark going from being a theorist in a pack that had so much potential domestically
But kept falling short and they didn't really get there
To live up to their hype domestically either and then he goes on to a team like VP
They get a couple of players they change around and you can always see the effect of dark in a quote-unquote
Weak a roster in a pack and now he's being enabled in a stronger roster in email and I just I love it
Love to see it. Yeah
Dark I think is up there in like a top 10 maybe even top five coaches at the moment
The kind of respect that he gets from a lot of players and a lot of other coaches. I
Mean even the assistant coach of FaZe JP
He was raving about a lot of different coaches on a podcast listen to him recently. He talked a lot about
Twister for example in secret basically any Brazilian next I was gonna say my DSI by
I don't think it's biased. I think it's just facts
But hey credit to fear X outside of dark by the way
They've actually had a really good week in a pill that actually seven one D plus Kia just yes
They're not just two days ago. I think it was didn't you cast that play day?
Hold on. I was fixing something for you. Can you repeat that? So it was the fear X seven one in D plus
Yes, yes, I did I did words at play day. There was two days ago
Yeah, I think that was Saturday. That's I mean quite a surprise impressive. I mean for those who don't really follow a lot of APL
Fyrax has really struggled since losing dark
They also dropped the majority of their roster and kind of had to piece together what they can of what Korean players are left in the scene
But yeah, they also have a new coach as well with nix by the way
Yeah, and Nick's from NA, he's over in APL now, we've had a great chat with him, we've
called him for interviews and Nick's actually did a, I think a great job of getting into
the scene and not be the villain, because like when you're getting imported it's easy
to be like, ah, this guy sucks, I don't want this guy, but you know, praising the region,
praising the players, false and de-plus during the interviews, same exact story, you don't
have to be the villain just because you become an import and if you can actually leave a
positive mark and increase in performance, people will often take you a lot more as well.
The whole team of like Chex Tealers, you know, that's not a welcome term
No, but I'm dark definitely earned his respect when he was over in APL now. He's
Gone to the next level here with VP and the sky seems to be the limit though
I think that a lot of people are looking to VP to be like that next big great Titan in
EU and I think that they've already kind of made themselves in that conversation about top four
Can they be a top 2 top 1 team in the region?
I think maybe in certain moments, but then disappointment for example bailing out to
Weibo at the eSports World Cup was certainly a little bit of a disappointment from them
Especially because they won the first map in that series 7-0 and got reverse swept across the next two maps
We can credit to Weibo very good team
The VP definitely aspired to far more than that and they got top 2 in the group stage in
in stage one in EML and then managed to finish off top two in the playoffs as well.
But very
very big questions still I think remain about whether VP could actually become a team that is capable of
winning tournaments. You know, I think team Falcons, maybe even G2 when they're not trolling or
internet issues are definitely like, you know, that people regard them as a championship capable team have people really open
rise to that for Virtus Pro yet, I'm not sure. I think they're still in the proving stage.
So also speaking of potential, it comes down to when you go from, you know, a local language to
international, in Europe that would mean speaking English, right? If you're a French team, you
know, you could have French speaking players, you limit your potential massively. And there's
been times in the past where, you know, all the best teams are French, more or less, right?
But there's also times where they aren't. VP go into the English language and they can pick up
particularly any player and open up the doors more for both the coaching staff, the playing
sides, the pool etc, even fan base for that matter, for a bit of revenue in those pipe
program skins, right? It goes a long way. And I love how many teams have actually switched
to that. You know, we started seeing imports happening across the world from every single
region essentially. But now we're seeing more teams never also go to the English language
to further that. And if you look at the standings, you know, the former team heretics, the, you
know, currency rebellion or the rebels or other, then you do find yourself be like,
hmm, the teams that don't tend to speak speak English do find themselves low
understandings on average. You are just a bit more limited. Yeah, exactly. The
talent pool small moments. Big about teams that is hooked to English talk about
twisted minds, right? Bringing on Blazer Mowgli to French players to a
previously Arabic speaking roster. They I believe they just chose English as the
the common language, but it's definitely a challenge that a lot of teams face.
I think it's particularly harder outside of Europe, like let's be real.
Like Europe is the place where you're going to speak your mother tongue, like you, for
example, and I'm going out speaking Danish, going to school in Danish, but so many Europeans
speak English, like especially in this generation, you know, if you go traveling most places
in Europe, everyone speaks pretty good English.
It's not the same in South America, it's not the same in Asia, especially East Asia and
South East Asia, maybe a little bit more English, because there are so many different languages
there, but East Asia in particular, like Japan and Korea, not a lot of English there.
It makes it very troublesome for teams to recruit talent outside of the region.
Thankfully, we are back.
I'm just going to wait here for the first 30 seconds of pass, but we are indeed 30 seconds in and everyone's in the server, so happy days.
It's third round.
1-1 in score line.
It was a flawless round victory, previously for Virtus Pro, locking down the secondary side.
Now go in for the third option.
Bit of verticality here, dining in kitchen.
You sure want to call it that?
And it's the same kind of approach here for Twisted Minds.
It's all about measuring three, four times and that one cut will come through at some point.
and then all the action happening around it.
If they can get all the right angles, positions, destruction, etc.
then they can't be very clean.
But if they get countered to any of those areas on the road to it,
that is where Virtus.pro can really strike back.
Well, for now, it's about the roam clear.
Dan is already waiting to receive a bit of pressure from Blazz.
And he's well protected on his backside as well,
thanks to that gas, he's got Rorick supporting him.
Oh, he's back to him.
Okay.
Hell of a lot of damage and the kill onto Blizz, which just turns his back.
Very strange way for the round to start, but thankfully Gelad is able to trade him on back.
Twisted mines have taken a little bit of ground, but...
It's unfortunate that they lose Blizz so early.
And as I said, right, if a Virtus Pro, I mean, this is going to be a huge win.
Passive using the castle or pre-placed, then getting a very front forward solo position.
He goes one for one, you've disrupted the attack now from Twisted Mines.
They want to have all the angles and tools to work the side of self with later on.
Mopus out of Flora stones, they have heart destruction in a Blackbeard.
They're gonna have to have done the hatch.
Oh, and Geladis just found his opening on the side, but traded back.
Rorik seems to have things on lock with that SMG-11.
We'll need to be reloaded if he's to take a second fight here.
He knows that picking a Gresta P is not necessary in this moment.
He's gonna gas up his entry as well.
So Trix can't look to try and push him in close range.
This is bought time for the rest of VP to come and help out.
Skies, if he can get into position, that gnar would be massive against the Blackbeard here.
Time taking away, and the BB actually gets into the bomb site, traded back immediately, but
before you know it's Hush on against Pasha and Skies.
As the fire comes out from Skies to try and restrict his mobility a little bit,
Hush decides to go deep with the pistol, about to try and take the fight against the commander.
Oh, my.
Oh, my.
The skies, he goes down.
Hold on a second.
Pasha has got to clutch up.
Hashem hasn't inkling where he is, but Pasha is just going to keep on running away.
Oh, my God.
That got so damn close, but the round is won regardless by VP.
Thanks to Pasha, just refusing to give Hashem the fight he wanted.
And Rorik starts a good positioning game there on the smoke.
I mean, he's going to play in a very small box against the BB, no toxic dives, half HP,
and the SMG-11.
The issue is you can't like against a non shield team playing the shock on their benefit nominal right close quarters
It's a singular doorway, but up against the black beard if you have the shotgun out
You might just not get the kill because the shells don't hit the entire in you know the small head hitbox
So you gotta go this in G11
He goes one for one gets treated back
But it's gonna be a better trading game long term there for Virtus Pro because they started in the advantage
In a 4v4, with the attackers going to the initial execute, you know what angles are going to be under pressure, right?
So a hatch top occurs, they get a kill, you shoot it back. It happens right here.
Okay, you lose pet pet control, but now you also know it's going to be a med bay attack.
So you can shoot all the other guns in that same direction. Time was pretty low there, so just might as well have a ton of options to go for, really.
You can flip the attack halfway through, no Grim Beast, that would have been lovely.
luckily, and none of those massive execute operators.
There wasn't a ging or a blast to follow through either.
It was an ace he banned at Blackbeard.
It was very low value for the push.
Where does he prove now banned the way the glass,
speaking of heavy execute utilization?
In terms of the mines, the banned operator
that will get played on every single bomb
so I've got a high likeness.
That's gonna be the Assami.
So less protection now for defense.
We're really looking towards what's
why deploy those shields, maybe a cheeky clash at some point
to gain back when you're lost with that assembly ban.
Yeah, I can't help but notice as well another North pick here for VP.
And while it didn't necessarily kill that Blackbeard,
it's a nice idea to try and have an answer to the Blackbeard,
which is being picked again here by Tricks as well.
So power positions will need to be held as you say.
The smoke could be really good for that, even with an eye as well.
Just being brought with the deployable shield.
Two deployable shields, thank you to the Nora as well.
The kind of EP they will set up, they're kind of spiderweb of where they want to play,
whether they want to have their feelers, and then they're just going to ignore the rest of the map.
Again, Twisted Mine is all about problem solving.
The fortress is a map that links you to these narrow hallways, corridors, hatch drops, and
the bomb sites are relatively strong, so it's not going to be like a chalet where you gotta
fight on the roam, you gotta fight the kill somewhere on defense, get early in the round
to have a good chance.
You can't just fall back and play the later scheme.
Wow, every single player targeted there.
The vertical is not everywhere on this upstairs area, but even just info will be helpful.
So now they know where Rorik is.
He's being targeted, he's being exposed.
There's a bit of vert now looking up, which he might be able to try and take that.
Fight Rorik is currently safe, but if he walks too far, he will be vulnerable.
beneath him. This C4 could be massive here. Both Pasha and Neko actually preparing C4,
waiting for that Blackbeard to make his way upstairs. Here comes the first Nitro Cell.
Wow, both Nitro Cells go out at different locations. Moeby shoots one out of midair
to protect himself in his tower push and J.L.A.T actually comes to punish Pasha from down below.
Well my, shut down and all of his U2 with it. Meanwhile, Rorick decides to go for a little
bit of a play. He's snuck back down the stairs. He might be able to find the freebie, but he does
just barely. Wow, so I thought that both of these players are still alive. I can't believe that.
Yeah, I mean, Roy would have known that Gila was one HP, because Pasha would give the intel to him
in the kill feed afterwards, right? Blast finds a second. Tricks not takes Hall's control,
but the distance behind is pushing at different angles at different timings. This could fall apart
very quickly. Yeah, wow. And it was just holding on to everything.
Skies helps out the two Frenchies on the bombsite doing a lot of damage here to the
Twisted Minds push. Now it's up to Blaz. A lone wolf on the solid snake as he finds
out where both of these defenders are. But he's not going to be able to find either of
them with his weaponry. And it's a good lock up for VP. Another bombsite win, another defense
as they've really forged this momentum.
Not a huge fan of that final push though, I mean it's a one by one by one sort of attacking style approach
and it just lacks the 3-2-1 countdown on a standing howl closer far away from each other.
Trismise will call it tag timeout and it's well needed.
It's gotta re-sync right now on the strategy, on the timings and when you want to execute and who has to go first
to ensure they don't die with so many players before you reach the bombsite together.
Yeah, well plenty of time to talk about that now with the tactical being called here by twisted minds
They won the first round on that top floor with a pretty solid execute. I mean I found that gap around horse
They executed together. They had a plant wind condition
But since then I mean immediately after that Penger
It was a flawless round against them when they struggled to attack dorms
And then it was a messy kind of attempt to execute
based on a gap on the bombsite on kitchen that last round on aviator on
command office yeah just not successful at all they keep trying to find a gap
they think they found a gap and then they just walking straight into these
players hands I mean giving the space there for Mako to find to and skies to
protect him
Perhaps it's the story of VP starting to read into the way that Twisted Minds are pouncing
on what they perceive to be gaps.
How's this thing that VP or Sachi, a well-structured team, and they're not really letting Twisted
Minds pick a part to set up?
Is that really sure they get Maesters control, or they don't gain control of the Master
Midroom Hallway or horse for free?
There's always going to be a trade game or a kill happening.
And most of these rounds, which has been VP victories, Virtus.pro choose when they want
to fall back.
They choose what they want to give up.
They have a defender go on the offense knowing, hey guys, I'm going to take the 50-50, I
might die, and if I do, this is going to be the game plan.
However, if I get the kill, I need support from the hallway to support this position
further.
So it just feels like Virtus.pro are one step ahead toward the majority of these rounds,
and we haven't yet seen Twisted Mind's really pick it apart except for the very beginning.
And it's all about adaptation, right? You can start slow, you can finish strong, doesn't matter.
After this tight timeout, I want to see a switch up. The switch right now is a part of that.
You get an early, you pop a pop launcher, that late round utility.
Now, just got to survive the early stage, get that roam control, and when you do approach the pump side,
now it will be a lot easier. You also get moked in a much stronger gun, the F2,
rather than the AR33 from Flores previously. You still keep the execute presence here with the ying,
with the Blythe beard. So this gives me a little bit more mobile rounded for me from the side of Twizzle Mines.
Also noticing the way the Yings has been used is two smokes and two Candela's already used to try and
bait out a push onto Rorik perhaps. Man the Toxic Bait hasn't really, hasn't achieved a lot. I mean
what it, it bakes out one Toxic Bait. But they haven't used it to gain much of that control elsewhere.
Just can try and force that over rotation. I mean the odds are that what happened off screen is
they actually cannot fell back from the roam game because they were being threatened by that
extensive potential push on the other side. That question to do with it. We'll have to see for
now, VPS is still holding on to what they care about, right? They have meeting control, they have
the bomb site, they have one spare reinforcement in pocket. When this one gets opened up, they could
reinforce the other one, they will. There we go, they're peeling back the layers. Now, last is on
thermal, so you just have three extra thermal charges. This won't matter in the bigger picture
of things, but it will store up more time for the Scythe of Twisted Minds, that they
are going to take meeting, cover the door swing, worry about any of the viticality,
the gas, etc., then blow the second layer of the wall, then start to push the bomb site.
But now they're low on drones, they're low on neutral, time very slowly taken away,
and it's still going to figure out, do we go for a back step?
And if we do, do we go main breach outside, do we go checkers hallway, or do we go up
the tower staircase?
There are a lot of options here yet to be decided for Twisted Minds.
And one round they did win, Pengu, was when they decided to focus up on planting.
That was the win condition.
Now they are pivoting, they're looking for a backstab, but Dan has read it and lashed
out onto Blaz.
Hashim has a chance here to find his way into the bombsite on the back of those flashbanks
to be decided to back off.
We are back outside and amidst the chaos, the Blackbeard will go down VP, holding Firm
on the bombsite.
Now Hashim's the last one left and he will be traded back after he finds his one VP looking
rock solid four rounds in a row. Very, very, very solid. Again, they stay strong, they
hold on. The moment the push comes, they're ready for it every single time. And the Black
Beard play hasn't been that effective. It's a one-for-one trade or worst every single
round. It is really hard to get in the building though, and you gotta kind of rewind the clock.
What if they had two Smokin' Nates and two Mokindelas from the Ying for that push? What
What if they had the ability to stop some of those crossfires with the smokes themselves?
It could have changed so much in the round.
But on the other side, I'll always say this, it's better to use the utility early and get
to the bomb site than to die with it in pocket, trying to go for a run clear.
So that's kind of Devil's advocate approach right now, but we all saw in the replay, there
was a massive, massive gap.
Nobody from the attack was watching the game store on the bomb site.
So it's a free flanked, VP somehow as defenders they push the attack from two different sides
and they get the openings, they get the kills.
That should be choose the minescreen for the crosses, then overwhelming the defenders,
but not to be in that round.
Yeah, it's a little bit scary now for twisted mines, they've lost four in a row, they've
burned their tactical time out, it's now a chance for VP to go for a fifth defense.
We cast our minds back to what happened in stage one, VP got a 3-3 split on their defense
in the first half and then they won 4 out of the 5 attack rounds to win the match, 7-4
against Twisted Minds on Fortress.
This is already looking worse than it did in stage one for Twisted Minds and they lost
that game.
So we need to see a big change up right now.
We need to see a decisive cap off to this half before they then move on to their defence
and look to do even better.
Saw a bit of aggression there earlier from Roarick swinging out of windows.
This could be VP changing up the approach, trying to really fish for an opening kill.
And it might just work because they've been so good at falling back and playing the layers
that if they start lashing out early in the round, Twisted Minds could be caught off guard.
Just keep your eyes kind of peeled for that.
We've seen them playing music, locking down their first couple of drone entries,
keeping the Twisted Mind attackers at bay.
And they are all outside the building, still waiting for their entry.
And I'm a bit worried.
Twisted Minds, the energy.
When we hear the player comes, their leg lost to them.
They said before, let's not let them get the opening pick before execute.
It happened again.
Blasted, I think for the third time as the first member.
What is he for?
Oh wow!
That's a massive nacho cell.
sell the fact that Tricks doesn't just take damage, but gets completely obliterated as
a spell doom here for Twisted Minds. Neko locks in a flawless round, the second in the
half for VP as they dominate. 5-1 is the score and it feels like we're just moments away
from VP finishing it off.
Yeah, when you have two flawless rounds on the half, it's going to feel like that. Ending
with a flawless to make it 5-1, the defences from VP Leo, they have been unreal.
Yeah, you know what, Jonah? I had to put in... I'll put on the glasses to witness this defense masterclass.
A couple of examples. It starts in round two.
In fact, Twisted Mind is really successful at attacking round one. Very close to V2. Okay, why not?
Look at round two, the reaction here. What? Less than one minute left. Pay attention to tour stairs.
Look at this. Flank, aggressive, from smoke. At the same time, another aggression from the other side.
Within 10 seconds, everyone is dead. And then what's very impressive is later down the round, you know?
It was a 3v5 and despite all of this NAKO, he knows when to get aggressive, picks the first player apart, picks the second one, the trade doesn't come in from Ashom.
Same again, that was another 1v1, one by Skies.
And then you start to see, or to witness, I guess the problem in a set of twists and lines, right?
The beginning is really good, they do get some initial control, they surround the bomb site,
but where they really struggle is really like being able to crack the interior of the bomb site.
And this is where VP excels when they used to lack of defense before they're so good at this last layer
Whether it be 5v5 with one minute left whether it be 3v5
They will know when to find the right picks and when to aggressive at the right time
They played with such good discipline
It's a thing that you know if all the game is all there is they have the discipline in the team
And they were allowed to smile to take the space that they want it twisted minus attack back off back off
that's why you've seen Paul
Trump. That's why you see in
around just ended in five
seconds because they've got
their opponents exactly where
they want them. They've
managed basically what five
rounds out of six. They only
lost the first round. That was
absolutely a stellar
defensive performance from
repeat on this map, and they
have momentum on their side.
They go into the swap with
twisted minds looking at
themselves are going, Well,
what can we even do here? Now,
the side swap is kind of the
only thing that twisted minds
can can grab onto and say
maybe we can bring it back.
Does it look like a team
or is it just a team or is it
just a team or is it just a
team or is it just a team
or is it just a team or is it
just a team or is it just a
Does it look like a team? And from what we know about Twisted Mind's defensive success, could they bring this back here on Fortress?
Great success, yes, absolutely. In defense, I think Twisted Mind is really good.
I think, you know, they showed that they were really good in defense before in previous play days.
And on top of that, I would say that Fortress is heavily defended side of.
So I wouldn't read a lot into the 5-1 from VP. Yes, it is really good.
Probably a bit too many attacks conceded on the side of Twisted Minds.
But who's to say that they cannot come back into this?
And they're gonna go and start banning the Blitz, obviously Neko is a menace on it, so he's gonna be able to play Shields and likely will go on Montaigne, but the glass, the glass was, I would say, like the best way for VP in their attacks to crack what Twisted Mines couldn't do, the interior of the bomb site, that's how they use the glass all the time, so that's why it's removed here.
I think just quickly on the bands actually both of these teams booked the trend in terms of neither went for these army one might all
Decade bandit, of course
We did see the Ken band out in the in the previous half on but I think the class band specifically
From VP there they want to allow Neko on whatever shield is available because of course they know even if two were gone red
Oh, but it's only the bullets in this instance
If the blitz and the monty's gone red off
He's playing about beard whichever one you know one of them is going to be available for at least three rounds
Get the class of the box straight away. They will use him whichever shield
They need to to take the space quickly. All right, we'll see a four-round cushion a lot of work for twisted minds left to do
Let's see as they move on to the defensive half if they can pull it off
All right, thank you boys to this let's see what they can bring out in terms of the shields and I'll point there
It's a double down refresh is also when you're in a tough position down one five the mood isn't quite right
Nobody's really hitting their crazy shots in the server. You know, no one's positive, right?
No one's doing a great job at individually taking the crash away
is taking away comfort. It's taking away that, oh guys, I'm 0-4, let me up on clash,
let me be annoying, let me get some value that I can feel in my mind that I am doing a lot of good stuff on the server right now.
That's gone. And sure you can bring operators out like the mirror, not easier to counter,
it's about fortifying somebody else's position, more so than you being annoying towards the opponent.
So I really like the mentality here from Virtus Pro going into it, and also as we said,
and napping the shields, banning out the warden, the new Nebitzka banned the way that they could
utilize either the Ying or the glass as if it were to ban one or the other of those operators.
And then waiting for the glass. Now that's a prefire from the the Noor and that's gonna probably
trick out the exothermic charge. There it is. That's a bit of damage on the guard as well.
So the way that it works, if you shoot the center of a single reinforced wall, it will deny the
entire area for an exothermic charge. However, for this to work as the North Operator, you
have to shoot your gadget towards the wall before the Thermite starts putting it down.
So you more or less have to pre-fire it. It's a bit of a guessing game, a bit of a sound cue game,
but look at it this way. If you shoot the North gadget on the wall and the Thermite hasn't put
it down yet, he still has to wait for the fire to expire before attending it again. So it's almost
It's almost like a me too, Brown, since that you could just shoot the wall, the thermite has to wait, you can shoot the wall, the thermite has to wait, and they can't do much about it.
Time to ring the mirror.
Yeah, I guess the one thing that it does better than Juberal is it also gate keeps that monty and the black gate, which is still open.
But I like the way that Skye has taken the advantage of the space and it's got a nice and active here with the solid snake.
That mirror will slow him down. Really critically here, I think when Twisted Minds saw that VP went for two unusual bans in the clash and warden,
it's given them the ability to lean into these other power-ups that often get banned, and now they've just lashed out for two kills. This is perfect for Twisted Minds.
That's that bit of confidence being gained back immediately. Also very uncharacteristic, Monty is on the roof still, has never once entered the building.
I'm not sure if they're hiding the pick for a late round surprise trying to avoid blast here playing the Noor,
but you've lost a member of Skies that was deep in the building, losing to the guy in the mirror window,
and now lose Rory from the outside to backstab him in the tower, has to go huge for a couple of picks here.
There's one barns rotating in, maybe we're taking a little bit too much, getting a little bit too aggro onto Dan.
Don't swing a guy, he's holding a DMR, staring at you.
But they still have numbers advantage. Neko starts to make his way forward with the Monty.
But time is up, the essence here for VZ. It looks like Twisted Minds might be about to find their first round
and what feels like forever down the last one standing as Twisted Minds just sat back and waited, held their crossfires.
They'll find all the kills and only lose one body alongside all of it.
Great round, great way back into it in the second half.
second half and it's so cool to just to see this stylistic choice between these
two teams right when VP were defending there it's kind of as a set sitting back
peeling the layers, play me for execute, burn down the timer and then they would
lash out when the execute was happening or right before. This is much more early
around the question from the Sadatou's demise, really wanting those kills.
Fighting a solid snake who has the F2 instead of meeting, I know you have a
mirror when to kind of fight again around comfortably but still to go for it.
In the swing outside the door being the horse player as Tommy if you were to lose that gunfighter
You get pre-fire or something like that you lose a
Extremely valuable member here locally, which turned the most important position on the map being a horse
So a lot of things could go wrong
But that's that appetite for aggression the appetite for the play style
You know what the risk is and you still take it as a team all fired together you win or you lose by the sword
Yeah, look, it's a long way to get back into it. But hey, from a 5-1, Leo said that he
reckons Fortress is very defensive. I know you and I have been having this conversation
ever since Fortress got introduced. And I think that a very good team, yes, it can be
attack-assided. But look, with that first round as the only reference we've got to go
by, I could definitely see Blisted Minds bringing it back. That was a really solid round. VP
had nice ideas but Twisted Minds had an answer to every single one of them. Even the fact
that I think it was Rorick tried a little bit too much with that Thermite Charge, it's
almost like he hasn't played against enough of that nor anti-hard breach because I would
have thought he would have seen that and then immediately backed off, not tried to put the
Exothermic, because in the end all it did was cost him half his HP and an Exothermic Charge.
very interesting use of utility though for twisted mines again the mirror the
asami the nor so flexible operators protect them with the warmai with the
cool your fires the traditional posh has to find a lot of value from one
good can't make that to might get the mirror windows yeah there he is perfect
as far as he was lucky but no he's good he seems to be better so this opens up
the bombs to be a little bit vulnerable for a quote-unquote direct attack and I'm not saying that
Virtus.Pro are gonna go for it, no they should, but what they will mean is that the roamers of
Twisted Minds are either gonna feel the pressure to go for a kill or to fall back closer towards the
side portion in case that rush would come through. Unless those anchor players holding on and saying
don't worry guys we don't need you, we can 2v5 the side just worry about the roam game, do not fall
back, do not surrender too much met control because if you do, us losing that Mare window
It makes us a lot weaker. We need the mephretral to work with.
Oh, well.
Tricks has found a double kill with a TCSG.
Pasha will find Mowgli, but that nitro cell from Hashim was being held for such a long time in the end.
It's the MP5K that gets the kill.
Damn, looks to have almost found a gap.
If he can land the shot with the R4C, it would open up a lot of space and bring the numbers a little bit back to more doable.
Unfortunately, he's out of ash charges now, so he can't destroy this mirror window.
He doesn't know that there's actually no one standing behind it and as I say that Hashim takes the space moves behind that mirror window
He must be so tempted to pick down right now. Don't do it
Don't you dare? This is an un-losable position, un-losable round unless
You make that funny play that 1% chance of oh my god. It could be funny if it no it's not funny
It'll just be sad we'll get angry and this is how it starts one guy makes a small mistake
It can trigger all the way down, but Tricks is better.
He's on one point of HP now.
Passion will be three, 50 seconds to work with,
unlikely clutch, but possible.
Yeah, well, the first thing we'll be trying
to take down Tricks, low HP,
but he has that ACOG on the TCSG.
Blaz also able to swing on contact here.
Him and Tricks together, all three players
from Twisted Minds had a crossfire,
and they held it well.
So there's no clutch today.
Good start here to the defense.
It's two rounds in a row, Pengu,
And Twisted Minds are looking very comfy now that the sides have swapped.
Defender-sided Fortress, huh? That's just how it's gotta be.
All about losing members earlier, keeping buddies up.
It's been a struggle for both teams.
I will say this, though.
Like I said in Stage 1, VP got 4 out of 5 rounds on the attack.
They've lost 2 attackers like way too early in both their rounds right now.
Also losing this, like in the first round, the shield never got to see any action,
in the second round the shield died first so the wing con is not really being played around fully
because you lose a valuable member but as I said that this is a very high risk high reward
playstyle if it goes the other way of like VP getting swung but they're ready for the gunfight
they hit the headshot they will be in a 5v3 very quickly and they will be in their prime position
to win the round and because they already have a significant round lead all you gotta do is have
that one clutch that one moment boom you're guaranteed least overtime that's a start so
We'll see what happens as VP have to go through the adaptations and if needed we'll know that
Dark will have a tech timeout. He'll talk to the boys and he'll know what to say. I'm sure of it.
Yeah, I think that's the big advantage here for VP is that they've just got that tactical timer
in the back pocket where his twisted minds use theirs on the end of the fourth round
and then lost the fifth round and the sixth round. If anything it's impressive that they
managed to bounce back but of course you also get a little bit of a chance to talk to your coach
during the halftime roll swap as well when the operator bands come through. So perhaps
that would have been an advantage to them. A little bit of a tech pause here. Quite different
to a tactical pause. Not as much game getting talked about. Can't get your coach's opinions
in here, but perhaps for VP it's enough time to stew and have a think about what they're
going to do. Because now we know, Pingu, that we're going to a third different bombsite.
Yeah, and dorms both locked up probably going to kitchen by all no mom. So no mom
I don't think I've seen her mom in pro play maybe once you have yeah, I was gonna say I've casted with well
I feel it was with you at least yeah
Probably I don't since you thought I love the rubber stuff. I feel like at the start when it was like three months
months, like three months in, I think that we saw like someone pick it, but not to great
effects. Or maybe, actually you know what, I'm remembering now, yeah it's fine as it
gets picked, if you bait the attacker to playing it badly, but anyway, but it's probably going
to be kitchen. So if you're VP right now, you're having a chance to have a think and
maybe you have a chat like, okay, well how are we going to handle this one? We know what
bombsite we're going for, you can actually start talking to Manusia, you can start saying,
Last round before the operator bands come through obviously we can ban the mirror in another round if we get sick of it
What do we do right now? We want to play that and we want to play to find gaps how we can take
Medbay like all this stuff you actually talk real nitty gritty in these moments because you know exactly what's coming up next
That's the beauty of
Being in this position if you're as pro is that there's so many small things that you can change right now
Whereas it does feel a bit more one-sided for twisted minds, right?
Early pick, lash out, be in their face, take away their confidence.
So I still think VP at the other side, despite being on the attack.
It's the matter of can they figure out the problems, can they slow down the gameplay enough?
Because I think right now slower and getting further in the round is better than trying to keep the current pace and losing that early body or
You're not getting to the bombs that execute because that was we saw they've been so good at setting things up and then picking them apart
So they gotta get themselves into that position. Oh, is that one matter at all?
Drinking the V on the chair, that's not a vertus pro chair
It's just really looking at the back of skies doesn't say where it is pro
I mean there's a couple of pixels, but I think it does it's felt that's not that's not the is that the first pro logo
I thought the first pro logo has got the bears facing
It's got a bear. What if these chairs are 25?
There it is, right behind the shoulder, under your pet.
That's the logo. Why isn't the bear on the main big V?
Well, maybe this is like...
I'm thinking, hold up, I'm thinking, maybe...
What?
I don't get it. What do you think the bear's name is?
That's my question. I feel like...
It's Vertus, when you...
Vertus the pro. Vertus the pro?
Yes. Come on, now.
Vertis? It sounds so like roman. What are the romans ever done for us?
Why don't you just google those? What's up? The V in orange with the bear claws
is part of their logo, says Alphama. It used to be... Okay, there you go.
It's part of their new brand direction. Let's go. I personally love it, and I think I would love it
even more if I received in-game codes for the new Virtus. Press game.
Okay, and it's gone.
It would look so good that I would just love to run that on all of my operators.
Yeah, in APAC, where people don't even know about Virtus. Press because they watch AP on the EML. Boom.
There you go.
No, people watch EML. Hey, I started watching CG Sports before we even had any kind of APAC Pro League.
I remember watching...
Ever since you got here, oh, you've been in APAC Shield.
Hey, here I am. I'm in EML. I didn't even bring up APEC. You did.
Yeah, earlier you said that all was it. Veritas Pro, such a disappointing time. They lost to Wable.
And that's like, I know in the background, you're like, oh my god, Wable is so good that
they're bad at the coach. APEC is so bad that it took time, but you're saying, oh, it was such a
disappointing thing to lose to Wable because they're not that good.
Sure, it was a few of Veritas Pro, especially when you quit the first map 7.0.
Now, when I was there, I was there with my little, my little phone,
you were getting loud on the comeback.
You know, now I've got my EU hat on and I'm sad for Virtus.Pro because I do really like this team
as well. I mean, Dark is a legend and I haven't had a lot of experience with many of the players
aside from just being lovely guys and incredibly talented in game. And that's enough for me.
But that's the issue with eSports, isn't it? That there's two teams in a match and sometimes
It's your two favorites.
Well, I have to face off against each other.
Like, you know, you go to a major, like, you know,
two European teams make it through into the quarterfinals.
It's like top eight.
They're gonna play on the main stage.
They face each other in the quarters.
You sit there going, but why us?
Why must our teams fight each other
and send each other home?
Why couldn't we both continue forward
and try and make something great happen?
And every region has seen this,
experienced it before, it happens.
But it's what you see when it does happen.
Yeah, well, you remember when it happened at EWC?
Which two European teams made it to the quarter-finals?
Oh, God, don't do this to me.
GK was secret, bro. I know. It was not the first to happen.
It was not the first to happen.
No Virtus Pro.
No GT and even Qualifier for the tournament.
Yeah, it was secret and GK. They versed each other.
And let's be real.
If secret and GK weren't versing each other, they probably would have lost their games.
lost the game. Who beat Falcons? Who beat Falcons? Secret. Yeah, exactly. So why would
they lose? Who else did Secret beat? Exactly. They beat Falcons. That's all that matters.
If you beat Falcons, you're automated for all gamers as well. I'm looking back. They
beat all Falcons and Falcons. Those are the only two teams. Hey, compare that to GK.
They beat Furia, actually, one of the few teams that have beaten Furia, um,
Hey, hey, do you remember the start of EWC for Furia?
We're thinking, oh dude, they're not here, they're not back.
And then as they got further in the tournament, they got better and better and better, and
they got so good towards the end, but it was a miracle that they even made it past the
first couple of days because we all thought like, oh, these guys are kind of asleep at
the wheel.
Yeah, well, it's something about the theory of versus non-Brazil buff.
So like GK have asked, so they kind of like nerf the Brazilians power.
But the thing about the Brazilians versus non-Brazilians, it's just like it's GK.
Like, doesn't matter how good docks there are, like if you don't have any Brazilians then,
well I guess they have Kino.
He doesn't count.
He doesn't count.
He doesn't count.
Not Brazillian enough.
You've got to spend time in the region in the same way that Alamard doesn't count as
a Brazillian.
Yeah, he doesn't.
He's still Judas. He's still betraying his region.
Stealing his best.
That's always an interesting conversation.
Yeah.
I was just going to say, because we've got a long night ahead of us.
Thank you. We've got five matches. This is just the first one we're getting through this tech pause.
Do you have a match of the day? I'll read off the fixtures for you.
So of course VP versus Twisted Minds right now.
Then we've got Team Falcons versus Team Heretics.
Then we've got shifters versus G2, fanatic versus rebels, and team secret versus GK, funnily enough.
Rematch of the quarterfinals from EWC. Any match of the day? Stick out here there.
Can I just be like, let's just watch G2 shift their speed. That's my match of the day right now.
I feel like G2 always brings the content, right? Because they had a bit of a questionable start to the stage, right?
Right once even also twisted minds that they had the four seven against Falcons
They ran back to the back to back you relation and against and it did not pan out then this them for phonetic
Okay, whatever then these seven old rebels. So it's like are they back? Are they not are they sitting strats?
Are they not no one knows so I just feel like G2 right now pretty much as usual
Big on the content, you know big on the content, but they just had a three zero le C win over M. Corp
I think yesterday, so I mean the org is doing great that that must be shining down through all the teams
They have surely by the top works champion. Oh such a show bro. I will see the legends
What can I say it was the most boring fan lever with quick 3-0 and
Caps probably as usual
Well for shift is that kind of the opposite story for the G2 rainbow 16 in their email so far to live that just above G2
in the first place, but it's
pretty much the same like whoever
wins that game is going to be
above the other one. Shift is
one their first two games. Very
high for us. They you know, bring
it on with citizen and naive
joining the town. Uh but they
they beat secret. They beat
GK and then they lost the
twisted minds and Falcon. So
while G2 had a rough first week,
great second week shift is quite
the opposite. But I agree with
you. I think that's my game of
the day for today just as well
because it's fifth and sixth
place, so there's actually a
There's actually a lot of ramifications and standings even though we are still pretty early days
We're just about halfway through the stage
other big one for me is gonna be team secret GK just because it is a little bit of a rematch, but
Sadly, I think that we're probably gonna seal
Reasonably one-sided a firm in GK should be
Favourite to hit win that pretty heavily particularly because Virtus Pro actually lost to GK just the other day
GK looking pretty good form. Definitely my surprise
Surprising Dark Horse at the moment in EU, just because it's like, hang on, since when
did GK meant to be good? They surprised everyone in Stage Finals and Stage 1 and then they
did even better at EWC.
They've been rescaling.
Yeah, they really are.
It's about consistency next.
Same for Fnatic in some ways, right? I mean obviously they lost some players, sadly, in
Shutton citizen but during the WC and in the previous days is like okay phonetic are here to play like their gate keeping G2 from making the intention
Tournament is like super exciting storyline and it's gone unfortunately, so
Seven to seven oh to seven forward and then they finally won their most recent game
It was a secret which let's be real. That's nothing to boast about
No, so I feel like arrived
Maybe it is gonna be like shifters. It's a super exciting prospect and
GK and your side as well. I think this is fun to watch
But GK is up-and-comer that this kind of touched upon earlier about the whole
honeymoon phase whether they've hit it yet or if they're gonna start showing some problems
Desk set not yet. They've been looking really good. And that's always a big question, because I generally think that the honeymoon phase
There's been so many times where roster comes together
They are so hot out the gate and then it just plummets at a certain point and we've seen it over the so many years different regions
Yeah, and GK so far they're gonna be in that allegation of having a temporary blow-up
Well, I think when did GK make them massive roster change it was
In month for SLC. So yeah, yeah, well SLC was in May. We're in it's in four months
Yeah, it's been four months. I feel like that's still honeymoon period potential
What's honey? I think it's six months. I feel like six months is honey moon period. It does depend
Yeah, some teams I think is a stage into maybe the major international tournament and ever some teams
It's like you said like maybe two stages maybe going to the second major or right before and
So I feel like if they can let's say they make it through a stage where they do well the qualifier little soccer like in the ask
We're gonna make Osaka right sure if they can play all of the stage into Osaka finish that tournament looking hot
Then in my mind to be delegations of the honeymoon period
That's like the bar that I would say is as the absolute max because that's a long time to be doing really well for
Yeah, well the big have been
Yeah, VP been consistently a top four team in
EU I mean actually top two back-to-back in kickoff and stage one and then
Top 11 top 9 to 11 in Salt Lake top 8 in EWC. I'm sorry
They failed to make that but I think it'll be top 9 to 11 as well at WC
So pretty consistent so far and they made their massive roster changes after six-invitation or which was seven months ago
So I think VP sit for me in a spot where it's like this is just the current caliber of the team now with more consistency
Can they break out of top 2 EU and actually break into top 8 top 4 top 2 globally that I think it's gonna be a much tougher part
Right there. I'll be by the way
All right, yeah, the catch up here. We saw vertus pro really well defense goes to attack was the first two attacking runs pretty convincingly in a row
Now it's five to three still fairing VP
is the third round surgery bomb site it's gonna be that kitchen bomb site not
gonna be my mom as we spoke about before as maybe you could be there's no one
who's mom who's mom who's mom mom
now well grim being used very early by skies is to try and take a little bit
of space and it is actually a homam take they're going from that side for a
clear and I know yeah I know that it tends to be cursed in my experience but
Twisted mines are contesting it very heavily, so VP are able to take the ground, but as I said, I mean, what, 15 minutes ago when we were talking about it,
VP know exactly what bombsite we were going to be attacking for a long time, because Twisted mines just wanted the last two defences in a row on the two top floor bombsite,
so we knew exactly where we'd be going. It was going to be this kitchen bombsite, and they're looking like they have been dry running this in their brain for the last 20 minutes,
which they likely have been doing. Mowgli's in an awkward spot, maybe he can allow himself to escape.
Nice little pre-fire from Skies, but Mowgli does get out with his life, and then of course the classic Mowgli fashion
goes to repeat it immediately. But Neko's the first wonderful. Haashun looks for a little bit more.
Shotty on the stairs, gonna be hard to dislodge.
Yeah, but it's pro. I mean, Neko was gonna be the US famous player. He's going to go and get that kill.
Now it's gonna be a bit more tricky. The yank, the capitol, the grim, big rolls to fill.
A trade game back and forth, still favorite, just a mind stone.
But there was another shot with stuck in the staircase.
This could become a 3-3 on the bomb side.
Especially if a kill here comes out from Pasha, got to bait it.
Wow.
Yeah, that nitro was a bait as well.
Oh, wow.
Out comes the flash.
Oh, no, gets shot.
Oh, perfect from Ash on the patience.
Pays dividends for him.
Now it's Rorik, who has the 1v3.
He actually has a perfect position to try and take this fight against Ash on.
but against a shot in close range it will work out a lot of damage in this para 3 away
but a lot of bullets the hose washes him away from blasts that's three defenses in a row
now for twisted mines they are running this gauntlet back to make a solid case for why
they should be in the conversation this second half that's the exact same problems they're
continuing for Verdes pro that was members early and they say guys let's pick about the bomb site
get the capitol, get the ying, let's go crazy with it. They never cleared central staircase,
they never got vertical control because that wasn't what they were opting for,
but it's a very linear attack with very few moving parts and very few points of pressure
for twisted minds to worry about. So they can put, you know, look at this, they have four guns
looking under the sky, late round, but there are three attacks alive in the state. They have four
people watching like only two angles. They're not worried about what's above them or next to them,
They're about the central staircase, the bombsite door, and laundry.
It's a little bit too simplistic, I think, for the side of Redis Pro.
A really good execute has to have a lot of different points of pressure to kind of distract
the defenders or draw away their attention, so it doesn't even have a 5v5 in a single
hallway, because that's going to be a standoff, right, defenders have only two on their side.
You want to be, like, over backstabbing, verticality, we're tracking, we're firing, we're frame
being, but they keep losing their valuable members before that happens.
This is to me why I kind of hate that mom takes because even if you get it
like for free, even if no one contests you, like you spend all this time making
sure that you're going to take it.
But by the time you finally do that, you realize you've essentially achieved
nothing in the round, the cost to achieve that ground, like it's like the cost
Benefit right what's the risk of if it working versus risk of it all like if you fail on your own clear the round is lost
But if you succeed on your own clear you really haven't increased your win percentage by that much because there's still so much more to do
In the round break into the bomb site and in the end the roam that was impactful was just a single player of the new
Playing on the stairs with a shotgun an SMG from Hashim
Now VP find themselves. Yeah needing to get back into it on the top floor bombsites
It's one of the case of very low investment versus reward, right?
Like, there's just one guy roaming with a single loot jammer
versus four different attackers in their gadgets and drones.
I'm very lucky.
Surely you just die here.
No, he gets kills.
And he stays alive, and he wins the round.
Okay.
We saw their carefulness from Rorik reaching the external wall
into lockers.
The left-hand side wall was reinforced.
The right-hand side was a bunch of feed holes in it.
So, they're very close to the C4, the impact units, etc.
And those small minigames will buy you like 10 seconds here 20 seconds there
Do those small minigames a couple of times in a round or talking over a minute of time-waste
For example here the doors go your fired off the water sky claw problem solving time
Okay, do we have second in peace? Yes, or he can we guess where it is? Yes, we can
So we impede it and I heard a trickster go up as well
So I thought it's gonna be gone you then pop the one the fire left and side
which is a small gap into what's bathroom, a small peekhole, but not really an inter-path that you want to try and contest with.
So here comes the third layer. Now the bathroom wall is also closed off, it can be chaotic as well,
but Glasgow's going to swing and Sky's watching it, shuts him down. VP finally gets over the pick, all five attackers still alive.
Yeah, that's perfect there from VP and the first time it seems where they've had an advantage on this attacking side.
Horsley Trist is actually disconnected from the game. This might make it even more possible here for VP to find their first round on this attacking side, especially with JLAT giving up his life like that.
Throrik can now breach into the objective, completely expose Hashem and surely lap up the round.
You're right. Twisted mines have two players left and they are looking to make the most of this moment by getting aggro together.
Neko, low on HP. Nice one for Hashem, but he's now all alone. Finds a second, but finished off eventually.
And VP finally have themselves around on the board on the attacking side.
And with that, the match point that they have been searching for.
As I said, when you get that big lead early on, all you need is that one good around moment.
round moment you're guaranteed OT a couple of points in kind of worst cases
gonna reset into OT go into best of three round count so they kind of can cross
that off the back of their mind but not for in this game it's okay now they
found the opening pick they had this connect against them and then I mean
twisted minds their forces keep swinging keep taking insane the high risk
plays right like a 10 to 90 ratio of failure versus success because it's all
you can't do at that point you cannot hold the bomb so it's made of time before
you lose that round. Look how much due to that on the board here, that the green
bees, three in pocket, the blackbeard, candela, smoke grenades, like they have so
much to break apart the site and there was no kind of denial. The only thing we
see for is dead and the bullet fires popped earlier on.
I could say Neko has been looking like he's on a mission today. Every time we
switch to his face cam he's got this expression on his face like you just do
not want to mess with him and bro staying hydrated he's taking all the boxes to intimidate
the enemy here today.
When Dan's in the sauna.
You and I were talking about where is Dan and then we go to the desk and Leo is like
oh yeah I think VP all blue camping maybe the exception of Dan because I don't know where
he is and it's like yeah he's in the sauna dude like he's somewhere else he's in the
pool.
It really does look like it.
He's in a timer.
This looks like the best.
What?
He's in a timer dude imagine being in a sauna playing a personal game.
It's gonna get harder and harder harder. He has to win the skin like right now. It's gonna get too hot otherwise
I love that. That's awesome. I hope this PC is in a different room though. Otherwise, maybe that's what's making it a sauna
Maybe he's got like an absolute beast of a PC that's turning the room into a sauna. I've certainly been there before
Are you you just got an air conditioner in store
Well, that's why I had to get the air conditioner because the piece he was making the room so so warm
It's often because if you have a room that's like well insulated, right?
Like you'll heat up the room with the PC. You'll go to bed. You'll wake up like 12 hours later
You walk in the room. They're so heating. It is so cold
So you fire up the piece you were the most crazy intensive game that you have to heat up the room
But now that he was trapped in the room you can't get out of it again
So I had to get an air conditioning unit to save myself
Otherwise these costume this would be very long
I'm glad that you're sorted now. I'm glad that you're feeling better. I'm glad that
you've got out of the sauna, even if Dan is still trapped there, but he won't be trapped
there for much longer. If VP can find one more round on the attacking side, the game's
over. He can go for a swim or whatever he wants to do. I'm guessing he's still in Russia,
right? Like if he's back at home, but the rest of the team is bootcamping wherever VP
bootcamp. But we're not sure where that is. You said maybe Serbia.
I don't know. For some reason, I want to say Serbia or Croatia, but I have no evidence to back it up besides like a very faint memory from like years ago.
And I feel like they would use the same ACOT because, say more, I do not know.
Yeah, maybe our interviewees can ask during the post-match interview, I hope.
That's for their interest.
Andres, Headcode, favorite food order, food shipping, you know.
I want the address of the sauna, I want to go there.
Oh, you're going to go with Dennis?
Yeah. Sounds lovely.
Great booking guy. Where's Dan?
What's his address? Okay.
It does look like a great little holiday house.
Like that timber hut type vibe.
Oh, that's so cozy.
Winter's approaching over here in Europe, so
we're looking coarser and coarser here.
Operator bands have been mirroring in the months.
By the way, so the less coastiness, the closer protection,
more about the fighting, more about lashing out.
So we're going to see intel operators here.
Likes guys on the solid snake, naked continuing on the Blackbeard shield, just gotta make it do it again
But the monster being gone, you're playing fuse or you're playing easy, probably every round until victory or loss
Oh that Nord could do damage maybe, the small corner
Like if you white swung the hallway with Nord, you just keep firing and inch close that corner and force the BB out
Obviously you're worried about being swung but still, theoretically could work
Change your marks!
Uh, what? Huh?
Oh, and this guy's goes down.
Roadie's tanked the thorn trap.
I thought for a second he was gonna be naked,
the black guy's gonna die,
but he was actually gonna disguise right next to him.
So he's 20 HP, he's fine, he's gotten revived.
He will live another day.
Around still very redeemable here for the...
Six seconds don't be a problem.
Yeah, time is the issue.
Thank god there's no kite this time.
Or a bandit, that matter.
Oh my goodness, here's some rats in his nest.
Oh, there's got a snake! Are you kidding me?
Oh no! Oh no!
Oh my god, oh the gnoir!
Noir perks perfectly
I guess the shield and
Yeah, I mean perfect combo against naco now VP
Real tight spot trying to bring it back
But this guy's finds his gap and it just goes from bad to worse
The twisted minds have all or didn't check him. He's hard left. He doesn't check the scanner
And I could surely win this round goes for one. He's now the last one standing the all
Finally, catch the player, and with that, the round is done, the game is over.
They found their advantage in the first half, and they locked it out in the second.
It's a solid showing for Virtus.Pro.
It is solid, but a bit of a shake, and a bit of a struggle in the server,
but I mean, you get the win, you get the win, you're not going to think back too hard about this,
going into the future.
And again, defense is absolutely amazing, you're not going to change your thing,
but fully attack, or back to the drawing board.
If you're not going anywhere, go back after a quick break.
I need you to give me a code
Bring it right to the door
It's how they tell me it couldn't be done
I need you to give me that shit
I need you to give me that shit
I need you to give me that shit
Lights! Lights!
Kill!
Give me that shit
Give me that shit
the game. The
PS, a little by themselves at
the top of the table with the
win over twisted minds and sit
in first place after the win on
fortress. We've got dark. The
coach of VP standing by after
this win. He and the team in a
bootcamp. Hey, dark. Can I talk
to you about this bootcamp
situation you guys got going?
We weren't there last week. Now
you guys are together with at
least most of the team. What's
it like being able to coach the
Alright, it's so good to be honest. We have an option like VP diff to give this option for us.
It's a big VP house. We've already used this before to prepare for WC.
And here we can work so much better, you know.
Like also everyone have a better ping. We don't have a place in Russia when it's more far than the European server, right?
And every day here we can work better. So for me, everything is going really good here.
Next week we are full here. Just that Danila is missing this week, but it's becoming good for us to work.
So you guys are going to stay in bootcamp for the super week and then I assume maybe playoff, so are you guys going to go back home before playoffs?
Yeah, the most important here, we choose this which camp where we have a better preparation for the playoffs to qualify.
So the which camp here is into that moment, for sure is the full focus until the match qualify to Osaka.
And then Dark, I have a question, but it's really related to the game. One thing I noticed is that Twisted Mines were running newer every round against you guys, I assume because of Naiko.
Is that something that you've seen in scrims where people are targeting your
shell players with newer and do you think that has any impact?
I'm gonna be very honest like on scrims people try as well also what people try
is just a bad shoot against us but I understand everyone because it's hard
it's a harder choose because if they ban shoot against us we still have a day
with this nake blazing blaze everything and you know shoot for show is one of
the main things of the main style we play. But to be honest, it's not enough counter.
In my opinion, it's a new operator who is not good enough. Sometimes we also have some
counters for this operator, but we didn't show, so I'm not going to say nothing about.
And thanks God this operator don't counter wall tonight, because this was something crazy
when completely asked. But yeah, my opinion is a weak operator right now. Sometimes it
can be annoying, but not too much.
When you're obviously this game was kind of plagued with technical issues, when you're
a coach and you've got a team having to reset every few rounds and there's no momentum going,
how do you as a coach talk to your team and get them in the right mindset to keep playing
even though the rounds are quite fragmented between?
To be honest, I don't even have the chance because I don't ask for time out after the
I think I'm proud of my players because when the game is back, they talk too much about
this.
Let's not lose in the fall because let's just back for the game.
So this was not on me for sure.
It was on the players.
The game stopped and stopped and they just keep going.
So congrats for them.
All right, Dirk.
Thank you so much for your time.
Congrats on getting this win here and we'll talk to you later, all right?
All right.
Thank you guys.
Good night, man.
the team. We saw it. We saw it
in the first half. We saw it in
the second half. The map lends
itself to being quite defender
favored, and I think the bands
helped specifically with that
as well. Um, I think that's
really what it came down to. I
think both of these teams have
very, very dominant defenders.
We saw that we saw in the first
half. We saw in the second half,
the map lends itself to being
specifically with that as well. However, I think VP managed the big moments in the big
rounds a lot better than Twisted Minds did, especially in that first half. Like Leo said,
really Twisted Minds should have come away with more rounds in the first half, but they
didn't. And once you were always fighting that uphill battle, once you can't get any
momentum going because of the crashes, because of the tech causes as well, it's always a
very difficult game to try and run out from there.
Look at this, by the way. So this is a great example of when made the difference between
against the Mainz and VP here. It was a 4v5 because it wasn't injured. They get the pick,
look at this. 40 seconds left, they trade each other, they get the control that they
need, they have an execution where three players are pushing towards the meeting, one player
was lurking in the back side, they used the utility of the candela to get exactly where
they were needing, which was piercing the final year of defense, which was a big thing that
with the Mainz were not able to do. VP, they were able to play in a really close-knit group
towards the bomb site, almost this only two or three rounds of rooms, and that's it. They
They were able to hold that. On the side of Twisted Nines, they fell to VP, either the Shields,
either the Yins, and I think that's the big difference that made that VP won today, basically.
Well, we can move forward to our second match of the day. Hopefully, we get a chance to make
up some time as we move on and through this, at least so far, tech pause, plagued day,
but maybe not. Maybe we can get rid of that and reset with Falcons and Team Heretics. Yeah,
this is the resetting. This is the resetting. Yes.
I thought that was what we were doing.
I was just trying to...
No, no, no, no.
We did that a long time. Not on broadcast.
But this matchup, as I mentioned earlier, looks like a more one-sided matchup on paper.
You have a top of the table, a bottom of the table team,
but Team Heretics, they were able to get a win last week.
Yes, and that's what we call a competitive league, Jonas.
Everything that will never stop.
I love you, Leo.
Yeah, yeah, no. Honestly, on the back of Hurtix, being able to create some amazing upsets,
obviously last week, we just saw them between the 9s.
That was a crazy moment, 8-7 victory.
And I think that's the big thing for me is we've seen this team time and time again struggle,
all the way at the end of the leaderboard.
Huge roster change.
Are they able to win a few points?
Finally, they were able to do it.
And honestly, we can be proud of them because not only did they do so, you know,
by winning at avertime after clinching back that victory,
but also they did so against the team that we expect to be in the top floor.
It was not against the weakest team of EML.
And that was a beautiful moment in my eyes.
Honestly, looking at them again,
comfortable map, comfortable pick,
being able to hold their own on a heavily different setting map,
and still win a few attacker rounds on the back of Skeptik IGL-ing,
and the first time we see them in interview.
That was really nice.
Yeah, it was really nice to see,
and I think they went back the day after they played.
Remember on Monday they played Kafe, they lost it.
then they played again on Tuesday and we're thinking, oh, this is a bad decision. This is a bad decision.
Up against a formidable opponent and they go back and they win it.
They showed real character and actually in my mind, there was two key players that won them that game.
And those two key players were last move and Lolo as well. I think both of them last week were excellent in their own way.
I think Lolo, particularly on a lot of the cutoffs, we saw him on the attack.
He had a very, very strong attacking half, 13 parry six.
And then last move, as soon as they got on the defense, shown the player that we know that he can be.
He has had these inconsistent moments, but when he's on his day, he can go up against absolutely anybody and he on the defensive
Have really drove the team forward and doing my prep for this show and trying to get up to speed with you guys
Jack I could see just how much you believe in
Lasma as a player and especially from what we saw last week
Really good example of why these guys came for Pell themselves to victory on the other hand
You have team Falcons who came off last week a brutal loss to Rebels not what they wanted
and our first kind of big upset in the EML this stage,
now they had a chance to bounce back immediately after
against Fifters, and they did, and that's the biggest thing.
Exactly, that's a big story, right?
After losing in such a way to Rebels, once again,
it was the second stage in a row that they lose to Rebels
when they're the heavy favorites,
it was all about the reaction.
And I think Jume said it best in the interview,
he said, there is always that one match,
there is always that one time when we're gonna fall,
that was it, afterwards, let's take a look
at how they played in the game just after that,
that was on round 10 on border.
and I think was such a good example of the quality of play.
We're gonna look here, they're in defense
and they're gonna see here, Solotov,
go aggressive towards the CC balcony,
he's covered by Liquefac on the mirror.
Liquefac loses his teammate, loses his mirror,
and you might think it's a 5v4,
how are they gonna win this?
Well, on the back of Intel,
Mira drops, but what they have is Solotov dead on a Val'Kam,
upstairs, C4 is replaced,
and look at this Val'Kam on the lamp, boom, double kill.
On the back of that, who is aggressive?
And that is Yuzus with an Elamine and a Melusi trap, getting him a free kill on that window.
You can steal that for your rank stack, by the way.
And as soon as he reinforces here towards fountain, he gets the kill in Archives and then gets the kill in these stairs.
Some new tech that you've learned, a Vulcan in that lamp in the library, giving you a lot of information.
Really hard to see because of the lighting.
Second thing, bearing up Melusi with Thorn, placing it on a single window.
When someone jumps in, it's too late, they're slowed down, they cannot escape, and you get a free kill.
good technique. I will stand by this. Valkyrie is so overpowered and people just, people
just choose the stuff. Valkyrie is one of the best operators in the game. Probably needs
a little bit of an effort. I am a, I'm a Valkyrie man as well so I get it. What I will say
is, I've spent a lot of time in Valkyrie's match replays because that's just the nerd
at hand, you know, spending time. Their team play is honestly incredible this stage. It
was the same against G2 in the playbill, it was the same last week. Yes, they had one
slip up, Dune said it was that one game where their team play isn't on point, they lose.
But when it's on point, I genuinely think there isn't a bad team in the league.
Well, let's talk maps here, find out where we're going for our second best of one of
the night.
Looks like Villa is going to be the pick here.
Labs and Villa with a final two up and Falcons make that decision, seeing the newest map reintroduced
into the pool.
Yeah, really nice.
I think Falcons absolutely love the map.
We saw it when they played it.
They were happy to go up against G2 on it.
They pretty comfortably dispatched G2, but for a couple of rounds, honestly, that they
threw away.
One of the rounds that they threw away, they did a whole closet set up with utility and
and played no players there.
So there's a couple of rounds where they didn't get it quite right.
But on the whole, the depth of strategy pool that they had on the map,
it's high preference for them.
It's a map that they love.
So I would feel very, very confident for Falcons,
especially given their starting attack.
And Villar has shown itself, apart from the basements,
to be one of the most attack-assided maps.
It's a classic case of a team that has a very strong pool of players
that has not made changes in a long time,
that benefits from that when a new map is added to the map pool.
Because they already had their maps, they already have the maps prepared, right?
If you look at the style of heretics, they had recruited a new ideal only a couple weeks
back so obviously I would say they are going to be a little bit further behind in terms
of map pool, whether that is enough for them to try and compensate for and beat Falcons
of Villa I don't know.
I feel like Falcons are still their heavy favorites also just because of the previous
results they had against G2 and we're going to see the first time here it's not a world
in a heavy map and that's it.
are going to see the Azami and Wanai Band, and Nozufia Band, which I think is interesting.
Yeah, of course. I mean, Azami Wanai, of course, power positions. We spoke about these two
operators, the combo bands, very, very often. We'll see it pretty much all the time. What
do you expect that we see on both paths? The Grimm and the Deimos, specifically, I think
is really, really strong, because the Grimm, obviously, there's a lot of soft floor on
the left, which lends itself to Zofia, which lends itself to Book, which lends itself to
Deimos. If you manage to coin Grimby's, you are absolutely out of luck. And then the
they must of course because he can just track anybody himself. So much software
you need to get rid of them in my opinion. They'll become staple bands on those.
Alright let's find out what happens. Team Falcons looking to rack up a couple more
points. Team Heretics, can they pull off another upset?
Thank you Junus. Yeah great chance to see if Heretics are able to continue this
momentous form against a team as strong as Falcons. Pengu down nobody.
in the league is undefeated as we said before and Falcons had a bit of a slip
up against Rebels despite taking down both G2 and shifters and Fnatic all
very strong teams particularly shifters in their current form so where does that
sit for Falcons now well I think particularly with VP winning their game
today so convincingly against twisted lines the pressure is on for Falcons to
keep pace. Okay, so we're gonna go back to Abila again. Early, early stage here, earlier
in this stage, rather, League of Legends was like, oh, we don't play this map, we watch
other people play it, well, we're gonna, you know, hide it for later, we'll see. Stars
playing it the next playday, dude, against E2, and, you know, loving it since. So, lots
of all, so, high P-grade on the Kali, when the Desk was showing all the kill feed clips
from this new, from this new reworked operator, it was also lots of his name in the entire
kill feed department and he starts off with a great shot here on to our queen taking down the
two browns which pair so effectively with the kai claws right surely kai claws are still linked
there on the wall passively but they can be dealt with a lot easier now i say that but there's no
easy on the tank inside oh mr patuneti he hits the floor he's the deck he stays alive okay
Oh my god.
Oh, the ranger.
Oh, he was the gunman as well!
He didn't catch him with the scanner. He thought it was clear.
This guy is just better.
The bingo that could have been real bad
for Liga back, but Liga's worse.
Brings it back for Eridix.
It was a 2v5, he's taking it.
2v3, how low!
A bit of a knockback from the Blackbeard.
Last time I was able to train for one and two and then
Liga back finally finds the final one.
It's got plenty to say. What a weird round, my god. He's now is going at 100 miles now.
I mean, I always say this fight. League of Feg is the IGL, the stratmaker, the counter-strattler,
the entry, the flexor, the flank watcher, the entry, the harbors, his boy. He does everything.
And in that round, he did everything. He finds every kill out of nowhere, wins fights he's
not supposed to, juke's every bullet, and somehow in a 1v1, because yes, that came down
to a 1v1, he becomes the clutcher.
Like, you start something so much off, great kill here, but then, uh, okay?
And then it hits the deck survives.
He didn't scan this player's skeptic in the door of memory.
He did not scan it, he was right outside of his reach.
And look at the player count. You're thinking, ah, easy run victory?
No, that literally became a 1v1.
The thorn secondary there got it.
Two kills, back to back as he said.
And Team Erotic, they will go where the round starts.
It's downstairs, kitchen and dining.
They will play the verticality game, the intel game, they get the pause in the action,
get the Kayi back in the mix again, Sauron to the Skullpulse with the free roaming game,
lot of presence here at Villa. Very big switch up here, salistically for Timuritics.
Yeah, interesting to see that Kitchen gets picked before the top floor bombsites are found here.
Now, I am not a fan of the top floor bombsites, particularly that trophy.
I feel like it's just nowhere near as good as the other bombsites now,
The way the meta has changed the potential from your day most deserve.
Oh wow, that's a nice idea behind that mantra.
That's right, doesn't quite land.
And one thing I am liking from the defense is the pulse it gives from LASMO, especially because there's that extra C4 from Skeptic.
I like the way that paratix can have LASMO safely play on the bomb site, but be giving tons of info to the team about where to get aggro,
and way to look to try and retake space elsewhere on the map.
And we live on those maps where once you're gonna show your hand on what side you're pushing,
it's very hard to flip it. It's a very long rotation. So when you're in the master bedroom
balcony like this, you see one guy attacking master bedroom and attacking the bomb site down below.
Had they gone study, it's a full map clear. So team heretics, they should now know roughly what
the push is gonna be. We gotta communicate, okay? How are they gonna hold this ground?
Who's gonna hold their angles? Who's been to the C4 downstairs?
Because that's the wincon, right?
It's gonna be the pull scanner looking for the kill to make that F5-4 in their favor.
And Team Falcons from the balcony will drop down, hit laundry, and then pass C4.
Beauty tanks it, stays alive. That shield protecting his face based on 1 HP.
And now it's dead.
It's worthwhile though because, well, I mean, Aqua is up on the hatch, so even full HP,
that blitz would have been dead meat and the falcons trying to cut corners a little bit
without clearing master bedroom and making sure that they don't bomb with a hash they
look for a way in. Leak effect has found a great way with the nade to flush out that
position a skeptic solid snake is such a powerful operator in this position.
They double down though and all your door again very few ways into the bomb site.
They should reason that they didn't take master bedroom either is that they could just have
one guy on the external window watching the cross because they went from statue door into
master bedroom and then looked down the house again as he said cutting corners that's most
on HP though they got dug because still in pocket two more to go if the wind is gone fight did you
not pre-fire a beautiful onto doom there and it's not going to use as well even once again just
Sneak attack on for the clutch.
Don't put a pass in there.
Nice crossfire enabled here by Azara.
Ooh!
Leak attack, I don't think he's going to check the prone angle.
Goes for the repeat.
No defuser, but remember he's got a shotgun up against him from the pulse.
Upstairs, Akwi holding the crossfire.
Azara is hungry for the kill anyway.
Big round from Zara.
Team Heretics.
Not looking too shabby in that round.
I do admit, Falcons look really hot, I mean, yes they're making some mistakes, executing
when it doesn't quite work with that hatch still a vulnerability in that execute, but
League of Fak is so deadly.
The only dangerous part of League of Fak being the playmaker right now is if he's getting
like six kills and all the injuries are working, he might keep looking for the solo place around
the map.
And as the RGL, you're often going to find yourself in the middle of the strategy, right?
Calling, where you're breaching, what you're doing, what's happening.
If you're just a backstabber, you're really putting on a lot more responsibility to your
own players, like, so let's hope to be vocal, or breathing a shield for a kind of, say,
guys, we're going to go over here, you hold this angle, I'm going to make the push.
So here's that downside to the Solar Snake solo lurks.
You are missing a bit of that leadership maybe in the middle of the map.
And maybe, just maybe, that was also one of the effects that happened in the previous
round that nobody really considered that oh guys if we're all dropping downstairs for a fast push
what about the must-have-it-game hatch did even check if it was open before the drop down
i'm not entirely certain they paid no attention to it that leads me to believe that they never
even considered the fact that there could be a guy up there so that's small concern but again
small issue it was only the second round so any of time to fix that for the future
and now change bombsites again we got an AVG
Up we go to that plastic bomb site here on Villa and info is the name of the game.
The heretics go out and pulse both, we've got a C4 on each of them.
Power positions and more as well, two deployable shields, one from Warden, one from the Thorn
and I like this, an old classic deployable shield on the map's table but it does get taken down quite quickly by users with the Flores.
It's like I want to stay on top of a staircase home towards Trophy 90 and Statue Door.
The first set is on the desk.
She thinks that Valkyrie is such a strong operator and this shows exactly why.
Information is accurate.
Prefire comes through again.
Sarah finds Dune extremely early.
And that was going to be the Sophia downstairs.
It's going to be a free kill for the defense.
And also one of those roaming attackers looking to dislodge this downstairs hold because that's
where the C4s happen.
They're playing double C4 in the living, post Valkyrie.
can ease the net you want or two kills. And with June gone now, do you even want to fight
through the map space downstairs because you can't use this of theia? Well if you leave
the downstairs area, good luck walking on any of the soft wood floor that could be a
PPC-4 anywhere. That means the lot of the IQ has to scan the entire time of this round
to ensure the safety.
Can we just lock on in?
Quite a symbol of effective defense here.
T4?
Paratix.
Misty.
That C4 will miss, funnily enough. Probably should have been a free kill, so it'll have
another nade with it he could probably get the movement here out of skeptic to go for that kill
skeptic's been detected by leek effect as well downstairs wants to pick up
falcon's been very separate and he could try and figure out a way to work all the
bait timing bait there from the solid snake enables the kill from solid off but he can't follow up
on to lolo at the thorn and unfortunately for leek effect he's fallen to aquey who is still
loitering down below that. Control from downstairs pays dividends for heretics
Breede 1v4 it just ain't happening and Lolo has been removed from the match.
Oh lucky for Lolo. Although for Breede even more so. 1v3, gets into office,
crossfire, doesn't matter, Sauer just swings first again with confidence and
gets the final kill again and it feels like Falcons fallen for the same issues
two rounds in a row now, not respecting the pole salkyrie, double C4 downstairs, not seeing
enough roaming presence below, and more importantly, if you're going to counterpick the entire
info setup by playing the IQ, how does Doom die to a Valkyrie inside of Kitchen?
You know, you can see that basically from spawn, if you're on the master bedroom portion
of the map, you ping it for Doom, he knows that it's there, even if he can't destroy
it, he knows you shouldn't be walking in that area, unless Doom himself was baiting the
I don't think he was yet. Nobody there to trade him. He was completely isolated on an island and
After Spitzy's over top of the rest of the round, it didn't really seem to use the scanner at all. So
Maybe he missed it. Maybe he had an event just within the round. I'm not certain
But a shame to Lucia player twice now to just stop small things
Yeah, it's a game be a bit of a frustrating start to the map here for Falcons
League of FAC a particular like you said I mean he's been really good
individually on that solid snake but the problem for Falcons is they have
looked like five individual players we've seen micro moments of teamwork for
example League of FAC going for the scan with the solid snake onto Skeptic who
is playing the red stairs at the perfect time for Solotov to go for that peak
really smart because you get the notification that you've been detected
you're probably distracted thinking about the solid snake in that moment not
expecting to get peaked. Little smart moves like that, but it's not enough. We've now
seen a full rotation of three different bomb sites from Heretics though, so I expect we'll
go all the way downstairs to that basement, office, and art, and Falcons have a chance
to do a little bit better this time around from what was a very strange start. A round
that should have been an easy round went onto the basement, ended up coming down to a 1v1.
I feel like there's two ways to go here for Falcons though to go forward.
One is to play five people, like four people on the same side of the map, like very good
old Starfield let's say, say you're attacking AVG for example, you'll have four people
attacking your Master bedroom, your Astro etc. and one guy going to the cut-offs, 90
window, wolf window, trying to support them pushing on up.
While you're doing that, one of those four people on the Master bedroom side has you
drone the area beneath them because all the soft floor watching out for those
C4s or like you saw from June you walk in below but if you're walking in below
you gotta have good flying drones you gotta have the IQ make sure there's no
Val'Khems on you for example so you one up gets one you will not die early it's
that or you start doing some split theory you play very uncharacteristic
Villa perhaps you just go four or five people very isolated you go and fish for
couple of kills. It can work, maybe not so much in the basement bomb side, maybe not
so much on the trophy statue bomb side, but I do think it could work for the
tertiary of kitchen dining and maybe even there for ABG because the defense of
team heretics, they're very spread out. They're two players downstairs,
one Valkyrie, very acrobot on Astro, one Paulson side of Living, they're the
players stuck on the red staircase. All those three are isolated members that in
the network can help each other, but if you walk in with decent timing and a good
bit of drone information, they will be 1v1 or 1v2 against the attackers.
So either way, either direction can work here for Falcons, but a switchup is needed.
Let's you bend the pose, that is also the equation against, you have the third operator
bend.
And I kind of like how it's posed into Sofia, they're both playing around the verticality
and really heavily reinforcing information, right?
The Sofia does verticality and needs information to get the three big booms from below and
Pulsar is the exact same way except for it's only one big boom with the C4.
But of course more big booms if you bring all the C4s in the lineup which they've
been consistently doing whether it's the Sentry or the Valkyrie or Tuber Al Qaeda,
but I think you know I was a little surprised when I saw those operator
bands roll up. I was really expecting that this was going to be Solid Snake
Valkyrie because I feel like those are the two most important operators in that
first three round split that we just saw go by. I mean we're probably going to see
unique effect for the Solid Snake. Every single round you mention a kind of split, have five players
from five different areas, look for gaps type play style. The Solid Snake is the best operator
for achieving that and that is still on the cards here for Falcons. There's a fear,
not that big a deal on the basement, not that big a deal in the kitchen either. Really only
powerful on that one top floor bomb side that the Heraldics are only going to pick as their tertiary.
So if I do feel like that's a bit of a missed chance here for the Heraldics as for Falcons,
they probably would have realized that most of the information that was being gained against them
was actually not from the policy, it was from the Valkyrie.
The long way to look at the Valkyrie versus Paul's situation is also the Valkyrie can be destroyed.
So if they IQ Twitch or even just the IQ here for League of Facts, you can find the cam, destroy it,
now it's gone. The Paul's is like a constant because you have to get like an actual kill on an
operator and it's always going to be a floor away from you, either above you or beneath you most
commonly so it's also a matter of things you can clear versus things you have to
actively kill. This one is a cheeky but could have been a cheeky entry into an
Astro. Humor reattempted doesn't matter, wasn't rushing for a kill just trying to
get in fast and you will do so. And this is them splitting out actually you know
you have a player in the middle of the balcony, June flies in Astro, there's a
player in the wolf window. This is that kind of spreading out kind of play style
where they're taking a lot of map control very quickly and not going for a
direct attack also means you can play a pressure on red staircase the rotation
back to the bomb site mind you of the basement bomb site so they know sour
can't go down a staircase or drop a hatch well you can force a fight you win
that fight doesn't happen here anything five before there it happens you will
just bring with a shotgun and that's perfect if they fan out they get the
intel they get the kill that's the Valkyrie now leak effects scan up with
the IQ look for all the Valkyries and boom you have a ton of map control
Yeah, no, you're right. I think there's a great way to counter that, Valqa. I was a little bit worried about it, but yeah, I was still enough.
Valqa didn't even bring the solid take as well, so it's going to be information gathering from them, primarily from their drones, and the information to the model from that IQ.
You can see that Kali's trying to find these electric walls, but actually struggling at the moment. I mean, Kali's a very strong operator at the moment, but the Kaid, if placed well, can actually be a very strong counter.
Yeah, they're all good one the kite what doesn't the touch to reinforce little tonight, but the kelan and the only destroyer stings that are touched in the water
essentially, so
It's a bit of a reach issue there for the colleague gadget
Could a bit the fact you but any issue is it if you're too proud they can trick through it's a bunch of awkward scenarios to happen
But they don't even have secondary in peace here in pocket for the attack
So they gotta just say that wall will not get opened up
We gotta just find kills elsewhere, but this is so rumor-obsessed again
It's I'm skeptic on the mute if they didn't find him get the 5v3 they could just force the bombs
Yeah, Candela here from June which surely kill skeptic
They've been suspicious of it cuz he's standing. Oh my hammer and legal factors is hard watching the angle
He was waiting the entire time flank what you're extraordinary to be kills with the sniper as well for Solotov
It's Lolo in a 1v5
TCSG will not save him, Breidey shuts him out of that great second round on the board
for Team Falcons, two convincing attacks onto the basement.
Much more convincing.
And again, that base on bombsite, it does play out very differently from the map, and perhaps
it's just favourites Team Falcons.
The big question mark is if they've been able to kind of convert this playstyle difference
to poor spend into the other bombsites.
But Team Erie takes, they want more rounds, they're not done just yet, and they're going
cook up another strat because they're calling a tactical timeout despite things going quote-unquote
just fine for them. Maybe talk about how to replace the band operator or a strat alternative,
not sure how much that force was cooked into it. Well yeah I mean I think they were also starting
to realize that even though I was pretty scared about the Valkyrie it was very well counted in
that round. Also the roam was very well read I really liked the way that falcons didn't have to
to hunt down the Mute, they just sat there with someone watching the flank the entire
round and then eventually once they put enough pressure on the bomb site, Skeptic had to
rotate back to site and was a free kill.
Great use of the Canada run, that's why I'm getting two kills, just sniping people left
and right.
Oh!
And...
What is good if you don't miss his moment and go shoot?
Ooh!
And the flank watch was perfect. I mean, I thought they had no clue about skeptic and mod, but then we see League of Legends literally holding the flank when I could be okay, but I guess they didn't know.
I think they saw that huge ammo, and were like, well, we can't run up here. Let's just assume that there's someone playing it, and it was a great assumption.
Now Falcons are gonna be attacking Kitchen Dining again, and this was one of the best rounds we saw from Team Heretics.
I mean Falcons looked quite lost they right at the start of the round tried to
Move into laundry very quickly without controlling
Upstairs like master bedroom. That's just a rookie mistake
And I feel like you know, we're not talking about rookies on the Falcon
So it must have just been a bit of a brain fart moment a bit of a bad call
Not realizing those times we're getting rotated back into there. Yeah, just slow starts
But they're looking a lot more locked in after that last round
That's actually been an issue for thousands of quite some time that they did and
the effects of this as well in many interviews they're a bit of a slow-starting
team especially like an international tournament so and and you see the same
about teams like you know your fury at EWC most recently and maybe in some ways
face plan teams that are really really good need a bit of that pressure to
perform the highest level right a bit of like okay this game is now
challenging now we can travel 110% whereas teams that are fighting to like
cost the opposite and they're just here to win with nothing to lose. They're kind of
starting in that spot because they're not going to make it very far. So it's spent all
the energy in the very beginning. It's a lot of kind of mental size to a tournament and to
professional tier one competition and no one has really figured out exactly how it all works yet
but watch how I get there. Solid tough. Great opening on the solid today with that.
Just on the run clear I suppose. Top red somewhere in that location. League of X surrendering that
solo clear because he now wants to be one in the middle of a strategy. He's on the
glass calling where the smoke's gonna go and support's gonna happen, getting that open
and kill the second one. So risk their skill for the entry and I'll
admit extra kill for the follow-up. Yeah and everybody from Heretics is dying here,
he's dying with their pants down, but I'm not aware. Result of, has done a lot already
with this old snake. Now he's going forward on two of the other three players
who remain for heretics. Skeptics C4 has not had an impact. He's now exposed himself to
sorts of interesting ones, not running the suppressor on the TST.
He's not. This fellow Snake is just applying so much pressure like an
receptor where we are. Are they pushing or they're not? We have no idea. They could have
even used the verticality of Bob, but they've got a whole plant instead. I don't think I would say that.
Yeah, they see it, but can they stop it?
Double impact grenades are there, but are they going to be able to deny anything?
Absolutely not.
No one does a smoke grenade for Leakefak to confirm that plant down.
Flawless round two in a row here for Falcons as they take the lead and take control of
Villa.
I like it so much more with Leakefak as in the playmaking position.
Right again, you can see how much more strategic that round was and the previous.
It's about the vert of a buff with Solitzel just doing his solo things by Red Staircase
And if you flip the rules, right, let's say that the sorts of position, Solid Snake on the Red Staircase, that's League Effect.
I bet you that the execute by the Bombsite is not going to be as clean, because League Effect's voice and eyes aren't in that position.
Now he's the Glass, he has his own smoke, he can talk pretty well, nowhere to plant, convert that with Juma Barber of the Verticality,
and Solid Toff, who is, becomes that solo player, just does his own thing.
Bit of scanning, bit of prodding, bit of shooting, it's okay.
And it's a flawless round, where nothing really goes wrong, and they have to bring the vibration in the middle of it.
To me at least, it feels pretty clear that there's just more value in League of X in the mix of things.
They now end the lead by 1, 3 to 2, fire around in the first half.
You can see Merit takes mind that there was their tactical timeout, they were the ones with problems to solve.
Okay, the pulse is gone, what is plan B?
Now they're playing Orcs on Villa, a map that is almost impossible to retake area
and to push into the attack of space. Once you do sparse the bitrum control for example,
you're not getting it back. Once you do statue, you're not getting it back.
So, Saur has two ways of playing this round. The first one, you find Breedy, you charge into him,
you will die, but your team will hook Breedy, that's behind you. That's the one for one trade,
it's worth it, or it's for months, right? The second option, you go up a hatch for a flank late
round if you go for a full map clear. Or right now, they're going lobby, they're going balcony and
study, they're not going for run clear, so you cannot call up any valuable hatches anymore,
they're finding head on, so the orcs pick very low value.
snake now that it's in the hands of Solotov for a second round in a row is
showing just how powerful it can be on a variety of different attacks here on
Villa. We're worried about the Vert. Should be had a fairly safely evade most of that
Vert, but Lazmo is just gonna have to keep burning a lot of his U-Tilted
Trone by time here on the main stairs. Eventually it'll be a
matter of time before Falcons can take that control. Like I said earlier, when
and you show your cards here and you're like,
not really go for a rotate.
They're showing you this guy remains there's bush
and it's gonna be that.
They cannot afford to rotate all the way around.
So there's a bit of a standoff.
They're waiting for the last one to spit the three toxic babes.
Once that's done,
once you can kind of just walk up the staircase
together with a smoke from the glass or grenade
and they can just start to control,
but they double down.
This round could be one loss on the staircase.
Yeah, and LASMO is just one is five
against League of Facts.
You see these little looking through
as well from the rest of the team.
The cell phones found LASMO finally traded it back
We decided that he's done enough damage and it's time for him to fall back
So heretics will give up the ground and now main stairs quickly taken by falcons
Now they get the next step right top main about the work of patrols office
The issue is no more smoking it in pockets the glass ineffective. It's gonna be a harby sketch it here on the Monty
Probably forget that decision right now
The thing is you can walk down the long corridor here take 90 control or get a guy under with the rappel and same story
Walk down the hallway. There's a road to the top main. They could just walk on it into control. No one's watching it
Oh my god, he wants to take the fight here. Users could get a support from the 90 window takes down Zahra
And now Pre-Day is on the verge of entering the bombsite and really punishing heretics great pick though from solo top
The skeptic and Akwi do their best to try and hold on the bombsite Akwi has done a lot
Holding onto that diffuser two knees to get picked up users has to go big a skeptic holds down the fort on the other
Other bombsite with two kills is now up to use this in Jume to bring it back.
And Skeptix gone for three.
Surely there's nothing Jume can do.
A very quiet game from him as Heretics find the third round that they needed in the half to even things up.
Before we go to the halftime Vibe check.
Jack with the yes halftime Vibe check at three to three here.
Heretics good way for them to close out the half by getting a win.
But I think Jack we're seeing a great example of what you guys called attention to last week.
right this Zara win condition for team heretics when he's up and playing well. This team is winning rounds.
Yeah, I think so. It's how they got themselves on the front foot the first couple of rounds.
I think realistically what they do is they focus to try and enable Zara. If you look at the operators that he was playing,
you see in Scrooge Force, you see in RH, you see in a lot of operators where it's just about him having the guns fill
and even the Valkyrie here. It's all designed to put him in the positions to be getting the kills.
And as soon as he does that, he capsizes on it, he was 6-4.
I think he was actually 6-2 at one point after 3 rounds.
And he was the big driving, wing condition,
4-0 takes specifically on that first couple of defenses.
He was even 6-1 after 3 rounds.
Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And you can see the difference in the way Falcons played afterwards.
So we're gonna take another example.
Round 4 I think is a great example of that.
Where they are trying to fight, they're trying to get limited control.
Because they're facing a lot of roamers, look at this.
Jume gets super aggressive, removes Zaran is Valkyrie.
And after that, really good nice pinch.
Look at that, just holding for the return of the roamers here.
And then solo top, just applying a little bit of pressure,
not forcing anything.
Crazy good flawless round.
And so what they've done really well here at Falcons in the 3-3 split
was what we call limited takes.
Take only what you need, make sure you have the flank setup,
and make sure that you can, the flank watch setup,
and then make sure you can bridge the site.
And so I think they were really good in reading it.
And to meritics, their defense plan was always the same.
spread long and thin around the map and try to be as much as a nuisance as possible on a roam.
I think it was risky, a little bit of a gamble. Eventually I think paid off because it's 50-50.
What I'm scared about is the switch because I would say in attack, yes, Vila can be quite
attack recited compared to the old one, but Heretics did not benefit the same level of
attacks that Falcons showed here in attack. Right now they have to find a way to make that
switch and again maybe put Zara in a similar position to succeed can they do that here is there
anything they should be focusing on in the bands to maybe allow that to happen I think that's
actually much harder to do on on villa I think because they're gone yeah yeah snakes gone it was
so strong for for falcons in in their first half it has to be gone um but I think realistically
if you try to put Zara in subsistence it's hard on villa because villa's all about
getting information on the map particularly when you're filming top four sites where are the
roamers. Are they below? If they're below, you tend to take a cross. If they're across, then you
tend to take below, try and work a pick vertically and do a direct. Even way, it's usually as a team.
It's as a team environment on the attack, so I think it's going to be quite hard to get Zara into
like isolated pick positions that they've previously done. But if they can, they might manage to find
some success. One more thing on the importance of the Solistic ban. Obviously, we've seen Solota
completely abusing it in an attack. We've seen him from red stairs on the dining bomb site,
read into who was in living, who was in memorial, who was in bag, completely crazy.
And also, the main win condition for heretics in attack, even when they beat
Twisted Minds was Zara lurking around trying to be surprising.
So the main thing here, Vila, is it up for you to be a good lurker?
I think it's a map that is well suited for that.
Let's see how much impact he has.
And then very far, finally, Falcon managed to win two of the basic bombsite on their attacks.
That is probably the best bombsite in Vila, and I don't know if I see heretics winning that twice.
So they're gonna have to be flawless on base clear for your Hurtock.
Don't forget to find out right away because they are headed downstairs to kick things off.
Heretics, shift over to the attack. Let's see what they can pull off here.
Thank you Jay Willey. Yeah, big chance now for Heretics after winning the third round
on that defensive side. And for me the question is what could have happened in our first half?
Had they banned our solos make a little bit earlier?
The Falcons have really got the right idea by getting rid of that straight away, but
heretics, they've got a lot of aggressive ideas of their own.
Blitz and the glass already brought to the table, and the Fatshires as well.
They're cooking some kind of an execute early in this first round.
Yep.
The Fatshires too full, but you can actually EMP the poles downstairs.
It's going to be different upstairs clear, whether it's 1, 2, 3, 4 necessarily, or the
opposite.
Go for a side plant, EMP the C4 midair, plant goes down, or in here just deal with the
I thought it would go for a breach either way. I love the Falcon solar snake and the Monty ban
You're removing the two operators at the most solo control in the game
Monty unkillable always taking map space always forcing down the plant potential
Solid snake the solo one player with insane amounts of uncounterful information
It's a really good map you don't offer a band rather. We will be a rush here plant EMP
Not sure before corn. Oh
and solid a follow-up as well second nitro self does again get EMP'd however it's
an outback that look for a second and a backstab here from last my one kill
trade on back he might have done enough damage distract but no never mind users
is able to deny that plant regardless heretics had such a good idea they had
so many layers to make sure that this plant would go down and that it has been
denied twice. Bit of a shame EMP didn't catch both C4s and also your two attacking
members upstairs watching the rotations you know in bathroom instead of master bedroom as well because that is the
Vert that works against them and there's a third C4 in pocket by the way from users still gone unspent so they had
more to throw if they needed to now to full reset users staying top floor saying okay I know they're gonna go for the
Vert take they gotta drone me out I got jammers and also they have no drones left so I can just stay in a corner
I'm safe so let's think it's better with it cannot find me a lot of members they play the side users goes
for a swing, place of the sound cue, and now Lolo with his EMP launcher out, looking to
do it all. Clutch, plant, angle for kills.
Straight into the trap, straight into Solotov, and that's an easy first round for Falcons.
It all came down to that plant denial. So perfect. The first C4 didn't work, the Glaz
followed up after the Thatcher EMPed the Nitro, so the Glaz got the kill. In theory, everything
is looking good for heretics. That plant's about to go down and then out of nowhere Plant
Denied. So they go for a reattempt. Out of nowhere Plant Denied. Every time heretics
had an idea, let's get the doco bit of backstab. It starts to work. He finds one kill and then
he gets traded. I'm genuinely baffled that Falcon won that round in the end. So convincingly
three bodies still up because looking at 4v4, the plant's almost down and then gets denied.
Yeah, I mean I'm a wick you I think it was very well thought about
Not a lot of small you know gaps there to be explored
It's like two fencing Falcons playing a little bit better like little bit sharp a little bit creative the action and everyone was
Look at okay first C4, okay back at CMP now
We're gonna run at them for a second C4 gun stop ready for a fight
Okay, we get back step everyone turns their cars stairs, so they're flying that did take down the dookabee
They're not wasting any time or leaving any like one view one done
They're fighting two of you almost every single time.
So very well done.
And then it's always going to be the difficulty about them up against a team like Falcons.
They have good brains, but they also have very good aim.
It is a very, very well rounded roster.
And you might think we can plan against them? No. Can you outfract them? No.
So win conditions? Well, they're hard to come by.
And Villa is a map where we don't see those direct attacks all that often necessarily for all that kind of reason.
There's a lot of map you can utilize to your advantage and if you're going for a bomb set of rush
Well, you don't have a map to work with so you're giving so much more to the defense to work against you
That's why it's so common that we see full map clears in a similar way of cafe
If you take the map away from the defense, they they're stuck in a corner by the bomb site
That's easiest counter when they run around and do the bird and go for pentagon go for a backstab and stuff
Life is hard
I think we'll see heretics flip between these strats where it's all about the plan to
Strats which are a lot more versatile like we're seeing this round. It's a long one. Okay, we spend a minute
We're kind of fishing around we see we clear some utility here. Can we clear some Romans here?
Can we take some ground here without solid snake? It's much harder to take ground for free
same to be said from the Monty and so
heretics over a minute into the round
they're sitting
here with their utility out just hoping
to chase Falcons but they're always working from behind.
Okay, look at this murder.
Lasmur's almost on the money but doesn't matter.
So he's gonna face the kill instead.
Lethegra's taking this well.
It's Maryjax out of the building.
They're stuck.
They're getting haunted.
They're getting shot down.
I'm starting to feel like this is where he died.
Wow, what a shot.
The fade away from Solotov.
Down with that tail's window as he escapes.
Back to the bomb site.
Now, LASMO and LOLO, the last two, and I don't think they've got much of a shot, to be honest.
The Rome's still being held by a very hungry leak of fact, who's trying to chase Solotov for the kill department.
There's a little bit of catch up to do. Same can be said for LOLO and LASMO this round, as they finally get in the building.
The only reason they've been allowed to make it this far is because Falcons have four footed the control.
You see what I mean with the map control, we're gonna get against you, right?
Like, you get stuck in such a bad position if you don't have enough map control to push on forward.
You can't skip corners, you can't even get in the damn building.
You don't take the right area with the right way.
Oh, solo top, 3k.
Last one down, so he's looking for a very kill.
Probably not gonna find much because that's really looking below, above, everywhere.
It's a little bit of a flawless round for Team Volgans.
Put solo top on the solo roam, and he will find as many kills as his team needs to get a victory.
Solotov is really feeling confident right now. 12 kills so far in just eight rounds.
There's Falcons still ahead and Pengu, it's a third flawless round for them in this game.
It is, it's looking looking rough right now for Team Erotix, right?
And I'm not like against much of what they're doing, but they are just going for very simplistic
attacks where again, a simple gunfight can kind of change everything.
They never got closet control, master bedroom, bathroom, astro,
and after threatening any of the rappels in the building,
the Sophia never got in below to work the verticality.
Or at least didn't have the info to work the verticality.
She was downstairs in the beginning.
Sat below at this mountain, his lifeline, like, you know, Pop 1.
Hmm, is this hoping Pop 2?
Meanwhile, his attackers, his teammates outside the master bedroom are getting swung.
by Stella. They're crazy Ella with this crazy energy. That Scorpion is really having a second
lease on life in the last few months ever since the gradual buffs piece by piece. Now
it's not quite back to its former glory in 2018 days but it's certainly closer than it
ever has been.
So they try out the Blitz again and this time they build around a bit more utility. I like
the twitch actually. Maybe in this round there's not that many things to find but generally speaking
it's a great opportunity to get illiterate d-ballcams, a gattotree, a gank at the f2,
very high in value. You just kind of play around the blitz right? Well as the diary lays here,
let's kind of walk in, twitch drone, zap it, now to keep a guess forward, see if we can
fatter it. We're enabling skeptic right now but this is the basement bomb site. So this is one
of the rare instances where the defenders don't need a little map control. And this is probably why
we tend to believe this is going to be the most defender favored. It's a bit more simplistic
in the way it's played, because it's all for the attackers, the problem solved, and the defenders
don't need much at all to have a very strong attempt at it. There's almost no verticality.
In fact, there is no verticality. This is a singular hatch that gives you a little bit of an
ankle, and then a second there has to give you no ankle at all. So you're walking down staircases,
You walk it in the barrels and you're dropping down a hatch, that's your only way in.
And none of those are very plush, it's very nice to go for it.
And I've seen the hatches opened, now at least one of them by a lullaby.
Ooh, he's actually changing your mind.
There are three hatches technically if you count the pantry hatch.
He's actually going to go for the pantry hatch instead of the one in the middle, I believe.
The modern priority here for Skeptic is to make his way down the stairs as Zara pitches from the red stairs.
Yeah, but as you say Falcon does the joint make this a complicated defense you just fall back to the next choke and the
Cover is not made by Zara
Thankfully Lasmur is able to finish off solotov so the top fragger from falcons put down
It's gonna be quite tough now falcons involves the first at a choke hold when you walk
You know hold the walk down from the staircases. So if this could be enabled or skeptic like I said before
before. A lot of value could be had. Sophia tears up the deployable shield. They got
Demo's tracker, Sophia stuns, EMPs, smokes, and a blitz. They can destroy these crossfires
and force individual gunfights and again get skeptic in their position to go for a flashbang
using that shield over this.
Good smoke number one. As in our laser is shot out. Skeptic is on one of our smokes now.
Has to make his way forward, but Brino is just taking down the player behind him.
The Leisure, the picks are found by heretics, but immediately Blitz goes straight into the
tripwire and the tripwire of Doom, the tripwire of Doom.
It's Doom in a 1v1, he's been inkling where he is, but I don't think he knows about that
tucked away corner.
Doom is just waiting by his spot, spots him first, goes for the swing, the round for Doom
and for Falcons, three on the shot on the defense.
Tomb who's been quiet today has his moment now match point in the hands of team Falcons. Oh my god
I mean you got a hold your breath during that final push there, but what the lesson earlier right?
It's all about enabling skeptic on the shield twitch drone at the narrow laser EMP it to fiat anything
I'm not gonna say they lost around to the narrow laser because that will be
Simplifying it way too much
But the blitz only died the way he did because he walked into the laser and it actually guard breaks you like when you get
meleeed by defender. So the shield exposes space, he dies immediately. So I think Breedy
White's swinging right here and on the door. And Skeptic, I don't think he saw it. I don't
think he generally saw the laser. But I mean, it's right there on the doorway. Breedy finds
three kills in the round. A double, obviously, after that, the bits died. And this was winnable.
Absolutely for Acquie. But June, a little bit better.
Great round to showcase Denari though, even though a lot of those lasers were shot out,
but in those final moments of a round you're not always able to check the doorframe especially
if you're playing a shield operator. The shield might actually be blocking your vision and seeing
whether there's a Denari laser on the doorframe. Even if they had known about it, I don't think
they had any util to try and take it down. And for Joom to be the one that delivers the killing
blow for the round, even better. Thalcans have really shown up on the defensive side and
look, give them the credit, but heretics also are looking a little bit lacking in inspiration
on this attacking side. I really love the first round of attack from them, blitz, glass,
thatcher, we go for this, execute and somehow it doesn't work. As soon as that happened
It felt like it takes lost all confidence
Again, it can just feel like a very close to forward mappers and a tagger
It's such a hard map to get the entry on and no one's been leading that charge being the spearhead for the team and Lolo's trying it right now
The solo roaming gap finding ash not the solid snake unfortunately again banned away early by team Falcons
So it's hard
You're walking into so much unknown territory, you're gonna fall on back and play a long angle watching that red hallway flank.
Try to box Team Falken's in close towards the bomb site, and they do the same thing to our floor.
Don't give you a call, a drone, they walk on in, and they're expecting a bit of a huge roaming presence with the Polo's new kinds out of living room.
He's by the bomb site, just covering that. Lolo is dropped.
Here's the ash.
We're 60 seconds in, I have no idea what to do, but it's not my job until I keep talking, the admins will figure it out,
but it's a complete standstill if it's in heretics, and it will be a re-host it seems like as we go to League of X preface
Well, it's match point. So if you're team heretics you don't want to hold anything back
Certainly don't want to have to play the round out 4v5
But as you said, I mean not a lot had happened in terms of action. It was very much just
Slow map control being taken by heretics on that kitchen bomb site
But I don't think they'd really dealt with a lot of the layers of that defense a lot of it was on the bomb site itself
It was the electroclaws the mute jammers the traps in the Maloo season and the razor blooms
Are you right? It's time to go for the bathroom. Yeah, I mean now's the time for you got a bit of a break here
on planned on time by the break on the list
Well, you're right. They didn't really find anything set up as I said like Breedee was hiding by the bomb site and I
I feel like they probably found out because they don't get to be called them and nobody could hear the phone rings
Okay, he's in the basement or it's gonna be by the bomb side
And that's like the two ways of playing the post here in the tertiary of kitchen dining
I'm you're gonna be playing the supportive role kind of tracking the roamers above
You know blinks at a living room bottom lobby for office, etc. I just got following along the line
Or you pay just by the bomb side you can now scan pantry laundry for those kind of bombsite rushes and the master bedroom balcony
Astro rappel and if you see no heartbeat you're going guys. They're going for a full long clear lobby over
You can just figure that out immediately
So it's a very high value way of doing it at Breedy
It's also that one of those like anchor players tends to be a little more safe positions in the game
Whereas if you get the
League effect on the poles you would probably not be by the bombsite
But out there and looking for early C4 kill on the room game instead
Jim is looking so chill today. Oh, it's got his lights on. It was so pitch black when he clutched
What's he eating there? That looks yum.
Oh my gosh.
Chips.
It's like a savoury treat of some kind.
I can't quite say that.
He googled it.
I thought it was Takis for a second, but I'm not sure if it is.
It's a red bag.
I feel like it's not a red bag usually.
It's like a cone shaped kind of chip.
Usually a little bit spicy.
They look like sticks.
Yeah, yeah, so cone shape is not kind of like a stick like a like a small cone like
Like imagine imagine a cone from ice cream, but you couldn't fit anything in it
It's just like it's like a straw, but the straw is kind of a cone to know
Cylinder cone like has a cone has a point. That's the difference with a cone the cylinder
Okay, hold cone definition like an ice cream cone
Okay, okay, you're right. Okay, you're right. It's not a cone, but it's more like a cylinder
then. But like if you tried to understand me, you would feel like it's fine, but you
wanted to work against me. This is the definition of being second versus native language speaker.
But if you were not native English, you would get what I mean because you're like, oh yeah,
it's a cone.
Totally. Yeah, man. Totally. Okay, I've just been sent. They are Lorenz saltless sticks
classic. They've been by our beautiful observer slash again director easy. These
look delicious. They look exactly like what I was talking about. They look very
very like pretzels but in stick form. Wow 28 is that pounds? 28 pounds for 150
grams. What daylight robbery is that? Absolutely not. Are you kidding me?
So it's a it's a packet of twelve hundred grams. Look that's slightly more slightly more just
28 pounds for one tiny packet of 150 grams my god that would have been
Must be nice. I guess that's what it that's what it's like Jim when you're on the Falcon's page. Oh
man
Well, while we're here, I just want to go back on my own here and look at the basement
attack around.
I'm just going to see if we can pick anything exciting.
Are you painting a picture?
Yeah, I'm just going to look back at when the Blitz died because I was curious like
what they had available to them.
So I'm trying to see what happens.
I'd like to know how that round became a one-on-one.
Okay.
Because Brene got a 3k.
Okay, so I see what happens here, okay?
So the attackers did burn the laser.
of the Nari. I'm not sure how, but something burnt it. It wasn't an EMP. So I guess some
saw through it. Skeptic, obviously you can hear the laser going ding ding ding ding ding
because it doesn't sound like it makes when it's like, you know, but activated. The moment
Skeptic walks into the room, the laser activates. It's like it activates maybe like a second
before it walks in, but he's so close to the door that he can't see the laser because
As you walk up, he checks the left, checks the right, for like a cap can check, right?
Okay, no laser, I'm gonna walk in now this laser.
So the skeptics just kinda got bad timed honestly.
Well, that's also a bit of a skill issue, right?
Because when it gets burned, you know it's like...
Did it sound...
Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding!
...the seconds, yeah.
I mean, I don't know exactly how many seconds, I think it's four or five seconds.
It's seven or it's eight.
Six, seven or it's...
No, it's not six then, it's not seven.
seven or it's eight. Okay. I trust you on this thing. I do not play enough denier nor
verse enough denier to know. I mean, I don't feel like you haven't done it in the lab.
You know, when you played off the timing, you played off the sound because the gadget,
the vibe check, yeah, the vibe check, like the sound will guide you to how long it's been there
for more or less. And if you hear the laser reskin going off for a bit, it's okay. By logic,
you would know that it's about to come back online because it makes a sound, right?
So it's one of those.
Not when you're focusing up on trying to kill Breda on the bomb site, like Bandit.
Yeah, but that's again, like if you're a shield,
your biggest priority in every single round is like the things that stop you from succeeding.
And as a shield player, those are pretty much exclusively trapped operators,
three-thor's and verticality.
You don't care about guns.
It really wasn't a threat.
But if there's an element in the door, a thorn trap, a lizard denarii, or a pre-placed C4, that would be the threat.
So it's like your brain power should be going towards what could kill me the second I cross this door.
Not where is Breedy when I cross that door.
Because, you know, the weak ones don't open.
A little bit of turns, but we're back into the game. Thanks to your patience, everybody.
Three rounds in the lead now for Falcons, three match point opportunities, and it looks like they've changed a few things here on this defense.
We see this
Somebody just said that's for the cylinder they caught up to us
I lose this one, but I mean I admit defeat when you're not talking about it, so it's fine though
Oh my god, well, we sat back we waited we watched June wasn't finished with snacking
the IRL and I was snacking in game, early kick, powering up, and what did I say when
Breedy placed the pause by the bombsite, I said, League of Legends, anyone else plays
it during the extended roam, looking for the entry, and it gets worse, worse, and...
not worse.
However, now we're sold off dead
Heretics have actually made the most of a very bad situation if they can convert the kill onto users here
It changes everything. Lolo needs to come in to support fight. Oh, just one double kill
Breed ain't our 1v3. I mean he'll be good at this Lolo moment B, but aside from that. I mean, this is not very winnable
It's run for Leopard very quickly Heretics just kind of play into the chaos of it all. I
I mean get skeptic in there again you enable skeptic final line scan with the
biped intel you lock down beauty position and shut it down yeah this
should not be winnable at all even for the clutch king of breed a especially
not when he's running the secondary pistol to assist at this time I'm well
effort of could be beat the timing just right from Lolo a second later and maybe
Brede could have isolated the ones but the round is won by Heretics, one that
never should have been the case, a very strong 3v5 thanks to Lolo's heroics.
Really great swinger at the end, the black beginning melee, the moan he gets
shot in the back there from these teammate of Lolo I believe as well. The
Valkyries will actually call a technical timeout and just try and lock it in for
this upcoming round and not fool around the waste of the time. The benefit of
being a defense will always say is during these tech timeouts you can just
can't drop a new stat right here right now. You know, you can just make something up on the spot,
you got 60 seconds, the attackers, they will talk general things, right?
Playstyle, operators, things like that, but then if they cook up something very unique,
that's not going to be applicable as much. So I really tend to feel like even though both
coaches are going to talk to their respective teams, they will usually favor defense in these
these kind of scenarios.
Yeah, look at Falcons, they won four defense rounds in a row before we saw Heretics win
that attack just there, and it was a 3v5 that was mostly because Falcons overextended a little
bit in the 3v3 to try and save users on the mute upstairs.
Cut it to Heretics though, I mean being down 3v5, they did the one thing that was required
which was just to get hyper aggressive in that 3v5, push for the trade onto the roam there,
and then immediately after you find the 3v3, don't just settle.
They immediately passed on the opportunity to sprint into stats, sprint into master,
and find those final few kills.
Falcons can continue changing different bombsites.
Aviator Games is unlocked now.
This was a flawless defense win for Falcons the last time they played it.
I see this. Very gank and old school setup. They're gonna play AVG and instead of extending
towards Master Bedroom where you're quite exposed and there's still rumours, you know,
if you cut off the rest staircase and the ashes staircase and the wall window, you have
no real easy way back towards the bomb site. So they fixed for that. You don't do that
extension. You extend them vertically. Start playing a red hole choke on the red staircase here
with the Yekri DSS. Then playing downstairs in piano and living and library which can do
plant denial if the attackers get to the bomb site. They can hold the red staircase obviously
from that position supporting the player from below and above from the bomb side door.
And they're making some airjacks still have to drone the entire building on top floor. Trophy,
statue, master, bathroom, astro, because if any rats are hiding in any of the corners,
you lose a member.
They gotta do all of this while still being careful of the potential C4 from Vinny's at
any moment.
So, time is potentially gonna be a problem for them.
One note leave for Falcons, and maybe it's impossible to fit in the lineup.
I would have loved to see a Goyle, guess time will take down for this one.
But then again, what would you replace right now?
Probably the smoke.
But the smoke gadget works the same way, has to get you to a hazard shot gun, so hard to see.
Oh, you certainly wouldn't replace the Mew, which has just prevented that exactly.
Oh, the landing here.
Ooh!
Oh, that's the choke!
From Solotov.
Nice prefire, and you're right, Vila's all about controlling his choke points,
and Falcons are doing the phenomenal job of that at the moment.
Leak it back, and sit back on the red stairs.
I mean, this is a classic position.
As long as Vila has been in the pro pool, people have battled to the nail for red stairs.
280S is protecting him. Even though he's targeted, it doesn't matter.
Yeah!
He's low, feels vulnerable, tube finds one,
low snake, double jumping out the window,
and it feels like heretics might have run out of breath.
Skeptic, an aquey now, the falcons are hungry to finish it off.
One kill for Skeptic, solo top does down,
the EMP comes to him as he goes deep into the bomb site itself,
takes down the BPC.
Honestly, gun for the kill here, but Brite won't give it anything.
I don't think I'll pan come and do it all, and I just kept you all alone.
Finding four members finds the first.
Get shot by immediately after.
To make it to the four back teams, but not hard enough.
Team Falcons still take the victory.
Indeed, it took them a little bit of time to lock it in finally,
but the defense is where the sausage is made for Falcons.
Team Heretics could not keep up, and Falcons take it.
Let's take it 7-4, a strong win for the top dogs in E.
I'm breaking next and I'm riding out
Check this out, I'm out, signing out
I'ma keep it going till there ain't nothing left
I'm breaking next and I'm riding out
All my elbows stuck in my money bag
Cause I can't get down till it's running out
I'ma keep it going till there ain't nothing left
I
We're going to have a look at
what's going on here. We're
going to have a look at what's
going on here. Well, Falcons
get that when they were looking
for and take down heretics seven
to four as we get through our
what just second matchup of the
day here. We're turning along.
And right now we've got our
victors standing by uses after
the win for team Falcons. Welcome
and congrats on getting another
few points on the board uses.
It's good to see you. Can I ask
I ask you, last week, obviously the loss to Rebels was not ideal, and we heard from you guys that these happened from time to time.
Moving on to this week, does it feel like you guys are playing your game again, the Falcons game that we know?
Hello guys, and to answer your question, I think the Rebels game, whatever we played terribly, I think they played well, I could agree with it to them.
and we didn't play probably our best possible 9900% game, but I think it was a bit unlucky as well.
I thought that one watched it back, but I think we've gone up another level this season compared to the stage before.
Use a simple question on Villa, how strong do you think Solid Snake is?
Because I've seen Solotov abuse that like crazy the entire attack side.
you. Yeah, I think it's really
broken. I think. Small, it's not
like a small map, but like
there's lots more spaces and
like, there's a lot like
balcony. You can go outside
with me because a lot of
staircase. You can like go up
and down all the flanks. Just
I mean, even on every map, that
operator is quite annoying, but
I think that is especially one
of them. Josh was there. Was
there a specific game plan
today for your opponent? Um
we've seen that they found
been out on the road and they were trying to enable him but you guys seem to get a grip on it in the first half
Was that a specific adaptation a game plan or was it just part of reading the game?
I think that's just part of reading the game to Vanessa. I think they've not played Villa before so I don't think
There's nothing we could like go off. So we should like look how they kind of play the maps
I guess and try and guess
As a team, how do you approach it when you don't necessarily know how a team plays the map because I'm presuming you wouldn't have
I think it's like, I mean, you also can play the map. You don't need to do it for like, to play every single game and I think we just go into it like, it's a scrim, for example, you just don't know what to do and you just play your depth, what you see, play what's in front of you basically.
Sweet, we'll use this. Thank you so much for your time. Congrats on getting another few points on the board and we'll talk to you later, my friend.
Thank you, good bye.
Well, quick win there for Falcons as they take that 7-4 victory on Villa, like we said.
Maybe not playing their game last week, but feeling a little bit more composed this week.
And Leo, I feel like we saw that here on this map.
Maybe a hiccup here or there, but for the most part they remained in control and they took the win.
Yeah, the biggest difference, obviously, Heretics not being able to pull as many attacks as Falcons did.
Much better defense side for Falcons than for Heretics.
I think it came down to the variety of win conditions in defense from one team to the other, right?
You look at heretics, it's heavy rooms, and if they can settle around in a room, then they will win.
Okay, cool. But what if you just get room cleared? Then there's no other win condition.
You look at Falcons, Falcons were able to play a total defense here on the Basement One side, for example,
and even in a 2v4 hold it and win it.
And then the next round, what do they do? A full extension from Statue over to Avietta.
So if you look at it with Falcon's wings, you see a lot more different wind conditions all over it.
And I feel like that's the difference in strength between the two teams.
One sticks to a game plan, the other creates the game plan.
Yeah, I think very great. I think Yuzus was perfect in a few way.
He said that he felt that the team play from Falcons this stage compared to the last stage was significantly better.
And we can see it. I think, to be honest, Falcons, we've probably criticized them in the past Leo,
of being able to play at a very, very mediocre level,
but had big performances from big individuals,
and now it feels like the team unit
is just walking so coherently.
And now look at Solotov, 14 kills, double KD,
on the back of playing Sweet Snake,
but going all the way back to the pre-show.
Yeah, also playing Cali very well.
Well, speaking of the pre-show,
the matchup that you guys highlighted
as the must-see matchup of the day,
that's what we're coming with.
Wow, got nothing there.
That's what we're bringing to your way next.
It is G2 and shifters, and hopefully it should be that good match that you guys hyped up.
Two teams with six points right in that playoff race right now, but if they're not careful,
they could start to slip away.
Which ones can't dunk playoff?
Down into the Jets, shifters.
PML hell.
It should be shifters, but like, I just love like, how do you ever come up with that idea?
Obviously that is your idea.
It was my idea.
I gave our creatives free of problem.
We need to be clear here.
Basically, when we prepare these kind of segments, we usually have a chat and then we need to brief someone to make those graphics, right?
I read his briefing and I was like what he's on about. What kind of briefing is that?
I was like, he's two-two and then two wins, two losses. One's gonna go up, one's gonna go down.
Oh, what if we dunk someone?
Dunk them into water. Oh, and make a cool graphic about that. And I was like,
What are the guys gonna cook? And then they cook.
Shut up to the production.
I don't know. I mean, I think
it's just one of the I would
say players that typically does
the dunking or at least
historically has done the
dunking. But now is getting
dunked on. No, now he's a
dunking. Now he's dunking
Don't because you're American.
He's a dog. Okay, I get it
because it's not performing
well. I get it. Shaco is not
performing well. That's that's
what we're trying to get out
here. He has not had the stage
that we would expect to see
from him. And I think when you
So far, however, speaking to G2, they're not concerned in the slightest. They know that the results of the performances are going to come from this individual.
They know how good Shaikou is. Everybody has seen how good Shaikou is all the longest amount of time.
I think realistically, I spoke to Doki about it. Shaikou plays a lot of isolated positions as anybody on G2 does.
They played Villa twice and he plays a really, really tricky solo position on the attacks of Villa, where he studied Barclay, solo, no matter what the attack is, basically.
and he struggled with that position on that map specifically.
And I think that's part of the performance.
The results and the performances will come from Shaco and they believe in that.
So G2 have turned the corner and I don't expect the performance of Shaco to do the same.
Realistically, just because of this position, if the team struggles collectively,
he's going to be one of the individuals that's going to be the most impacted stats-wise.
It's not like when I used to play as a backline, when my team was not doing well,
I was usually doing great in terms of frags.
And that's exactly what happened for Stormwind, that's for example.
I think for Shaikou it's a completely different story.
If the team's not doing well, then he's not being set up properly,
then he's usually the one that's isolated and getting punished.
Well, on the other hand, on the other side of things,
Shifters have been a team that, to emerge from the tough schedule that they've had
at a 2-2 record, really feels like maybe a little bit of a surprise,
but certainly a great thing for this team, which makes the question, right?
Like, are they the real deal?
Yeah, that's the big question to us.
I think we were saying, you know, at the beginning, when the roster change happened,
Is there a world in which that team is top 4?
And we're saying it, blatantly, playoffs, yes, top 4 probably.
And now we're starting to ask the question, are you good enough?
Because if you just look at their record, right, against what we expect to be some...
Well, teams of the top 4, really.
They lost to Falcons, they lost to Twisted Mines, and yes, they managed to be decaying.
But if you look in order, that moment of last shifted.
They had a narrow victory, then have a very narrow loss,
then another loss that wasn't as close, another thing G2.
And so for me, it's make or break.
It's the moment when they answer the question in my opinion,
at least in the group stage, do they deserve to be a top four team?
Because if they lose here, then that's all the way down, that dream is crushed.
The players are absolutely experienced.
Every single one of them on this roster at this point have got a lot of experience,
international events, you name it.
However, it's worth noting that the team, the unit, the collective, is quite young,
you know, in terms of the agile, in the structure, the philosophy of the overall team.
So the fact that they lost those last two games is obviously not great. Zero points.
But the performances were good enough in my mind against top teams that if they can continue to grow,
they can make a chance for top four. But again, they're going up against another formidable opponent.
That's going to be the fourth one in a row. And momentum's a very, very tricky thing in terms of
siege. You can absolutely let it define your season. So I think for shifters, it's important
that they put in a good performance and hopefully pick up results today.
Well, tough game for shifters, as you said. Taking down any team around this point is difficult,
but G2, of all the teams out there, very difficult to take down. Let's find out where we're going
to end up here for our third matchup of the night. Clubhouse is the pick. Jack, what are your thoughts?
Or Leo? Yeah, you know what? It used to be a permaband. It used to be a huge permaband from G2,
and then one year ago, they changed things completely, and it's now been a staple map for them. And
And actually in the few recent months, really good record on it, five wins.
They only lost it to Twisted Minds and Falcons.
Guess what?
Shifters lost it to two teams.
And they were exactly the same teams, Falcons and Shifters.
Oh no, Twisted Minds.
So what you're saying is actually the results are very much similar.
Stimula in a way that they both lost to the exact same teams.
Shifters making it closer.
However, one big difference is G2's got five wins on their early belt on it.
Whether for Shifters with that new roster, zero.
you know, you know, the
history of the game. If you
take all of that history away,
I look at this map and I think
what do you think when you
think about clubhouse? I think
realistically fundamentals and
the team that connects those the
best team playing cohesion. Now
I'm not saying that's not due to
but I'm saying the traditional
salvage maybe would suit the way
that she's just like a little bit
better. However due to probably
have that staff act on the side.
You know, pincher, dokey
Stonberg, you know, the list just
keeps going when you talk about
the individuals can just make a
the whole entire game comes down to the wing condition of can shifters play the fundamental
better than g2 and crucially control the big moments because g2 will have big individual
moments if shifters can control them and contain them then they've got a real chance.
So I'm a shifter fan I'm here in those questions and I am terrified because you just said things
that g2 are almost the best in the world at doing how can they get out of there?
I'm just surprised and baffled at the bands. I saw that they started doing the usual little
and then after banning Kay, they change and one for Mira,
which means Bandit is open. I don't necessarily dislike it.
Back in my days, I used to play against Bandit and had to remove him, you know?
Like Zofia, Stonem, get a little bit of vertical play.
I think it's interesting.
Well, it's our must-see matchup.
Our shifters, the real deal!
Let's see if they can take down G2 to find out.
Thank you very much, Jonas.
Yeah, it's time to get into it, and this is my match of the day for sure.
Thank you, I know that you've been very keen for this one as well.
And there's so much to it.
Of course, last time we saw these teams meet in stage one,
it was an overtime of 8-6 that G2 just barely won.
And since then, shifters have had a couple of big upgrades.
Of course, Citizen against his old team feels so tantalizing,
always so fun to see Citizen up against G2,
even though it's been such a long time since he wrecked the G2 jersey.
But today, what's going to happen on Clubhouse?
A map that we haven't seen either of these teams play for at least two months.
This is like a very iconic map right here,
seeing the strength of both the bombs that execute,
the roam carry, step one through three,
joining the fundamentals, pocket strats, speed of pocket strats,
doki's, things, scopos, instead of stripping,
just go for a run out to peel off the players in the balcony,
continue back towards the bombs that go for a rush,
Because look at that attack and lineup.
They got all the tools for a fast one.
They just basically shoot one could argue.
But the glass, the ying, the capitol, the grim, the demos, I mean,
once they want to get going, they can just go incredibly fast in the server.
There's a capitol of navies in the fire there,
I think in the drone hole to move away.
Benzema's in the bandage to, you know, not allow the tricking.
Capitol has both the EMPs and the fire.
So EMP the wall, bandage is now disabled.
You fire the drone hole, you can't go for a bandage trick.
You're guaranteed they're all being opened up. Very good step ones, the two's the three.
Like Osmo said, back in his day, they had to deal with the bandit, and so will shifters, successfully in the first round.
Another Marsling get on my spot. Candy, all it comes out.
Interesting. It looks like shifters trying to keep you two guessing.
Frank gets on an early angle, hoping that the wait's machine that he can take down, but...
Oh, and Mr. Rook has been deployed as only going to assist the defense if Stompin can
get into position.
Wow, he has a run out and a half from a cookie.
He's going to go back for a little bit more.
Wow, this is a crazy strat.
The Scopus can of course immediately get back onto the bomb side.
That is quite a creative idea.
I really like it.
But shifters of course might take the opportunity to get in and look for some control on the
bomb side.
that can easily peek through the smoke, find one, find two, flawless round for G2.
That's a hell of a way to kick things off.
Ah, very fast one to get the victory and honestly, when it comes to Chieftain's attack in this round,
it is gonna be all or nothing.
You will win the round, deal an in-kill, or you will lose the round with the open in-kill.
That is like the over simplification once again,
because if you get that first bit of foothold by the bombs at Hallways when you walk in that breach,
G2 have almost no space to thrive in.
The only person who can fight against, realistically, against the Ying and the Glass
is going to be stomping on the warden, but he's just one guy covering one angle.
That means that wherever they attack elsewhere, besides where warden is playing, they should
be successful.
But the last two opening gunfights, great run out there from Doki, again, disrupting
the flow there of shifters, and it's a massive class of a first run for G2, doing a lot
of nothing but finding the right result, right?
You just understand, hey, there was no presence in CTTV, something's fishy.
They've got to be going for a shoot attack, and they were.
And this is often why we like to see a lot of heartbeats on the attack, open up every
single wall.
The CZ3B wall, the con single wall, the jacuzzi wall, hop the office hatch, open the gym
master bedroom windows and now the defenders are like oh my god what's happening, where
could they be taking from, we have no idea.
But with a single heartbeats here, and knocking on that pressure, D2 were like well third
second from jacuzzi guys.
That's it.
Only question was who's going to play in what corner.
Sure, and look even if you have Doki running outside from Strip as he was with the Skobos
that immediately distracts some of the attention away from players who are on the Master balcony
which then allows more mobility inside of the bombsite, both bombsites in fact, Master
and Jim.
For players like Stormwind to be running around taking aggressive fights like they did, it's
a classic G2 playstyle they like to make the opposition uncomfortable.
and I did so already
Hibana being rolled to table here for the console the wall that pressure that I spoke about earlier
But if you look at the attack and lineup, you'll see that Hibana is the only hard reaching operator in the round
So again very limited when they start seeing where the push will happen from that'll be the push
You cannot really fake that much with limited heart destruction
All gone. It's the same story, two rounds in a row, like you could bring out the can opener, so you're getting all the grimm, but not to be in this room.
Yeah, I'm really scared. It's on the way. The Chictors have decided to attack this. It's going to be a very risky take into garage.
The North, with the North, is trying to target that Blitz. That's managed to target him directly, but Frank will take the kill.
Now they must wait for the North's fire to subside before they can make their way up, but...
Honestly, it's worth it. A minute and a half gone and they've already taken control of Rafters.
Not the usual approach to a round of CTV attack, but I mean Archibald's successful so far, but here comes the issue.
They can't breach the Catwalk walls. They have no more heart destructions. They gotta jump in this window.
And T2 don't have to worry about more than a single angle. I mean, sure, the Catwalk window itself, but then it's just a breach.
So, Shifters might be a bit more stuck than usual. Backstabbers there from Naven side of the bar, but they're dying elsewhere.
Yeah, there was a jump out as well and now the free frags come through in a big way.
Benja really assisting the soloist who was roaming down below.
I think he actually jumped out of the pool window to get that kill onto the player down
below and then by the time the trade was attempted to come through, it was another
lash out from another G2 player.
Shifters keep trying to distract G2, confuse them.
They're bringing a ying, they're throwing candelas everywhere, even where they're not pushing, just to try and get in G2's heads.
But G2 love playing in that chaotic environment, it's working into their hands perfectly.
It also does feel a bit like from the outside in that sheath Thursday are you're executing a strategy from the prep phase before the drones start getting information, right?
So right now the thing guys, we're going to do a basement attack, we're going to do dirt and kitchen hatch.
And like, that's not a bad thing to do, but then you gotta spend the next 30 seconds, drone the buildings, see the operators, see the reinforcements, go guys, okay?
That attacker just spoke about, uh, there's an issue. They're playing 5 guys in 3rd tunnel, we can't take it, right?
That last round, the plan was to go for a catwalk fast, hit with the blitz, but they didn't bring enough heartbeats to destroy the wall.
The whole purpose of getting catwalk control is to then breach open the wall, apply that bumpster pressure, and then hit the site.
But two attackers died in bar.
They had a blitz stalk on Catwalk to jump in the window and they gained nothing, they got to open a pig.
But Kloppas didn't map that massively around the opening.
The more about the conversion into strategy, into execute, into forming a plan that's a counter play.
So, I like the rounds from shifters in theory, but when we're seeing what the end result is and how they get there, they're just missing that little piece of util.
as they can hard breach her now they got the grim Robbie who has play wars instead of hot breach now it is basement
What's going on and he bought a can theoretically breach every hatch and the third tunnel as well with like a throne who are a crowd
shul
But if Nate makes a mistake or if they've died some whatever fashion or the denying of the hop each in which they have impacts
Right, he may want get every single hatch. So could be problematic as well for this one
Yeah, and both Frank and Robbie had the ability to run tink-and-openers, so it just feels
like a big missed opportunity for shifters.
I hate the risk that you see teams take when they don't bring any redundancy in the most
critical parts of utility that they have to bring to the table when you're right.
As soon as one impact grenade denies some of the pellets from the hatch, then Nathan's
not going to open everything that he needs to.
There's already a bit of a run happening, stomping in stock, and Doki at stage, ready to catch anyone who doesn't drone correctly.
Yoko also be assisted as well by Alamo's Yoko.
How has Doki not been drone yet? Does Yoko also have support? And the hatch is open and bar, so I mean, that gives off indication there's gonna be a roaming presence.
I think they know now.
He just kills the citizen of Whitebeard, just like that, he falls back down against shifters.
They don't drone bar, they don't take enemy control, they lose opening pick,
and again, they've spent only 4 exkairos on Nafe, so they've barely progressed,
and there's a minute and 10 seconds left, they're behind the curve against a single of Romero and Doki.
Yeah, and the yokai's still on the rock as well, and just feeding into Alibaba.
We continue watching the players that are pushing dirt. These are the players that are pushing bar. These are the ones pushing main stairs
You get so much info
G2 can just sit back and wait and in the two and a half rounds
We've played out so far. They're not gonna beat anything. We'll kill but it's going to now
I love our nose where the flip is coming from
He's calling Benji to come and support him from church
And now I love our can look to fall on back stomp and we'll try and hold from a case
Alibaba tries to buy as much time as he actually successfully gets out alive as well
Let's cannot believe G2 have gotten away with this finally dead shot shuts him down
And the second one for dead shot as well on the doke trying to regress at the bottom main stairs
Shifters now have a chance the explosive and they do indeed find a kill onto the bombsite
Critic looks over goes down double one for Robbie traded back Benja has to clutch up one V2 now
With Frank forcing that plant down the dead shot will hunt deeper and deeper around shifters had no business winning
But they find it regardless
I mean great in their great shots and individuals of shifters, but again, maybe not the most strategic the sound round
I did the circumstances in this one. Okay, they didn't bring in peace
They cannot get rid of the midge embers on the triple wall bottom main to get more Hibana breaching
But they only spend four Hibana exkairos
the only broke one hatch themselves and that was it. Third tunnel was solved, bar hatch
was opened, etc. D2 fall to the individual gunfights. I'm not sold just yet. I think
a great benefit from D2, removing the Grim from action, it's spotted out two or three
separate defenders on that previous round, where shifters themselves, compared to the
is Sami which works absolutely everywhere.
Shift is
to their credit they won around that they
on paper should have lost
but then
I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing in the big picture right like
great look you won around
get that tick on the scoreboard but
Yeah, so many things have gone wrong, so I think still taking the timeout, figuring out exactly the playstyle for G2 and how you read into it.
Look a second round, maybe a third on the attack here for shifters could well be enough on Clubhouse, but G2 has still maintained that they have thrown more curveballs to shifters than the other way round.
I will defend shifters a little bit. I went back and checked on all the hatch positions. We didn't see that much necessarily about the blue portion of the map.
G2 did open up the bar hatch and the blue hatch to enable the roam game.
So the essence of only bringing the Hibana is not an issue as long as NAVE doesn't die, which it didn't.
Um, the only problem that happened this round,
technically it was like, don't you got the opening pick? Did they really drone bar correctly, etc. Other than that,
they did have enough resources to get the job done. It looked a bit silly on paper.
As I check in all the details, it wasn't actually that silly in the end.
Again, the only thing I think that gives them for me for G2 is that they didn't have any
what, even though they had info from the yokais, they didn't have any way to actually slow
down that push that was coming in from dirt tunnel.
There was no Goyo, if there had been Goyo traps in dirt, completely different round
then.
Yeah, this wasn't as bad as I thought.
I generally thought the blue hatch was being forced and it didn't get us, like, they're
They're missing that bit of pressure, but it's open by G2.
And now, look at this, oh my god.
They got Canobiners on the one operator,
and Canobiners on a second operator, and they got Divana.
They have brought all the heart destruction for a Jumita.
That means they can pop open the CCTV wall,
the internal catwalk wall if they need to,
the Takushi wall, the Kansinger wall,
the officer, they can get everything and more now.
Like, this is much more in line
with what we usually see in pop-outs.
And it's not to say that you cannot win without it,
It's just that there's a reason why you bring so much heart destruction.
This map is brutal around heart destruction.
But they're back. You know what you're bringing it to.
Yeah.
Even then it does change a little bit compared to having Ace or Thermite, which can be a very large breach.
These tin canopens are much smaller, much easier to fight.
Would you get a primary gacha if there's always a smaller area?
Yes, you do get a primary gacha as well, or if you're an Ace, you just get grenades as well.
Not to that.
Well, I think of like Sophia with Canada when it's right you get the three big booms the three concussions and heart destruction
Or you can bring few moderates
Well, the big booms didn't find the value. There's no player in the green box, but this year could be valued instead
Don't keep one two. Oh my god
There's a big one waiting for him. Oh
Dead shuttle training one back, but doki has done all the damage he needs to in this round shift is 2v3
2v2, hold on a second. This round should never be winnable here if the shift is after Doki finds a multi-kill like that.
The dead shot's been hot today. Found some instrumental kills last round and Maefe with the M4 here is just waiting for his chance.
Though I mean Doki had to swing through the fork here, right, like for the clip.
I respect that, you know, there's no way you fall back down the risk there, he's in this place numbers.
But now it's going to put Binti and Elamon in an awkward spot, should still be winnable.
We'll take this one XP to jump in, first guy shop down, get your holo now.
DMR at hand, two shots to kill either of these players or one between the eyes.
Ugh, doesn't find the kill.
Onto Alamout, just a little bit of damage.
Grey round from Doki there.
G2 back on top.
Second gym bedroom defense.
A bit of laughter from Doki.
You're right, he had to go for the 4K.
He had to go for the 4K.
I gotta give credit to shifters in these last two rounds, they do have this magical ability to just find picks out of nowhere
and I think that's the value of players like
Deadshot and Robbie, both of them so deadly, they'll just find gunfires that you should never be winning
Man, I will say if Dogi doesn't get them three-piece and almost a fourth
Yeah, I think if he doesn't kill three guys on red, I think shifters would have probably won the round
They cleaned off the player next to Doki on top red. If Doki had gone down in a similar fashion, maybe trading himself one for one,
you're looking at man advantage and favorite shifters, black bit alive, a good bit of utile, plenty of time.
That was probably the best looking round for shifters so far, in terms of like the beginning till the end.
I know they got the wrong result, but like it was Doki having a huge clutch in the server.
And so I think it's important to recognize when you lose a round that you won,
versus when you win a round on paper but you actually lost it right the
classic it's a 5v1 you're in defense everyone's peeking you lose the round
there is a round that you won which you then lost and that should never happen
and sometimes you'll be the next one but you hit a shot
it's like what do you talk about after that round?
okay guys look doggie bailed us out yeah there's so much to talk about about what we need to fix up the next time
However, we're in the second quarter now, so G2 don't really have to worry about the bombsites that they are losing now, or winning, because that's your last chance, you're not going to play it again.
G2, go upstairs again to catch CCTV, and we've talked a lot about Hardreach. We again had the double ping-pong openers here for shifters, so deadshot and capitao both.
I heard it, this is a classic issue right, Robbie made a single footstep sound there,
Adam here is him, just backs off, Robbie was afraid of him getting flanked so he stands
up but that alerts the position, now it's a bit of a 4v4 because there are two people
of his team stuck in the basement waiting for each other, who's gonna make the first
move?
Yeah, and Doki flicks the cannon as well for our amount, trying to give him a good one in the boat.
I like that. Doki can actually use the North to prevent an entry into garage, just by shooting it at the doorway itself.
Guys, he's okay.
The fire will then burn. Speaking of fire, it's about to come his way.
Doki's ADS still protects him.
They're gonna get burned by the first one.
They're gonna be charged, so like the fire is not gonna work any longer.
It's gonna take instead of rotations over.
Citizen goes down, bottom red here.
red here they got a force to staircase
it's a toad
look at that Robbie finds a kill with a C-75 and now shifters have ripped the rug
out from underneath G2 they're in the bomb site but Shaiiko on rafters can
fight back deadshot and Robbie now to try and salvage the round never mind it's
deadshot never mind it's all over the Shaiiko does everything the man who we
We said at the start of today, needed to step up for G2, finally delivers four rounds on
defense for G2, one remain for shifters to find some redemption on their attack half.
Okay, so this is by no, this is no critique, okay?
But I've never seen these CCTV attacks before, three guys up the red staircase and was looking
really good until Shaco happened, right?
It's just like, they're brute forcing these rounds in the most criminal ways.
Like if I'm in a ranked game and I have double catwalk players with the wall reinforced
off and I'm gnawing the staircase and fighting the angles and there are three attackers
sprinting up red and they're successful, I'm thinking how did this happen?
Like I am yelling at my teammates, absolutely.
And the fact that shifters are so close to being geniuses, but then again so far because
to lose the round. It's almost a shame because if you watch this game you go oh my god what
is that push? That's so awful. But it's like one gunfight here, one gunfight there, like
shadows and tangos in the window. That legitimately was a good push. And it started off as citizen
dying on the black bit that would have been the craziest pushing force of all of the players.
So they did it while weakening as well. I actually kind of liked it because it's so
unusual and so unexpected.
We're in the, if it works, it works, by the Pengus.
Yeah.
That's the rule.
You can't question it, if it works.
Oh.
Both shifters and G2 have shown us a little bit of that today.
And again, I mean, if I get double-harbridge ban against me, do I go for the same harbing
strats with candle burners like you said yourself, like you're a bit smaller in destruction,
a bit more limited in entry, or do I go for these pocket strats that are a bit more chaotic
and a bit more predictable?
And it's typically put up 4-1, and it hasn't been a story for G2, then.
When it's done here, they're like, oh my god, these guys are crazy, they're going for crazy
gun shots.
It just hasn't worked out yet.
I'm the Hibana again, by the way.
Ooh, is he gonna catch him on the retreat?
No.
Again, the hatches are open, so I will defend them again.
Blue is open.
Um...
Both Motu and Harajin Bar is open, so all they gotta break here is the kitchen hatch,
and then maybe dirt tunnel.
So only any Hibana again, completely fine, as long as Nate has hero chance of dying.
But there's always that 1%.
double open wall on charge as well which makes it much harder for Gaff on the hip
arm to try and aggressively breach open the bottom main stairs wall.
Those got jammer stairs so I think what they played at these last time
they did the bottom church wall open but there are two spare reinforces in
pocket and they have mid-jammer on the triple wall
oh they're he's dead! like I said there's one percent chance and the
kitchen edge cannot be opened they have no more heart destruction
so kitchen edge not gonna be able to... they can reinforce the church triple as well if they want to
Like, this is the issue with not bringing secondary level of beaching.
They cannot open the hatch until they know this.
So they can attack from walking down the blue staircase, walking down the main staircase,
and dropping blue and mortal hatch. That's it.
That's right, and even just noticing the way that Naive decided to enter kitchen,
even though he was still technically in the freezer.
It went too close.
It's much safer if you move the upside down rappel.
There is not a lot here going for shifters now in this round.
They're going to have to make something crazy work.
Robbie is the man trying to assist and make that happen with the Ying from Blue.
So, in the game of shifters this game,
Brute forced it, only option now.
They watched the hatch, they watched the hallways.
G2, they can sit back and watch their angles.
Shifters, they're going to break this hold.
Shiker watching the drop.
Dallas find the kill on the Franco trade from Citizen.
Numbers advantage from G2.
Quickly swips away as Deadshot finds his.
Citizen eventually traded back. Robbie is being gate kept here by this warden.
The perfect antidote to the ying that he has brought and don't you find one.
Robbie, frags for one. 22 seconds left. No diffuser, but he might be out to
isolate these ones. Needs to close the distance, close that gap. Palomal on the
other side with a shotgun. Robbie needs to try and bait out, find the first one.
Robbie surely not. Doesn't have time to get that diffuser. Needs to go for the kill.
Just hiding on the other side of the wall. Surely not. Oh my God. They peed again!
What?
Trubby through the smoke, Robbie. He's solid. With that,
it's a second round for shifters to finish off that half.
What a way to finish the half. I mean, Jaws are on the floor over here in the studio.
Shifters steal one away at the end. What was that? I was insane.
Oh, my dear. Oh, he's got a way to that crazy. You know what?
I didn't even think of a stomp into one smoke bank
Smoke bang on on control it. There was one like it's insane
Water 1v3. I'm not sure about the peak from lml here. I don't think he needs to do that
Oh, I think it was doki who popped the smoke as well
No, probably just we should was trying to escape trying to stay alive because that was absolutely crazy
I thought like he made the right play to you know, try and move
He's gonna get ran down pop the smoke try and get away in the smoke bang
Don't know blow my mind water play water play. I will say though. I think that shifter so far really come to
What I said that they might come to they didn't control the big moments from G2
Then they were gonna ultimately lose the game and I think so far
That's exactly what they've done
They've smoked and jumped in against the warden and jumped in the window against the warden 2k through something
That's the free turn around same thing in terms of round 2. They have players trapped in bar
Deadshot scans both of them trapped in bath and then what do they do? They don't
actually play as a team. Frick, Deadshot and Nafe all go at separate times and
then finally in round three again they allow Doki to just lurk in bar and then
round four again bang bang bang. Big moments from G2 keep coming out on a
very very individualistic basis and they keep getting punished.
That's their whole strengths of G2. There is a little bit of team playing there. Of
Of course, there is a lot of strategy in there, but most importantly, there is so much individual skill.
And so whenever you offer them these 1v1s, they're going to win them all the time.
And Doki, obviously, incredible player on those red stairs, was such a statement of just how well G2 was defending here,
especially when they were in a weak position.
Like you said, two guys stuck in bar, one guy stuck in red stairs, and despite all of it, they get multi-kills.
But the individual stats aren't just coming from Doki, right?
These big plays are coming from the man that we called out just before this game.
Shaco, where are you? Well, we found him. He's dropped what? Seven kills, eight kills through the first six rounds.
Absolutely amazing. Look at that difference in EPS, by the way, completely crazy, much better presence from Shaco.
And it's exactly what you mentioned, Jack, before, right? G2, they're not, like, they're not scared of Shaco underperforming.
They know of his quality. He's always been one of the most consistent fighters in the world.
So it's no surprise to see him just get back up only, what, a week after having dropped poor performance.
I feel like he's always sound on this map as well. He knows exactly the positions he plays. It's very comfortable in them.
Can I be an oil pit second? I can already tell you.
It's always the same places in Mishako. And I will say the band's very, very
generic, not generic, very formulaic for this map.
You've got the two hard breaches and the two hard breach deniers, of course.
That's very much the way it goes in terms of clubhouse.
You want to make hard breaches difficult as possible if you're on the defense,
and you want to make it as easy as possible if you're on the attack.
Banda and Kade getting rid of, does that? It only leaves them mute in theory, which is very easy to counter these days.
And therefore, for the attackers, they'll be able to get it open, but the breach sizes are going to be ever smaller or more difficult with only the Habana or the Tenovis.
I know surprise is at least on the operator band side of Clubhouse, but maybe shifters can pull off some more surprises like we just saw at the end of the half as we go into half number two.
I'm watching it back right now, I was going to say, every great clutch or majority of
great clutch in every game is a mixture of your point of making mistakes and then you
capitalizing upon that right. Robbie did everything right to his ability or what he could control.
T2 had Dogue, Stomping out White Swung, had Anaman out White Swung. That right can play out very
differently. Again, Robbie played it perfecting or perfection on his end. T2 could have had a little
bit more distance than the server. Thankfully they got hit by the halftime vibe check so you can
kind of mentally reset. Shifter's also lose a bit of that momentum if you will right and they're
going to defense now, things kind of ship around. So they won't be riding that high
too long I think it's much more even ground that D2 is still leading for too
the chifters they're not far behind
the rest of the German there as well on the CCTV wall prevents the Hibana from
where he am cause the tin can openers were still detonate but it does mean
that the breach is not complete. Doki would much rather be able to breach open
the little footholds to prevent anyone from being hit by the one-way angles because he loves these windows
He is a very good fragger, but he does peek a little bit too much sometimes and man of the hour for Schifter is robbing his shut down very early.
This is going to force some desperation here from Citizen and the rest of the squad. You can just feel it.
All the walls open, the angles are very far away. ACOG vs. HODL is going to struggle right now.
Look at this pressure, right? Heart destruction, all the walls opened up, window pressure, solid snake, demos.
most what can you do shifters they have to fight back because strategically this
run is already over but fighting back against his lineup of the attack it
also feels so unfair and so unwinnable and it's so well played here by Doki
outside CTTP breach he's not peeking right now he's not challenging he's
waiting for me to arrive then he peeks neighbor's waiting then he gets shut down
yeah and unfortunately for G2 it happens right before the grenade destroys that
new general which means that he went down a dead note does ex-chorus well great
nitro from frek alamow's on the floor picked up immediately by g2 but a low
HP black beard is a much less threatening foe for shifters 40 seconds I
think he's a little bit dicey they do rotate back to the bridge it's
benja it does find nafe even despite this breach not being ideal it's now all up
to citizen who will fall eventually to benja at the bridge good replacement
there from G2 although it did get a little dicey.
That's a side to right. Put a bit of reset there.
They get their revival onto the Blackbeard, I believe,
instead of connected, they get another player onto the main breach.
Again, Hadogi said live for two more seconds and waited for that swing.
It was going to be so good.
It's my bad for praising him and then cast the cursing, I suppose.
But he was playing it so well because they breeched it in the middle of the wall with the can opener.
And with that, he can just sit back past the angle.
And the only way he gets killed is if he swings or the defender jumps out the breach, which is very unlikely, right?
The moment he step forward though, Nate had the ankle, he gets shut down, right when the connector, people, they arrive.
Also the Excalibur's on the left and bottom right there on the panel, never got opened up, I guess the jammer was a problem or whatever else.
So, GT getting on the alleyway.
And then eventually the Nate got that jammer, but I actually really love the fake holes there from the Hibana.
Yeah, he has a vaultable hole in the middle and the three holes are either side, the defense is so locked out, like they cannot contest, they have to fall back, they have to play passively, which means there's about three or four corners in the bombsite, they're gonna be sitting in, and that's free, that's free swings there for the attack.
There's something about Benji Master playing Solid Snake on the highway windows as we call
them by the gym Master Fidgetmaul connector.
He always does it and he always gets a kill.
He stays straight back there.
Look, the round starts it.
He's straight back on the balcony.
He loves this position.
It's every single time I watch D2 on this map.
There's no real counterforges yet being found against him.
Again, a damper should help you a little bit.
Oh, there it is.
It's Robbie on the bed.
A wide swing.
peek gets him but he just threw it back and animal finds dead shot so it's back to even numbers
and you can see shift there is again so many angles being opened up there is less and less
playable positions by the bum slide and it gets worse because it isn't false as well they're just
peeking from the office hatches that was happening he's typing in game six chat he knows as it did
some you guys are terrible i mean i'm not sure how they both die to off his hatch they were what
And he's just sitting on the camera waiting for someone to peek him and then he's just gonna ADS them with the Blackbeard.
What?!
That is deadly, especially because with the Blackbeard, when he ADS's from the hatch, you're fighting an operator where most of what you can see is a shield that's protecting them.
So it's gonna be very much a favourite fight there for the Hellenau.
He's just starting their Trident Redition of getting in the heads of their opponents.
Another reset there on again right now they got one more line scan Sophia concussions
They got a shield for green beans they have students of getting information in safe manner
Green and vault forcing the road sit and now they know it's clear all that person's was it a back into his master bedroom
So they start peeling back the layers
Well Stompens join the frame now Nate tries to escape this run
But he knows he has to take a fight before he can escape great shot
Finally does indeed, takes Doki down, he's reading this pretty well and Robby's finished off Alamow, this is now rough
for the rest of the G2 players. Robby, who has been instrumental today to the success of Shifters, finds a 3K, could it be a full house
even with a shotgun for Stompin, I've seen him do that before. Now the bailiff back in his pocket, the 552 comes out, it's a 1v1
Against the man who's already clutched before, the Italian of Robbie stands on the receiving end as Stumpin wants him.
Out comes the Grim's Bs, but Robbie has closed the distance.
Stumpin is getting aggressive. He's swinging him constantly.
What a damage!
And Stumpin will find the kill.
The round is his.
And with that G2, match point is theirs.
Oh my god.
Respect to Robert for taking the fight to Stumpin, but it did have to superior positioning.
The Acre Scope and 9 bullets on that mattress is a hard fight to take, but Stumbin is what we all arguably call the king of the 1v1s.
He is so used to those kind of gunfights.
It started off so hot though, and Robbie and Naev, like, they put in some serious work in this round.
Look at all these individual kills. G2? So disjointed.
Stumbin was outside on the balcony holding a dead angle with three grim canisters in his pocket.
They didn't push with the lion's skin either.
So, it's again one of those moments where I gotta say, shifters played better in that round, but G2 ends up being the victor.
And this is one of those things that, you know, it pisses people off because why is a team that's playing better seed, not the one to win the round?
And that's the thing about strategy and death-throwing things, at the end of the day, it's an FPS.
You can do all the right things, reach the right wall, spend the right location, with the right manpower, with the right utility, but if they hit 5 end shots, you will lose regardless.
Oh, yeah, Alamo said it best in the old chat about 30 seconds ago while we were watching replays
I must have come under I saw Alamo said we can't keep getting away with this
Exactly right Stompin has a magical ability to get away with these 1v2's is 1v3's is 1v4
When he's got that grim especially, I mean every time I see the pain if yeah, I think about
We both thought the exact same thing we were jumping in the window.
1 vs 2 from AWC 25, I mean it's still one of the most incredible clutches I've ever seen.
To get two kills with the five shots in that bailiff is unbelievable.
He just bruised.
He's a believer.
We see the mirror window being used as a bit of a wall denier,
a bit of a shield, there's no impact tricking or C4 used here to deny the exkairos
by opening up the mirror window yourself.
Because this one of those rare rounds where had they actually tricked that with let's say the sacrifice one of the four C4s in pocket, right?
You take down what was that like cannot fall like yet 12 x Cairo pellets that have been massive in value
Leaving only six down pocket and two can openers
But these three forces where it can also do damage because there's a month in the poor fellow model of a doki
Fires come out and really a little bit of bread now one HP ease when this surely even it spreads
I mean, the problem is, he put the willmine magnet on the roof above him, which means as soon as the arrow gets caught, it's just gonna rain down fire from above.
A little bit of a funny moment there, shifters falling apart on the back of it.
Alomar snuck all the way into oil pit, finished off deadshot.
And now shifters really are looking for answers.
And again, it seems like Swinger be swung, G2 put up a masterclass of strategy and defense
with the problem solving, the layering, the C4s with the penalty and shifters, it's a
lot of just forcing kind of bad gunfights.
I mean, there are four C4s this round and very limited value found with it.
Not used for the wall denial, not for the Monty, but dying counter-graphers immediately
and G2, they bring enough heart destruction, they'll pop up on that wall, they still have
Monty with full HP, he can easily tank a full C4.
But G2, if they want to play this one smart and passive and safe, they can just force the plant down in the scenario.
Oh, great, Nade.
A lot of damage and the injured onto Nade.
Wow, that is going to be pretty much the nail in the coffin here for shifters.
Citizen preps his own C4, the Nade catches him out, forces him to move.
Out comes the C4, but guess who's down below?
Ginger makes it a 4v1, Neyf would love to be revived right now, I think Robbie's going
to lose his life in the midst of doing so, G2 lock in a dominant 7-2 and what would
say it to be the match of the day ends up being a very one-sided affair, G2 back in
action and stylish as ever.
I'm very good in the server and I got to say after a couple of long matches drag and
now I guess we're all due for a fast one.
So why not have the content team themselves make it that way?
Well played, GG, good luck in the next game, we'll be back after a quick break.
Crazy, come here and come on, bring it away to the bone
These minutes are near, couldn't be done
Take that shit out, get out of here
We want that action
Nice, nice, camera, kill
Give me that action, we want that action
Well, G2 handle business and the question we asked before this are shifters good enough.
Well, maybe we just found our answer.
We've got Doki standing by winning for G2 once again.
Doki, it's good to see you.
Congratulations on picking up a nice three points here after the win.
But this is my first time, you know, getting a chance to talk to you guys this stage and
looking, you know, coming in.
Oh, lucky you.
and see the numbers right started bad not not the two games you wanted on the first week
But now you guys have bounced back like what's been the difference these last three days that have
Resulted in kind of the old g2 coming to life again
Not much we played with our full team that was pretty important
And yeah, that'll do it
No, just a good game plan
Good understanding. We've been working a lot on communication
I think we're playing really
good right now. I'm very, very
happy and confident with them
with the way we're playing and
the effort that we're doing right
now is there. Hi, Jack.
Um, I agree with all of your
assessments, by the way. I think
I think you've actually played
fantastically over the last
couple of games. I do want to
ask you about one round in
particular, though, and I think
you might know what round it is.
I know it's not you on the top
of red stars. It's actually
going to be round six where you
are going to be playing
around six rounds. You're going
to be playing around six rounds
gonna be round six where you know what happened he came back and he
disobeyed daddy doki and and he told to be honest now he didn't he didn't really
troll like what actually happened was we both said let's just play time like he
can't win there's no time and then I think like all of my was actually in a
bad position and he died so I should have actually just played a bit with my
I played a bit scared, which isn't like me, but I am getting old, so yeah, that's why I'm there.
I mean, technically like 0.2 seconds left and you would have won, so it was like a close call.
I think, you know, I mean, I'm just trying to give them a chance.
We should have sent them out. That would have been too cool.
That would have gave us too much confidence going into the next game and we would lose.
So we had to give them a little leeway, you know where it is.
I didn't see them much of a chance on Red Stairs.
No, I didn't.
Oh, very, very nice.
But what...
Do any of you guys have glasses?
Sorry, I don't have any...
My webcam's on 5p right now.
I can't see anything.
Does any of you wear glasses right now?
No.
I can.
Look at that.
Just...
Okay, okay, so I'm just gonna...
I'm just man-to-man right now, right?
Specky to Specky.
Gonna talk to you right now.
Before my game today, you're not gonna believe this.
You're not gonna believe this shit.
These things broke my glasses.
Oh, I'll be on the inside of those.
I was playing the game like this and I couldn't see nothing.
I was feeling like it was terrible.
Absolutely terrible.
Apparently the camera guy from Blast said my monitor was tilted after the game.
No wonder it went negative.
The things that I have to deal with as a player, as a person.
No, no, Doki was on purpose to give them a chance. I think you said it before, right?
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
He broke the laptop.
Yeah, yeah, he did, yeah.
And then the monitor tilted.
And actually, my girlfriend broke the last pair. She sat on them.
So now I have, like, these are, like, old glasses, so I'm blind as it is, and they decided to break.
Beautiful.
Speaking of things that give shifters a chance, I saw you play Noor on that Basement defense,
And use only two of the gadgets obviously he better with that to be fair
I think it was used you brought it to countered hard rich right because I'm quite curious about the use of newer here no
No, not really to be honest. The shields were up. So, you know church execute with the shields pretty strong
I brought it mainly for that because they they banned out the as a me here played the as I mean the previous round in
Churching as I move gone. So I thought to myself hmm
No, it's pretty good. You know if they run at me with the blitz or something
They didn't they didn't so I was at control lost an end. Okay, that makes sense. All right, Doki
Thank you so much for your time and other big three points you guys now have a nine on the stage
Congrats, and we will well. We'll see you next week
Or maybe tomorrow see you guys
Maybe tomorrow
Well, Doki, thank you for your time G2
Making it happen again on Clubhouse this one as Doki said just giving shifters two rounds
Just giving them a chance so that it wasn't another back to back 7-0. They were playing well and shifter just could not match
I know that doki surprises as an interviews, but I
It's been years at this point and he still surprises us with the things he says, but yeah
I think dominant dominant performance for you to if we get back to the game
I think everything that doki said and he said it right at the right at the start of the season to me
I think play day one
We showed a quote saying that we're working on our communication
I would team play all of the hard things that we've maybe got wrong that we maybe relied on you know previously individual
of working on them to be a coherent team unit, and yeah, play they won probably five or whatever,
lost by their two against Palpin two, playing pretty well this hour, the minute.
Since then, they kicked on, their team players have got the individuals are shining,
like everything seems to be going really well for G2 now.
Especially on the set-axe, I think that's really where I really saw them shine.
The big difference between the G2 that we saw in the first week and this one, I think,
obviously, some great matches, some amazing moments individually,
but you're going to really see the individual's shiny defense.
when you're gonna see a team shine is the attack right and I think we saw that in their attacks
You know three conceded consecutive wins a really clean last round. Yeah, Doki leading the charge with the Monty
Hear that backstage as well like Doki as he said getting the boys in line kind of calming them down
We heard him be like listen to me. Listen to me. We're doing this next. Yeah keeping it organized
Yeah, it's a short call around alongside LMO
I think I think it really brings that experience and then obviously is a very communicative player
So redacted in the communication Ben just worked downstairs as well with the sledge like honestly everything worked well for G2
And I think it really again
I think stated the the fact there's a big gap between shifters and G2 and the question we asked
I think we have an answer to now
Which is are they good enough can they hang with the rest of the team and I guess no we're back again
We're back again Leo we fall into the trap the ceremony has started again of shifters
against the somewhat weaker opposition. They look really, really good. They get against the significantly good opposition. Yes, they did upset geeky, but that's looking more and more like an upset now because they lost it.
Swiss demands. They lost to get Falcons. Yeah, they got absolutely annihilated against G2. The performance arguments they've regressed from last week. And that's a worrying time because again, we feel like it's been years at this point where we play shifters.
So BDS colors that on the cost of say fifth can make an event if they have a good run
And we was hoping it level up and really start punching upwards not happen so far still VP to play against
In my opinion they're completely out of the top four race. Yeah, just don't see them go there
Unless other teams drop to big upsets
However, I think the playoffs are still very much in sight
But they will need a huge reaction and that's out tomorrow leading to the super week
I think it's really like fall up for play this left
It needs to be like reaction time now and they have to buck the trend right?
They are trending down slowly
Yeah, and then it's something that they're gonna have to get out of as soon as they can our next matchup
Maybe two teams that aren't trending down that are just kind of all over the place the definition of roller coaster teams
It's fanatic and rebels coming up next two teams that have had again some highs and some lows
It really has been all over the place fanatic had a big win against team secret
But just before that, they got
a lot of that game, they just looked absolutely clueless, they looked outclassed, they didn't look like they were in the south.
Yeah, and the question may be asked of the quality of the opponent, you know.
Radistically, beating Secret is not like beating Visuals Throw, and that's why you see the gap.
When you play it seemed as consistent and as strong as Visuals Throw, you're gonna get exposed in every single weakness or gap that you leave, right?
When you play against a Secret that is still building its own identity, that's still very much shaky.
And even that victory, I'm going to be honest, was not clean at all.
It was a 7-5, it was super close, it should have been maybe another time,
arguably to some of the people that were watching this match.
So I think that's nothing yesterday or last week's story.
They got that win, yeah, okay.
But at the same time, they didn't really reassure me
of a team that wasn't on an upwards trajectory.
And I felt that for Rebels, it's not necessarily the same story.
I felt like Rebels, they took on a big opponent, which was Falcons.
And yes, despite having a hard loss,
if you look at the way they played last week,
I would say it's a much, much better standard to be able to beat Falcons than to struggle to beat Secret.
And I think it was that one game on Cloudhouse where everything was coming alive on the side of Rebels.
The main players were all going crazy.
Marto especially had incredible rounds.
And Rebels had this very peculiar way of playing.
They were all super close to each other.
This one clutch from Alem's was really nice.
And I think it's the first time where we saw Alem's back into the roster switching from Coach to player.
And I think they're really changed the whole momentum of the team and I think yeah, they absolutely did they got the victory as you can see here
Going absolutely crazy on but I think just like fanatic red balls as well have that serious mountain consistency
Because what did they do the next day? Yeah, they follow it all not just to lose but they get seven zero nothing
That's what we're seeing out with both of these teams
They both have the ability to be anybody in this division anybody in this like they could beat them
But they both have that serious serious serious flaw. I've been able to get 70
It's really hard to get that taste out of your mouth of being 7-0ed
It's like you're gonna remember that for the rest of the stage and you're gonna try to avoid it that happened on
Bank and on border for both of these two teams something they're probably gonna want to avoid. Yes, it's gonna make some sense
Fortress is where we're gonna end up. Well speaking of 7-0s, I'm glad I've mentioned it because the last time that rebels played it
They got seven zeroed by G2 instead of stage one. So it's a map that I think they've took to where they've been fairly well
I don't think it was a map that came up with my expectations for the map beta
So I wonder whether they've prepped that I wonder whether they've been a little bit caught out
Can't really decide just yet because we've not seen it from them since they got some zeroed and also will be starting
a defense of history for rebels that is a I would say huge advantage on their side
Very surprised about the social prediction. Like I said, you look at last week. Yeah, I think barely be team secret rebels
They barely beat team Falcons in my opinion in terms of caliber right now rebels are still very much the favorite
Especially starting in defense on fortress if I was valuing my channel flies in the predictions
I don't know which way I'd go because I genuinely can't call this game with the highs and the lows of each team
There's so much. You don't know who you're gonna get on any given day
There's so much variability in the performance of these two teams that I think the result of this game is very very difficult
And this is gonna be another fooled in a all I think bad session here
we're gonna see obviously flores with the fortress with the way the defense plays out
It's a layered defense and then a really close-knit group on the core of the one side
So the way you bridge it is basically by using utility focused operators as you use shield
I think you use Ying and glass to go to add your execution and that's why you see so many glass bands on this map or
Ying bands as well
They remove the ace because ace is very strong in removing some of these crossfires
and the long-range hard bridge is especially strong on that map so if you see
really good outside bands to get rid of and then obviously we'll deny one step
is the the main one on Fortress.
All right well we need to see if maybe
Martau can pop off for Rebels are we gonna see Wizard come alive for Fanatic
these roller coaster teams hoping to reach the top of that track tonight it's
Fanatic and Rebels let's see it.
It's very hard to predict what's going to happen when these teams face in kickoff,
Rebels 1, in Stage 1.
I mean, it's just, it's back and forth.
You seem to think we might be going to OOT.
It feels like it's a bit of a close matchup, no?
It feels as opposed to go the distance, but at the same time, like you said, I really
don't know what to expect.
Also, you mentioned like Stage 1 Results, Stage 2 Results, etc.
Or kickoff in Stage 1.
at roster changes across both rosters technically and whatnot so it's a very
unknown landscape I mean Rebels pulled the good old minus a limbs plus a limbs
a couple of the ladies ago I don't know what that exactly was about but he's
back on the roster as a player as a coach and hopefully for the better you
had a little stint as a coster as well all right he was there for the French
audience yeah he's been human people around the block he's been doing the
Yeah, he's been doing the full playing, coaching and casting
in the exact same three-month period.
And I respect that, man.
But I think, of course, they did incredibly well
at EWC relative to where we thought they would do.
And disqualifying is almost insane.
I mean, for sure.
But then very much a few roster changes,
losing some of their best players.
Now they've brought in DJ and Dante,
which sounds like a cute little duo name.
And it's a nice chance to see some fresh talent into tier one.
But who knows what they're actually capable of when it comes to reaching the server.
The stage has not been ideal for them, the 7-2 loss, the 7-0 loss, the 7-4 loss, just
the one win so far.
Rebels have also copped the 7-0 loss, the 7-1 loss, so they're trying to find their
footing.
Just looking at that shot, have a think, and the mixed boost of the Smiths here on the
Monty, they can heal back some of this damage taken, the entry is decent, 1-4-1 trade so
far, but ass is still alive, finally shot down.
good trade there from DJ and with that the damage retained here by Fanaticus
by losing their shield player they've taken down two of the critical time
delaying operators here from Rebels in the smoke and Goyo so they have a
second shield Rebels do not have a ideal way of taking down this Monty if
anything the Blackbeard tends to be the more vulnerable of those two shields
might have one Grishmont from the Eller of Linko and one Nitro self-ampheno
but alone I don't think that's gonna be enough to take down the Monty so for now
I call to hold the cards. If you're ready to leave you can find the first month with the C4
that could be enough see if it goes out of line doesn't find anything smashes
tight steps it perfectly they're not watching the hallway despite Monty
to the perfect intel on the locations of two different defenders and the
players at the fourth store also doesn't go to the swing it's one step by Fenno
this is the last on the server. Yeah winnable though for Fenno as long as he can
Not the Shotgun. It's not the Shotgun.
The 1v1 don't get too close to that Monty.
Not when DJ is there to help on our Charlie.
It gets a little bit too close.
The DJ makes sure not to make a mistake.
Big round from the Monty there.
And Fennic look pretty solid by the end of the rounds.
Little bit touch and go there for a second,
but they recompose very nicely.
Just a small bit of miscommunication.
I mean Smith is walking down the horse holding.
looking at the defender Dante was pushing behind him was looking down the
hallway itself he looked through the bomb side door the exact same angle that
his teammate is watching from the breach on the other side so they're kind of
doubling down the angles meanwhile they they didn't have to play on a horse or
committed the push either because he knew he's been watched by a probably gonna
be a shotgun player so you look at here they're completely staggering the angles
and mistiming it and perhaps there's too many voices at the same time saying do
Do this, do that, do this, do that, but it won't be around me to regardless.
Smith's got all the extension with the Monty Shield started, ADSing and planning that bit
of pressure as a Shield Operator, and then the follow-up came later from DJ.
So not the best mid-game there for the boys in yellow, but a great end to it.
I'm sure to say orange.
The boys in orange.
Yeah, orange, definitely a bit more of an apt description.
Yeah, look, Smith's been a great addition.
It was just earlier this year when he got brought on board and Fnatic looked really
solid.
Since then he's received a lot of praise, very good shield player there for Fnatic.
I'm looking back at the Stage 1 player standings for EML.
And can you guess the two top raider players from Fnatic in Stage 1?
I'll give you a clue.
Top raider player from Fnatic was top 4 in the entire of EML.
Is he Mr Wizard?
No, it's Dead Shor.
Oh, it's that shot.
Yikes.
Was it citizen or he was also gone?
Yeah, okay. I thought he was going to be a wizard and citizen, but he was a citizen.
Because wizard popped off internationally like EWC, he was popping, no?
That's right.
Wizard was taking names at EWC.
Yeah, but in stage one he was actually only an eight seven rating zero point seven eight
Oh, 40 second out of fifty all ends. Funny enough was the lowest rated player in the entire stage one for all of you
down
Speaking of uh, this is for DJ
Wow
You know we speak about way bow the whole like you know
They finally made a roster change and they got Guardian and we spoke to Speakeasy and he said
When you need a player who just wouldn't die and would just like play passive caught-off angles
Fnatic for the longest time. They just wanted a good shield main instead of putting a non-shield player on the shields
That was kind of struggling
They wanted a shield main and then Smith was like my play shields and then he became a player
I can do that job and when you have a stable
I'm gonna say a meta defining player in the game
So we had to shoot better now for a good bit of time, right?
If you're not a shield team, you do not have a shield player
You will naturally struggle in the shield meta and we saw a world championship level teams like fury
I'm you know the former dose of emeralds to that version of them
I want to as I and all the majors in the full year the second the shield man arrived
Not that they disappeared, but they wouldn't win finals anymore and they started struggling a bit
It's very important that you have the most vital elements to the meta so getting smiths on to
Fnatic has been the biggest upgrade they could have gotten as a full team. Sure deadshot citizen,
the experience, the individual numbers, they were doing great work in stage one but all of that also
comes together with smiths bringing the shield.
I've been looting!
Deploying explosive orders.
Very much so. I mean, Smith's top three operators in the last three months.
Pengu, uh, Bullitts, Blackbeard and Monty.
There we go.
So he is very much in the game.
No two ways about it.
If you look back in the last half a year,
I'm looking at the stats specifically for Fedatic in the last 180 days.
80 days. Number one ready to play a deadshot. Number two ready to play a
citizen. Number three ready to play a wizard. Smith's stats are great but a lot of
planets, a lot of shield plays. He's even got a shield in his defense mains with the
clash being his second most played off brain which is crazy.
Areas on the blitz this time around of course all the three shields are up.
For that extra Monty and Blackbeard in the first round, here comes the Blitz for the second.
And really, you can see how much Rebels are leading into countering the shield play.
Two trap operators, two tick damage slash time delay operators, and the gnaw himself,
which is slated to be the ultimate shield counter, as we heard from Thokie before.
I mean, some players are interested in using it for that purpose.
Yeah, decent up, but by many people's opinion not strong enough nor that is.
This feels like a bit of a situational operator at times, I always have to say like even if
you have him and they have a shield you gotta fight each other on the server, be in the
right place, right time, right location, a lot of things have to be checked off before
nor kind of comes online.
So we'll see if Fennel can do that in this round, she's gonna be smith on the blitz,
one soul target and if not for the shield counter a bit of plant denial a bit of wall denial there
are other options available to you oh i say wall denial but uh there's a little heart breach in
the attacks probably not that for this guy he's really not a lot to deal with the weapon
cans to save from so i was gonna say like not only worried we're banning bandit kaid right but
we're not bringing a heart breach so what are we what are we doing right now guys yeah we'd like to
to see tin cans on DJ at least.
Yeah, or Deepak, yeah exactly, or Deepak.
And the odds are that someone was supposed to pick it,
maybe not, but either way,
I cannot wait to see what attack this will be turned into
because in terms of wind conditions
and possibilities of entrance, it's not many.
You have a window, you have a staircase,
and you have a drop from the construction tower.
You're also attacking into Goya, Ella,
with a twitch as well so
Challenge to get in and immediately the Grishmont mine enables a kill for Astor
DJ able to trade get active with the Candela's and the Shawnee from the Ying
but Dan was just around that corner
Wizards pumping up the staff we're gonna try and catch up with the two teammates that he has lost
There's a lens and Marto the last two standing and the lens about to be targeted by Deepak who is
finally joining the rest of his team upstairs.
Glein's looking to try and pat his thoughts.
The best of his ability is Mato sneaks up very close and Wizard continues farming.
Three kills for him in the round. Mato seems to let the plant go down.
Maybe he doesn't know Dante's forcing it.
He's going to be spotted and caught out in close range with a shotgun from DJ.
Very dominant there on the attack from Fnatic.
Very much so, despite all 10 reinforcements being spent there on the defense,
All the walls were actually opened up. The single walls was construction, the walls were outside a wall.
Nothing was closed. So I guess Harbridge doesn't matter. And also Whistler just hits everything in the shut in the hallway.
Certainly helps. But the more you know, the less you actually know. That's just how it goes.
But that was a very one-dimensional push where they just threw everything at you and they jumped in the window and they walked down the hallway. That was it.
I worked well and especially with that game, I really thought there might have been a way
for Rebels to lash out at the exact moment because we saw the AirJab come out to try
and lock those players inside pool and get games and we saw the Candela's, they were
very much a telegram push there from Fanatic but Rebels just didn't lash out at that moment
I think they needed a little bit of that fight back to prevent from simply being taken.
I'll tell you what, I think the lab is going to be tempted to stick this warden as much
as we possibly can now that the King has had such a substantial impact.
The blitz also been shown quite a few times.
With one more round left before we move into the final operator bands in the half, Van
Ek will show us for the final time what they're going to span before the final bands come
through and they can span whatever the hell they want without fear of it being banned.
That's the thing within the Operator Band system is the first three rounds kind of your tester very often
You kind of hide the real intentions like you said
We'll see if that's gonna be the case sometimes you also show your main strat in the beginning you get a couple rounds
And then you get a couple plant B. So
options and options
Think of an attic is
Because they've been bent away in terms of glass and the ace they will guarantee you'd have one of the three main shields open
No matter what they cannot bend them all away. We'll need a monster like the Orblitz and
And also options like your sort of snake or demos
I think that in shields is a waste. Yeah, I think so too
Hasn't been the game defining operators. They have been priced in not run defining
And they're playing in the war. So there is that
So now the rebels hold on to the Rome games. They'll play by in here. Check a holy weather is a motto
Osamu can just patch up any of the windows, rotations, follow on back and just keep stalling for time.
Meanwhile, Smith finally enters here by the games hallway.
We're going to walk in and go for that roam clear.
There are bits still in the timer.
One in thirty seconds.
Got to manually clear all these different corners.
But honestly, Smith is speedrunning.
He's making great pace right now.
There's the war.
There's a little war.
but now things are very much slowed down.
This is getting a little bit intense right now.
And I'm just getting swung, see forward, struggling.
And now the timer, we're gonna get some more.
The contortionist jumps in the hallway,
won't matter because spinners that have shut down the push.
Looking for a trade, the wiz will wind it.
Almost finds a second as well.
Can he double up?
Yes, he can.
Five and one for Wiz, the DPAC needs to assist him.
This is a winnable round for Fnatic
if they're able to conjure up another kill,
Especially as Aster is isolated from the rest of the squad.
Mato needs to be careful. He looks like he's tempted to go for a peek, but if he falls separately fanatic,
very much have a way to win this round.
Oh, it's a smoke. It won't matter.
Living just deep and was far away, watching the flank as opposed to this point in time.
Ten seconds, time is ticking, and they're not going to wait for you.
They're going to start swinging a little bit for intel. They want that final kill.
Catches him on the retreat, says Aster goes for the flank.
DPEC is gonna save the KD and with that rebels on the board round one for them
and with that it's time to hit the final operator bands here and see what do we
get rid of for fanatic honestly so much choice get rid of the smoke man get rid
of the Goyo just yeah yeah get aggro get rid of one of these traps maybe the
Ella smoke Goyo Mira in the form like you got a lot of options on both sides
Solid Snake demos a shield, a clash like...
The Solid Snake hasn't been picked once at this point.
Oh, they do go Monty Goyo.
Okay.
So, I mean, the Monty again, the thing about the current state of siege and so like, you
know, the meta game, right, just not discussing anything but like the strongest operators
on paper in theory, in almost every single map and match you probably want to ban Monty
Solid Snake.
Just because they bring every ridiculous amount of value without any real cost and they work
for every attack, get both the fast pushes, the slow pushes, etc, and they're so hard
to deal with, they have outright almost no counters.
On the defense, there's a lot more open with opens about their wall deniers, the van did,
the kaid, Mira can't join the conversation as a wall denier operator rather than a protecting
operator of certain areas.
Well my Asami is very big in the middle right now, Clash gets cheased, actually brought
out right now by a limbs.
So it feels a bit more like you wanna ban defenders reactively based on any each playstyle,
your strength and weaknesses, and all of you are going to make the same case with the attack.
But there is never a scenario where Benny's not a snake and Monty's a bad idea, or at
least the enemy literally will not pay them.
But I think every team will be confident with their players' operators right now.
We're very in-meta.
Yeah, that's why I'm surprised to not see any solid tanks so far.
Yeah.
Phenallic.
I am as well.
It would have been so deadly to just have one player who's ready to go for a learn, get back row, and take a lot of gunfights in the late round to backstab, take free space.
Solar Snake is also one of the best counters to this pulse below type of cheese that we're seeing from Barto at the moment.
I think that Fnatic are going to have to be careful, make sure they have a proper solution for the clash here, because if they just try and go for a direct push,
If you tried to push, a lens could very much shut it down.
So often when against a clash, you know, you just gotta figure out what the gap is.
Not push into it, but around it.
It's a red ping. We see the clash.
Back in the bathroom.
Could escort his teammate, but will not do so.
Link takes a one tap there on the shoulder.
Will stay alive.
But all these crossing up the hallways is quite risky.
And because I know what the clash is, Miss has full freedom to check us holy control and
he's now staring at the bomb side door.
Oh, lot of damage on the lingo as well from Wizard outside the breach.
Why about being picked on a single window?
Fnatic is so close.
Miss?
Now that they found that pick on Tomato, who I believe was trying to flank a little bit
too early, separated from the rest of his team, Fnatic can quickly duck back and forth,
a push on this side. Rotate it back to the other side. Now that the clash is distracted,
the Lems are still holding this position. I don't think Smith is going to want to push here while
the clash remains. When you put down that shield which is a second, there's a fierce nearby. Boom,
you can pop the shield immediately, but that instant destruction, and Lems blinded, but cannot
really be pushed right now, so you can tank the flashbang and the smoke. You got the shield you
want still. You're going to breach the wall in front of the clash while you're getting sapped.
I mean, it works? Oh wow.
Indeed it does, and now the breach is opened up. However, Wizard has fallen, so he'll be much harder to kill that clash. Now is the field gone.
A Lems, while he has lost his shield, he is safely protected with those...
Well, my magnet, Smith has found an opening, though, with his pistol. It's manageable.
And now the Blitz is so tempted to just push inside, go for a plant, still one smoke remains, as a Lems retakes his shield position, picks it straight back up again.
Now that might be a round opening play here for Rebels.
Didn't we have this multi-pop first, so it looks the wrong way.
It's missing a couple of points. There is a C4, the flinkle.
Rotating over, it's ripped, it's passed.
It's gonna get popped. Shot me there, actually!
Oh, it will go down! By a Kimar!
A saving moment there for D-BEC now.
3v3 post-plan. It's not looking good though.
So Smith feels the need to take a risk and get his pistol out.
A lens decides to rotate over here.
Shield back up, but it's too late. The damage has been done against smiths. It's still winnable
Especially with lingo going big and like that rebels complete the retake fanatic have let this week's lip
And now rebels have gone toe-to-toe with them. I mean such a puzzling round is actually smiths on the blitz getting three pistol kills
He's the entry. He's the planter. He's doing it all. Yes D pick heroic safety or shooting C4 midair with a DMR gets the plant down
but the post
We didn't really see what happened because we're following a limb from the clash that was mostly ineffective fighting a sole player
But I'm very curious how Smith managed to die with the Blitz mind you you can play in the bombsite hallway
See the diffuser from outside the building on that window and just swing off the door contact
But they must have taken the fight to lingo who won 2v1 either way
That should never happen for an athletic the moment the diffuser gets planted that should be a
They are extremely high chance of winning the round, not Link won 1 HP by the way, taking
down both Smiths and Deepak, but then again, they too won 1 HP and we see the player actually
happening right here, yeah Deepak is thinking it's my bad, he swung off no contact.
So ideally there, you want Smith to stand, crouch behind the bunker as he was, and then
when Smith gets into a fight, then Deepak can swing, because if Deepak holds the angle
first he gets pre-fight off the angle, smashes now one HP in a really awkward
position. Love the fact that we see the player can then deep pick saying that was
my bad, that was my bad and taking that individual responsibility that takes away
a lot of pressure from everyone else and if anyone felt frustrations about it it
was aired immediately. So there could be no like resentment being pulled up
by these rounds. It speaks to a good mental for a team and the exact
kind of leadership that we expect from veteran by deep end.
and look two more rounds here in the half. It's early days. You can...
You've already found two attacks. Yeah, it's not too bad. A minimum is done for the half.
Yeah. You find one more. That's solid. You find two more. That's a huge win.
And this is probably going to end up snowballing for the rest of the game.
So Fnatic are in a happy position now. They don't have to overthink it too much.
But there's something that excites me about this round, Pengu, and it's that we see Mato.
Mato! The Scopos. Mato and the Scopos. It's just iconic at this point.
Ever since the first game I ever casted him he managed to get was it a 1v5?
the against Falcons on the basement of overtime match point on
Cafe yeah, he's down and imagine
Baked into my brain that clutch on the scope of it's actually
The most prolific scope was player I've seen like he's the guy who just brute forces it even when you're like dude
why are you still playing this?
And I doubted him before and I will never doubt him again after that moment, so I'm tantalized.
I'm very keen. I want to see what he's cooking up.
If you get so much freedom with the scubble's operator, the ability to overstay your welcome in
the room, fall back anyway, if you survive a back-gun fight, it, you know, replace the shell
back on full HP. And I would say the gun is also pretty damn good. Speaking of good,
Good, the Twitch turn right now.
Free side control right now, but not finding too much value actually.
Because there's only really like three gadgets to find.
Grismoats, Fenrir mines, and new jammers.
And all those throwable traps are so hot and fine,
they could be anywhere in the ceiling, the floor, the walls.
Meanwhile Link was swinging south on the horse door,
he could shut down the dungeon, watching the angle.
They're finally playing that solid snake.
Helping them get the information required for this round victory.
I also have a good idea of the hatch,
But that's Mark to watch stairs, looking straight back at them.
It's very strong.
What a season of power, it's got buffed like that.
I mean, hashtag nice go-block.
It's actually just switched over, so his second one is actually on the bomb side waiting room.
Yeah, he still has his other shell off-site up stairs if he wants to go for a flank in the late round for now.
fanatic reaching into furnace with the thermite three players on the attacking
side on the verge of executing into the bomb side but of course furnace is not a
plantable position you have to go deeper than that where's it will fall
Feno finds a double and suddenly fanatic are in trouble indeed Mato comes to life
with the scopus finally and DPEC is the man who was hoping that this would be an
easy plan is now the one with everything ahead of him to do and Marto of course has just teleported
straight back upstairs and gone for his flank rebels take what was in the end a very dominant
defense round and with that they take the lead. I have a small fear about this game
tuned to a very defender sided force not go live the other way that these things are playing
out. It's a little bit lackluster on the attacks, small things not happening, small mistakes
are happening. We'll have to see though after the side swap come the next round. But that
theory is creeping into me that I worry about the attack inside for both of these two teams.
One last round in the half. Fanatic, you promised us so much with those first two rounds. Only dropped
four kills in the first two rounds. Big 3k from DJ, big 3k from Wizard. We even threw a 3k on the
Blitz with the pistol. Now Smith just a couple of rounds ago as well and the plant was down
and yet now they're looking like this is going to be perhaps as you said a very
defender sided fortress. Rebels have found their mojo back which is lovely, love to see that
particularly when it's Marto doing it with the Scouples, but Fnatic, I had high hopes
after those first two rounds.
He's missed once again on the Blitz, he's tried a couple of different shields, it seems
like the Blitz is his favourite, and as we go back to command office bar through him,
I have to wonder, Fnatic is just going to do the same thing that we see from them, most
of these rounds which is going for a map control take, because it seems to be stalling out,
Rebels have finally got a read on them.
You know, I haven't seen much Capcom lately.
I feel like there's the occasional game for a Capcom, but I guess it could be from a game of Capcom.
I'll call it right now. Financy going...
It's exactly the kind of game where Capcom gets brought out and then wins it on the last point.
Yeah. I think that I just got one Capcom round in them when they get to the side, so we'll see.
For now, we're just going to see the other red icon operator in the denari from Fenno
to limit where the blitz can push from and just earn speaking like take it down these
corridors and hallways.
Quite tricky to deal with those denari lasers unless you've got a good tritstone which is
swimming through the building, jumping the laser, clears the first one, back into safety,
easy does it, and when only a mutant on the board, well, the candle burners, they do not
care, they will open up regardless, so why play a thermite that gets stopped when the
Can opener does not
Can open is the fight quickly and a zap reach and a reinforcement to cut off the rotate hold that was in bathroom
So rebels looking to try and lock up created a little bit of a fortification on the bombsite
Move up and reach that open with their tin can opener and now they have done so
Then I force back further. I like that we have pressure from outside. Yeah, destroy that cave of barrier big fan
Horst or pressure and everything else like it's all the right things but meanwhile rebels are making up their own strategy
I was gonna say link a ball for flint there would be pretty good. Oh
But the poor job player instead they got a good read go in punches the door
It gets a freebie and then it would swing off the door contact the exact same time as well
So even if they go to fall on a gunfight, there will be a trade now, so we're trying to go for a plant instead
go can they get it done there's no denial that comes before it was it told
me angle indeed you're right there's no plant denial aside from the guns and
rebel and he's like however many times like he's found a trick what what am I
watching right now lingo is single-handedly won the round for rebels
fanatic desperately rely on deep egg in the box to mark so it's gonna shut him
down around that single-handedly is won by one man and it's lingo four and a
a row for Rebels, it's a Defenders game here on Fortress.
Corner row for Rebels and four rounds that Fnatic want to forget as quick as they can.
Two squandered post-plant opportunities, it really was a mess.
Squandered.
I knew he wouldn't know.
I knew he wouldn't know.
Squandered.
But when you have any hands and then you just, you squander it, you just lose it, it's learning
your words thing.
Yay!
You know what I think we've seen a few times this stage fanatic ultimately a big moment
Just seems to rock them in games and then the momentum absolute slides that big moment came in round four round four
They got the plant down and they were in a perfect position
They were in a fall versus two it was looking good Smiths was absolutely monstrous that round gets a free K on the shield and gets the
Plank down and then they lose it
I think you take over Pete's a little bit just allowed his teammates to die as you can see link over he takes it
And once again it happens again, again in round 6.
Well Linko gets the opening kill, Plank's going down great, actually Cole from Fnatic.
But then everyone forgets what the fuck, absolutely everybody.
What's crazy is the lack of friction from DJ, so you have one teammate that just died on meeting door.
Your shield in front of you just died from the dorm's rotate, and despite all of this, you're still prone watching the corridor.
It's like the nerves are really hitting them in the late round, and despite going through all of the right steps,
I would arguably say I would say half of the round is on right getting the initial control
Clearing half of the map getting set in a position where they can plant or eventually when they do plant
But then after this setting up in a situation where you can actually have a crossfire actually trade
That seems to go out the window and that is in my opinion
100% you to the lack of experience on a set of NADIC players like Dante player like DJ and the rest of them just
not trusting each other, the lack of chemistry, and exactly what I said, the lack of experience.
We didn't hear that comes there, but presumably you would expect an experienced player like,
I don't want to do it, I am going to do it, I don't want to do it. If there's a life like,
if that's a citizen or a dead shot, there's the entry death, they make a reaction call,
okay there's one off site, let's power site, we can get the plant down, somebody needs the fall
site and it has to be the player that's died ultimately, because everyone else is holding
something. Remember your flanks, remember your flanks, remember your flanks. It has to be frustrating
because right now it sounds like fnatic rhymes with hectic, but the reality is like they do most of the
first steps the right way. They could be
finishing most of them, you know, and they just don't and that's the frustrating part.
The more things change, the more they're saying the same. I know, I've been saying the same stuff.
Shifters be in the lower teams and struggling to be at the top teams. Fnatic winning rounds,
but then clutching defeat out of the draws victory. I feel like we're back in 2020.
And you mentioned that inexperienced thing, right? Like the longer the game goes,
the more rebels are able to make adjustments and tweak things, the more fanatic are going to be left
in the dust. They have to be careful here. I mean, anything that these bands can do that will shake
things up at all. I would say more of the side than the bands. I think Solid Snake and Acer are
two great bands. It's going to leave a lot of utility on the side of rebels to exploit,
thinking of the glass, thinking of the shields, thinking of ying for these late-round executions.
Let's see if that's enough for them to have better executions than a set of fanatic.
I expect this to be a defend decided thought, Joseph and Matt Leans somewhat defend decided
both of these teams are going to be so much more confident on their defense
and by that I mean weaker therefore on their attacks. However, Fnatic are currently also facing
the additional pressure of scoreboard pressure right now and the fact that in their heads
they should be fought to up but they've blown two post-bonds. And the momentum has to be a thing.
Four rounds in a row that they have lost now they need to find a way on their defensive half
to get that momentum back.
Indeed they do. Very much...
Flipping the momentum after that second round. Rebels now hold it squarely on their side.
Four in a row, looking for more, but now on the attacking side.
And guess what, Penguin? They've gone for the double shield.
Oh yeah.
And Blitz, they've got the sense and the thought just that they're trying to cook something very specific here.
My question...
What is going to happen when they start running into the three top lines from LL?
All the tripwires from DPEC, Canary, and all the smoke babes.
That's why Lig was playing FATUR. He just boom boom boom and peaced everything.
They run in, nothing stops them, they win the round effortlessly.
It's that simple. I watched this. Very impressed.
Okay, here comes out the first grenade.
Figures out the barbed wire.
A lambs with the roly-poly's can cause a bit of distraction as well.
the blitz up the main staircase talks a bit going out they did not impiate this
could be trouble this could be big trouble for the blitz big big big trouble
wait he took one tick of damage he just straight out of there
the lenses died where the humans sort of backs up looks like it was a horse push
and the last gas goes out and it takes quite a lot of damage from it but still
He still finds the kill on a teamhack regardless, with the first attack, bit of damage on a smith, be careful smith, do not turn your back to a blitz, you never know what might happen.
Now, should it be for a reason here, right? You can just keep going up with the aggression.
No, he gets punished, Feno injured, Mato down.
Astralinko in a 2v4, maybe Feno's achievable? Doesn't get confirmed, so yes, maybe you will be achievable later on.
And he keeps swinging.
Miss does get down indeed and finished off by lingo doubling up
Then I will be able to be revived here now your very low HP blitz for the rest of this round. Look at wizard
He's going for a play. He'd be crazy
Well, this could be everything for him. He still finds the kill what DJ comes in from behind for a 3k
wizard helps him out and
Yeah, another rounds that is just unbelievably difficult to predict
It's pure undiluted chaos, but the defense clutch it. This time it's the side of Fanatic.
It's all over the place. It felt like there was just no stop button for the attack there of Rebels,
so just go, go, go, go, go. They never took the main hallway control. They never looked towards
horse. They didn't get to use the smoke when there's a cutoff of hallway either for vision,
so there's just Fanatic walking forward, instantly getting injured, and then just chaos and falls
around them. Fnatic do a bit of over swinging. It goes punish but DG and Wizard, they cluster
up in that 2v3 break time in there swinging together. Wizard calls for distraction, DG
going for the swing and locked down the final kill. One more round they stay. It's been a while.
So it's been a hard fall battle. All type of clean drinks four runs since they last felt a taste
a victory at the end of one but yeah this is just one of those really messy games a lot of flanks
a lot of full advantages a few over swings here and there it's because this is a high
high bpm game right you've got your heart pumping in these rounds and sometimes these kind of crazy
games where people are pushing in the first minute and it's just attempted refrag attempted refrag
playing aggro, it just gets away from you. Very hard to play perfect siege in an environment like this.
Just waiting to watch in here for the first point of entry for Rapples. We're going to do the drone work first.
That's the thing about playing the twitch. Ideally you just kind of take the first like 30, 40 seconds
and you take a little bit less map control than you normally would because you're kind of playing 4v5.
Twitch is just scouting for the gadget tree on the staircases by the bomb site and once that's done,
then Fender, one of the Twitch heroes, will fully be enabled and then you can go back to doing your usual run clearing.
Having a demo still does speed up that process, attract the thorns, see where they are downstairs by laundry.
Might be stalking laundry, actually. I mean, if he gets help from Mato, they might be on for a freebie.
The issue is, I don't think anyone is close enough nearby, as we'll hear the call though.
I want to the outside door.
The issue is, Danze just crossed the hallway, so Thorne will get out alive.
Will not be stuck inside the laundry.
Yeah, I know. Cut off there from Assa, unfortunately.
So, Fnatic will manage to get their rumor out alive.
And next up, it's Danze being targeted again.
I don't think Marto is in a position to actually follow up on that at all.
It's Rebels slowing down a little bit.
I don't know if the plan is to go for vertical kills here from Marto if he was just chasing
coasts.
I'm not sure either.
I mean, limited verticality on the side to be fair, especially on lockdown these hallways
first because those do not have soft floor beneath them.
So if you get trapped, you go in there, you're completely safe.
Mato is not gaining a lot of value, I mean he has two frag grenades in Pog that might
be nice to have by the bomb side for a bit of pressure.
Or perhaps Mato becomes the late round backstabber on that tower staircase, who knows.
But there's 50 seconds to go for repols.
They have five attacks alive, they're not far from the site, but we're baiting on this
keep it better.
We're trying to go for a pixel kill, and there are bigger things that we should be doing.
There are more important tasks at hand that are not happening.
The template is alive in the server but no one's really making a move.
Fnatic know that they don't need two rebels.
Finally start to get going but Frito who spent the entire round droning jumps straight into a window to his demise.
I mean, and now with the left on the floor, Mato is locked out of being able to try and help him thanks to Smith who's finally burned the last of his gas.
Sitting here waiting with the shotgun 20 seconds to go.
It's just far too late for Rebels to be looking to try and take this basic map control that should be step one.
Instead they decide to go deep, they look for a chance to try and go onto the bomb site directly, but it doesn't work.
So the last one standing is Mato, still at the bottom of these stairs, still has barely moved forward and elends.
I guess his KD will be saved, but it's a bit of a nothing round for Rebels and Fnatic.
We'll tie the scoreboard, just two rounds into their defense.
It's a worrying sign though, I mean I didn't really see the bigger picture at the beginning
of that attack around and then we got to the middle state of that round thinking we are
just like genuinely AFK.
When you have an attacker outside the building looking through a tiny gap in a pick in a
slimy barricade hoping to get a free kill in a 5v5 at 50 seconds I mean that means there's
no plan either you're working towards because you should be in there with the Grimm launcher
Getting intel, taking the space, throwing the bomb site, working the exterior breach, anything.
And nothing really happens.
I mean, with two people backstabbed at the tower side, miles off and below,
and them stropping down the balcony, that got shot down immediately by a single smoke grenade,
or toxic paper, rather.
On the front side, that was never a push to begin with.
So I want to see a bit more decisiveness here from Rebels.
If they're struggling, I mean, hop on a shield, the Monty is open,
I can give that bit of pushing power, drone information, heart reaching, whatever.
Give your chance to go for a plant as well.
I'll give them this round, then they got a reason for the next quarter, so to speak, the next half of the half.
And then they got to change up their playstyle, once you see all these more sides.
Yeah, this is a lack of confidence, a lack of direction.
Unfortunately, it just makes for some very bad viewing, I'll be honest, like it means
it's very hard to watch Rebels because they just look so disorganized and disjointed because
they aren't having the confidence to actually execute any one game you find, and it's hard.
Attacking this map is hard, and Rebels, you ban Al-Qaeda, you ban them, that leaves everything
else open.
Mira is there, there's a million traps, you know, a clash if you don't know what to go
for which Smith has been wanting to do before. So Rebels have a lot of problem solving to do.
Step one seems to be focusing up on this round clear.
Marto may well be walking straight into a crossfire.
The simplest way to make these attacks to sing is to get that opening pick, make it 5v4.
You have to heavily increase your chance of winning a round.
Finding that first kill, well, you gotta get in the building somehow,
or be watching when Fnatic go for an aggressive swing,
which Dante is here by the music window, but there's a double-up. If Marto walks in the main door
here, he'll be found to his left and to his right hand side, and we'll be good with bait and switch,
but his air-jab and flashbang will actually eliminate the right hand side pressure,
meaning Marto could just walk on in right now. DJ can come to ladder, and you will, he'll gather
there, but look at timer. Fnatic have wasted half the round by one player hiding in lobby,
which now climbs a ladder for free, nobody watching it.
Yeah, and it really does feel like rebels are chasing ghosts,
trying to clear out Dante, who's very hard to drone on out and still in Hamam,
also supported by Smith, dramatic continuing to roam,
unimpeded by the attempted roam clear for rebels, which has been very slow,
almost two minutes gone, and not a lot to show for it.
still so much control, DJ upstairs as well, ready for a flank at any moment.
Fnatic have so much map control, Rebels do not have, they do not have any of the power positions of the bombsite cleared out,
and they don't have any clear utility to look for and execute.
Exactly, there's no ying, there's no blast capital, there isn't even a grim in this round.
They have three four-stones in pocket that has not been used.
not been used. Two soft pages here from Sophia. Not gone used either. 30 seconds. They've
breezed the furnace wall. They gotta walk in, but like I said, they're against the
word. They're against the side. They're against the C4s and you cannot plant inside a furnace.
You gotta go deeper.
Nitro goes out, doesn't land, but again, that is still not a plantable position, even in
furnace. Smith goes down here. The pick's coming through though for Rebels as Fnatic
finally find the first with their own and the second. Oh, one HP. A lot of damage. Wow,
Boss G really punches Alems, but as we're in front of all they have to do is cover now as Alems has crossed to a plant for a position deeper
From furnace actually into kitchen itself and now DJ is in a 1v3
He didn't have the info early enough to deny that plant and as soon as rebels found that gap
They managed to find a safe plant position. They had the numbers
Fanatic had nothing to do about it rebels taking the lead once again finally
Breaking this streak and waiting around on the attacking side. It is impossible to predict who's gonna win these rounds
I feel like there's such a clear line like 90 to 10 percent in favor of team and it's like it just it goes to 10 percent route
So often right now between these two matches between these two teams are in this match
Like if the boss G did five more damage to planter would have died in the middle of nowhere
with a super long angle exposed to a Bosch G with 7 seconds left. Had they not double flanked
it from the exact same angle of solace individual, they would have two people, actually no three
people cross fire by the side, no way Rebels are planned. Had they saved the C4 for a few
more seconds, that's before the Niza plant there as well. There are so many small ways in which
a team can win or lose, and it is just the most unpredictable outcome almost every single time.
Like that surely was the most fanatic round ever, but it's by for the rebels
Yeah, you feel like rebels were kind of waiting
For their moment to go for the plan until they had some kind of advantage and fanatic knew the rebels at breach of the furnace wall
And we're thinking okay. Well, what happens next they're probably gonna run in
Well, maybe I could get a kill with a C4
Maybe I could get a kill by going for a flank and I think fanatic perhaps lacked a little bit of patience in that moment
If they actually just wait an extra few seconds and Rebels have to make the first move,
Fnatic can use those flanks and those three throws reactively, rather than giving Rebels a chance to punish them
and then take the numbers advantage, because that's the only reason that Rebels managed to actually get into the bomb site for a plan,
was because they had numbers advantage.
Now, 5-4 is the same.
point up for grabs in this round for Rebels if they win this round then they guarantee at least
one point on the standings that only have a single win so far in this stage. Oddly enough it was a
regulation winning against Falcons. I don't know what to say about that. One of the best teams in
the league loses to one of the lowest level teams in the league. I mean Nive at the moment in EML
his rubbles. They are not far ahead of them. They also only have one regulation with three
regulation losses. This C4 could be gnarly. If Thurman isn't careful, you might just guide to it.
Droning at first is very smart, but it doesn't make you see. It gets shot. It gets shot, so you
didn't see the C4, but the thing is they thought he might have taken a move from the double play,
not fallen back, play the layers as I like to say, reinforce the wall, and give up the maps piece
are free. There is a deployable shield immediately that was left behind and an open mirror window
already on this wall as well so there will be instantaneous pressure from Rebels to compete
on through, but it works both ways. It means that reaching that wall using a Thermite charge
might prove difficult if not near impossible given the fact that it gets C4 and impact grenades,
so plenty of the opportunity. If they can fight the door, the small angle they were not debated in
and now they broke the wall so Thermite can't breach off the soft destruction. He has to not
get right in the face of that mirror window and try and go for a breach. Maybe if Astro with Monsi
can walk up, kind of block the angle he can plant or breach right behind him, but again it's tricky,
it's risky and time is of the essence. It's gonna go for it. Oh no support, okay. Does crouch and
yeah no support but also no aggression from Fnatic. The wall is now breached and Rebels do
have a way onto the bomb site plus they have the monitor they need to force the
issue worried about a flank it's a good read here from Marto there's also made
quite a bit of noise DJ doesn't hear it
Edge ad goes down after the kill as well
Fnatic are running out of options. They are. 35. They're gonna like back to that
potentialers right there Fnatic finds one, gets shot down and traded back to
the numbers. Yeah good trade three smokes on the bomb site Fnatic are doing a good
job of holding back this push but a lens is found the gap on horse traded back by
smith who is the singular player holding on that bombsite to try and prevent
this push in wizard now joins him but the smokes will certainly assist. Oh my
god. His motto has to come around from behind. They both line up for him. He finds the first one
a pre-fight doesn't find the second smiths now. I think it's the Monty but
And Asta finds kill number 11 and Rebels steal the round regardless match point finally is
in their grasp.
So cold puts the shield on his back, walks through with the pistol forcing the fight.
You can see the defense there, just not knowing where the attack is happening from because
it's a bit of lack of logic if you're on the server.
I mean, DJ going for another flank, you know, the same flank that's been shot down so many
times by rebels. They themselves, Linku, had a nasty flank playing Ella on the last run
of their own defense. They know how valuable those clanks could be. That's why they doubled
down with the drone, with the air jab, with the nomad gun, all watching it, knowing that
if the flank happens, we will lose. And I mean, there were still 40 seconds left in the
round when they did try to go for a flank. You kind of want to flank the attackers or,
you know, about to go for the plan. They're about to go for the execute. Because even
Even if you then die to a guy watching you, that means there's one less gun on the front
line.
That means that you're actually in even numbers despite losing a defender.
You have a small gap of maybe 5 or 10 seconds where you can actually fight back very realistically
by flanking at 40 seconds left in the round before they start going for execute.
Well, you can get the kill of the guy flanking, walk back towards your teammates and now it's
5v4 and it starts falling apart.
And then we saw, you know, there's this smoke getting caught off guard, they walk in so
So, the master bedroom courtyard door, and the false apartment very quickly, fennacti'd
now.
Another round on the list that the archivist should have done better in.
Yeah, and this gets scary here for fennatic, and I talked about how both of these teams
have the same number of points on the standings.
They're also in a very important position, fifth and sixth place.
Now, these are the outside, or rather the inside looking out spots in terms of qualifying
for playoffs, right?
You've got teams like Shifters, Twisted Minds, just on the verge of sneaking up in.
Oh wait, I'm sorry, I was confused, I was looking at the stage one.
Let me double check.
Yeah, that's right.
8 and 9, they're on the outside looking in, that's what I thought.
So they just have the one regulation win so far, so both teams on 3 points,
also team Secret are on 3 points.
And whoever wins this, they temporarily shoot up into a playoff contending spot.
But for Fnatic, the only win that they have is against Team Secret, who are really struggling this stage.
I mean, at the moment, it's Team Secret Fnatic Rebels and Heretics who are looking to be our bottom four.
Rebels already have a win over Falcons.
That's one of the top teams, which means that they don't have to worry so much about that.
They would get a win over Fnatic here. They set themselves up very well and it could be very possible that they stay in the play-offs.
Let's see if they can do it. Half or two rounds of spamming Adelaide's, applying their pressure, the panic.
Fnatic though not reacting too much, it's very good for them, but their weakness there is the backstab.
The Blitztom's a team kill. Oh no, it falls apart!
Double kill for Linko, but traded back. One of those kills unfortunately was against his teammate.
Now, Mato and Alems try and pick up the pieces, but Fnatic have the numbers and they can sit back and wait.
Good air-jatter from Alems doesn't have any flashbacks to try and make this entry happen, however, they walk straight into that.
Crossfire, DPEC, covers the angle. Mato 1v3 has the defuser, but doesn't have much else to work with.
Neesa try and hope that he can isolate the 1v1 on the DPEC but smartly the Dutchman refuses to peek for now
Until he's got a teammate to cross fire with but Marto now crosses past that line of sight
This fanatic looked at the lay ultrapassive Marto must walk through the fire
Before he gets a battle with Wizard who will take him down fanatic have a lifeline now one last chance
To push this to overtime
That's what I mean, the pressure is that it's the very highest risk assessment, right?
It changes.
When it's 0-0, you take every swing, you take every race, you make every play on the server,
something that a player like Wisterd has been so good at in recent time.
But in this point, when it's all or nothing, to go into OT, guarantee at least a point,
maybe go for more or lose the game in regulation, do you go for that same play?
Do you take the same risk?
we gotta look out for for the side of Fnatic and maybe even the 12 for Rebels
because you need to still be that playmaker and Smith will do one of the
best things one of the most disgusting things at the same time he will bring out
the clash on the 5-6 scoreline he will try and stop the pushes gain
information and bring a bit of cheese to the defense I don't see much up from
Fnatic because where this clash goes will be so hard to deal with and if they're
gonna play the clash I do not want to see anybody DJ flanking in this late round
because when you got the clash there is one less gun available you get the
information you can still put down yes but if they rush you really quickly
you're gonna want those guns inside and just utilize this operator that you have
Rebels know this they bring arguably four soft counters nomad, capitals,
Sophia and Flores four different ways to deal with dealing damage or destroying
shield off clash so while smith is trying to basically cheese the round he's got to be very careful
what happened there? Did he take someone's health? I think uh the dish either he shot it or they
shot it from the window I'm not entirely certain what occurred there you can't shoot that you know
you can't shoot it from the side no I understand all the gas can sounds like it off you uh I don't
I don't know, I guess he shot it.
I don't know, it's weird.
A little bit of damage, hopefully won't matter too much, but it depends.
Who he comes up against could be dead to two bullets from most of these ARs.
I'll take that, little magnet.
Time for Rebels to hop to it, on for this roam clear.
If they wish to do in this round, start with that roam clear.
As the high breach will rattle on off the C4 will not find a kill nor deny the high breach
Really quite a lot of investment there from fanatic to plays for it as much of a roam as possible
DJ still looking to try and hold up with that TCSG and
Smith supporting on the clash DJ is just being directly over the clash. Marto sees it for a brief moment
As the Goyo is popped, Fnatic can now slowly peel on back.
Yeah, you see it. Gluify on the exterior door, Clash sticks around.
If Clash falls back, there's no Gluicanus there on the door that he's standing in currently
that can get popped. You reinforce on the fallback. You spawn into 20 seconds time and time again
and he has to be careful here. If Smith gets caught off guard, it's gonna be a lot of value
going down with him.
Yeah, that's the concern here. I think there is a way here to target Smith, but that explosion
doesn't really achieve very much. Another explosion goes out. Don't do anything at all.
I'm a thick and fierce thwitch. They just run him down to kill this clash. They're just
trying to harass him. They wash him back into the fire and it works out. A lens gets the
killing blow onto Smith and the clash has been completely dismantled thanks to the capital.
It's worth it though. You find a couple of kills, find one more, two to three moji for Fnatic, one more kill away.
Oh, Rebels. Not like this, Rebels. Not like this.
You were cooking so close, you had such a moment.
But Fnatic dig deep, it's overtime on the cards, and Rebels now have to be sweating.
I said to James, before the game went live, before we entered the lobby, you and I were discussing, and I said I had a feeling
I feel like this one is going to OT, but it's been, as I said, in the most unpredictable
way because you think one team is going to run around, but the other one takes it.
And with that, I thought, I guess Vibos is winning regulation, but no, Fnatic, you keep
that momentum.
It looked bad for a second there for Smith, but they found kills elsewhere, they shot
down the backstabs, the pushes, and they spent so much of the utility dealing with that
clash.
Twitch shown to try and consist of the gory canisters, they spent both camps of fires,
a lot of them were fearing utility, and they were stalking a single hallway cause they've
always been forced behind the clash, so they didn't gain much with that.
Venetian was there, defense, and it was an attack.
I'm a little confused.
I don't think the other players died.
So, we had two people, two of you, on the clash, and then suddenly they were only two
left to lock.
So one guy dropped in tower, backstabbing from the lobby portion next to Deepak here.
I think there's a four or so whatever so he died and then right before a clash went down another attacker was actually the opening
Peking around so it was like two dead at that point clashed and dies 4v3
And then we see the last attacker that I wasn't attacking the class is two visas to this is for and then we saw the final
kills play out. It's
I'm not sure exactly. I want to see rebels doing too much and not nothing that round
There's a bit of hard to put because I feel the pacing from our perspective
But obviously if the class is taking two attackers attention at bonds of utility
And there's no real push in the other side then there was a very successful clash
Which is why we'll play it again. He's up against double shields like again
This could be unspeakable amount of value for Smith in this round if he finds himself in the right location at the right time
and you add to that dick damage from Goyo and smoke and there will be people on who, by the way, has found a kill.
How do you find an opening pick headshot onto Mato from there?
That's Mato, ADS, and perhaps when he shouldn't have Dante finding a very critical kill in this round,
he still has two Razor Blimp traps in pocket as well, plus as a Nitro on Wizard there's so much lethal,
Fourthly out of here to battle the one remaining shield.
Rebels trying desperately to take these verphys to bring some kind of damage back, but Asta is taking a hell of a lot of damage and now Alem's nitrode.
Fnatic are well and truly in control. Peno is right next to this Goyo as well. He's so in precarious spot.
That fire goes down and he has to retreat. He wants to instead go deep, but he's going deep into a clash.
plush. They have no cans of fire, a single air jam on Nomad. So against Miss, he can
just control the hull, he can control the breeze, deny the plant, you take over steps
there but look at this, it's float on the thorn trap, it pushes, trouble for Fenno.
Has to put the shield away.
Yeah, he's surely in an irredeemable spot now, trapped in the corner and the ability to retake
the hull right here for Fnatic and a great pre-fire from Dante. He's got it around and
Poor Feno is going to be the final victim of Fnatic.
Another great round to find, not only the retake into OT,
but a third in a row to make it match point now for Fnatic.
I mean, the thing is, you just want to finish this on the attacking side if you're a Fnatic player.
You know, prove that you can do it, that you're the better team in that sense,
not crush the clash of defensive show, like Guardian Angels, so to speak, you're fail safe.
I really want that for them, but at the same time, who doesn't love a 7-7, everything comes
down to the final round, but rebels, they gotta be tilted.
I mean, the way this is flipped upside down, so many close moments, you know, one gunfight
changing everything, a C4, time running out, mentally speaking, thank god they've unleashed
back in the server because they need that veteransity, that experience of how to keep
be so controlled in these sorts of games because it has not been an easy battle
but they've at least guaranteed one point regardless of what happens this
round. Attackers have located a bomb. I mean look it was only 10 rounds in that Rebels
found match point and it was 6-4 up now Fnatic have brought it back 3 in a row
all of which on Fnatic's defense Rebels finally get back in that defensive hot
seat where they won 4 in a row in the first half it's been a long time since
Fnatic have all the momentum on their side, Smith back on the Blitz a last minute change,
the solo tank given over to the 15 kill wizard, F2 in his hands, F2 as well for Dante.
Get the good guns.
Fnatic, they've got so much here as well, the Ying Blitz combos.
I think critically, the twitch as well, peel away at the thorn traps, the Grishmoot mines,
and the tripwires from the Denarii.
So much good trap, you tilt, rebels are brought to try and stop this blitzing.
Just pave the way for Smith, honestly.
Then make the first move, cause a bit of distraction, get whistled into a decent gunfight.
There's 15 kills and 8 deaths right now.
They need him in the opening duel, they need him to be the playmaker in terms of defining
those couple of kills.
And down to you, we had a bit of a weak start on defense, really gotten after it.
He's not even 8-8.
So it really feels like any player could step up to this round.
On the flip side, Ningu was huge.
That's under here, Spain-Diela, and he's back on it.
Feno, small bit of damage taken.
Here goes a bit of action.
Smith shows his presence on the game store, and we see those red situates there,
and they're running back towards the bombs that they did not want to play muting.
They don't want to play lockers. They are out of there.
And that is that sort of overtime risk assessment difference right? No one can afford to die early by overstaying their welcome
So instead they will sprint back towards the bomb site surrender everything for free. So now for tactics
They'll just run up or beat the walls maybe one small issue here
They spent the last bit of heart destruction on the wall leading to meeting not the bathroom wall towards the bomb site
That was the last kennel winner in a pocket of de-back.
That means that they've actually gotten that stat of map of control,
but because they can't breach this triple wall to bathroom, they gain nothing with it.
They should have already saved that kennel winner, gone into the room,
based the wall to the bomb site, and then you can enable wizard.
Now he stopped fighting in just the hallway, and as I said, the kennel winner gives them nothing.
Yeah, it does mean that they have to go to the hold of the bush.
He has no mage.
Yeah, he's run out of veins. He needs to pick one up off a dead body. Yo, and he's in kills this time
Feno why is he going deep here? This is risky
Dante imagine if you just open oh my god
This is terrible for fanatic rebels back into it immediately
Fanatic desperate now. It's just wizard and Smith but Feno is going for a big flank all the way back around from the other side
It's wizard who has to get 20 kills to try and finish this game right here, but it's not happening rebels
March all the way to round number 15. It's a defender's fortress today
Nobody can find any solace whatsoever on the attacking side and that includes fanatic. We're going the distance
I mean if we just rewind the clock there back 60 seconds, right?
If D-pad goes into meeting and breaches the bathroom wall at any angle left middle right up down
I don't care. There's any angle you can see the player in bathroom
That's holding the horse door denying smiths the push with the blitz and that changes everything
But the one not being opened up is like you spend half the round get into a point on the map
Then you cannot do anything with now and then as we saw there was a deployable shield in the hallway with no protection
But there's no grenades the only person with a grenade was the solid snake
That's one and he already spent it
The only way to get more utility is a solid snake is when anyone dies in the server
You drop a statue a small pouch on the ground
You can walk on top of it and get a nade a flashbang a smoke one of anything almost
But nobody was dead. It was a 5v5 so you can't go looking for it and
Again as a tiny detail that kind of alters the entire outcome
We're back with financial defense and they will actually not crush the clash.
It's misses on the thorn instead.
They gotta play a downstairs bombsite.
It's gonna be about the roam, gonna be a bit about the verticality, gonna be about
a lot of map presence.
Yeah.
They actually don't have to play the downstairs bombsite.
No, they don't.
They don't have to.
They kind of have chosen to go downstairs, which by the way, they lost when they played
this bombsite.
They actually want dorms upstairs.
Twice.
I don't understand what the players from Fnatic
they've gone to the only bomb site to defend
that they have a 0% win rate on in this game.
And my only kind of assumption here is
they're looking at the clock and going,
Rebels are so slow.
If we start the roam game upstairs,
just fake it a bit, rush back towards the bomb site,
look at the defending lineup.
Goyle, Smoke, Thorn and Warden.
They want to lock down the status self in the last 40 seconds of the round and make the timer the biggest way to win.
And then DJs with a Roman spirit can drop a hatch and go for a flank, a soloist can take some gunfights.
That's the theory when I look at this, but we're also fighting in Hammam right now.
They gotta play that first layer and you see the goya fire that's going to be put there on the external breach.
You stick around for as long as possible.
Ideally you pop the goya before running away, but either way,
Good bit of time to nail, there's gluars at all these different doors.
Yeah, I mean clearing Hamam when there's...
...Roma's actively defending it is so challenging here.
I don't like rebels chances.
They're losing a lot of drones as well, and so...
...if the overlay is right, there's only like one drone left here for rebels, and while they do have the Daemons, there's no solid snake.
It's been banned out by Fanatic.
No shield.
Dante finds the first kill. I'm telling you, Pengu, there is no way that they're gonna be successful here on the Hamamura clear.
Now, DJ's been lashed by Magistrate take one with him before he goes down.
3v4 and Rebels, even when they take an inch, it's one step forward and two steps back.
And they got a spare GUI, kind of saying, Pogger of Dante. Put that on the Bumps up, my friend.
Deep Big, three toxic babes, C4 from Warden, and Timer is ticking. They're still droning.
And I just saw another good canister in the hallway here of mid bay as well that can stall for 20 seconds
Rebels in the same position as last time you attack this bomb side on the map
But they have less numbers less util and it's now do or die with the last 40 seconds to go this time
You see for this a lot of damage
Yeah, but it's a little bit too late my not matter though because I feel like this game is over
I feel like it's another story of the defenders win out good
with discipline.
And Feno, in a crossfire at Smiths at a Wizard,
no, they don't need to pee.
Feno's just trying to bait him into it.
Out comes the bearing nine.
Can not do all the both fights at once.
As the coming in from the other side,
but it is a lost cause.
This game has gone all the way.
Rebels had so many chances to win it out,
but in overtime, it's only Fnatic
that will steal this game.
It came all the way back to a 15th round,
the defence will scan 12, Fortress lives up to the name and Fnatic take two points away from their match today.
here and there as well. What we do know is that defense won the day.
Yeah, absolutely. And I feel like we're really reaching a spot where two teams that are struggling a little bit, but are also on the very same level,
are going to make it very narrow and very close to each other. Maybe sometimes this, I would say, against themselves,
by throwing over rounds that they shouldn't. But at the same time, honestly, proving the resilience on the set of Natic,
I think as much as we criticized them for the lack of experience the amount of rounds that they lost when they were attacking
In general, I felt like they were more in control of most of these rounds than Rebels when they were attacking
Yeah, and I felt like eventually they could have maybe even closed this in a regulation
But again, is that not what we say about Tnatic every single matchday?
Yeah, well, we'll get into a little bit more right now
We do have our interview ready Dante is standing by after the victory for fanatic Dante
congrats on picking up a nice two points here and the win over some EML rivals.
Talk to me about what made the difference today in a close game like this 8-7.
It really could go either way. What made you the better team tonight?
Hello, how you doing? Well, we felt some rounds were like closer than it should have,
like some differences maybe. In attacks we kind of choked like one or two rounds,
So it was kind of hard then, like we were in 4v2 after like the first half, so then we had to go to the 6-3 I think situation
and it was like really hard to just come back, you know, we had to go to overtime and we knew but like we always had like the control of the runs, you know?
Like maybe like an up and death kind of like made the difference because we had some gaps and we can cover them.
like the kitchen round in defense, we should have won it, and we didn't.
And, yeah, those kind of rounds are the ones that kind of make it difficult.
But we felt like we were really good in some moments, like also in the attacks,
I couldn't play that well, so it kind of felt like that thing was missing for me, too, on the map, you know?
Sorry, I'm on my phone.
And yeah, that's it. I felt like we were feeling pretty well,
And we were there individually, and we were always talking with each other and playing as a team.
Dante, obviously you've come over to Europe, you're playing in the EML.
For the viewers at home who might not necessarily know your story,
how did it happen that you ended up joining this fanatic roster?
Well, it was actually, I don't know, my team from tier 2 in Brazil was just ending
because everyone was going to tier 1 teams and I was just right there without the contract
and the fanatic guys just talked to me, they wanted to import people from Brazil and I
was a free agent so they talked to me, I played some trials with 200 ping, it was kind of hard
to match but yeah we didn't have that much time to scream and whatever but they liked
me, they was kind of like in a rush situation you know but yeah now I'm here and I'm enjoying
my time I've been screaming and like trying to do the best that I can.
And about your journey there obviously Dante and I felt the same.
I screamed on 200 things from Flatic when I was in France and they were in Asia and
I think basically also we relocated the whole new continent, how has it been for you relocating
to a new country probably where you don't know anyone just playing you know from a really
remote location that's completely different from where you're from, how does it feel for
you?
Well, it feels nice, you know, like I don't do that much, like I just barely go out, like
I just focus on the game, it's been kind of like the same, I've been here with the Smiths
with my teammate, he welcomed me here in Romania, and it's been like pretty well, like I've
been eating, just buying some stuff and going to the gym, and that's it actually, like nothing
else in the season, just focus on the game.
Well done dude, glad to hear that you're doing well and congrats to you and the team for getting up two points tonight
And we look forward to seeing you guys down the road, all right?
Yeah, can I say one more thing go for it?
Yeah, well, thank you for the fans that are watching us my friends and my ex-teammates and
People that I know from Brazil like I really appreciate everyone who's supporting us
We're trying to do the best that we can we didn't have that much time to scream
So we really have to improve in a lot of things, but we are doing the best we can just to let you know and
Team up today played really well. I felt like it was even a better game than the last one
But it was a lot more a lot closer to so we are gonna just keep improving kids creaming and
Let's hope that tomorrow we have another win and for the rest of the stage we can do a pretty well
So we can go to play us. That's amazing to hear. Thank you so much. Don't have a good night, man
Thank you, goodnight.
Really good answers from him, some insight into his life, but also like how this team
feels about their progress and what's going forward.
They know they have their work cut out for them, that it's not an easy road, they haven't
had a ton of time together, a ton of practice, but they're making it work and they pieced
together.
Yes, it was a challenging game, but it was a win, an 8-7 win that they should be proud
of.
Yeah, the important thing is that they get away with the points against direct rivals
for the next four playoffs, because realistically they're not expected to be beating some of
of the teams in the top four, where they can really thrive,
trying to beat the middle of the ground teams.
And I would say Rebels are one of these teams.
I would say Rebels have consistently defied the odds
and made it into a playoffs when no one expected them to.
So, fourth netted to take more points against them
is a very strong showing.
I think it was much closer than it should have been.
I think Dante was very lucid in his answers there.
Yes, they could have closed a lot more attack rounds
than they should have.
And I think in general, this roster shows more promises
and it looks like the reality is, how can they more consistently close some of these late rounds,
leading more of the basic fundamental freeze goals, for example,
to make sure that they all align on the same thing?
Yeah, I think so. I think both teams in their half hearts, if they look at it,
there's so many mistakes, there's so many things to fix.
If nothing got over the line, like I said, I think they could have done it in regulation,
they should have done it in regulation.
I don't think they'll be particularly pleased with that performance when they go and look back
and they go on the board and all that stuff, which they will do. But at the end of the day, for a team that was in play,
a team that did qualify to WC, and all the expectations around that, the fact they got two points, I think, is massive for them in their charge,
because I think if Fnatic are going to make playoffs, they're going to need one of the teams that we expect to be there to have a real battle on the phone.
That could be shifted based on current trajectory. They need to be picking up points to be really threatening them, and they did that.
Yeah, well our last game of the day will hopefully bring us some of that similar excitement this one a
Grudge match nothing like a grudge match to end an eml playday after being kicked off of geek a earlier this year
Hungry has come back for revenge with team secret at the helm of this team now
And he has not been shy about how he felt about this situation
He said things went in a completely different direction from I than I expected from my point of view
I do not believe that making this many changes was needed.
He's been wearing his heart on his sleeve throughout this entire process, Leo.
And while, yes, it's good to hear from him, it's also scary now,
seeing him go up against his former team, what's going to happen?
Absolutely. I think it's a very important statement.
To be fair, this was just an extract from a really long tweet
that he busted after being kicked after kickoff.
And obviously, I think the main takeaway from him was like,
he stayed in the end, he accepted the decision, didn't really have a choice.
But still and and you know went back to tier two and grinded his way back to deserve a shot at tier one at
30 years old and only one other player in the league has done that in at times
And I think that doing that at that age and coming back as the ideal and leading the team
Yeah, that's good that you're gonna be playing against and if you look at the statistics actually and the roles that he plays
He's also doing it on the worst role possible because obviously
the clash in defense. Monty in attack. That feels kind of cast. The guy doesn't even have
a gun. He's a pacifist. Okay. And so follow for him to do all of that. IGL them and never
giving up on his dream. You've got to praise the residents there. Yeah, I think so. I think,
you know, he keeps going back time and time again. I think he's got a very creative way
of the game that he wants to be playing. I think Secret of Love is kind of hit and miss
if I'm being honest. I think some of the rounds they've looked pretty good. I think some of
They've looked pretty poor don't know that's from greenies are yelling or the information that's getting to him
But it does kind of remind me of a team that's just brand-new together with you know free new players once again
Which seems to be the same old story for secret right secret continuously finding themselves in this position
Can they find a map that gives them a little more comfort against the team at the top of the table layer is the answer guys?
Is layer that map no?
Secret are on a sixth loss streak on this map. It's a map they've really really really really
really struggled on in recent times Jonah.
And Geekay are the three win streak on the map.
So obviously we are at pull our opposites. Doesn't sound or looks like exactly the right move
but at the same time when you look at Geekay the best performing team at EWC from EML
And then, Secret having had to rebuild, obviously the map pool is not going to be the same.
Just looking at the facts here, obviously Hungry felt like the change was not needed for the organization.
Factually, it was the right move. They were the best people.
They got better and better.
They went top 4 of EWC, have performed amazingly ever since then.
Obviously now is the time to call them to prove it.
And as we were talking about a grudge match, let's not forget that Grubby used to play for Team Secret,
also was dropped, also had to go on a really dark path.
Through tier 2, into Fnatic, into tier 1, back to tier 2, all the way to Griny's spot, back to GK now,
at the helm of the team, at the IGL.
Obviously, I would call it a grudge match, not basically between the players, probably between players and organizations.
Anything on the bands, Jack, before we dive in?
I mean, I think, they've run away the Cate.
I would say from a secret point of view, the Kade and the Wamai, I think Kade on his own as a Sanderlone is a strong band.
We've actually seen that a couple of times tonight. The Kade only, no bandit.
And I think the reason being is if, for example, a Mavericks or if, for example, Sophia Day must have won.
There's plenty of ways that you can deal with a bandit because a bandit has to actively be tricking,
compared to a Kade who can obviously throw it out, which means you get ways of actually not just getting the wall open but potentially getting a five versus four.
So we might start to see teams gravitate towards K plus one of our being as I'm your one
All right
Well three and one geek a one and three secret a grudge match on both sides for our final match of the night guys
Oh, thank you very much
You know
Oh, is it another she up coming? Well last time he's doing his team's battle
It was on stage in Paris in the quarterfinals of the esports World Cup and that one
was perhaps not as close as a lot of people had hoped it was a 2-0 GK kind of wiped the floor with Team Secret
especially on labs but the first map they played was actually Lair and GK did win that 7-5
so with the 6 game win streak for GK on this map and the 4 game loss streak for Secret on Lair
it's hard to have a lot of faith that Secret are gonna be out of hold of candle to GK in their current form
watching those cameras man that's so annoying. Whenever a round first begins
and you're in defense, hop on the default cams, have a little flick through, see if
you hear any sound cues, I see any players in the building, share that with your
teammates and the lurking from beneath can be shut down immediately. So there
from Noah trying to just creep in the building, got spotted, goes straight back
out the building, goes for a different avenue. They're biased in 20 seconds on the
clock, it's not too bad. Hungry, called the passing fish there by the desk will be
and Monty, big surprise, whoa!
And we'll once again just lead the way forward,
take a map space with the most unkillable shield
in the game.
And GK are happy to just let him have the map control,
that I'll shoot that mirror window open,
so that it makes the High Bridge game
a little bit more difficult.
Especially with that ace ban as well,
you're looking more at Croxon's Hibana,
try and breach open this wall.
Oh, we're just making sure there's nothing cheeky waiting for them their tracks or anything of the sort impact
I'll watch for a cell however won and
What's better than rid moving the hard breach how about removing the hard breach of himself and that's goodbye to Croxton
That was yawks. He's boy. I got from out of nowhere. It looked like but hey, okay. I'm a huge pick for him
I mean, if Drills can find the kill to Sophia downstairs, or even back to numbers, he got
Cabot Town for the mix later on, like all of a sudden it's very winnable, but it does
rely on the Monty to give that yellow ping information, or don't, oh he was right in
the money, there he goes, big booms, the third one gets the kill, back to even numbers 4v4,
I know that this is clear, the Honkryo Bites is walking and trying to go for a plan right
off the rip maybe, once they stabilize, but never mind, Toxic base will toss in his direction,
Now the mission is to simply survive.
Oh my god.
And he's surviving!
The mission for Hungary, he's very aggressive.
Back it up, back it up.
He's gonna find a safe spot where he's not gonna be choked out by the gas,
but for moments he's taken quite a bit of damage.
Askers also managed to retake behind the fire.
He himself will be caught out by the fire from Noa.
This has been a great round from Team Secret.
Noa doing what he does best,
between big kills, Grumpy will trade him on back.
It sucks and Grubby now looking to try a clean take.
Be the damage, but no kill onto Hungary.
and the Monty will confirm the plan.
Trills finishes what Nell was started in Team Secret, finds the first round.
I don't know if you can hear me when I was clapping right there.
I love it when we get to watch a phenomenal Monty player.
And that right there is the Monty masterclass, okay?
Hungry doesn't stop for anything.
The second into the building, he never let go of the W key,
takes off, clears the hallway, calls the hot destruction, realizes,
what if I just walk on in?
They dig out the C4, doesn't have a C4, gets the information that the
Yogg is going by the desk verbally so gets to fear the kill then he walks on him
Then he plays it very smart
He walks in the back side of the room to force out the first toxic base right then he walks forward to beat up the second and the third
By the time that happens if he walks all the way back again the first toxic babe is expired
So he creates a space that is safe by forcing the location where the smoke has to go and in which order and then the plan is free
They literally had two attackers
On the door to the side and Monty planting and they couldn't be stopped and the character fire
Chef's Kiff. Chef's Kiff. Chef's Kiff. It did so much damage to two separate defenders.
That was huge. Disgusting. I really loved that. Very well played from Team Secret and look,
they really need a win. Stage one was rock bottom with the secret. Last place only a single win
win and 8 losses. The only win they got was a single game against Twisted Minds. So they
probably do have a win under their belt against Team Heretic, so that's nothing to brag about
for them at the current state. They're Team Heretic, so I think secret. We're coming into
today, after a round like that, thinking hang on a second guys, this is winnable. Time to
get our revenge against GK for what happened in Paris.
to a bit of a switch up now, pocket strats, we're all from the Noah, the bits from the
hungry, they're nuked from the drills and they're inside the bombsite, looking for more, this
one is a little harder though.
Uh oh, yeah, that was a bit of an aggro rush and unfortunately for hungry, straight into
the fire and into the gas, secret now stalled out after losing their main shield and one
of the main entries as well in NOAA. Completely stalled out, Yogg chases down drills and now
it's really just about fading for killers for Croxton and Crete. H.Jab comes out. I
might actually be able to confirm the kill and deal with him. That's embarrassing, poor
Croxton. Couldn't finish off what he started against Ask and now Crete, just doing his
best to find an exit frag or two. Prevent this from being a flawless round.
Um, awkward situation, bombs that rush into Goryeo,
Inor, and the smoke, no kills found.
Half the round to go for Greed's here, trying to get an exit frag to Stapap the KD a little bit.
And so far, Sars is happy to apply it and try and fight back on the shield together with Yogg's ability behind him,
and nobody is hitting a single bullet!
Pfft, nobody!
There you go, Yogg is injured, you crawl away surely?
Don't feed in the KD for free.
Oh, I get out! Oh, he's floating!
Ah!
Couldn't save it.
Bro was breakdancing on the table there.
Come on, Saks. Finish him off.
Finish him.
Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
At what point do we say this is winnable?
Ha ha ha.
It's not quite winnable, I mean,
I think in this one of those rounds where
you don't get to the outside information,
you make the call to rush out
knowing exactly what you're up against
and you kind of hope that it's clear.
And we saw at worst case scenario the Blitz is fully countered by as you said the fire and the toxic babes
No counter play available. You're just in a box and you're not gonna have a good time. This one here though
Yeah, good night Croxton despite the airtime hitting he thought he injured him and then went for the reflake for the confirmation to get
completely breakdanced on
I don't like that though, you can rush off of prep.
If you don't want to drone or don't have time to, whatever it is, you don't drone.
Just see if they have traps or if they have a counterfeiter rush set up.
You can basically just call your rush based on prep, knowing how they like to hold that.
Of course, for GK, they've already played this map once against Rebels in their first
playday here at VML Stage 2. It was a 7-1. Not to mention the fact that, as I said, these
teams played each other on this map in Paris just about a month and a little bit ago. So,
GK will have studied that game plenty. Sorry, Secret will have studied that game plenty.
Because there's so many ex-Secret players on GK, Secret is so confusing.
No, it really is. Take my head for a spin as well. A lot of story, a lot of, you know,
I'm gonna say grotches, but you know there are players that were kick players that left and there's been a history there
But also, you know, I'm cooking up a thing about how this is, you know a rematch from
You know, the secret is a very different cooking team to the team secret. What do you mean? No one's still there?
Should we get a hashtag free Noah just for the sake of saying it, you know
I mean no one's still there was actually one of the things I didn't have at my peak
We'll see you see you can return just not with no oh no, I still there okay
Impressive how long one player can stick
It's even deep in panic actually right like one play can go through some different roster changes
Obviously deep bag in finesse it was like bottom team mid team bottom team and they made a lot of changes
But Noah went from going to a second final before that winning EWC final to then building a new team in a bunch of rookies
Up and commerce hug your who's like a returning player that was on the bench for a bit
Yeah, three new teammates
New chat book new callouts new way of thinking about the game new IGLs new synergies
I guess such a world when to deal it as a player and he's done that
He's still here and it's hungry now. It's you know that captain ship. I think in the server. It's always him
we're looking at. Very vocal player, once utilized the first push in with the shield
has the respect to work and that's the fourth, that's behind him though. Perfect C4 tossed
up by Uper. Yeah, very good from Uper. The revive should
come through here and Hungary's back up on his feet but very low HP and almost gets finished
off by that second nitrope. Nala tries to assist but look at that HP on these three
team secret players, frills on for a backstab but there's a good crossfire here and server
asks supporting you poor on the mirror window which is by the way still intact as well
this is giving up very hard attack for team secret without any good till to clearly dispatch
of these mirror windows and i can't help it feel like they'll probably see it banned after this next
round cranes jump straight into a window and dies and ask is still holding his crossfire this whole
time finally ask is traded but it means nothing as gk easily finish up the round lap up the final
few kills team secret struggling to attacks in a row now. Yeah and maybe a
little bit too much of a focus on just a single point of pressure I mean I
understand that the line of thinking there right attack the mirror window
dispatch of the player in the hallway you got the boots you got the smokes it's
the warden it is the one guy that can stop you perfectly without any real
counterplay and she just did a nasty headshot so we see hungry Chargoth for a
play. He eats the C4, gets injured, revives that with 20 health and they can never make a play after
that. But it's also kind of too late because you're too deeply committed now to flip the attack on
the other side of the building. Then they would just have nothing to work with. So small things.
But yeah, you're right. Attack took a timeout being called in from Team Secret. And honestly,
I think it's good. Switch it up early before it's too late. Get ahead of the problem. Talk about
what people want to change around. Because mind you, with the new voices and the old voices,
It's a matter of choosing a style for Team Secret, because they are a very new team
that are at the very divided Shred Book right now, divided play styles.
And they've just lost the Monty as well through that operator band phase.
Getting rid of the mirror is going to be really helpful. Mirror band out is going to make hard
breach a lot easier, because those open mirror windows have been making it much harder to breach
the walls, but also the mirror window in that round, two mirror windows were making it very
hard to clear top four so that's nice help but they're not going to be able to use Hungry
on the Monty anymore if they want him to be on a shield he's going to have to pivot over
to Blitz or the Blackbeard or even the Fuse and that's a very different case, a very different
use case, a very different way that you have to play around it, a very different way that
Hungry will have to play that shield.
You got one free round off of the Monty pick but aside from that it's not really paid
a lot of dividends for Team Secret.
This is one of the only downsides of being a phenomenal shield player is that it's probably
going to get banned away a good 85% of the time, maybe more, maybe less.
And you need to be really good at another really strong operator to kind of utilize
that banning against you.
And it used to be back in the day for Hungary.
He was one of the best multiplayer in the world, and he probably was the best yin player
in the world at the same time.
And with the old operator system, you would get one attack, attack or operator band rather.
So he would just never ban either of those two operators.
And the enemy could choose if he would play the Monty or play the Yng.
Because if you had banned one, he would play the other.
In the current format though, I mean, you know, target bands are coming out in a different way.
GK taking both the Solid Snake away, very high in meta, and now also the Monty.
And yes, these are with the Blackbeard and these open the Yng, the Glass, the Blitz, etc.
But the game's a lot more complex nowadays than back when it was like,
oh my god, you can flex two operators? That's crazy.
You kind of gotta be able to play it all.
And Hong can now find himself off the shields, onto the floors instead,
getting more information, fit a soft destruction, peeling back those layers.
But GK also likewise, playing into the U2 again.
Double plant deniers, a shangha and a smoke, and leaving it to fire from Goyo as well.
They want to burn down the clock because they recognize a secret.
Here playing awfully slow in the server
It could be because it's a very long gun and the barrel is very long with the suppressor
And it has no other debuff the suppressor right like nope. There's the same same recall. It's no barrel
Same recall, same damage, so the only thing I can imagine is people doing it for that
reason, trying not to expose themselves with the barrel.
Really like the Agri here from GK, they add C4s, gas, and peeks at the same time trying
to grasp creeds on these windows, and they've managed to deal a lot of damage to him, though
we see good control being taken now, no one on the capitol as well, makes his way forward.
Instrumental operator for dislodging the power positions from Grubby on this bomb site.
So they got the hallway, they got the bathroom for kind of the flank with a watch rotation,
and they now have also a bit of pressure towards the bottom set of walls.
The Ebonix tower was going off, we just heard them explode all screen.
So this is kind of a secret, back to the same position as the very first round, minus the Monty.
And that's the big thing, right? They can only bait out the toxic babes and just walk in the building
deformation. There's a few midrills, cost to fight the kill vertically,
and they have to shunge for plant denial. That means you gotta use the smoke grenades
on the on the capitol and the fire from him and planning an off-location not the usual spot.
Oh great fire there Croxton helps to confirm that kill however the fire is going against him.
Secret between the guy with the shank and there's so much damage he's done and uh well I mean it's
just a simple bloodbath isn't it they continue battling they continue battling and they continue
battling. An attacker dying to the shangha fire I think it was hungry
sprinting through the goya fire with the diffuser dying on the other side of the
building but they flocked the bomb slide right to get the first pick the
regularizer can't go for a plant they see the shangha using the gadget meaning
he has to go for a full weapon swap before he can shoot back so they
form the side itself look at this right here
proxies doomed there is no way out and as it goes forward besides what's in that
angle Noah goes to the trade game Yonkai's watch the flank Noah push on
forward. It's really good tradeability here from Team Secret. Good pace and good timing.
And something that's quite hard to get right with a new roster. So quite impressive. And I want to
say I respect the fact that Hungry sprints in and dies to the fire. Because he probably knew
that there was no other way. But either he's going to stay outside the building and wait for
the goer for 20 seconds or try and spin through it. Maybe die, maybe not. But if he does, at least
he brings the defuser closer to the bomb site. At least he could in theory pick it up later.
And he's like, hope that was a pen, otherwise it would have been a bit silly.
Yeah, I know, I'm still reeling from that round. I had to go back to my second monitor and re-watch the end of it, because it was so chaotic.
It was.
Secret.
Secret went deep.
They sent it, and that's...
The power of having really good frags on your team, they don't care if the win condition is gone.
There's always one win condition, which is, hey, let's just kill everybody, and no one knows that better than anybody.
Team Secret are historically a very aggressive team.
Twister likes to teach his players that playstyle.
Noah really relished in the aggressive secret playstyle of last year, led by Savage.
No rush this round though.
No.
Not a rush, just a good old garage walk-in, a warehouse, it's called an in-game compass.
Very important, you get a bit of pressure though on the other areas, like the barrel
window to the left-hand side, you have Grubby, but you see the silhouette in that direction.
When I work the angles together, that barrel is taken out by the way, he certainly knows,
and he's dead.
But the outside of the gadget being a secondary device, not an under-barrel attachment like
The box is you can swap it, use it, swap back, and then you, hey, swing off that sound cue,
we might get a free kill, we do exactly that.
Grubby way too far forward, but no swap from his teammates, gets chopped down early.
You can see Hungry knew exactly where that player was and just made sure to bait him out for his teammate.
So good start here for Team Secret, and yeah, if there's anyone to take down,
if you're that Blackbeard player, it's probably going to be the Noor, however, it sucks.
Elsewhere, punishes the vertical operator here, crades, taken down before the ram
can really have an impact to harass these players on the bomb site.
Should I bounce any dog here, expecting a Gorya fire to be there?
Toxic babes as well.
I know that one defender is upstairs with his loss not long ago, so it could be a matter of guys
use numbers advantage, call the Gorya deal, okay we don't hear him, it means he's making his way back towards the bomb site.
So now instead of rushing forward, probably gonna do it a little bit more safely.
Step by step, they know it's a 4v3 with all the defenders in front of them.
Oh, Sp is in such a shoddy position as well.
As you pull it, he's now getting targeted by the docker beat.
Jago payload. I don't think he's gonna answer it. No, it takes a hell of a lot of damage.
Secret of very close. They have the numbers of damage.
to just frag this out. Nice impact in long range, but it doesn't work out. Doesn't get
the kill. In fact, Noah and Croxon together find the final kills. Four team secret. And
with that, they take the lead. Three rounds to two. As we look to sunset the half, GK
and the ones who need to get on their bike.
There's a very good usage there. The door could be just ensuring that, hey, is this
roamer upstairs, he's gonna make his way back towards the bomb site. Hey, let's get Croxton
on the back side by some local door, you know, we might as well. We got man advantage.
And I think the opening kill here was the biggest kind of sign for the round.
Grobby was being the Maestro LMG, the Alda, which also has a long barrel and was sticking out
past the corners of Hunker's sword way before he saw up to the gadget. There are only two operators
in the game has that weapon. Like I said, it's the Maestro's LMG, right? Maestro and Noor.
And Maishra's Picker is super duper low.
So UxR, he said, oh guys, they said, no one in the corner.
I'm going to walk up with the shield to make the noise.
He's going to swim with the gadget because then you saw Noah right behind him
going for the swing together.
So kind of bathing Grubby into it.
Jeeke in the backfield, like you said.
They can tie it up, mash onto in the first half.
And the 3-3 scoreline isn't bad at all.
And I expect you to be very confident on their attack inside as well once they get there.
But I do want to see them get a bit more fired up in the server.
Star Wars 1 and 3, Grubby only even, like no one's really stealing the show.
And GK during the EWC with the peep performance, they had individuals popping off.
They had a lot of firepower in the server to support them.
That's been a little bit missing here.
Yeah, even if you look back in stage 1, Grubby was an 8th best player in EML, asked 12th
the best player in the EMLs, Farms 21,
Fjorda 23, and that's not to mention
the performance at EWC, as you mentioned.
Team Secret are the ones who have been
reinforcing these rounds.
I mean, round one with the Monty Plant,
that felt like a strategic round win.
A lot of these other rounds for Secret
are fragging round wins,
which isn't a bad thing at all.
It's just in the chaotic moments,
they have to make plays, and that's what they're doing.
They're flooding the bombsite, they're flooding it together.
Now as we look to try and finish off this half for GK, they do slowly need a third round here, I feel, I mean.
GK are one of the favourites to make it to the stage finals and make it to Osaka perhaps.
Two secret.
Are not really favourites to do much more than maybe if they're lucky to get out of the bottom two.
So we pop the wall bottom green, get access towards the bombsite.
Secret, is it a good old Thatcher-Sense combination, try and go for a plant.
If you hit an EMP on towards the warden, which dive along easier, same for the clash.
But the first step, of course, with a T-out drop, you can emit bombs at position.
It's been helped by these seven bears of Starks who navigate that close base.
It's Jager ADS to spawn them as often as grenades, but they have a Thatcher.
Creates, waiting for it, finds one, maybe two ADSes here, they actually missed one of them.
dropping it's a kill he's one HP but he's still alive yeah well the fact he's
managed to deal some damage and survive this long here in the hot seat that is
the bomb site is huge and now he's just proning waiting forcing secret to make
the first move which is everything we know Nades left this is not gonna be a
free kill this is gonna cost something even if that is just the balls to get
into the bomb site yeah that's the issue no way to clear his position because
a gunfight at all like I said. The AP distracts, smoking the steel and they're
going to catch those who are in blasts otherwise this will not work. That's right
it means it comes down to the Thatcher what can Creed do. Grumpy fights a second
kill from his position. How has been allowed to do this? No one needs to trade
it back and he will thankfully but it might be too little and too late. 20
seconds no one's going to force a very desperate plan here but Creed has not been
in position to try and disable the glasses from you. He drops down but
immediately dies, Noah gets back up. Still hasn't confirmed that diffuser into the 2v2,
creeps his very low HP, but he's having to do all of the work.
Sure he's not.
Well, he is covered from upstairs, traded back, Noah manages to get that plant down,
but at the cost of all of his teammates, now Yoga forces his way back to the bomb site, slowly
but surely, isolating these positions from up above through the vert. Worried about any potential
traps does get caught on the air jab that gives Noah the indication gets caught in the second air jab
Noah now knows exactly where Yogg is and he's fallen back he's playing the narrow angles
he's buying as much time as he can one bullet will be all it takes to take down Yogg on the entry now
the opponent will fall and Noah shows just why he is the last man standing for Team Secret
a fantastic way to cap off the half they find their four rounds
a performance there from Noah to close it out and what a showing from secret as a
whole right now I think we may have underestimated secret but it's clear
that DK have done that as well yeah I think so I think the problem with their
defenses is that clearly they're trying to play towards the late round the
problem when you do that against a team that's supposedly weaker is that you're
not imposing your pace you're not going out of your way to deny the entry points
and you are giving them the opportunity to go for a clean execute if you look at
the way that Secret have acted, they haven't had to fight really hard to get the initial
control. If you look at this, they got the mid and control quite quickly and were able
to pull off the execute here. And then if you look at the rest of the rounds, it's very
often the same thing, where most of the teams will fight really hard to get the bathroom
control, main stairs control. GK, they just give them that control, try to play behind
the desk and with utility, I just don't think that's enough.
And I think what's surprising actually is, look at the two rounds that GK won. It's
where Secret got their macro strategies absolutely, abhorrently wrong.
Where they rushed into a turtle setup, they rushed, like, literally into basically five people on site
with Goyos, with Smurfs and whatever else.
And then the second round, Secret lost and the GK won, they tried a unit, excuse straight into warden.
Like, both of them, the macro strategy was wrong.
But everything else with Secret has actually looked really good.
And there's one player at the forefront of it, that player is no-one.
Just in play, you're like in that last round, right?
him. He's been sensational and I don't want to focus purely on the stats for now by the
way. I want to focus on what obviously we can hear it, the viewers can't. I thought
Noah's got so much more vocal. I don't know if I want to call him the ideal of this team
or just a major shock caller, but it feels like inside of these rounds he's micromanaging
every single chess piece of his team and almost leading them to the victory. Hungry
someone that's calling the overall strap but Noah's so much more vocal inside of the round
and added that in to do with it from the front line,
like nothing but praise for his performance so far.
And it's more the intangibles,
the actual things that we can't track
that I think is more impressive.
Right, his value is really coming through right now.
We're seeing it in the numbers one,
but as you said, hearing that as well,
I was surprised to hear just how vocal he was.
We had talked about Hungary being the IGL,
yet Noah is the one we're hearing the most right now.
Especially, yeah, in the mid to late round,
I think he's really critical,
which is supposed to be the best value of an IGL.
I wouldn't call the value of an IGL
the one that calls the strat at the beginning. The value of an AGL is spotting the gaps,
spotting the weaknesses and riding everyone behind the wind condition. And I think that the
wind condition has been stated multiple times by NOAA and I think is one of the main stakeholders
of their really good at that side. And on an individual basis, just think about what he's
gone through since February, right? Not giving up. That's the high second place. Team gets ripped
out, plays kickoff, ball stage. Team continues to get ripped out, plays stage one with Mowgli,
All stage you know goes when you say Mowgli now goes and the only one left SLC with non English speaking
Yeah, honestly from an individual perspective from a place perspective that must be really really hard right because you know
The expectations that team just whoo all the way down and then to
But then for him to hold his standards that high and continue and improve and just keep going and keep grinding
That shows a really really high level of what if I walk ethic in my mind
Well, we'll see if that work ethic can't continue to have a two-round lead right now four to two the onus now on geek a to see
What they can do as we move on to the second half?
Really great insights
I think I've been working on something. Yeah, it's telling me. Mm-hmm. Is Noah the good like is he just
Is he just the good like I feel like right now Noah do you think you're a bomb?
You're a time you think that every single team should be given a Noah
So every team gets to have one of them.
Yeah.
Everybody gets one NOAA.
You're only allowed a maximum of one NOAA in your team.
It's like in year one where we had an maximum number of shields you could go into the team.
Oh my god we did it!
You only get one NOAA in your team.
Everybody gets one.
Oh my god.
You're just doing it all.
I mean these guys, our experts in the studio are fortunate enough that they get to listen
to the team comms.
They're saying that he's instrumental in the team comms.
Anybody can see the instrumental impact he's having in the fragging department in the
clutching department but what about the util department with that capitol the
throw is just the goat man I mean the last round is a great example of having
very high efficiency in every movement that you're making in every small
decision whether he's getting on the plan for a brief second getting offered to
beat the guy dropping the hatch to use as a smokes verticality wise like finding
the entry there are so many big moments from small details now see if it works
the divider side, Noah's 10 and 3, he's in the smoke, he's sitting back, he's relaxing
and saying oh my god dude I can breathe for the next like two minutes, I'm holding main
stairs, I'm holding messian okay, no action for a little bit of time and then he can clutch
later on. I say that but Grubby's in the bottom side out of nowhere, how does this happen?
Did he fall to breach? Does it mirror with the facing man and the shield? Wow this is
very grubby coded, no fear what so well for. I'm out to be here.
Lashes out and somehow
Grubby has been afforded a kill as it yet. It sucks the only one only they have the key today if only they have the case
Yeah, where is that diffuser GK have lost it?
Now creates lashes out direct trade on the socks
But that's worth it for team secret because they retain the numbers advantage y'all grotes over to try and help out grubby
But where is the hell is it?
It's on the other side of the map Noah will fall good shot from grubby
2v2 with a whole minute left to fight.
Croxton is in such a strong position to try and swing out, but he doesn't want to risk it.
It's a very awkward spot to be in. I think Suga can like assume that there's no case.
This default is nasty by the way. Krupp walks forward, but I think he's 2v2 pretty well.
Yonk did not vote the roadside, and they find the kills, and how Croxton's rid of the bomb site.
That was such a risky play from Croxton. Grubby bides his time, waits in the bomb site,
finds the only two kills that he needs to do and GK wrenched their way back into the game after
losing three defenses in a row they swap sides and look hot on their first attack.
Ridiculous. I mean I'm sure that was a round where Grobby says trust me guys I got a gap but do not
do not play around it right like I'm gonna take a distraction you guys go for a backslide take.
The issue is, I don't think Secret realized that Grobby was in that entire time.
They never peeked him, they never looked in his direction, they never see Ford or he's a toxic bae for Plank Denial.
And they didn't know what the case was for, I want to see the majority of the time, maybe they never figured it out.
So, I don't know what that was for Grobby and GK, but they made that work perfectly.
And that's that firepower I was speaking of earlier, I was kind of missing a defense.
the ability to say screw it, I'm gonna flip it right now
and just make a play out of thin air.
Secret obviously called by surprise,
the basement is there, they got a bit of information,
both in terms of the trap gadget of the illa,
but also the echo drones here from Hungary,
continuing his path of being a pacifist,
playing the clash, playing the Monty,
playing the echo, trying to support his teammates
to get the best visibility,
even playing the echo shotgun right now
to make the rotations and also maybe play a close quarter area or by staircase later
in the round.
It's making a hole!
That echo is a very deadly acid in combo with an aggro player, especially on those staircases,
especially in tandem with damage from smoke and aggro and so much you can do.
Synergies galore.
the fact that Hungry is sitting on a Mute Jam, but to protect himself from pesky dokkabee
calls and daemostrax.
The GK though, they will indeed have a shield this round, which is plenty of youths held
from secret to counter.
It's all about actually landing it and getting the damage on to us that's needed.
I think we'll have a firepub here, starting up the way out, push, I have to respect it.
He cannot run to that fire, he's going to take a lot of damage.
This is secret again, trying to play that layering game.
And it's how I get slow enough, I mean, this echo won't be for the roaming,
it'll be for the plant denial, come times zero.
Unlikely though, knowing he's going to pay to look at that,
probably the same thing, that firepower walks down the staircase,
finds a kill, walks back up, wants to flank.
But then he came to a stronger position, five versus four.
Bro's got a big smile on his dial on that.
Thanks, Captain.
I don't know how he manages to keep his hands off his keyboard while he's playing.
Creed finds his back though.
I don't know where Yupo was, but that's a pretty devastating bit of Util to lose with that capitol.
Chichiki Okai is healing.
He'll just swim away in front of the mask.
He can get on the front to ADS in case of a defender swinging off the contact.
Lawn over at Tristan's dome, grew up in front of a bit of damage, drills low on HP, but time is 60 seconds and GK, they gotta figure out where the main potential happened from.
They can make all the vert they want, but they need a substantial plant position, no acres on the board, and we know that Croxton has 3 total thieves here on the smoke,
Cree C4 on hand, the rip, they're ready to toss it on out, but it's dead to be Croxton going for a swing, so actually it's back to those drills by the bomb site.
Critical gunfight, grummy feeling wrong. One HP left on Croxton, but the trade comes through eventually from Sark's.
And Hungary does spot him. On that Yokai, Sark decides to double back. 30 seconds remain. Are there any Yokai's left? Doesn't matter. Hungary's dead.
How's he been found? Likely from above by Gog. It's now crades no nitrocell. Just the trusty SMG11 in hand as asked staff confirming that plant.
Yogg will cover GK well and truly back into form. They tied the score line again.
Man, GK doing a lot of good work in the server. It was a pressure, right?
They've heard a counter-tee, the backstabbing, the back and forth catching the rotation there,
making sure that they cannot get back towards the bomb site when Croxton found that kill above.
A big thing that I kind of want to see here from the set of Secret though is maybe doing a little
bit less. They're rotating a lot, running around a lot. If they kind of just found their safe corner
it's in that previous round. You see the Ekko, the three toxic babes, the C4. I think there's a lot
of things that can go out for them, but there's a lot of moving around. The smoke here in Croxon,
he's roaming on the first floor with all three babes. The C4 didn't find anything. It was kind
of spinning about into information. Hungry guy solo playing the Ekko shotgun. A lot more teamwork
could happen there for secret. Picking the angles and the crossfires that they need. I do think this
top or bottom side while it's easy to attack and no way defend I think it goes
bit of a secret there are less things to worry about less angles less chaos for
GK to kind of to force in this round but statistically it's also like a very
comfort zone for the attack because the one's the twos the three round victory
sort of thing to bring out the mirror now taking it with the Wamai it's a
different way of holding on for a long period of time and GK don't have a lot
Council play I mean they can always go below with a ying shotgun and break the floor shoot the
Mirror window open or use takes the carousel mibana, but there's no ash. There's no kali
There's none of those like easy-to-fast counter operators in play
There the cap of the uh, the uh, mibana is the best that you've got for it. Yeah, I guess the camera's out
It was a bit of a slip, but perhaps it could work with smoke it depends on the positioning
Secret though, gotta be careful because they had a lead extended because of that really
strong attack half, now it's slipped away and this top floor master bedroom bomb site
for them started strong and yet Grubby who seemed to be the opener every single time
has now found a gap as well and the kill with that ying, the reaper no less.
Secret really worried about what's happening on the backside, they've got a very extended
offensive setup with those mirror windows but Grubby as much as he comes to mezzanine
such early in the round.
Bit of a standstill though. The next push going to be very challenging. This is the choke point,
the hallways towards bathroom, the bombsite door. But in the pocket of GK plenty of utility
throw around, fire and smoke from the capitol. Cadillac in the pocket of Grubby as well. He's
got that shotgun. All he needs is a half a second of an opening. You can start beaming
people in a close call to engagement. Right now there's fire everywhere. We gotta just
relax, watch the drones, count down the seconds and here the fire will start to slowly fade
away. Even though this metamorquesta was the Incantilla rather, it was still part of that
shotgun. Oh, okay. That's the laggera play from the old man hungry finds his pick. Until
you board the flash comes out. That's the final one from Grubby. And with that, GK, who's spent such a
long time measuring up the situation, now don't have any clear direction to get into it. They're
just going to have to go big with some kills. Now Noah needs to try and find his moment, finds
on with a shotgun, traded back by Grubby, who now must plan the diffuser with just sacks to cover.
Can they bait out a little bit of an overextension here from Team Secret? Remember,
a secret half of the advantage. They don't need to go crazy and drills, retake the hallway
slowly, forces the peek out. And I mean that's all she wrote on the defense. Finally, breaking
the trend. Team Secret have a chance to finally put this game to bed.
And you see on the top four bombsite, there's a lot less angles for Secret to worry about.
It's the main breach on both sides and it's the whole way. That's it. There's less gaps
to gk to kind of force so i feel like a secret that top four style is going to be their best bet
they really got to figure out how to make this kind of success happen on the secondary and tertiary
bombs and that's the real challenge for them they've lost all mine so less protection but on the
other side they get rid of the ying maybe also fearing the possibility of a war to ban that would
really um increase the odds of that operator working out i i could see a clash happen though i could
see a couple of different cheese operators. Not yet though. Tough for this round. It's gonna be
the pretty usual double ACS operator to smoke the muke. The Warden, which is stable on the
terms of bubbles in here in stock. Then of course gonna get the thorn for a bit of cover to the
traps and then Noah, who's getting unleashed on the fullest. So a classic weird thing above,
you wanna plant below. Can we find you? Can you cover your plant position? And the mini game of,
Yeah, fighting the plant there is awful if the child comes down to you.
And that's why the Thatcher comes into play here for GK.
We saw last time when Team Secret were attacking this bombsite,
around a lot of them came down to know as Capitow playing.
The Capitow being the only operator where you can shoot the smokes
and it actually stays where you shoot them rather than falling down
before detonating so you can actually plug up those holes in the ceiling where the defenders are looking down upon you.
So Yogg might be able to use that for some visual coverage. Of course you can still die through a smoke just as you could die through a sense screen.
Hmm. This U4 is very sneaky except that it's been figured out. They're very much watching for the angle.
Fox, in fact, had a roadside behind him to kind of escape the angle,
otherwise that door will get him stuck in the corner.
They've got the MPs, the mid-jammer as well.
Kip off the wall or right over, no issues whatsoever.
That's the first step accomplished.
Now, normally, there would be a defender on the bomb side itself that was often grubby,
playing in a kind of what we call a to-die position because you're not supposed to survive it.
So you could actually opting to surrender the bombsite entirely and not play anybody inside the bombsite.
And there's a benefit in this, because you know, all against the fact that you're in a wide band being meant the way in search,
you're probably not going to catch any of the projectiles, so you won't die.
Now they will play 5v5, but they gotta really watch the vertical angles, really just trying to get the bombsite information,
but there's no cameras at all here, even Newt doesn't have a bulletproof camera, he has a C4.
So it's only nowhere playing this for this I can try and locate it and win that plan to split down
That's you get back. Croxen is snogging to the bomb site. That's the one finds a kill on the Thatcher
He only just got there a bit of it
That's a bit of a tilt of the grubby also one of the most important offerings to try and take down early
Speaking of players vulnerable on the bomb site. You said it without a Thatcher
I'm sorry without a Jager or a Wamai Croxen is vulnerable to the grenades
And he takes a bit of damage before being finished off by the DMR now
Now ask is trying to mask up a plant position but team secret do have that plant denial.
The smoke comes in.
Again there's just no other can see the catchers or the kids being planted.
The hunger can see through the smoke grenades themselves.
It's more or less a default plant spot and there it is.
They faked it though.
It goes to a different location.
They faked it again.
Bringing down this timer.
If he runs out of energy he can only scan for the plant.
Noa has to be careful with the battery. One more smoke.
For the soloist, he's now used it up completely. He needs to wait for it to recharge before he can use it again.
GK get the timing. They fake it once and Ask finds the kill on the back of it on the drills up above.
Now the info is there for Noa.
But Ask has found yet another kill. Out comes the impact, but still the plant has not been confirmed. Ask has faded it out
so many times. It's got him two kills, but he hasn't gotten the plant down.
Time is ticking away. Hungry has to cover Noah's back, and Noah has to deny this plan.
Fails to do so, and now it's retake time for Team Secret, but GK look hungry for it.
They hold all the cards. They have the numbers advantage. They've got the defuser down,
and they're locking up the hallway. What a shot from Noah!
In the midst trying to take down the tracks, he takes ahead with him.
2v2 now on for the retake, but the time is ticking away.
I think I'm very far away. GK, they're spitting to different angles, taking their crossfire and timers he can still lose.
Take out a rush into this one.
Oh, the angle held by Art. Four kills on the round. Look for number five.
He doesn't need to gun for it. He knows that. Noah has no time to get on the diffuse anyway.
Sass may well take the final kill. Indeed, the ace is rolled, but the round belongs to Art.
Regardless, GK have fought tooth and nail to bring it back to five rounds apiece.
Such good patience there from AskumGK, right?
They pop the sentence wall, they smoke the ceiling, they know that the defenders are
struggling, rushing towards the verticality, looking for that plant spot, and Noah is being put into a position where
that energy bar for the gadget of Solace, it never got to really recharge.
So he's constantly taking it on for a second, taking it off, taking it on, taking it off.
Then they start just planting, knowing that this guy has no more energy left, and they can stick at the entire time
while Noah is waiting for the recharge. That's how the plant eventually came down.
The opening approximately was phenomenal. Getting a 1v1 trait sneaking back into the
bottom side and leaving it early in the round. Phenomenal! But then they do this trickery.
They really try and bait it time and time again and then time is just simply too low.
Ask for the nasty 4k and very good discipline. Sark goes out the door and leaves the building.
Meanwhile, ASK, run Steven towards security in the other area of the map.
So even if they both got hit by some crazy shot from Noah there, there is not enough time for Noah to kill one, run across, kill the other and get the defuse off.
So they play it aggressively when they have nothing to lose, and then they play it really passive and safe as they should when they have everything to win.
Yeah, uh, massive credit to GK, the way that they do that plant game and got two kills
out of dating it, huge from ask, huge from GK.
And I also was the guy with the keys.
He was panning, getting off and covering like he was doing everything.
Crazy.
Him and Yogg together.
Now secret of let it slip a little bit, that advantage, teetering on the edge of a knife.
GK, their attacks look really deadly.
I mean, they've won three so far out of four that they played.
The only bomb start we've seen success from Team Seeker
on the defensive side is the top floor,
and that remains locked for now.
So they have to retry the basement.
Worry about your me.
I've seen this one before.
The early fire popped.
You poor waiting for it to go away.
I am curious with Seeker if they have in mind to change,
because mind you, last time what I kind of
could be in a win condition was to do less in the server. Yes roam early, try and play
for a bit of time to now then fall back, but then here comes a solo fight, 50-50, goes
to your viewport, he finds his one, traded back though by Noah from far away, he's at
a barrel, he wants one more on this outside angle, doesn't find it, and that right there
means a lot of pressure, open up towards the rest of the homestead players here from Team
Secret, and also again, have Cronxed on the smoke roaming upstairs, not by the bottom
side those three toxic babes again finding no value for time to narrow when he's near the most
yeah i do like the way that noah was using the nore gadget actually just to prevent the entry
on the single doorway they fought him a little bit of time grobby is kind of hungry though i believe
that was on the verge and yeah now team secret are really feeling that pressure on the bomb side
once again they don't have a lot going for them here that said yogs over extended crates 1v3
but Sarkz will duel him very nicely, a flashbang, and ask to detonate the Vulcan canister, puts Kreedz in an awkward spot.
1v3, and not getting any closer, the drone spotted him. As he tries to hunt for these kills with a diggle, he'll find one.
He's still on camera, by the way, there is a drone behind him.
The diffuser is still not within GK's clutches, so Kreedz actually has a way to win this, Grubb, he gets that diffuser back.
socks if he over peeks here. Creeds could easily make it a 1v1, but no, it's not going to happen.
GK recompose in the 3v1. Make sure that they don't let that one slip between their fingers. Now
they have match point. And I guess a very awkward now 4-tune secret because that top-for-bomb
side is looking mighty fine for them, but the rest is falling apart. Again, this basement
hold does not work ever. And surprise, surprise, DK, they say, you know, regulation is on the menu,
technical timeout into round victory, we'll take that. We'll talk strats next 45 seconds,
we know it was the replays. No overheating perhaps there, looking for one more kill on
towards us. That was kind of the deciding moment in the round. But generally speaking,
I just think we gotta go back on the paper and rework this strat right now,
Because I don't really understand what the link addition is.
I agree. I think a big red flag for me is how Team C got a stridling so much with the vertical game on that bombsite.
You either need to fight for map control so that GK have less time to go for that vert,
or you need to be making sure that all of the positions you're playing aren't vulnerable to the vert,
because Grubby has managed to do a lot of damage on that ram.
Team C, Kurt now, have one final chance to send this to OT.
But GK, as you said, they take their tactical time out.
They are committed to finishing this off in regulation.
Policies still deployed.
Camera ready to activate.
Well, while we go back to the top floor, Penger, this is the one bomb site that we've seen a win
in Team Secret, albeit it was a close one.
And GK have won an attack onto this bomb site before as well.
There's no doubt that there's a chunk in there. Bro, just open up all the walls, all the rotates.
Nice to be near listening to the rattle-tattata of the LMG.
We've got three shotguns, but you've also got hungry on there with the chunk.
I mean it's a classic case of guys, I can do it, don't worry.
You know, mute, go put your four jammers down, no I'll put your one deployable shield down.
I'll make five rotations.
I mean, what it does through though is you get to run around and look for some drones
instead, since you have more freedom in different places.
Oh, that's an ankle, that's a college sniper, it could be gnarly.
We saw Sumitoth with some great success on his operator earlier.
You four trying his luck.
There's a lot of long angles here on top floor attack.
Those narrow angles you can towards the bombsite.
It's not a bad gun to have.
Especially if you're comfy running the one shot headshot, one shot body shot I should
say.
If you're a boss G player, if you're an AWP, it's in the blood to something for it.
It's all about reaction time and the microflicks, like I said some of those are really weapon with it.
Also, there's in-picks not into a mirror and not into a stand-in or a kait.
He's purely about the, I mean, one, you can clear all the U2, like Goyo canisters that are next to a door, the deployable shields, etc.
and get the tiny little bomb slide and the keybass get completely marked by the sniper, so...
It's a bit of flexible utility really.
When I'm clear of the GK, I was going to say about the bumps that execute right there.
There's none of those high-utile operators, the Capitao, the Grim, the Ying is spent away in the glass.
And I also use Yogg, they lose Yogg early on the demo, so it looks less intel, it looks less of a friction downstairs.
It's going to feel like a bit of a more horizontal linear push.
The GK, they're best when it's chaotic and strict theory.
Hungry just trying to take this 1v1 there. He's about to be under a hell of a lot of pressure from
Ask with the SMG12, but Hungry will win the fight with the DP28 regardless.
Now, Sarkz and Euphor in a really tough position. Two versus five. They are very much separated, but
as soon as Seekra realized that that Kali is all alone, she could be overwhelmed very easily
double-peak. As long as you peek her together she can't possibly win the
fight against both of you at once. On the flip side of that, Salton's quite a weapon
for an engagement like this, takes down Hungry, continuing to push deeper and
deeper, Noel finds one and the C4 from Creed's finishes off the round. The
Kali cannot clutch up for you, boy. It's overtime on the docket team's secret,
digging deep on that defensive side. They finally clinched the second round.
O.T. is required at PENGU. One thing that these teams both have in common is they struggle
so much on that defense. It has been an attackers game on there.
Yeah. They set the secrets to the top floor. That one was pretty solid. There's one thing
for Team Secret. Whenever someone is struggling to win a gunfight, they send in Noah. Right?
Like, Hungry was struggling a gunfight on our fight back for as long as possible. He
Then no one just stopped sprinting at the enemy with a shotgun and gets to kill instead
He is the the one man for hire to get those kills and no one else can seem to find them
Probably with a mental reset right now. It's gonna squeeze in those eyes. Okay. What can we do now?
Reset what's the approach? I'm curious on the start side to no T though because
That's I feel like that's gonna matter in this game kind of unfortunate earlier between red. I tell you do I'm gonna spoil it
Yeah, please boil it
GK start attack
So GK really do hold the cards here. It's been eight rounds
One on the attacking side and only four rounds one by the defense in the two halves you played
interesting, okay
It does mean though that okay
The thing is right
Secret can go top floor first they can win they go attack if they lose that they go back to defense top floor is locked
They have found nothing outside of that right so there is a little bit of pressure as you
could hear indeed.
Regardless of theorist's monstires or whatever else, we'll see what happens.
I choose a weird attack actually, I thought it was a tactical but it's a technical.
Now I saw Ask this character from the game, so he's trying to get back in at the moment.
I didn't realise.
Hopefully it won't take too long.
Well, yeah, that's because you don't have the second monitor open with it.
No, I try doing it and I have a very hard time because like 30 or 20 seconds delayed
and my brain doesn't like it.
I'll see an execute.
I'll look to my right and it's like, oh, there's the droning.
I'm like, oh, okay, delayed.
So I just do it so I can watch back.
Yeah, the last right there are a couple of the rounds this game.
I've been like watching the end of it.
And I'm like, I have no idea what's going on.
Where is everybody?
How has Grubby just gotten two kills?
and I like to look at back on a single one from the top down.
I did that in the shifters game, and I was like,
am I being too harsh and saying, need more heart breach?
And I was like, wait, let me just fact check it, right?
Because we don't see everything, no one does.
So we had a bit of a-
You did actually correct yourself.
And I went back and I said, you know what?
In my defense, I didn't have the full picture.
They actually did have enough.
And it worked so well because then it became a talking point
of they do have enough, but NAVE cannot die.
There's a 1% chance that he will.
Then he gets you forward.
So it was kind of funny how it kind of became an actual point and that's a difficult challenge about whether you're observing the game or casting the game.
Maybe you're a fan of the game, you have this picture of what you want to happen or the story that you're trying to convey or tell, but you have no control over said story.
You're just a passenger watching what's happening.
So you can go, oh my God, you know, they got the C4 for the pentagon, they got the guy downstairs for the CaliTee and then I grow like we're observing it, we're expecting it.
A guy comes in a window gets three headshots.
It's like, oh, this guy just jumped in the window
and got three headshots.
And he's exciting.
But it's not always this story.
True.
Well, there's also so much more going on in Siege
than in a lot of other games, because 10 individual people
are running 10 individual stories at the exact same time.
Like, well, one player is droning on one side of the map.
Another player is going for a walk.
another player is trying to shoot drones on a roam, and another player is flicking cams
for someone. There's so much happening. Plus, there's the team comms, which is why it's
great that our experts at the studio in Copenhagen can actually listen to a lot of the team's
comms. And then in the segments that we have, particularly the halftime Vibecheck, for example,
talk about what they've heard, what they think is happening. For example, Noah got a little
bit of praise. They said, we're really impressed by the amount of shock calling that Noah is
doing for his squad. He's not just a pretty face, he's not just a top fragger, he's actually
contributing a lot verbally to the team. So team secret, they might have pushed us to
OT but the ball is definitely in their court now that they start on the defensive side
in such an attack of favor game.
No, I try to say locked in for as long as possible here, do not get the eyes off the
monitor.
Well, for most of these players, it'll be past midnight now, right?
Yeah, it would be.
It's midnight 18 right now in the, I'm going to call it the primary time soon, right, CST.
Unless you've been in summertime still, I feel like we are.
I think you are.
And then obviously in the UK, you're an hour behind, so it's like 11.18 if you're, I don't know, in Finland, you're an hour ahead, not that there's any Finnish players here, I don't think, so.
Well, yeah.
What about the Eastern?
I was gonna say, look at that yawkin ass, like, let me give it Google time in Serbia, because I don't ask in Serbia, same time zone, CST, so 0-0-18.
So more or less is the midnight game, no big deal.
and you know some players you know absolutely degenerates they will love
this time zone right they woke up like right before the game started some
players wake up early you know some was on some players are fathers as well they
have a real like a lot of life happening so it's a very interesting
conversation about do you have the first game of the day do you have the last game
of the day is it a fast game is it a slow game because again we don't know it's
gonna be a straight-stiminal across the board or overtime in every single match
show we have like an average like every game takes about 45 minutes we got a
desk segment we gotta run some advertising etc plus minus an hour average
per game sure but if you go 15 rounds over and over again that's gonna change
that combo real quick yeah we're still there
6 and a half hours since we started the broadcast name we've only played just
under five games so it's been actually quite a long day yeah and GK secret is
certainly helping with that as well. I mean this is a game that could definitely go all
the way to round 15 and if we do continue seeing two more attack rounds one in the first
two rounds at OT then GK will have attack for the final round of this game. Looking
at the scoreboard I mean it's Noah who's been so instrumental, who talks about him so much,
massive impacts. I think that it's been very shared around like the impact from Hungary
has been felt even though he's not necessarily touched the scoreboard, he's been in pat kills
from players like drills even though he doesn't have a scoreboard, he has not touched the scoreboard.
He's pasted four times in a one assist, four and a half.
No hungry slander just came back from retirement bench, okay?
I love the guy, I was literally having a compliment.
don't you think we all have our favorite hungry is what I'm I do you love
every a pack player every single one of them a whole region like a lot of the
players in the server right now I really like ask I like hungry they're like no
these are some of my faves I just picked the guy with the most is on the
scoreboard because then people agree with you right oh my god no I spoke
And right after that, Noa... Oh my god, the Creedz, 13 kills, crazy player.
You just gotta play the numbers game.
The attack is gonna be grubby.
An 11.
Exactly, that's right.
But honestly, across the board from both teams, there's no massive outliers.
Yeah, sure, Noa's a little bit ahead with Creedz.
And sure, I'm just a little bit behind.
But it's not like he's struggling and getting no value.
Like I said, playing the shields, playing pentadil, making a 5 billion rotations as a changa.
You're always trying to find value outside the scoreboard if you're going to be one of the stakes or support players.
And I think that's where the real value lies as an individual.
And that's where Hungry Proves himself to be valuable, even when he doesn't touch the scoreboard.
Gropry though, he's going to be the MVP of this round potentially.
The box downstairs can find a lot of kills, a lot of value.
If you can break up out the floor, watch all the planks simultaneously and peel back the defensive layers here.
For example, Croxton is safely behind the target shield, but it's soft toward, right beneath it.
So if Grover can get in the right position, he solo can deal with that spot.
Nice, nice throw, but well grazed by Saks to dodge it just in time.
You're right, the game plan here for GK is to really put these players on site under the pump,
but Hirey's actually been allowed to get very aggressive, same with Croxton.
and dashing across now for yoga.
This is not what I expected.
They've decided to completely ignore
and then go deeper.
We start to try and help out.
They take down Noah, top fragger for secret, eliminated.
Hungry holds a lot of the responsibility on his shoulders.
As he has not had his wall breached,
he does have a lot more mobility.
Only the three teams start to come on.
And he will fall back 15 seconds.
That means that it's up to Hungry now
to deny this plant in the late round.
You'll try to find somewhere safe, but no, he gets down. The diffuser needs to be recollected.
Fire, fire, fire.
And doing everything they can to make sure this plant will not go down, and they do find all the kills.
There's nothing to be done for GK.
They had the attacking side, but they squandered their opportunity, and now Team Secret have a match point of their own.
Oh my god, do you see his name and add a question mark behind that he proves you're wrong?
Hungry finds a lot of damage in that round.
I thought it was a Goryu, a capitol fire on the bomb side, but it was a Tshashanka laying down a whole line of different Shrema launchers
and just getting so much value. Three separate attackers more or less died to Tshanka's fire, or very much forced to run away from it
and die into a gunfight to a single bullet. They held on so strong there for Team Secret.
I mean, that also changed the novels, not for GK. They get the bottom hold of control, they get the opening pick,
They have Grubik downstairs finding a lot of pigs, but then Grubik is thanked downstairs by drills
He retakes the bird finds a kill from beneath up towards us through the floor
Together the fire of them's running around and they fives in a chaos for the first time as they have a team secret on the defensive side
They've been loving the structure, but they match GK in the server now. They're on the attack. They're up one round
The thing is if you cannot close out here on the attack
I do fear for their upcoming defense because a tertiary and secondary options on this map
It has not been in their favor
You know it hasn't in fact the only bombsite that team secret have won is master office and they've won it three times
I know so really the pressure is on GK to now deliver on this basement defense
You have to get it right and you only get one chance
Problem is yes, GK won their first defense of the basement
That was when Team Secret had that very unfortunate, ill-advised rush.
But then the second time Secret attacked the basement, they won it.
And it looked convincing, Noah got a 3k, they only dropped one body.
GK now have to make sure that they dig deep on this defensive side,
just to weather the storm, because if they win here,
their chance of winning the map goes up astronomically,
because it's very likely they'll win their next attack.
Like Team Secret do not have any good bombsites to go into.
Back off against the wall, so much riding on this round.
Again, it's gonna be a dangerous home here
for hunger and the blitz.
One misstep, one elamine, one C4,
the thing that none of this in this round to worry about.
But your health is a resource.
The more health the blitz has,
the more aggressive you can play,
the more risk you can take, the more fights you can force.
So I'm gonna try and keep that as high as possible.
entirety of this round right now is my grubby solo roaming top 4 gas pipe pop
takes the hungry most this fire goes away he's not a person that's there can
see is he still there oh yes he very much is will you fire pop tux bit of
shot doesn't really matter because you know the fire lasts for 20 seconds it
Soxibus about 10 to 12, but still a good bit of value found.
In the second.
Well, what I think was the fire.
I was just being quite liberal with his YouTube.
Nasty.
Pops to me.
Yeah, that's the last of it.
So a minute and five seconds will remain by the time I fall back.
But it's just buying time here for grubby trying to go for this flank
spotted on the flank by the drone as they can touch mine will go off onto one player and ask is afforded the ability to fall all the way back
Oh my god the P-fire from Pete's right there finding a huge big Sarsgull's down too
Secret, they want to keep this run by storm
It felt like Robbie's solo roam was the single thing that GK had
The one thing going for the man of desperation now asked who fell off his hard position early is going for a desperate
rerun up from the other side of the map and he is caught off guard by Croxson
It's a 5v2 now, but he's secret decide the worst moment to go for a team kill
No, I has finished off hungry, but you poor will fall
It's now Yogg up against three as he finds the first necessary, but drills will stab him right in the back
Team Secret might have fallen at the eSports World Cup to GK, but today they find their
sweet revenge and it's best server cold overtime, but not 15th round needed, 8-6 win today for
Team Secret.
Oh, half a victory, but it's well done for them.
The last time, let's meet back to the desk, guys.
What a way to finish the night.
Secret how about that the grudge match hungry finds a way to take the win of
Thriller 8-6 to close out what has been a marathon of a day here in EML Leo this game
Competitive the entire way and secret they I mean they gave us the cinematic ending we were hoping yeah, so this game in my bones
I'm not gonna lie the
They're late for round the amount of lame round rounds that we see both of both teams really played to the ones the same condition
How many touch and cut fires am I going to see from this game?
I know this is a mess on the top floor, but I felt like no one was really reinventing the wheel there.
It was always the same scenario.
And I feel like overall, at this game, Secret surprised a lot.
I think it started by their attacks side.
I think that was a huge surprise on the stand-up.
GK manages to come back.
They go all the way, win and close their way back into overtime with four attacks on their own.
But in the end, Secret really, I think, everything paying off in their side, I felt like overall
playing much better as a team.
And surprised to see the level of DK maybe finding a little bit more inconsistencies.
It's a couple of points that they've dropped now so far in the first three weeks of EML
and is it too soon to go to Schoenmaas?
I don't know, but at least for Secret to bounce back here, it's good news.
Yeah, I think so.
I think the fact that, you know, the performance was improved.
was ultimately a top four team
in the world that they went up
against in terms of geeky. I
EWC, right? It wasn't that
longer. These guys were fighting
out with the face. Clans in the
dark zeros of the world, right?
And I think for secret with
three new players, it's always
going to be a big tough ask. And
you know, they started off slow
in terms of week one. They didn't
look great hot in terms of week
two as well. Lost fanatic, of
It was massively improved.
Con sounded good from what we could hear.
You know, their attacks, they were attacking with discipline.
The micro management was really, really good.
And they got over the line against the top team.
I think that's really, really encouraging financial listing.
I think they played at a very high level, as you said.
Like both teams were willing to play that discipline
until the last second, sort of siege.
Nobody was trying to, I don't know, cheese the win.
Nobody was trying to rush or surprise the opponent.
I mean, you can say that's about the strategy either way.
But like, they played a very methodical game of siege.
they came out on top. Yeah, I think it was the staple layer map like on the top floor always the same strategy as I'm
playing behind the front desk that smoke grenades and go yo to play towards the light round denial
I would say the bunk site was always the same water and so it's upstairs the one thing that I saw was a little
bit cheesy was the basement defense some were extending garish somewhere not somewhere extending up top somewhere
not and in the last round grubby's extending solar roaming on the top floor
but yeah that was the only really very variety that I've seen. I wonder if GK gonna look back at this
I think we got the macro strategy wrong. I think particularly on their defense, but also on their attack
I think if they play with pace kind of opportunity spot in the gaps
Yeah, like I feel like they they allowed
Secret yeah play secrets game, but I think if they just looked at it a lot more than if I'm so much more success
Well secrets game plan worked in part due to this man right here the grudge match. We highlighted a hungry
Welcome in congratulations
I mean we were talking about just how much this game must mean to you
Can you tell us in your own words what it means to get one up on the team that kicked you out just earlier this year?
It fits really hello. Hello first of all
The game like the game when fields amazing like I was having a great day today
Like going into it with the with a nice feeling feeling motivated and I was watching a movie right before
was definitely a booster and we all felt comfortable and yeah that you expanded
before already they let us play our game and yeah.
Hungry, I'm quite curious about the the responsibilities in the team so you've
come in as the the main IGL we've heard Noa being really active in the comes today.
What does it look like in the team? What are the rules like and especially for you
You know, joining this team and leading them after, you know, such a big worth the change.
So for me, as I chill, like, I mean, I was I chilling before in DK as well, but I wasn't
really doing a good job, to be honest. Like it was my first season in T1 and I was lacking a lot
of fundamentals and I was more focused on like short calling and having like more crazy ideas.
And then like ask definitely helped me with that in DK and said, like, okay, you have to
to focus more on the basics and stuff like that.
So going into secrets, like we continued with the plan
and yeah, I'm still like, I'm not the best IJ obviously
and I'm still learning and I'm trying to get used to everything
and trying to give like a focus for my team
mid-round and no definitely supports and everyone does.
Think like we are overall a good vocal team
and if we stay in composure in a team,
like you stay composure, I don't know.
Yeah, like if we stay composed and then everyone is like having idea of what's the next step is like people saying that out, you know, like we're getting a curve, we get this map control and we know the strand and we say, okay, let's focus on this next and know it's really good at it.
And yeah, like knows definitely a big support for this.
What's what's the expectations in terms of performance? The stage for your team because I think obviously, you know externally
I was on the desk public
I think see the the organization of secret and the team of secret having gone from you know where they were
S.I. final in February up through a lot of roster changes and a big change
And I think the expectations changes result of that. So I'm just curious on on where you guys what your objectives are I guess for this stage
or I mean like this we are not a team which expects to be like top one obviously for us
it's important to grow as a players and get better day by day and we can show that in
scrims as well and training like the whole coach and a team what Trista is building is really nice
I like it like we it's not not like non-toxic at all nobody's getting really treated or stressed
And we talk about everything, even like we talk about everything a lot after scrims and trying to change stuff and
building up like the fundamental mental step by step. So it's fine that we're not showing the results right now, but overall
yeah, we want to qualify for playoffs obviously and then show how we build up from the start of the stage to what's like playoffs.
the game. We're going to
talk to you about that in a
couple of minutes. Hungry.
Thank you so much for your
time. I know it's late, so
we're going to let you go.
Congrats on getting this win
over geeky, and we will talk
to you later. Thanks, Jim.
Goodbye, guys. Goodbye. Well,
really a great way to close
out the night with a victory
for someone who really, really
wanted it. Now, obviously,
both teams they were looking
for the points, but he had a
chip on his shoulder, and I
think that came through in the
way this team played the game
If you were here, what feels like a full 12 hours ago, you may have caught VP and Twisted Minds,
a good one that VP ended up winning, but it was a great day that saw Falcons G2 Fanatic and Secret
collecting points as well. That moves the standings just a little bit. We see some change on the top
as Virtus Pro take the top spot from Twisted Minds, who now drop down into fourth. Falcons up there
with 12 points as well. Some big movement with Team Heretic still at the bottom, but secrets and
shifters have moved their way on up as well. I mean, anything big here we're looking towards tomorrow,
Jack, I mean, big movement? I mean, if I was shifter, I would be really worried right now,
you know, looking down rather than looking upwards, I think. Those that are string of results, puts
them firmly, they're the one that all of those teams below are chasing. Heretics look better,
fanatica picking up victors secret look better like all of those teams that we we've kind of
considered them down as out as probably not challenging to warming up the warming up at some
point you know and her and shifters are going to have to play some of those things as well so
i'd be really worried about shifters right now yeah and we're going to chance to see that tomorrow
leo i mean we're going to see some of these games big point implications as we get down to the wire
as we mentioned we are now more than halfway through the group stage officially we move on to
to play day six already tomorrow and that will determine again where we will send things
into the super week in the week to follow as the final few playoff positions are decided.
Leo, anything you've got your eye on for tomorrow?
Two matches, the first one, extremely important for shifters run into the playoffs and for
Ruddles hope to try and somehow avoid relegations or somehow make it to the playoffs.
They could make it to the playoffs and still be relegated to be honest.
Looking at this first match, it's going to be a very interesting one, and then the second one is Falcon's VP, which is going to be an absolute banger.
Always is, always very close, between two titans of EML, really.
And I like Secret, kind of, having another opportunity to build off of what they saw today with Twisted Minds getting beaten today. There's an opportunity there as well.
Yeah, again, Twisted Minds picked up a couple of losses, you know, it's been close games of cost against good opposition.
But the way secret played, they can punish twisted minds as well.
You know, obviously there's a few players that used to play on different rosters,
Mowgli, going up against the old team.
So I think I think there's a lot of spice in those first three games.
But I think, you know, I keep saying that Jonah, every game of VML, competitive,
competitive game. That is absolutely what we saw tonight.
Thank you, Jack.
For all of you who joined us on this marathon of a day,
thank you so much for sticking around.
Action continues tomorrow for play day six for fresh and all pharma
for our entire studio crew.
I'm Jonas Bellinger saying thanks for watching,
and we'll see you tomorrow.
Have a great night.
Thank you, John.
I
Come come come.
You might be doing right, you know?
Good one is bringing tonight.
Just turn your turn and just keep your life.
Just give me life.
Just give me life.
Let's keep the life.
Let's keep the life.
Let's keep the life.
Let's keep the life.
Let's keep the life.
Let's keep the life.
It's better now.