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music
I
My one and only
I can't make it, give it right now
When it's being made
It's time to turn it into daylight
It's given life
It's given life
It's given life
It's given life
play day 7 of the North American League is here as we get ever closer to the playoff
race.
I'm Jonas Willinger alongside laxing and mint guys.
We had a long day yesterday.
Well, we got out of here around like 2, 2.30 in the morning.
You guys feeling refreshed feeling ready to go for another big day of siege?
Yeah, absolutely.
It's always kind of nice get to the Friday, you know, wrap up a little bit of siege.
Then you get to watch the rest of the leagues as well.
I mean, it is unfortunate that, you know, the best league does have to come to an end for us for a short period of time.
But you know, there are some other ones to get out there that is disappointing.
I think we also have email super weed coming up, which is pretty exciting to walk away.
We did get ours out of the way. We got superior seat.
Yeah, we got email super weed.
We got the last two days of the NAL group stage.
All of those playoff races are starting to come to an end.
And we're actually going to see who those playoffs teams are going to be.
But before we dive into the action today, I wanted to peer through the NAL
Looking glass. I wanted to take you guys as we see the playoffs come into focus
I thought it's important that we focus on some players as well
Let's head on over to the Telstra to here to play a little game Kyle. You're looking you're looking good up there as usual
Come on
Player that's how you were coached
You guys have probably probably seen a game like this before we have
Freight life-size
Just put your face right next to it. Yeah pretty good actually pretty good
I've got some images of some out of focus some blurry pictures of players
And you have to see if you can guess who that player is as the image comes into focus
You each have chosen three you wanted to focus on and so only one of you will be guessing at a time
But feel free to play along at home here as we go into this game
We have a warm-up so you can both guess you can both guess for this. Oh, thankful. Here. We dance a warm-up here
Oh, not ambi. I can't even see
Yes, all right in credit and see that's the point
Jersy's only colors like what do you mean? I just see
First one coming up Kyle you pick this one here select
I give this one a guess if you can as it comes into focus. Who is this?
NJR nope try again someone on
It's definitely someone on DZ
bolt
No, there was come on Bamba
Okay, so I know this is what threw me off
I thought we were doing like from like their teams currently right now. He could be anything
Thanks a lot. How do I not?
I had to prank you with the purple, huh?
I had to prank you with the purple.
Well, this is where I was confused a little bit.
I thought we were just focusing on the teams.
OK, that makes sense.
Well, yeah, we got you.
And how do we not highlight Pam?
I mean, the number one rated player, I believe, right now
in the NAL, his MVP of the stage.
And what a season.
And even the game he was having at that.
Even the haircut.
I mean, yeah, improved all around, right?
I mean, I'm loving it.
He's a good man.
I'm loving it.
The jersey's looking clean on him as well.
In 71 to 40, from the IGLing perspective, what that can do for you?
I mean, normally IGLs were like, oh, you can't frag, right?
But that's kind of the old way of thinking of Siege.
Nowadays, we have more flexible players.
Even look at VydaKing over in FaZe Clan.
I'm not comparing Rob.
What's it yesterday?
Even more false did yesterday.
10 and 0 at the half, right?
So I love what Rob and Pambazoo has been doing with Cloud.
I don't love my gas, because I'm off to a bad start.
Off to a bad start, 0 and 1 there, but you mean you can't reach that.
Now I know you're picking from different teams at different events.
Gotta keep you on your toes, gotta keep you on your toes.
Kyle's now in the hotspot next.
Let's see if you can get this one a little faster.
Here we go.
Not gonna lie, I feel like I have a better guest
looking at the TV screen back there.
Why do I want to say that's rampy?
That's not rampy right now.
No, it is not.
Oh my God.
Jane, I know.
Oh, Spiker.
That's my...
Oh my God.
You're basically a second faster, but barely.
But like, I mean, talk to me about why we gotta focus
on this man right here.
I mean, I highlight him almost every single time we talk to him.
I love talking to him in interviews too, but, again, I teamed up Spiker,
bought him first into T1, and to see his development as a player,
and see where his career has started, and where he's currently at now,
I mean, you have to give a lot of praise to Spiker.
I mean, he is one of the best IGLs in our entire ecosystem.
I mean, when you think about all of the success that Wildcard has achieved so far,
they've made every single S tier event, they've made every single main stage
at every single event, I mean, a lot of that really is off the inner workings
of what Spiker brings to this team.
Now, sure, maybe he's not fragging as heavy as a player like Pamba currently.
However, we also had him as our highlight MVP of the last days when he made that call
to drop the hatch in their series against Mady, being the only team to dethrone them
during a group stage.
So, lot of respect and a lot of praise to my boy, Spiker.
Alright, let's take a look at our next player here in the NAL Looking Glass.
Lax, this one is on you to guess.
He's...
Hot gold.
Try again.
Dream.
He just spammed.
Try again.
Oh, my favorites, huh?
Black Jersey. Yeah. Gavini. Correct. And we got a little got a little surprised at the back.
With Han cold. We lie. No. But Kyle, you want you wanted to highlight what you say to him.
Clearly got something to say. What I got to say to him is probably what I got to say to him right
now. I mean, Gav, unfortunately, has not kind of been showing up to see him low rated in the lower
25th of all players, right? I mean, we're talking 50 total pro players. I think he's rid somewhere in the 37 37th range. That's
insane too low for someone like Gavini and like I'm not calling him out or anything. I everyone knows how good Gavin is. I mean, he is such a good
fragger and to see him going 39 and 45 doesn't just show like Gavin is struggling. It's the whole team is struggling, right? And that's why I wanted to kind of
highlight. I'm like, we know what he can get back to. And that's what I'm telling him on the shoulder. Like, Gav, you got the next game.
You sure you didn't want to throw yourself in there on the bench?
Oh, probably.
What was I doing in my hair, man?
Kyle, this one is back to you to guess who do we have here.
I'm seeing a green jersey.
Lex went some OXG member and I'm seeing a beard.
That's Gomez.
Yes, it is.
A good guess there.
He's getting hyped.
I believe this is on the FSI.
Nice looking stuff.
Feeling good, Lex.
Definitely.
Why do we want to talk about Gomez tonight?
I mean, you got to think when Gomez first came in,
he was joining on the exit that friendship roster that we saw.
They have a lot of history there.
And then he's transitioned slowly into oxygen with Diaz.
And we were given a lot of praise throughout those times.
We haven't been able to highlight him too much throughout this stage.
But what we do know, what you can expect out of Gomez,
something that he really brought to that team on oxygen,
he was able to play those cutoffs so well, especially
in tandem with Adam.
We just haven't seen that same level yet of progression
from similar to what we're talking about with Givini now.
We aren't seeing that exact same success to not success
on those comparisons.
However, I just need to see a little more from Gomez,
but if he can reach that potential that we know that he can,
he is an absolute dominant and stellar player
across the board.
All right, Kyle, let's wrap things up.
Put Lax back on the spot.
What do we got here?
What do we got?
Ah, what do we got here?
Who do we got here?
Kavini, who would I be next?
Lots of options, lots of options.
Not Hot Cold.
Not Hot Cold.
Arms up.
Arms up.
Rexxen.
Yeah.
Rexxen, OK.
Pretty good, pretty good.
Hey, I had to throw you off the trail a little bit.
You're like, oh, this is all players that men has coached.
I've never coached Rexon.
You did let him.
You're like, oh, I picked really close people to me.
I did.
You did like me.
I threw you off the Tommy Fowler.
But I really wanted to highlight Rexon for a second,
because the stat warriors out there, the new Gen of Siege
redditors that are all watching, have been giving this man,
and really all of us are hate.
And right now, if you want to be a stat watcher,
Rexon's having a fantastic season.
He's 47 and 44.
He's going positive.
He is the glue of this team.
He's always playing roles and he was MVP in the last series.
He was MVP in the last series.
And he's always playing roles and operators that you don't see,
which is he's the guy that might be droning in Ambi.
Or when they're going for the really cool executes,
and we see Ambi walking in with the glass, entering for two,
we see Troy getting the bomb down.
You're like, where's Rexon?
He's usually on the Thatcher.
He's EMPing the C4.
He's enabling their really cool takes and attacks to work.
And that is what Rexon does.
Every team needs someone like that.
So guys almost got to bite the bullet get off rex's back
We do have time for one more here. So we'll toss this one in
Kyle
Who is it?
They're kind of who is it? Who is it JJ blast? Yes, it is
A good early guess
That's all the hugging I knew it
Emotion at the Salt Lake City Major
Lax talked to me about this guy who was seeing our very first match up with an eye
I mean
Outside of being a player just his personality. He brings a lot of personality to season
I think that's something that's lacked for such a long time in the siege community
A lot of players are very you know to themselves
was don't really aren't good on camera.
And JJ's always been fun across the board,
whether it's on social media, whether it's on camera,
even inside of his play, there's a lot
that you can really learn from this guy.
Now, sure, he's not having the most success when
we're looking at his stage or the past previous stages.
But if you do remember that glimpse back at kickoff,
and even during SLC, I mean, there was so much life in JJ
Blast.
And there's still life in him now, even
in that one interview we recently got.
It's just, you know, I got to put him on here
because I got a lot of respect for the guy.
I mean, he was one of the first players I came on.
like lacks I got one of your jerseys back on rest across so it's a lot of love for JJ and I think
honestly the fans love him too regardless of kind of the route that the teams I mean hard hard not
to love a guy who has a hard on his sleeve he's got all that motion out there real quick bonus
bonus rounds we got a bonus both of you guess uh it's a clown alamak no uh uh uh Troy yeah
Roy Roy in the clown's in the closet out at the show i mean that's just a good one that's just a
a good one to end. I say Alomar. Was there not a picture of him? I think there was like
a Photoshop one. Okay, maybe. But as we turn our focus to today, we'll give you a look
at the updated standings after yesterday's action. Maybe not a chance to see the clown
Nadian today, but we do hopefully get to see Canadian and the rest of the boys take that
fight, the cloud nine later on tonight. Cloud nine, tough team to beat. They're sitting at
the top of the standings, the only undefeated team right now. But the focus instead of being
on that top six is on the teams just outside it with four funny sports outlasts five fears
and M80 only three days left for these teams to fight their way into the playoff position
and lacks as every day goes by that these teams are not picking up points.
Their chances of making the playoffs starts to dwindle.
Yes, the outside looking in for these four and realistically for the majority.
Well, actually all of them, they're looking at SSG success.
I mean, right now that is the threshold.
It's nine points.
SSG did lose for them granted some of these teams didn't even pick up any points yesterday
But it still leaves them an opportunity
But again a lot of that success is totally riding on whether that SSG loses and they get wins themselves
But for M80 you're practically out of the water. Yeah, yeah
I was gonna say and then keep monitoring SSG because the space ship has been it's becoming back to her
They need to refuel
You guys are killing it right now.
I'm pretty sure it practically solidifies them.
Maybe. Like, it's, again, I mean, look at the percentages.
It's a very small chance, and a lot of that really is riding on SSG.
Yeah, tight margins right now. As we said, though,
games to look forward to today that will shift these percentages around.
The night ends with what should be the game of the day at 6 p.m. Eastern,
Cloud 9, and Shopify Rebellion will go toe-to-toe in a game you do not want to miss.
want to miss. We'll see dark zero and SSG face off at 4pm as well. Two teams with a
storied history and a little organizational match up there. But to start the night, five
fears and a wild card will kick things off. It's JJ and spiker. A tale as old as time.
If you've been following their T2, T3 journeys, these guys have come across each other so
many times throughout their history, including this year in the NAL.
Yeah, and I mean this year in the NAL, I mean it's actually five fears who owns the head-to-head if we look back
I mean all the way back to kick off when these guys were we're pretty great
And we haven't seen that since they obviously kind of own them there and spikers had it in his mind always thinking about this
JJ matchups are currently two and one in this year
However, if you were to ask spiker in an interview what he thinks about this matchup, I mean we got we got a clip for this
How many times have you beaten JJ?
Are we counting T3 or just per league?
All time.
All time?
Probably like 20.
I got no idea.
I understand.
I believe you.
I believe you.
I believe you.
Hey, Biker is daddy when it comes to this situation.
He's in the driver's seat.
He's feeling comfortable, especially after their win yesterday.
I have no doubt in my mind that again, he wants to prove to JJ Blast that he is better
is better than him in every single matchup.
Yeah, I mean, but the thing is, I mean, even in stage one,
when Five Fears wasn't looking so good,
it was still they were able to power up against Spiker.
It seems JJ just has some beef against certain teams
that Five Fears a little extra fuel, right?
I mean, they just seem to power up against certain players,
certain teams, and I don't know why, but this is a matchup.
Again, it goes all the way back to the T3 leagues
when they were kind of coming up together into T1.
Yeah, it's a very similar story from stage one,
because you've got a five-year team that is still trying to find their footing.
A wildcard team that's in second place in the standings right now that is feeling good,
has their sights set on playing well in Osaka, playing well internationally,
not just on what's happening now. But for five-years, their focus right now is can we get into playoffs?
Well, their focus is definitely on the beef between Spiker to fuel them up, kids,
to get past this series. Because if you're all a five-year, I mean,
you have to be praying every single morning you wake up at this point.
Praying not only do you beat your opponents that are going to be in front of you but also for SSG
You got to hate watch a little bit for SSG and make sure that they lose their series
Because that is going to be the only way that they can clench a playoff spot and even have the opportunity to go to Osaka
However, something that does have to be noted
They most likely will be at SI just due to their SI points that they received all the way back
They're gonna kick off.
If we take a look at Five Fears, we got some new jerseys maybe being debuted today, which have the sleeves all
What's going on through the ones in the wash and then the seams just kept going away and then it is completely
Unraveled absolutely
They're clean and and the sleeves are still on so maybe we'll see if that changes throughout the course of course the afternoon
I mean these days they were scissors five years like what what has been working for them, right?
It's been some individual moments like we've seen snake performing incredibly well the top rated
I think it's like ninth overall in the league despite five years struggling so much like
something they're looking to obviously not rely on at the end of the day but
they have their moments they just have to do it a little more frequently they
do got to do a little more frequently they also got to take take advantage of
their 4v5 so they're 5v4's right I mean they've got to be able to put a team away
that's playing a man down but yes Snake I mean he is a top 10 player right now in
the NAL and I mean he is one of those players that we were calling out earlier
in the season that needs to kind of pop off Benz as well. Benz has also been
having a lot more consistent performances we need to see rival up there as well
It kind of seems like they're they're three spearheads in a sense that are getting enabled by the double shields of forest and
JJ and I think that's also something they need to get back to it
They were even having success again in that match versus on the field on the double shields and they just kind of hopped off
Yeah, and you definitely could contribute it because they were down a man for a hundred these so it's easy to do that full-core
Press with two shields, but it was working and then they immediately stopped the second case and came back to the lobby
However, I don't think it's just on the frayers. We obviously see them still showing up doing what they need to
I think the bigger issue has been the shot calling whether that's from JJ whether that's been for us because once yeah
We got back into that lobby and it was a 5v5 once we switched on the attacks
I mean there was a lot of miscommunication
There was hyper fixation on certain areas that maybe you know
They give themselves 10 more seconds and again a game like Siege you can you have to use every single second to your advantage
And I felt they were just going a little too quick because something happened and they hyper fixated on then immediately would get shut down
So just being able to slow down
I think it's really going to
go a long way for them to have
a lot of progress, especially
against a team like wild cards.
As you said, though, a
contested rivalry here in our
first match of the night. Let's
find out where this one is
actually going to end up in
terms of the map pick lacks you
already reacting to this one.
Clubhouse is the choice. Is
that surprising you? I mean,
like you said, a clubhouse is a
choice for sure. I mean, you
brought out last year. They
beat you guys. Yes, it was a
very good game. You know,
They beat you guys. Yes, it was a very close series. I'm sure there's a lot that I learned from already saw the tweet from
Lagonas and from their performance from one day to the next night and day granted. It wasn't on a clubhouse
I can't imagine a world they let this slip through the cracks again
However, it goes back into what we've already touched up on why bring a weaker team that is fundamentally having so many airs to a
Fundamentally simple map that makes things that much easier to fix. Yeah
I mean obviously you're referencing the fact that I mean five years
were able to go to clubhouse and beat M80 here, which was kind of their upset at the
stage, right?
Docking M80 down and basically eliminating their chances at this point, and we'll touch
on that a little bit later.
But now we're going, wild card lost to Outlast as well on this map.
I mean, you're right.
The theory is you don't take a weaker team to clubhouse, but you also just touched on
what Lagonas was talking about, right?
Lagonas, the coach, and that's that they were working on this.
They're going to take every single matchup a lot more serious than they have.
maybe they were sleeping in that outlast match and against JJ right so we already heard from spiker numerous times in the interview
This is like they're super bull. This is the best is there going to show up on so even on a map like clubhouse
I feel like just show up here bring the fundamentals right go through the steps
And I'm sure they're gonna have a lot of prep work as well because five years did play this map just a couple days ago
And just come out and play your game and honestly, I'm kind of all in on wild card here
I just don't see a world Jonah where they slip up again.
All right, JJ, you're certainly trying to figure out where that world might lie.
It's Wildcard in five years.
JJ and Spiker to over to Jesse and Terra.
We go.
Well, thank you very much.
Only three days remain today and two more next week here in the Goose Dages.
And Lidesz talked about it quite a bit, Jesse.
The playoffs, a trip into the playoffs, and then a potential trip to Osaka.
Lose in the minds of all of these players for wildcard. They enter the day as the second best team in North America
But there are plenty of teams nipping at their heels as for five fears
They are five points back one per fear of me
Well boys going on
We're ten seconds into the match and two people are dead
JJ blast and they come into blows almost immediately. I didn't get to finish my sentence
And that is a crazy couple of operators to lose as well Parker. It doesn't get much more impactful than a capitao and an echo
Both being removed from the board. I guess that favors wild card
I mean Bay is the one who initiated the spawn peek, but maybe
That's the tone for this matchup. A bit of bad beef coming between these two teams. JJ Blaz already off the board early
Yeah, I'm a little stunned by that one heavy utility ops
But if there's you know, chydrones are still scattered throughout which I have to imagine they are I don't think Bay would
So carelessly die with the ball in pocket
You can still provide some
Information here for those of you that are listening in by the way
I am still sick so you'd like to make some comments about my voice you are feel free to do that
I want to thank XR Trica for stepping in yesterday midway through the day
I just was not in enough shape to continue
I probably could have continued, but it would have made the broadcast worse.
So I feel like the best option was for me to step aside.
You and X did a great job with those games.
And of course, there was some pretty entertaining and memorable
matchups that occurred that I got to sit and watch from the comfort of my very cozy bed.
Unbelievable. We're on bar stage, by the way.
One of the least played operators in all of Steve's.
So we had a crazy spawn peak and the craziest bombsite we could have gone through.
Wildcard full of surprises, but it's not really paying off with him down to a 3-3 now as Forrest and Spike are both going down.
Kansan also falling to Snake on the vert, so man advantage quickly falling apart.
Adrien is now left in a 1v3. He's in a good spot to clutch up, but loses the fight to Fens.
That's gonna be an early lead for five fears in a very unconventional first round.
Yeah, I'm a little confused by that one.
I mean, it was a good first pick by Bay, but he overstayed his welcome and was hoping for two.
The only thing I can think of in that capacity Jesse is that wild card show this team absolutely no respect
I'm cold had a couple good tweets yesterday after the match and good
I say from an entertainment standpoint not good as an I agree with him
Talking about how five years need to play better because they play like they practice
They don't practice very well, and then of course that's some choice words for them
The fact that they lost that 4v5 for about half of yesterday's matchup
I do like that the desk noted five years running the double shields in that 4d5
And that's because it was seen as a sign of disrespect by some as well on social media within our community
That running double shields against four players is just some
Really it's silly nonsense. It's uncouth Jesse. I personally think that that level of disrespect is very entertaining
But I can understand why some people don't feel the same way
So five years capitalized off of Bay's early death and then snowballed the rest of the round to go up one nothing
Yeah, I mean you play the best operators that are available. You're gonna run double shields
Most pros kind of came to the same consensus like I do it too. That's just what's the best situation in that circumstance
So we'll see I'm hoping for no 5v4 is today. I feel confident. We won't have to worry about that
But knock on wood we'll see how this day progresses a 5v4 is the early result of round 2 as Fens has just been
spawn peaked he gets downed and I think it was Bay with the boss G who's now gone for two straight spawn peaks in a row
He should get picked up
But this is a really annoying time waste that five years will have to deal with
Worrying about picking up friends from this position. He's got a crawl to a safe spot now
JJ blasts will get him up
But means that you're not gonna have your snake player at full HP as well and given how aggressive this roam stride
it's from Wildcard. Sitting on this bottom floor bomb site but babying up in
gym, cans and being inside of kitchen, baby shark being inside of bar, you're
really gonna want your snake at full strength fighting these rumors.
100%. Fendens as well needs a big game rival, needs a big game Wildcard for
hoping to pick up as many points as possible. Chasing Cloud9 is not really
the objective for a lot of these teams towards the top of the standings. Simply
walking in your position is the goal. Cloud9 did that yesterday. They are
guaranteed a top six finish based on current standings. They could potentially
lock in a top four finish today with three points and some convenient losses
with those other top four teams. As we noted five years towards the basement
they outlast and M80 are seeing their playoff chances dry up very quickly and
for fun is not that much farther ahead either so depending on how things go
today Jesse we can see some solidification when it comes to these
standings. Now goes Spiker by the way, the man who the content piece played for before
we got into the action and the smoke gone is Roth especially since Fens did not ultimately
die and he was picked back up.
Both IGLs suffering some early deaths here on Clubhouse. This is kind of the rivalry
that we hyped up before this game began. Spiker versus JJ Blast and already you're seeing
Five Fears getting into a dominant position. Now trying to work down into this bomb site.
Baby Shark trades back on the snake. He was getting in Moto for a long time so it's good
to finally root him out of that position, but with less than 60 seconds to go, Five
Fears will be looking for an execute quite soon here. Got Kitchen Hatch open, they've
got Main Stairs control, they've got a really strong push at the brewing.
There come the shields, Five Fears continuing their assault, maybe an early time out for
a wild card. Things continue to go as poorly as they are. Desperation from Bay now over
in blue as he's eliminated one, he'll have to finish off what remains of Fens. All the
damage that Bay had done earlier in the round will help him but do not guarantee that pick.
Rival now with diffuse kit in hand, Fens will cover Rival pulling it off successfully and they'll
both go into the post plan as Bay is blocked out of a rotate due to his own team's castle barricade.
Baby Shark from the grave did that structurally and it now confounds Bay as he has no choice but to
return to the scene of his earlier crimes. In blue and he's being watched from long range angles.
Ryla doesn't need to do that much as Bay takes care of Fenton's.
About 15 seconds for him to pull this one off before the point of no return is read!
Oh my god!
Bay!
94 the 4 stands for the amount of kills he got in that round.
Had plenty of time for the counter-disable as he saves it for Wildcard.
A massive clutch to come through from Bay.
A little bit worried about his impact in that round.
Parker he was on the roam.
He didn't have a whole lot of influence in that round before we got to the final few seconds.
a few seconds, but comes back on that flank, wins out the post plant best rival in the 1v1,
a massive kill to come through from Bay who has been getting so active so far through this game.
Again, with Snake's position in Moto, he got an early pick onto Spiker and that felt like it was
going to be the wing con. It was only one kill from Snake, but just inserting himself so deep into
the bomb site caused a lot of mistakes to come through from Wildcard. They got very panicky
when they let that diffused kid slip in the site and get tanked, but...
But they clutch up in the 1v1, they don't panic,
worried about Claymore's there after getting the kill, but really well handled by Bay in those
moments, knowing exactly when he needed to make his return and hitting every shot that was required.
I am dumbfounded at that one.
Terrific play by the weapon the storm bay 94 putting in all the work in the world there.
He has five of his team's seven kills through the two completed rounds.
That's not too bad at all.
Stylistically this is an interesting matchup.
Wildcard have the most kills of any team in the league. They are eight ahead of Dark Zero and ten ahead of Cloud Nine for the top three.
As for five fears, they lead the league in most deaths. Two hundred and fifty deaths for five fears.
Eeking out Outlast by a single death. Two forty nine for Outlast. And then the next two teams are tied.
Our darks here on wildcard. So very feast your famine for those two teams. DZ wildcard to most kills and
third most deaths. So where she goes wildcard like to fly too close to the spot and we've seen that from bay
Both two rounds completed
Not this time though a far more conservative start to round three for wildcard
First time we're seeing kai getting run in this game
Usually the most commonly banned operator here on clubhouse kanzin will deploy this but it didn't seem to slow down five fears when it comes to getting
that main wall open. The platform wall gets opened very quickly. They did bring a Thatcher.
Fenza actually hasn't used any of his EMPs, so I'm not sure if they just didn't put a
claw on the wall or if they found another way around it, but we did see Spiker putting
her cans and putting at least one of those over on the jacuzzi wall. Now Spiker in a
lot of trouble here towards Raptors. Feeding damage from that capitol, desperately trying
to get past this Launtian back towards his site. So far Parker, the time delay is working
in his favor.
If anybody knows how to wrestle with a shield, it's the guy who plays them all the time.
It's Spiker in this spot, but he's caught in a hard crossfire.
And Bay has eaten his Wheaties this morning, my god!
Seven kills for him as he goes for the vault out and gets the pick outside of the building.
Now it's all up to Snake and Forrest to save this round as things collapse for five years in the blink of an eye.
Ridiculous from Bay. He is the hero of Wildcard through this first quarter and now in a 2v4
Snake and Forest have a ton of work to do. They're down below. Snake's out of nades.
He gets the freebie trade on the Bay, cleans them up, dealing some of that damage in, but with 60 seconds still to go
they're gonna have to really put their heads together to get this plant down.
I say this, Forest is on the Monty and there's only one nitro cell they really have to worry about.
So there's a world where Forest can plant here. They'll need to move Snake.
He cannot sit below the bombsite the whole time.
He has to go up to rafters and support his teammate covering him so that nobody pushes up
It's not gonna be simple. It won't be easy, but there is a line here for five years to win this round
Okay, 30 seconds now to work with
Snake will be vulnerable for a second force taking all of his chances
He ties he takes one down with him in the process though, and now snake will need to clutch up a baby shark says no, thank you
You know, blood in the water, Jesse, and takes a chomp out of five fears.
Two in a row for Wild Card as they take the lead.
Interesting call for Forrest to rush down the Kaid there, take down Kansan.
It's not really what you'd expect. Again, you kind of thought maybe Forrest will just try to plant,
then Snake will just try to cover, maybe bait a plant to force some movements into the defense,
but he takes the initiative, and if he gets away with that kill cleanly,
that's a brilliant move from Forrest, because now instead of a 2v3 to 2v2,
that becomes way easier to actually cover that plant,
But the fact that he dies right after makes it very difficult for Snake to win out that round a little bit of time left
But couldn't hit those shots
So nice attempt from wildcard to pull things back. Frankly though, they just haven't found a good answer to Bay since this game began
Yes, they countered his spawn. You guys suppose shut him down after his first kill in round one
But in rounds two and three he has been
Amenis impacting this five fear rosters and if they don't find a way to shut him down soon
This game is not gonna end well for five years
No, very good point of that and of course if we just go off of what the desk said, Mint in particular relaxing obviously looking as good as ever.
They said that you need Snake to show up but more importantly you need a big game from Rival and you need a big game from Fens.
Fens has understood the mission, five kills right now leading the way on his team, the best player in the server not named A94 at the present moment.
But I mean, when you've got JJ and Forrest playing such sheltered and solid roles, very
rarely picking up a lot of kills, you need your fraggers to frag well.
It's a conversation that always happens with Shopify Rebellion.
Ad nauseam, whenever SR does poorly, fingers are pointed at Canadian for not being able
to frag.
But SR has said time and time again, our focus is feeding the kills to the fraggers.
My fears don't really have much more fragging power in JJ and Forrest than you tend to see
from Canadian on SR. So a lot more falls onto the shoulders of three players on Five Fears
and the four with SR. Neither of these teams seeming to escape that level of criticism.
Big difference between them though. Five Fears in the basement of North America right now and
outside of a really strong showing in kickoff almost uh we're getting close to a year ago.
I guess six years, six months, whatever, can do math. Outside of that SR has been a very consistent
So five years if they're gonna do some finger pointing their fraggers need to start fragging especially against the team
That has the most kills in the entirety of the league
Full force like rotation coming through from wild card of course using not to repeat bar stage
I do want to say it's a little bit weird that they went there, but it's not that out of pocket
They were 2 and 0 defending on that site previous to this matchup beating both outlast and dark zero back in April
Also, Wildcard are a team who like bar stage, but I don't expect them to run it twice here in this match versus five years.
Jim and Vedram will be their fourth site to select here in the fourth round.
And my eyes are on Spiker. Our observer's just pan to him. He is roaming down below in the basement.
The IGL of Wildcard has yet to get involved in this game, but this could be a good moment.
They are watching oil pit. They have an idea there could be someone down there.
If he times this right though with a flank, he could have such a big impact for his team.
There goes the Nitro Cell, down goes Forrest, Kansan starting things off, and Spiker's opportunity is there!
He does quite a bit of damage to Rival, who is completely oblivious to Spiker's position.
There goes Bay, no impact on this round, but his Yokai drones, well at least one last Yokai drone, will be available to him.
Puts Kansan now in this position in cash to play all by himself!
There wasn't much remaining of Rival, Kansan handles it, Bens picks up a two-piece!
Because there's quite a ballgame here, one minute to go, and Wildcard on their back foot is there, down a man.
Spikers rotated through the basement, gone up the main stairs, knows that this flank has been cleanly read by Five Fears.
Unfortunately, he wasn't able to get anything with that oil pit movement, so...
Gonna team up with Baby Shark, try to add the Frenchman, use 2v3, and find a way to lock down this site.
Some drones coming through, and lots of time still for Five Fears with the main counter-vanage.
Baby Shark goes down early, that is brutal. Spiker now with everything to do.
John gets a lot harder now being death-tracked.
Nitrocel goes out, will not find the same success that the earlier one did on Forest,
but he shreds bends, and now it's J.J. and Snake.
As J.J. lines up, Snake gets closer and will hold this angle no chance whatsoever.
Snake does not miss those opportunities.
Not with that information, not with that gun.
In hand.
Things go very well through the mid-round, four or five fears, and they launch it to a victory.
in the final moments of the round to tie the game.
There's like just a lot of moments where Wildcard are trying to get aggressive,
they're trying to make something happen, and they're getting punished because of it.
Obviously, Spiker's flank we were focused on didn't really find the impact that he was hoping to have
moving up through Oil Pit, but at the same time, you know, Adrian goes for a swing from construction
in towards the site. He's trying to trade Kansen's death and take down Fens, but Fens hit a really
nice double shot in the midst of that round to keep the numbers in favor, four or five fears,
get that man count rolling under their belt. Again, Spike are not finding much success
with his aggressive play, other than a bit of damage. Eventually Rival did go down to
Kansan, so Kansan gets a double kill in this round after his C4 starts things off, but
the trade game is still a lot better for 5 fears in the midst of it. And I mean, you
can also point a little bit of a finger towards Bay. He's getting aggressive, which of course
I'm happy with. He's an aggressive player, but he's doing so on the echo. That makes
Extense when you're playing on bar stage for sure, but bringing Echo to gym bedroom and choosing to roam with it on red stairs
I don't know it just feels like maybe there would have been some better operators in that position
If you want an echo on the board to help your roamers by all means play Echo
But it just feels like maybe it could have had more value than somebody else's hands
I mean that's two times that we
We assume the Echo is gonna do something but then Bay dies way too early on I'm completely with you there put somebody else on that operator
It's not like the olden days where there was an ACOG on that MP5 suppressed and you could do some serious damage there when you'd pick like
Echo or Doc or Rook and your utility was really quite irrelevant. You were just playing for the gun
You know when in doubt cog it out as they would say
It's not really the case anymore with the echo. So
For the first time in my entire life Jesse. I'm gonna say these words. I agree with you
Thank you. I've read the law. It's like a shiver went over my body when I said that it was like a very visceral
I couldn't it was uncontrollable
Well Parker, I'll say something else that you maybe will agree with here and that's that we've got pretty aggressive defense coming out from wild card
Bay has swapped off the echo who's moved over towards this mute
He was roaming top floor but as we hit the two-minute mark left in the round
It looks like everybody is gonna come back the site
So I like this game plan from wild card you show some presence up on the top floor make five years a little bit scared to walk
Into bar to walk around garage to be worried about what roamers might exist up above them
and then you can go back to site and make sure you've got this 5v5 anchor position.
Spiker on this clash, this is a rarity for him, but we did see him bring this out against Outlast last week
and it resulted in a win here on the bottom floor site, so definitely good tools being held by the defense.
Five fears now working on the floorboards, taking their time to set things up on their own.
Forced ability to dodge this clash and find some way to get into a plant spot without getting zapped and slowed
and countered by the defense is going to be really critical for the success of this round.
Forest as it's hands full now is one minute to go in the round means we are hurtling towards
a conclusion.
We are in the second quarter of this game.
Both teams right now positioned evenly.
Again, playoff points on the line, Wildcard entered the day in second place.
Baby Shark finds one and almost a second, nearly a third.
As that snake bleeding out on the ground and forest survives, quite a scare.
We'll hunt for the next pick here, but they lose it!
JJ had all the information, Adrian and Kansan collect their kills, Forest now down, and
Rival in a 1v4 can he even handle Baby Shark?
No, he cannot.
Wildcard regained the lead.
Massive couple of kills coming through from Baby Shark in the midst of that parker.
I know it said triple kill for Kansan. That's a HUD error. That was a quad kill for the shark
Just playing around blue playing around church gets themselves into a really strong position
Honestly all off the back of spikers calling on the clash
I said it right before the execute if they aren't able to avoid the clash with force on the Monty
It's gonna be really hard to make that push work and that's exactly what we saw most of those five fierce players were pushing blue
Including their Monty including Fens. They were trying to carry the Grim
They were really trying to take the space three players here, but the clash is scaring at them
The smoke is throwing talks of babes at them and baby shark is firing at them through the wall
It's a kill box inside of blue and even hunting for these last couple of kills
I mean spikers getting aggressive to make sure that happens shark wins the last frag here as well
Big 4k to come through and you see the hype in his eyes baby shark feeling himself after round five
But he needs somebody in reserve.
It couldn't be Bay all day and why not have the Frenchmen show up?
Huge.
Baby Shark has had a bit of a tough go of this stage.
He's been far from his usual self.
By far and only the worst player on this team statistically.
He's all the way down in 44th of 50 active players.
You have to go all the way up to 17th to find the next wild card player.
Spiker.
That's crazy when you think about a Kansan, fifth best rated player in the league.
Bay, 11th, Adrian 14th, Spiker 17th, maybe Shark 44th.
Somebody's got to be at the bottom, I get that.
But on his role in the way that he plays, the way that he turns up at international competition,
We know he's better than those numbers, and today he is proving that in spades with him
and Bay having the game that they're having, supporting cast, I suppose, doesn't really
matter.
Final round of the first half now is Wildcard.
Look, to win it 4-2, they've got to get through the next two minutes first.
The entry for Adderall Wildcard keeps us on our toes with the off picks.
He will bring the clash now as Bay is moving off of the Echo.
Last time, of course, on this site in particular, he played the Warden, a much more standard
Operator you might see in this position, but just gonna be playing towards the top of red for now
It's still oh what a shot from spiker like cut myself off for that one a brilliant one straight onto his
Tier 3 tier 2 rival JJ blasts. I'm sure let words to say about that if they get a winner interview after this game
Incredible stuff there some of these shots that these guys are hitting her today are otherworldly
Suppose fighter gets that one back that he wanted on arrival earlier when he went through that oil pit flank and missed
Down goes Snake, down goes Fens, Kansan on the run out gets both of them over by
stock and that's likely to put on these five fears chances.
Foe and rival now the last two under fire, Spike are still in this position
still doing so much damage. Will be the one to get Forrest as he backs his way
all the way back into spawn. Now Jesse I'm no siegeologist but I don't think you
want to be in spawn when there's a minute left in the round. Yeah maybe not
certainly not in a 1v5 but this is where Forrest is at right now. He's got 75 seconds down to 16
now to try to fish for some kills but this will not be around when it'll be 4-2 at the half for
Wildcard. Essentially unwinnable for Forrest in this spot especially with the clash. Credit to
Kansan for making this play happen. He ran out the stock door to kill two people out on Repel.
That was so big to really end this round with Spiker as well playing in those Raptors positions.
It'll be Adrian who gets the final frag of the round and secures the 4-2 half.
Let's hear what our desk has to say about the first six rounds of the day.
Thanks guys wild card. I mean the sparks are flying that much is clear
We're seeing a good bit of play from both sides
But to start off this match to set the tone with Bay getting a little clutch
I mean that's what they want to do. The sparks were flying. I mean the weapon was shooting
I mean the round two big 4k big 1v3 clutch
I mean like you said a great way to start out the series in the second round
It's exactly what you'd expect out of a player like they I mean the consistency from him the level of play that he continues to show
Time and time again, it's always got to be noted and he always forces us to talk about him
He knows that we're gonna talk we knows we're gonna highlight him and overall this was a good back-and-forth between both teams
I do want to say five years. There were good attempts from them. Yes, they did get to round
But those that one I believe is the first gym cash round
I mean Jim Mass around where we saw force try to go for that play gets wall banged through the wall
Unfortunately loses it for me when it comes to the five fears. They just have to slow down
I mean again, it's very chaotic in the comms. We heard JJ talk about we need to slow down and mentioning what I was saying
But then they immediately jump right back into it. They're very chaotic
They're very hyper focused on one thing where again, you just have to focus on everything all at once and then pick and choose
How you're gonna do they don't got to worry about it too much now
Now they're on defense statistically the easier side and I've been worried for wild card.
I mean, allowing them to even just get two rounds on attack.
We talk about this time and time again.
Sometimes all you need is to on your attacking half on a map like clubhouse and then you
can solidify and seal the deal on your defense.
So I'm actually going to disagree with you a little bit here, which is you're a hater.
I'm not a hater of defense.
I'm not talking about the clubhouse that I'm talking more so in the slowing down aspect
for five years because I think that's kind of their problem.
I think a normal team should slow down and kind of figure out where their advantages are and figure out the next target
But five years that's their problem when I listen to the comms. It's probably the most hectic calm
I'm just gonna call them out probably the hectic comes in the mid-round that I have heard and I think that is a big problem
They have a lot of like leadership issues
Who's making the decisions and when they slow down they're giving wildcard an opportunity to kind of stall them out and credit the wildcard for
Bringing operators such as clash the smoke the Goyo and forcing five years to kind of make decisions because again
that is where I'm seeing them fall apart. I think their success comes when they start to momentum
things and they start to use those double shields and go downhill at a team and take advantage
and surprise them. So again, I mean for for wild card uh uh bringing out the class even the echo
play I thought was a really good idea. Obviously, Bay was jumping around right right. He was obviously
dying a good amount and I also want to address the bar. I mean they went bar uh to the very first
site and a lot of people are like why are you going bar right? Well what is clubhouse? It's a
step-by-step map and it's a very default map and you don't you don't want five
fears who are already comfortable attacking it the last time to go to a
site where they're really comfortable so I think that was just to throw them off
their game a little bit and so credit the wildcard for trying something it
didn't work they got back to the to the OG game plan and they won four of
the the next five defense. It's also the reason why you see those tertiary sites
sometimes come out it's really to just throw off the other team to make them
have to question because they're already gonna be prepped we're gonna go to the
next strong site where do you know we're gonna bring that boom you're all of a
sudden you're hitting a bar you got to change the setup so it's really great
call from you. Alright into the second half two round cushion for wild card but
can they maintain it on the attack let's find out. Well thank you very much
gentlemen a spirited match between these two teams and one that is a little
bit closer Jesse than I think we anticipated wild card fighting for
their lives in the standings five years fighting for bragging rights mostly
though their playoff chances have not fully fallen away.
It is getting very close to the point of no return.
Today is our final day of the week
before we are back in action next week.
Thursday and Friday will be our final two play days in groups
before things are locked in for the playoffs.
Of course, teams fighting for a spot to make it to Osaka.
Japan is a cool place.
I will say that as somebody who's been there,
and a lot of these teams are playing
to be able to say the exact same thing.
Up next, another team in the playoff on 100 thieves
We'll continue their hot week up against Outlast.
Lots of exciting games today.
Of course, we know we're ending things out with Cloud9 versus Shopify Rebellion.
That's got to be game today on most people's books.
But this one as well.
I mean, it's always a tight game between Five Fears and Wildcard.
And while everybody is expecting Wildcard to be the favorites in this matchup,
the desk broke it down.
Five Fears have a winning record in this series so far through the year.
They've beaten them twice, lost once in Salt Lake City.
So, Viper's know what it takes to take down this wildcard squad.
For now, that's going to mean a bit of an aggressive roam.
You've got some make-up stairs and cash,
forests here inside our kitchen, rival over towards bar.
A lot of these players are roaming aggressively,
so how much they can get out of this position is critical.
It'll be one for one for Snake taking down Baby Shark.
I think that's pretty good if you're Snake on the roam.
It's great, but you allowed Baby Shark to die.
maybe a bit needlessly and
If they'd been a little bit faster you keep your grim up you keep a great player up ends with the fadeaway nitro cell and get out of there
Snake talking some
Some trash on all chat. Why are you dead when you're dead for the next 90 seconds?
Still playing aggressive most teams of this point Parker would be backing off
But Forrest just goes down to Kansas inside a kitchen and now rival's got to make a really tough call
I think he's gonna stay on stage but
If they're droning this, that means they're aware that they could still be playing aggressive
and if they take the slow one wildcard, they could absolutely annihilate this round.
I think they just droned Rival, but they might have missed it.
Now they've...
Now I've certainly got him this time.
Uh-oh.
The jig is up!
If Rival can survive here, maybe even get a kill in the same time, it would be...
immensely impressive.
He does find his way to the hatch and drop, escaping, but will immediately...
Nope.
What are the time wastes already, Parker?
I mean, three roamers, two of them go down for only one kill.
That's not ideal, but we're at less than 40 seconds on the clock.
We're just starting to rip up these four boards that Scans gets to work.
So the time has been a huge problem for them.
Five years.
They can stall things out.
Still three talk to base from JJ Blast.
There's a win con in the turn.
I was gonna say he was gonna head towards blue, but then off to not have to do it.
as he shot the drone and immediately ran away.
Wildcard have not much time to pull this one off
as they're smashing up the floors as best as they can
and now turning their eyes towards the bomb site
to drop in from Spiker.
He's limited on HP, but can hopefully survive
whenever tossed at him.
There's no nature cells, no gas canisters to remain
and they'll just take the fight directly.
JJ, a golden opportunity,
five of the round with three.
Surprise, he's not celebrating a bit more,
but what an incredible play at a blunder by Wildcard to not see JJ coming.
The five-fears captain coming alive in this round defining round.
I mean, round seven is so important here to set the pace.
Keep them competitive in this game, Parker.
Four to three now on the scoreboard and JJ.
Just vaulting over the box.
It was supposed to be Bay covering with the Cali,
but honestly, so many players from five years
were throwing their bodies at this plant.
Oh, there's nothing calm about it. JJ knows that this is the game of all the matches where he needs to perform the best.
He comes alive in that round to get himself up to 6-5, a positive KD, a massive turnaround for the five-fierce captain who, again, really struggled in yesterday's game versus 100 views with the lowest-rated player here, the 2-12 on Fortress.
JJ is the third. Well, I need to correct myself. Four lowest rated player in the league as Tyrant has held that distinction for quite some time. There was, of course, a sub that played for DZ when J9O was having internet connectivity issues for those that will recall.
But yeah, JJ Blast just really not in good shape numbers-wise.
Again, he had a pretty decent start.
I think it was the first or second playday that we saw from five years.
He's sort of pretty soundly in the middle of the pack.
But he and Forest are in the bottom six rated player forest,
is the sixth lowest rated player.
And that's just, that's not going to get the job done for this team.
Nobody to beat up on them.
I mean, we've already talked quite a bit yesterday and today
about what this team lacks.
The desk touched on it as well.
So instead of saying, oh, we need to see more from JJ,
I'm going to say, that was a hell of a play by him,
and definitely one that was well deserved.
And of course, catchy wild card off guard.
It did seem like it was wild cards round to lose,
and I ended up losing it.
Now we got an opportunity for them
to equalize the numbers, Parker.
Four out of four possible here for five years
to be able to make this a tied game.
We're going to have to defend here on CCTV,
Cache, Snake, standing on towards the gym side of things.
They've also got Forest within here on Edge Room.
So let's see what they want to do with it.
Looks like it's going to be a garage take.
I don't expect those players to really have the opportunity
to get into early gunfights.
Feels like this is going to come back down
to how you hold onto rafters.
I was fenced, going to buy this time over here.
Not really finding much with that Flora's drone in the bay.
He will blow up at least the fire extinguisher.
So a little bit of view so cleared out now
You're looking at again the capitao the prescience being done on this garage wall
And I'm worried about the clock has really no pressures been put on fence yet. There he goes finally taken out really nicely
Adrian is still in this position to death marks in pocket
See teams use those don't could be calls those death marks etc in the post plan or when the plant is going down
And there's been some misunderstanding about what the team's overall strategy is when the Doka B will die with four of those calls in pocket
Information is so important
It's even more important when you've got the objective within your grasp
There's a missed opportunity speaking of Intel from baby shark to swat away one of those yokai drones
Very lucky for JJ to have that utility still in play because baby sharks mechanics maybe weren't the best
Says DMR that took down Fenn so he's already had a good impact in this round
They can work themselves into a plank position now Parker watch out for the night yourself being held by rival
The blows will come in JJ continuing his strong play shotgun in hand for us now on the board
This wildcard team running face first into every obstacle they can find
Spikers last man standing as his whole team has collapsed around him
He does hold the case has to be concerned with snake down below snake will buy time
because they have a standoff and Snake has just been so good in this position.
Here, Wildcard's number, if you remember, all the way back in that first half.
Hosted up his Deimos and now he does the same, but the inverse as Malusi.
We got ourselves a tie game, Jesse.
Yeah, five fears not making this easy by any means for Wildcard.
And a lot of these attacks, Parker, they're just stumbling at the final roadblock.
Look at its actual timeout to come through from Lagonas, the head coach of Wildcard.
But I mean, you can look back on that previous round.
They were in a plant spot. Spiker was holding F inside the bomb site. They were in a good position to get it down.
But they knew that there were a lot of, there was a lot of utils still being held by the defense.
They knew they were yokai still up. They knew there was a C4 on the board.
Even Forrest potentially would have had some of those thorn traps try to deny the plants.
So they felt like they had to get aggressive, right? They felt like they needed to push up.
They pushed through the door between sites. We saw Baby Shark pushing up red stairs.
They tried to get aggressive in the midst of that, but they just lost all of those engagements.
Fight Fears did a really good job kind of coalescing, bunkering up inside of cash
so that they could win those fights, get the trades if they needed.
It's a tough problem to break through because I'm not sure exactly what wild card need to do extra.
They had the opening picked there, they had the plant position.
It was just those last couple fights inside the bomb site.
Maybe need to speed things up a little bit. Maybe need to play more for the objective and less for frags.
There's a couple different ways they could approach this,
but Fight Fears are frankly playing a really strong game here on the defensive side and laxing,
I think maybe hit the nail on the head on the desk saying the hard part is still to come for wild card job
Is not done a 4-2 lead evaporates in the first half and we're dying tied now for a piece
Impressive stuff from five fears there honestly they haven't been I think as bad as their numbers would suggest
This team has potential to pop off
I know the desk has put a moratorium on referencing kickoff and the results that we saw from five years as they were the
team in North America just six-ish months ago and while it's gonna fall for them
absolutely they still got good players there's still some elements there that
they can capitalize on unpredictability play around shields that sort of thing
but the problem is twofold if you're not eye-gailing properly and you're not
hitting your shots you're not gonna be winning many games that's exactly what
five years has found just a single win so far so to be able to do this to the
second-best team in North America. It is a tremendously large and beautiful feather in the cap of this team
And they're in pretty good shape
Two islands in a row defending on clubhouse forcing wildcard to take their time out of wildcard don't use that time out effectively
They can't translate it to a victory
My money starts to go towards five years closing this out
We have like five years or a team who are always looking to make plays. They're always looking to get aggressive
They're looking to control the pace of the game
And sometimes that means they go for things that just look horrible and dumb and they don't work out for them
But they're always taking risks, you know, and that's the identity of this team today. Those risks have really paid off
I think JJ's been super intelligent on the gunfights. He's taking the positions
He's pushing and when he's making those plays snake has been good snakes always good frankly fens
I think has been doing better than average as well
Like it feels like a couple key players are just finding the plays that work for them
And it's not like they don't always go for these plays, but today they're finding their mark. They really showed up
Wanted to win this game against wildcard. They're putting the pieces together and now it's trying to take the lead
They will defense Jim in bedroom
So it'd be a flawless rotation if they could win it Parker, but step one has to be clearing out cash
As all of the defenders rotate out, they will give up that map control over the wildcard 90 seconds deep
But five years sounding the team bugle as everybody runs back into the bomb site from construction
There's three separate players five years all understanding the mission
Polly's pick rate continuing to climb across all regions, the top 15 played operator, irrespective of attack and defense.
And you can see why with that soft caliber base-based destruction that we have and also just a lot of damage that can be done.
So maybe Shark with a good set of weaponry, holding them down.
Spiker lost and Snake lost. I think it's more devastating at this point that Snake is off the board for five fields.
And I don't know, the way JJ is playing, he gets almost two guaranteed on one.
Ten kills within reach for JJ.
They just need somebody to just care Adrian as he bleeds out.
Kansan finds an opening, taking care of Rival.
And Forrest will be in pursuit down below to take care of him.
Bay will either have to retrieve Adrian, which is a dangerous gambit,
or go for all three picks on his lonesome.
Adrien has crawled his way over to that outside air conditioning unit.
He'll be picked back up.
They on 10 kills.
He's got Forest inside the bathroom who's made his way all the way back up,
but now it's Adrien against Five Fears.
JJ secures the kill.
10 kills for JJ.
Five rounds for Five Fears, and they've got the lead.
Oh, the ownership, it goes back and forth.
Spike, you might have beaten them 20, 30, 40 times in Tier 3,
but in Tier 1, JJ Blast has had your number, leads the rivalry in Tier 1,
three wins to two losses, and looking to extend that to four as five fears, two rounds away.
Parker, I thought the nitrocells really defines that round.
Obviously, JJ's double that went through the window,
I guess technically just a single as one was later recovered from the downstate,
but the nitrocell obviously big stuff in momentum, but even before that,
both Forrest and Ben spent the entire round below.
Look at those outlines down below.
Forest is ready for the nitrocell as well if they were on a different window.
Rival had to drop the gym bat hatch and play down below.
They were always threatening C4s downstairs.
They were getting ready to deny any plant that Wildcard could have gone for,
and it forced guys like Hansen to have to try to clear out that bottom floor,
but there were too many players extended down there.
The second they lost the pressure on the window,
they just felt hopeless for them to be able to retake that site
with all the pressure both in the site and down below.
Five pairs continuing to mix up through defenses, presenting really tough problems to Wildcard,
and the problem solving just hasn't quite been good enough to get through these defenses.
Frustration no doubt setting in for this Wildcard roster.
To close out the rest of the group stages, both of these teams, of course playing two more times.
Next Thursday, Wildcard have the second match of the day. They go up against M80, another team
team that finds themselves deep in the basement.
MAD starting the day in last place in the North America League and
while statistically still in the playoff hunt,
there is a high likelihood that if MAD loses their match today or
their adversaries ahead of them in the standings win their games,
that MAD will be eliminated from the playoff hunt,
particularly devastating after how good they looked in stage one,
rejuvenated by Savage getting picked up to govern that team.
All five fears will play dark zero next Thursday.
So that'll be a tough match for five fears.
But with the way they're handling wildcard, DZ, watch out.
Final play, Davey.
Well, it's wildcard playing cloud nine in a match
that might be important, might not be,
depending on what cloud nine does between them.
And now five fears will be going up against Shopify Rebellion.
That's the land for these teams.
So for wildcard, tough matches ahead.
Five fears, same can be said, only difference.
Wildcarts in a very competitive playoff race they need to pick up these points.
And the first pick goes the way it's Snake.
They did a bunch of damage to Kanzu with Ben going for a spawn peek.
JJ just put a bunch of bullets in his spiker, but Snake is the one that technically gets the opening and the second.
That was not deserved, but Snake hits a beauty shot and gets away with it.
Two picks out there on the roam and that will prompt everybody on five fears now to fall back to site.
Rival knows that the early game has been won.
He will go back towards his teammates.
No Goyo or anything on that barricade, so he's happy to get back in, and they can play the time, play the bunker behind their Keebas, behind their Magnus, behind their Goyos, and toss babes, what a round from Snake.
This one will be tough to recover.
And it continues to go from bad to worse, Jesse. There goes Adrian, forest abassing five kills very quietly.
It's kind of funny the player that the desk singled out has needing to have a good game and we've also jumped on that same train
rival
He's the lowest rated player on five years right now
And they are in a position to close out this round and move to match point which will guarantee them a single point
All three points right now well within their grasp and frankly looking quite likely with the way that they have played
Baby shark now tagging up some of Fens' feet as Fens sits inside a church
And he dropped through that kitchen hatch.
He'll be watched by at least two players from Five Fears,
based on their spread.
Really good discipline here from Five Fears
as they look to hang on for the final 30 seconds.
A Russian now from Spiker,
but he cannot get through the wall.
So he will take the engagement head on,
making an awful lot of noise in the process,
unable to clear much at all.
Baby shirt now with the drop finished up by JJ.
Five Fears move to match point.
A desperate attempt in the two before,
no hope for wild card as Snake,
I think completely shut down that round before it even got started getting those two kills on the Rome was so impressive
And then the third as well that came down on the Adrian that really put the final male in the coffin
Adrian was trying to make his way into the basements
Maybe a little ahead of the rest of his teammates and he's already downstairs while the rest of the squad wasn't really up
Snake jumps out for the first kill. Here's the second ball which is so impressive finishes the reload and gets it done
Then just really smart passive play from five years in the anchor position
And JJ's coming out on top. This is the rivalry that maybe people don't first think of when
they learn about the NAL, but it's one of the spiciest in the league for a reason.
Very good stuff from the Spawn of Fears team yesterday as you pointed out, it was a disappointing day for J.J. Blast.
He's got 12 kills now, Jesse, so who's the last one laughing here?
Five Fears were given a huge leg up with Kason's internet problems, and Five Fears very much had that match for a period of time, well within their grasp.
Still, a hundred thieves came very close to winning a couple of those. They won one of them, frankly, but they came close to winning a couple of them.
down a player. Five years still got a point in that game and they will get a point here as well.
The most successful week for five years as they are getting points in both of their games.
That's something we haven't really been able to say for this team in quite some time.
And with the fall that Wildcard seems to be in, five years looking like they are in excellent shape
to pick up all three points. Baby Shark and Bay have both gone very quiet over the last four rounds.
rounds the offense from Wildcard has been sputtering to say the least. It's time to lock in no more
time for mistakes for Wildcard they have to win these next two just to force overtime they were up
four two at the half they have lost four straight defense rounds to get them to this position.
Attacking on CCTV cash last time they were here they actually had a really good clear offense
since that of Rafter's baby shark hit the shot that he's going for once again to take down the
a zombie but now fence playing a little bit more passive he's surviving maybe a
little bit longer it was really the anchor players where it fell apart in
the 5v4 push from wildcard so even once they clear fence the job is far from
over. Benz's goal is just to waste as much time as possible hopefully burn a
bunch of utility and put his team in the best possible position to win this out 7-4.
He's a very familiar spot for Adrian now down in oil pit. We saw him there before. It was on
Deimos last time we saw him. I could be mistaken. No cooking in games. They're just waiting for the
lineup as he and others are trying to take care of Fens in this position. So far it has not worked
out whatsoever. Fens is enduring longer than I think Wildcard wanted. They do find JJ. So hey,
the top frag on five fears. I cannot believe I'm saying that about JJ is down for the count.
It's one minute to go in five years.
Open to close this one out in regulation.
JJ swung the breach, went down a half HP,
and then got finished off through the drone hole,
trying to get back to top red.
That's a tough one for the captain.
And with his fends going down, too,
now it gets really awkward for five years.
They're gonna have to lock this one down 3v5.
Trust on wildcards, and they're going to make this execute happen.
They've failed so far every time they've gone for it in this matchup.
But this is probably their best position, Parker.
45 seconds is a decent bit of time,
With man advantage, they should be able to flood site and play for trades, but you just never know when guys like Snake are sitting inside the site.
Snake is really just such a wild card part of the pun. He gets one, traded out immediately by Cands and Rivals on the board now.
Ian Forrest outnumbered, but still holding on for dear life.
Top frags from wild cards still on the board. Bay and Baby Shark again, quiet for the last few rounds.
Now is the time to start making noise and send us the final round of regulation nitro cell goes rival in this position
Forest gets him with the razor bloom triggered by wild guard and now forest will need to clutch as it's once by Bay
Adrienne sticks the plant forest is off to the races
Adrienne clutches at the final moment getting off of the plant and we will go all 12 rounds
all
Believable that was so winnable for Forrest. I mean he had done the hard part. He slammed Bay who was a hundred HP
He gets them holding the cross. Adrienne was literally one health
I mean it was a pixel of HP left showing on the HUD and somehow he pulls off the plant and stops that kill from happening
Forrest, he's trying to play the time
He's trying to bait Adrienne to pull off the defuse kit but Adrienne
Confident in his ability to stick it knows if he gets off. It's not gonna go his way
force, you know, in hindsight maybe has to play it more aggressive, but I mean
those situations are always 50-50, you're trying to read your opponent, you're
trying to predict what they're going to do, and at the end Adrian just predicts a
little bit better in that moment. Really well done to clutch things up, but still
a scary round for Wildcard. I mean a two-man advantage, and they're barely able
to win things out on the bombsite parker, even if they can win round 12, even if
they get to overtime. I still really like Five Fears for defending on CCTV cash.
I think how poorly coordinated that play on fence wise really is quite emblematic of wild
cards issues at this point in time.
You don't make top four at multiple international events with that level of poor coordination.
You simply need to be better than that.
they just seemed a little out of sync.
And honestly, this has happened to Wildcard
a few times this stage.
I think we've chalked it up to issues with Wildcard.
Maybe a better explanation is just ultimately
how competitive the North American League is.
Even some of these, quote unquote, lower teams
are still having very good moments.
And then you watch other regions
and it just seems like they're a little tiny step
behind North America right now.
Yeah, paid to dunk on our EML brethren,
but I've been tuning into some of those EML games
and if I was a fan of NA,
I'd like EML to show up to us,
I'm not looking like that, let me tell you that much.
So, hard to pinpoint what's going on with Wildcard,
whether it's Five Fears,
just to be being the better team today,
whether it's Wildcard having some issues,
being out of sync,
maybe some less reliance on shields,
maybe some changes with their strategies,
maybe there's been something going on in the background,
it's hard to say,
and I'm not gonna speculate too, too much
because frankly, it's not really gonna get us any farther ahead.
All I can tell you is that wildcard by the hairs on there,
Chin Chin Chin, we're able to win that round in five years still.
One more opportunity to put this away and pick up all three points.
I mean, Lagonas literally tweeted it.
He said they were playing on disciplines and they're lost to Outlast.
And when you look at the stats, the fact that they had the opening pick
in five of the eight rounds they lost against Outlast shows that lack of discipline.
Now against five fears, they've lost six rounds.
They have the opening pick in three of those.
So it still feels like Wildcard are struggling
to walk down the advantage they get for themselves.
They're gonna need to work with those advantages,
regardless, they have to continue to put the work into
to not throw these leaves, they gain themselves.
Here's another one that will go the way of five years,
Adrien could actually get recovered.
The fact that Nitro missed opens the opportunity
to pick him up, but even still,
this slows Wildcard down.
It's gonna grind this push to a halt
until they can recover his body.
The exact same spot that Adrian crawled to last time around when he was downed by a nitro cell
No way. This is this is really
What on earth was that?
Bay last man standing assessing the ruins of his teams and fans will put him in the ground
Five years pick up all three points as they toppled second place wild card in 12 rounds
That is so smart. Wildcard think they have to play using the smoke grenade to stop anybody from
denying that play from making the pick up happen, but my god's fake on the warden. The perfect counter.
Five beers beat their biggest rivals and take down a wildcard for our first game of the day.
What a finish I mean this guy right here dancing on wildcard as five fears take the win in regulation
it looked like that one was going to come down to the wire look like maybe we're going
to see overtime no snake shut it down and that last round I mean what did we just witness
200 IQ play out of Snake here to bring the warden to CC window, a server's window, and
to be able to grab these kills. Because they already knew that a player was down from Forest
being able to down the player on that master window. But then the immediate follow up from
Snake right there. I mean, there was a plethora of plays for the side of Five Peers throughout
this entire series. But that round was, that really was beautiful. You got to give it to
Snake.
You got to give it to Snake. And I mean, the fact that they had a warden, I mean, there's
There's just no information on the wildcard side, right?
Obviously throwing that smoke.
They thought they were safe to go for the pick up.
But I mean, that was just kind of the problem with wildcards attacks.
Not, yeah, too default.
Not enough information.
And while you're trying to play such a default map,
five years knows exactly what you're going to do.
There's almost nothing you could throw at them differently.
And every single time they set up, whether it was attacking gym
and they're all outside the windows,
they're met with a C4 because they know they're going to be out there.
Or you're attacking the basement.
You're going to be dropping kitchen hats.
They just know where the takes are coming from.
And it's again, it's the problem.
Like don't take a worse team to clubhouse
and definitely don't take five years clubhouse
because now that's a map that they have shown
to be probably the only good map right now for them.
And they're striking out twice.
They certainly they got to learn going forward.
Yeah. Hopefully Wildcard may have that lesson,
but on the side of five years, I mean, this guy is ready
to tell us a lot more.
I'm sure he is.
JJ is standing by now after the victory.
JJ, oh my goodness.
I mean, to some teams out there looking in, it's like, oh,
it's just another group stage match.
We know better.
I mean, you're going up against Spiker.
I mean, you just got the power up today.
It looked good from here.
Three things in life are guaranteed.
Death, taxes, and I'm going to beat Spiker in NAO, baby.
Yeah, I mean, just a power up there.
I wish we could play those guys every week.
Yeah, you'd have to be looking on it every now and then.
You kill it.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, I don't know, I just always, I think it's just a personal thing versus
Spiker.
I love them.
Those guys are probably like our favorite NAL team.
They're the only team that kind of likes us.
We like those guys.
They're great guys.
They're a great team.
But we just power up for them.
We want it more versus them.
We don't want it at all versus Packers.
So it's fine.
But three play days, seven points.
I mean, yesterday was a little bit of a debacle.
Don't even want to talk about it, really.
But we're alive.
We're not dead yet.
We're on death's door, but we ain't nailing it yet.
We're alive for the last week of the season
Love that well, I think I mean credit to Jesse
I think the stat is actually you're four and two now in T1 against spikers
So you kind of own him a little bit inside the T1
JJ's
I want to talk about a little bit of the debacle that we've seen kind of happening in some of your previous games
Specifically on the attacking side. I want to know what kind of your thoughts the IGL the brain
What's kind of going on on the attacking side that's causing some problems for five years?
Yeah, it's weird like kickoff and stage one like we were really great on attack and like stage one the defense shifted
We were awful on defense now kind of like defense our redeeming son and attacks the struggle
And this thing like four says like whatever team he's on the pendulum just loves to swing each way
So I think we just got to find our our confidence our glue again on attack
I think like you see moments of like good like today like I mean it should have been like a 3-3 club
Like that we threw like a 1v2 basement like like work like for the most part. There's some good signs
But yeah, I definitely agree like our attacks kind of on the weaker side right now is something we're focusing on
And we're trying I think it just kind of comes down to um, I think we're kind of having some internal struggles with like individuals
Showing like fear in the moment to make the play in the match scenarios like in practice
We're not having these issues and on game day like we're just kind of we're hesitating right and that kind of goes against the five
My fear is philosophy, just gotta, you know,
just be up a foon in the words of others.
Yeah, in the words of others.
Well, I mean, speaking of throwing basement rounds,
I believe we have a clip that I would love to show you.
I believe it was round seven,
you on the defense going huge.
I mean, talk me through this moment.
This is what you call just getting the job done.
This is called you plant your Cajones on the table
and you get it done.
And I saw the play, I smoked it.
I just said, you know what guys,
it's time to take over.
I felt the team, I had it, made it happen.
It was a beautiful run.
Well, JJ, congratulations, a very much-needed win.
You guys are still in the running spiel to make playoff,
so I'm sure that feels good.
Kind of want to focus on yesterday.
Not so much in the match.
Obviously, you say you don't want to talk about us.
I'll do you the service of not having
to talk about losing that man advantage.
However, I want to talk about the tweet
that Hot and Cold put out towards you guys.
I mean, what's your response to that now you're able to,
you know, let the voice be heard.
No more Twitter figures.
There's a lot of bad narrative around us as a team.
Like everyone says like we cancel scrims all the time
and like people blacklisted for us.
Like we're blacklisted from a team
because of what our old coach did.
He's not even on the roster anymore.
And they still won't scrim us one.
Like we had nothing to do with it.
Yeah.
I'm a good boy.
We're good boys.
We're a good boy.
But yeah, so like it's like, I don't know.
Like we don't really ever, like we have one issue.
Like I owned up to a man.
Like I accidentally double booked Wildcard and Favi
and on the same day I picked Wildcard.
Cause I liked that more.
I'm sorry, my bad.
It was an accident, bro.
I made a mistake, yeah, I mean yeah, but no it was like an honest mistake man, yeah
I made a mistake with a double book one time my bad and then like people think like we play stupid like we play stupid
Since we get in a team our whole playstyle is to be aggressive and like like we like our whole team was built off showing everyone
No, like no respect and just like letting the cajonist hang so like nothing's changed
The only difference now that people talk about is we just suck on game day so like yeah, but like we just suck like okay
Yeah, but we're still doing the same shit
It just doesn't work now.
I go, well, like, all right, bro, I made more majors
than half these people this year.
And I'm awful.
I'm awful.
And I made more majors.
I won three in Elkins.
You're saying fast, not that a lot.
You have made more majors than 70 players.
I still waiting to make a major.
So you're definitely not wrong.
JJ, thank you so much for your time and your insight.
One thing.
One thing.
My coach would like to say one thing.
Real quick.
They can't hear you.
Well, we heard he was a good boy.
guys we're good boys we do the miracle run here so let's let's just let us do
like all jobs like let me do my fucking job okay let James do his fucking job
don't worry about us that's gotta be a JJ thank you so much that's true God
five years they wrap things up here over Wildcard with a win like like we
said to JJ. I mean, it's like it's the Super Bowl for them when they go up against
Spiker. He loves playing against them. We saw it in his numbers. We saw it in
Snake's numbers and this team, I mean, continues to amaze us in moments like
this. And I'm glad you highlighted both Snake and JJ Blast. Clearly, we got the
last round from Snake pop off performance him, but that's something that we've
already talked about very consistent across the board. But for JJ Blast,
however, that's where I said the biggest issue was going into this matchup is the
shot callers were not performing. Now we saw JJ Blast step up and perform
exactly where he needed him, like he said.
Let us go home and say, well, yesterday, our next two teams,
they faced quite a bit of adversity,
100 thieves losing, well, entering into a man advantage
with five fears, ended up winning that game.
But in a situation like that,
100 thieves are showing us Kyle
that they have really reached another chapter in this season.
It's not just the back and forth inconsistencies.
They seem to be good all the time now.
I mean, that's why I love the length of the NAL right now because you really like you said we can have those chapters
We start at the stage and even last week I called 100 these most inconsistent team in our league
Why because game one they get 7-0 by cloud 9 game 2 they somehow can beat wild card 7-5
Then they lose to DZ 5-7 in a game that honestly wasn't even close
They were down 5-1 and then they 7-0 SR and at this point
They are on a three game winning streak and for me they completely flip the script
I mean I've seen reddit threads talking about this team that they would even miss playoffs
That's how bad hunter thieves were early on
But now we're on that three game winning streak and the engine that we keep talking about it's revved up
You said they somehow won their match against wild card
Well, it was because of that engine but not also because of the engine what we saw in their series yesterday
yesterday was also Adam stepping up.
That was something you mentioned going into that series is,
yes, we've been putting heavy emphasis on spirits
for good reason.
He's been one of the best players in the NAL,
but we hadn't seen Adam for quite some time.
And we remember back in the old days when Adam first
was subbing in for pro teams, when he then joined the league
on that old wildcard roster.
He was the number one player in the NAL,
and he's consistently always been a top 10 player in the league.
But we just haven't really been able to highlight him
throughout this stage.
However, again, yesterday he stepped up and he stepped up where it needed to be given the fact that they were playing in a man deficit.
The majority, or at least four rounds in that series when Kason was disconnected.
Between Spirits and Adam, they dropped a combined 27 kills in a matchup that was a 4v5 and a 5v5 back and forth.
That resilience that they showed yesterday lacks, I mean, such a good sign for them if they have playoff hopes,
if they have international hopes because there's no better time to need that resilience.
Right, when you're talking about flipping scripts,
like Kyle mentioned, it's exactly another thing
that you want to be able to touch up on.
Is there resilience?
Can they fight and go through the hurdles
and go through the motions and still be a strong team?
And we question, once they lost case
and, oh, this is going to be a mental shocker,
we already know Han Kulde is a mental player.
We've seen it time to time again.
He's mentioned it, but the comps still stayed electric.
The objective, the goal was still in mind,
regardless of case and not being there.
And I got to give them a lot of praise for that,
because being in a, I've never been in a situation like that
where I've had to play a man down,
But it is definitely exhausting.
It's frustrating.
You're down a man.
But they kept their cool.
They kept their composure.
They brought Kacen back in, and then they
ended up winning that series.
Sure, they only got two points out.
I'm sure they wanted three.
But back to the matter is they were focused,
and they stayed locked in on the objective.
And again, we had big players popping off
that we haven't been able to talk about.
So it was good on all fronts for all of them to shine through.
I know 100 thieves are rearing to go here.
That matchup yesterday, that 4-5 for about half of it,
was on four trips where they came out with the win.
Let's find out where they will take out last two here.
Lair is the answer.
What do you guys make of this?
We haven't seen it so far from 100 thieves.
We saw it last day.
It wasn't great.
They went two and two.
However, this is a brand new 100 thieves.
We're talking about their flip in the script.
They're looking even better on both attack and defenses.
I'm not worried for 100 thieves.
I know we talk about outlast time and time again.
The last time we saw outlast play this series,
it was verse cloud nine, and their attacks were atrocious.
They could not penetrate that Cloud9 defense,
where a lot of teams couldn't.
However, they need to look significantly better
than what we have continued to see time and time again.
Man, the highest analysts over here
calling out the 100 Thieves stats on Lair
when clearly Outlast is also 0-3 on this map
and has never won Lair.
And I mean, look, the last time they played it,
you said it was against Cloud9 where they were 2-7.
So for me, the Thieves, I mean, I'm thinking back
to last stage, back when they did play this map,
they got really close.
maybe they didn't win, but they got really close specifically in that M80 game and against a lot of the juggernaut teams.
And this is a map that I know spirits, the engine, particularly loves.
We can get him activated on the shields, we can get him activated even on the Ying Shaka,
which I know he loves on this map, going back to Anatan when he was on Kag.
I mean, that was something that spirits always tries to emulate.
And we're actually going to see the Ying get taken off the board.
I'm so sad.
But what does that mean?
It means the shields are up for the thieves.
And 100%, I know the spirits, the engine,
he's gonna get activated on those
and that's gonna propel 100 thieves.
It's a question though, can Outlast slow them down?
And they really need to if they want
to keep their playoff hopes alive.
They come into the day with five points.
Their hopes are not completely gone yet,
but they will need some points today if they want a shot.
100 Thieves, the easy close to the end of this stage, rolls on as all of their remaining
matchups from yesterday through the end of next week are against the bottom four teams.
And some connectivity issues.
Stopped 100 Thieves from amassing all the points, but they still got the job done against
five fears yesterday.
Today they go up against Outlast.
The Deaths Senate, they played this map three times.
Outlast has yet to prevail.
A bit of a head scratch when they would go back here, Jesse.
For 100 teams, surely that's a bit of a relief.
Yeah, I think you're happy to see Lair come out here between these two teams.
Obviously, for Outlast, one of those plays was with their current roster.
They played it once and kickoff, once a Stage 1 and once a Stage 2.
They lost 7-2, but they lost to Cloud9, and frankly, everybody loses to Cloud9 in Stage 2, so that's just kind of how things go.
This is their chance for redemption.
I'm going to set and see how they change things up on Outlast to make this a little bit more successful for them.
They will start here on the defense. So that should give them the opportunity to start with some traction get themselves into a bit
Of a lead here early on the defender side of map that is lair
I like the ying and the glass bands really prevent the cheese coming out from hundred thieves
Spears will of course still be on these shields as the desk said
But it's gonna limit their options a little bit as they try to take onto these sites
Immediately asserting themselves down in operations as they've forced these defenders far far back
back. Joystick having a very good day yesterday. Numbers wise, you have to expect him to be
able to put those up against 100 thieves. Because the offense has been one of the biggest
issues for Outlast. Support hasn't been that much better. It's been a really rough year
for this Outlast team, and I am curious if they make further changes, whether it be to
composition roles or even their coaching and player staff, at the conclusion of stage
two. We've got the support of the organization though, which is mighty good, and a lot of
teams, believe it or not, are not able to say that.
We saw that these play this map back in stage one as the desk talked about,
and they have changed roles a little bit.
Usually you'd expect Gomez to be going down below where Kasin currently is.
You'd expect Kasin to be on the ace where Adam currently is.
So they've changed things around a little bit in this, uh, in this round.
Just the aggressive players, the entries in the, in the flex players,
changing things up a little bit, but the general push seems to have the same idea.
Kasin trying to force some players out of important positions from down below.
Gomez, the first one, takes some damage. They just want to come into the mask wall, Parker, and try to work a plan.
Down goes Tyrant. Rather, Tyrant takes one down before Adam gets two of his own.
Now, last, starting off strong with that pick, but everything since then has been all the thieves, as they are stealing these kills away.
Iconic has his hands full, battered around like a ship in a storm, and Hot and Cold will secure the final kill.
Not even certain if that diffuser was planted in time.
Very close, by the way, a very technical start. 400 thieves.
Yeah, a great push. You know, they take operations, they take Skybridge,
they come in through the outside wall of Mask.
I thought Adam was really well timed as he was going for that push.
Making sure that he's going for that push up through mezzanine, through ops,
right at the same time as the rest of the team is applying pressure to that Mask wall.
It just allowed them to coordinate so perfectly.
You can see kind of Adam on the side of your screen.
He takes down joystick takes down Millie and that opens the door for the plants while hot cold is holding f
They push forward with the blitz. I don't think the plant went down
I'll actually have to go back and check maybe we'll have it in the stats
Maybe he won't but in any case a really strong first round from 100 these
It's a bit of a shame that the issues with case and dominated much of the conversation and hundred thieves match up yesterday because
Hey, I would have loved to have seen what those two teams five years and hundred thieves could have done if they were fighting at full
strength, but also
It really did
Overlook I suppose or hang over the heads of us from what was a pretty good hundred thieves game
The fact that at a 4v5 they were still able to
Keep pace if not be a small step behind five years was very impressive
The way they were able to adapt to five years bullying them with those two shields also very impressive
But then when 100 thieves had case and in you immediately saw the player swaps you saw the roll swaps
You saw the operator swaps and hundred thieves started banging on all cylinders and won it in overtime
Hundred thieves another one of those teams very thick in the playoff hunt
They are very happy with the results of the five-fears wild card matchup that went on just before this
Hundred thieves have a really easy schedule for the next two play days
So if they struggle to pick up three points here, they still have opportunity to amass more points
as they look to lock in a top four spot.
Fogel of the C4, Adam will be okay as it nearly comes into contact with him here in AWP.
In the same position he got his double kill in the previous round.
Joystick has played really aggressive in this position.
He spots up the blitz and will have to make some kind of a retreat.
Always the battle with this bottom floor bomb site is how quickly can you get Armory control.
A lot of teams don't commit to full holding it, but Joystick decides he's up for the task.
He's kind of got some support with Millie,
but really he's quite far and Gomez will walk in to get this first pick untreated.
That's at the start that we wanted from Joystick. Not after what we saw yesterday as the Cyborg is
hoping for a bounce back season, both he and Iconic picked up after spending quite a bit of time in
the wilderness, not playing on tier one teams, not finding the level of success that they have found
before, and they are slowly but surely shaking off that rust, but there's only so many play days
for you to do that and as we say time and time again doing well in scrims and getting those
scrims under your belt is great but you want to play as many games as possible against tough
opposition so that you can improve and hone your skills. Crazy to think that if we went back a couple
years and somebody heard us saying that about joystick I think their head would explode but
unfortunately joystick has had a bit of a rough go of it starting 0 and 200 thieves with all the
power in the world for the next minute. Yeah they're in a really strong position at the moment
You're always worried about maybe somebody playing close to a shotgun, tyrant on this smoke could be a bit of a threat,
but he's just inside of stock right now, probably not gonna face the bulk of the pressure that is gonna come through.
We see him now, they're using the first stock to pave.
Gomez considering pushing that side of the map, but maybe thinking better of it.
The magnets are gonna be really annoying, catching these smoke grenades from the spirits.
It puts Millie into a strong position, but you should still be able to bash the shield.
If you come from spirits, if you can get there, actually, it prevents the opportunity, but gets the pick with it.
and I feel the spirit is gonna trade it back.
If you get getting planted, does Outlast know this?
Han cold has to get off of the spot
as the gas from Tyrant lands successfully.
He and Trevmak die shortly thereafter.
Han cold very upset that the diffuse kid
did not get planted because he stands up
and slaughters two of the three remaining players.
And it's been a very strong start yet again
for a hundred these as they have barely broken a sweat
in these two rounds.
Yeah, the pushes are focused.
They know exactly what part of the map they want to take.
They're not getting every possible angle open, but they're gathering the map control that they need.
In that round, that meant Armory, that meant Weapon, that meant pushing on that west side of the map
down those filter stairs over towards the Mirror window.
You often expect somebody to play close on the filter stairs.
It was Milly at the start of the round, but he fell off back to site pretty early there.
I think they were really relying on that Mirror window to do a little bit more work than it ended up doing.
I guess it got them the kill on the Spirits eventually, but ultimately,
I think they were hoping for a bit more from that position.
It talks a bit from Tyrant, not able to do a whole lot to deny that plan as it goes down.
A lot in cold as he mentioned, stepping up off of that for a couple of big kills.
So, 100 thieves, they're just putting Janna some really smart pushes.
They're not overdoing anything in Outlast.
They're falling apart when they need to be standing strongest.
Two kills!
Four Outlast through two rounds.
Not gonna get the job done.
This is reminiscent of their matchup against M80 on Fortress, where I think it was round six.
They had just seven kills. No, I did not use those numbers deliberately. You can do the hand gesture if you'd like.
It just seems like when things fall apart for Outlast, there's no real redeeming factor here,
but that's a great shot from Millie to start the round. And it gets to call E2.
Down goes Spirits, the highest rated player on 100 Thieves. No longer.
I just ran a player in the league after the outlandish play of Tambizou yesterday, Jesse,
but still one of the best players in the league.
He has a crazy shot to come through from Millie.
He's the only one he can see every day, takes out a really important operator, and you know,
Millie's the guy who got really active last week against Wildcard going 13 and 11.
It was the best game that he's played in his young pro career, so if he can get back onto
that level, find some good impact for his team, that could absolutely make the difference.
There's one thing clear about Outlast, is that they can't just rely on one guy popping off, you know?
We've seen some good moments from Iconic, I think in particular, but you need Joystick to be fragging.
You need Millie to be fragging. You need these other guys to be able to come online and support all at the same time.
So many games, it feels like we watched from Outlast, and one or two players have a good game, but it's never everybody on the same moment.
So that kind of has to be the goal from Outlast. Get everybody into a strong position, feeling comfortable in their spots, and hitting their shots as a unit, rather than just one or two guys.
A bit of a pause here now as we reach and settle into the midway point of the round.
Stall potential from Outlast, a lineup that looks similar to what we saw in that very
first round.
Traps galore, stall from both the smoke and the tachelka on the board as well.
Hot and cold down moments ago.
He's bleeding out in a hurry as I assume he's repositioning to get picked back up.
It's exactly what happens and Adam will have to do the duty to get hot and back off of the ground
Gomez dies the hands of joystick in the hope of the cyborg will swing for a second and find it
Goodbye to Kaston Adam and hot and cold blast to remaining
Hot and back from the dead takes down one and that's all he's gonna get as Millie
finishes him off iconic guys in the hands of Adam
Still three upright for outlast
Plenty of fire from T'Chonker to impact grenades that can do some semblance of damage as well as position is known
They'll swing Adam lines up very narrowly misses Trev back
He could have got the two-piece and put himself into a 1v1, but it has not come to pass out last get on the board with a
Chaky but still strong victory
Well, what were we just saying Parker gods like joystick and millie need to come alive if outlasts want to be winning games
and let's a two-piece from both of them there in round three.
They get a couple of critical kills with of course Millie find that opening spawn peek on the spirits and then Joystick
just going for some good swings and I think taking advantage of something you noticed and that was the stall that was really starting to happen from
100 beads after they lost spirits. They kind of spent a lot of time sitting around outside the top floor.
They were throwing in utility. You saw Hot and Cold trying to use those grim bees to get some information the top floor players
but like as hot and cold chucks some bees in the display window,
Trep Max swings out of the north hallway, the Skybridge Hall,
and gets the town.
Didn't get the kill on the hot and cold.
He eventually got it a little bit later with the frag on Adam,
but, you know, it stalls things out.
It wastes utility.
It forces 100 bees to play a little bit more afraid,
and I think that kind of has to be the game plan
for Outlast on this defensive side.
You know, get aggressive, take some risks,
catch one of these off guard,
because for the first two rounds,
they were able to just execute their game plan
without any interruptions. In round three we saw those interruptions come full
full force from 100 leads or from outlasts and made a big difference.
Here's the numbers in the very first game so I think we should we should
repeat it here. In terms of most deaths the start of today it was five years with
most deaths of any team in the league outlast was second with most deaths
behind by a single death. 250 deaths across all games for five years. 250
49 for Outlast but things really get much darker when we look at the kills
And it does go back to the point that I made about how when things go bad things go really bad for this team
Outlast far and away the fewest amount of kills of any team in the league currently sitting at a hundred and sixty-three kills
across 61 rounds
For people who want to do some quick math there. That's
That's under three kills around on average.
That is quite dreadful.
They are a full 34 kills below four fun
who are in second and 50 kills
off of escaping that bottom three.
So things are dire for this team.
They've struggled from an offensive perspective.
If they can amass more rounds like the one we just saw
where Joystick was contributing,
Milly had some very good moments.
They can pick up those kills.
Outlast can be a force to be reckoned with.
Alrighty, so much Yuto being used in AWP spirits, barely alive after all the Yuto gets tossed out.
His Nade forced back some of the aggressive players, which has saved him a little bit.
And once again, this kind of has to be the game plan.
We've got our analysts with their ear in the comms, and I just got worried about what was said after that round loss from 100 Thieves.
We're hot and cold, the captain said, guys, just play safe.
They're only going to beat us on rounds if they can play aggressive like that.
We're seeing that from 100 Thieves trying to take things a little bit slower, trying to play a little bit safer.
understanding immediately how the Outlasts are trying to win these rounds and trying to come up with a counter because of it.
Spirit's taking some damage, but we'll still have that shield so bullets can bounce off of it.
Once again, halfway point of this round. Far quieter than what we saw from 100 Thieves on these first two rounds.
Blistering pace taken by this team.
I think they understood after losing that early pick in the previous round that they need to take things a little bit slower moving forward
Almost identical lineup to what we saw from outlast back in round number one
All they swapped out was they swapped out the mute for a smoke and then juggled that roll around between iconic and joystick
So joystick playing more of these sheltered roles
Iconic being given Ella in hopes that maybe he can kickstart some of his own offenses
He sits at 0 and 3 the only person right now in the lobby without a kill on his role
That's pretty pretty rough. Millie will start things off yet again two rounds in a row for Millie to draw first blood
And that last has an advantage of 40 seconds to go
Gates them down below still two of those Ophiucharges, but he needs to get back up and start helping his team
They're in a plant position if you want to go for it
But Shredback still got five of these Chumiko launch your grenades and he can throw towards the enemy
So you got a toxic babe and joystick as well. So the time's not really gonna be viable for a plant
That's why all the chaos is coming in right now iconic. We'll get his very first kill. That's all she wrote Gomez now
We'll watch his whole team die around him
Three still alive for our last as Gomez is trapped with no defuse kit in hand not really within reach
And he doesn't see Millie who's been getting
Skettly better as these games have gone on one of the rare bright spots statistically for this team has been Millie's offense and
Boy oh boy. It's been shining the last two rounds outlast of tied the game
Maybe a little bit too passive to come through from under thieves as I last string two in a row
It felt like they were really playing behind their utility almost expecting hundred thieves to slow down a little bit and play that clock game
Where we got to see the toxic babes the fire grenades coming through from from trevmak on the chonka the goya canisters
I mean everything really was designed on that defense to slow things down for a hundred thieves to make it so they couldn't go for a
Plant position and when the enemy is playing like that
You have to be able to do something to disrupt them
You have to find some way to maybe take up the chonka pressure the smoke get somebody in behinds to cause them
chaos. Now that really happened. Most of that push was just coming through ops. It was coming
through bathroom. It was coming up the missile stairs. It was a lot of kind of one-dimensional
pressure that hit the wall of toxic babes and Shamika the grenades and just stalled out there
for 100 beads. So outlast, finding different ways to come away with the victory here on Lair.
They're clearly showing up to play. And after four rounds, it's not obvious if this is going to be
the stop that some people were expecting. No, I think we have any lessons to be taken from
of the very first match that we saw earlier today.
And now this one here is that a competitive region stays
competitive, even when it's the top teams and the bottom teams
doing battle, spoilers inbound.
Wildcard and Five Fears were the first match of the day.
I think people saw the writing on the wall there
for Five Fears and thought, well, Wildcard's in second place.
They're going to continue to bully this team.
But the rivalry emerges.
And Five Fears beat Wildcard in regulation.
It did not even require extra innings.
Four points this week.
Four or five fears, a pretty damn good week for them.
Hundred thieves in Outlast.
Many probably predicted hundred thieves
would topple Outlast.
And again, hundred thieves do have the easiest schedule
moving forward, but this match has been far from it.
And yesterday, due to circumstances outside of their control,
their match against five fears was also not as easy
as it could have been.
Up next, Space Station and DZ,
in another match that many might assume
will go in one direction.
But hey, we'll find out.
Once we get through this match, of course,
tie game right now between 100 Thieves and Outlast,
two rounds to go here in the first half.
Yeah, and what a clear already.
Iconic having to fall straight back towards the bomb site.
One and four on this elo is trying to have
a bit of an aggressive moment there,
playing up the top floor with this team,
but just gonna fall back.
They lose some Yokai drones with that defense as well,
but happy to play five players inside the site.
You'll notice 100 Thieves banned out this clash.
It's not an operator that Outlast played
through the first three rounds,
But when they played this map previously against Cloud9, Iconic did run Clash on this basement defense, so maybe just wanting to avoid that strategy that they saw previously on game day.
Like, he's forcing Iconic to play a little bit more aggressive than he might like on this bomb slide.
I am really theorizing here because we don't have great information to go off of.
The players might have some discriminatory reports that are impacting that decision as well, but for now, 100 Bs, this looks very similar to Round 2, Parker.
They've gotten all the space that they want to without the interruptions from Outlast that we saw in round 4.
Now with this space, they can start to work their way towards the bomb site.
They've got faster for the EMPs. They've got all the hatches open. They've got all the soft breaching done that they need from Adam.
I just don't know if there's enough time to burn off the clock for Outlast to win this.
If their goal is to stop the plant with the Echo and the Goyos.
We're rushing their way through, so that's far enough away, 40 seconds to go.
Because one of those yokai drones, all of these little steps, all these pieces for 100
thieves, so necessary.
Three rounds in a row, where Millie is full blood first in the round.
Down goes Iconic in the hands of Adam, Kason will shut down Tyrant, Joystick on the board,
everybody getting kills of their own.
Tremac will have to get off of the yokai drone. It's been knocked out by one of those EMPs very well planned by hot and cold
Adam still having some aerial superiority here
He shuts down Millie and the retake for that last is walking right into the waiting arms of 100 thieves
Tremac off of that drone now
Taking matters into his own hands shutting down Adam sidearm is out
But the last two remaining players of 100 thieves about as far apart from this bomb site as you can get
Tremback with an opportunity now as he sees Hot and Cold's spirits behind him, Deathmark coming in and boy oh boy pick your poison but you're still poisoned my friend.
Tremback goes down for the count, 100 thieves regained the lead.
I really like that round coming out from 100 thieves Parker. I was watching them during the drone phase when they were picking their attacking operators and Hot and Cold switched off of the Ram that he played back in round two and onto the Thatcher.
That's a massive switch because it perfectly counters the Echo that TREVMAC was trying to bring into that bomb site.
You could sell it from 100 Thieves.
Their initial plan was to just do the same thing they did in Round 2.
Take that Armory Control, work a bunch of vert, focus on the plants.
But then once they saw the Echo, once they saw the Romers that were existing on the top floor,
they changed a couple of operators around.
They brought in the Thatcher, they brought in the Deimos from Spirits rather than that Blitz.
Obviously the Blitz got banned out, but rather than bringing another shield.
They just use these couple different operators to make their push oh so much easier reading into the adaptations being made by outlast
Think it just has a great idea on how they want to attack on to that site
They're consistently bringing the right tools for the job and the basement probably a bombsite that outlast will have to avoid
For the rest of the game certainly if we get into overtime. I don't expect to see that
Final round of this first half
Only
One shield band on either side shields not playing as much of a role having as much of an impact as we had maybe
Hoped for I know that some people grown whenever they see a shield on the board when you've got hot and cold and spirits on a team
It's pretty commonplace to see at least one shield get brought
Monty obviously escaping the band, but don't always see Monty here on a map like layer. It's a black beard
it is, or spirits, the threat on Outlast has been Millie. Last three rounds. He's been the first
person to get a kill. That's pretty good for him. He did not convert in the previous round,
unfortunately for his team, but Millie stacking up, sitting at seven kills right now. It was,
you and I actually casting him, I think it was the first time he ever gone positive in a pro
league match was last week, if memory serves correctly, and he is currently tracking to do so
So, yeah, again, yeah, we talked about that game earlier, of course, the big one for him and his career
is a match against Wildcard on Clubhouse where he went 13 and 11, now trying to extend that to get a new best game in his career.
It's interesting he's gone over to Chonka here. He was on the soulless last time they played this bomb site,
but everything's been shifted around a little bit from out last.
Hunter Thieves really struggled in clearing this tall floor back in round three.
They're gonna have the same task ahead of them. They've not chosen to go for that
Send the strat where you ignore the top floor and try to force the plants down below inside the site
They want to take this head on talks babes running open tyrants
Actually, they're gonna use the EMP to force him back and start applying pressure
Taste in the very first pick
Millie still alive could get the first pick for his team Trev back one life
Oh boy technically Millie got the first kill for his team against somebody on hundred thieves
But Tremback's nitro cell claims two of his own teammates
Hard-pressed to imagine a more disastrous nitro cell in the history of the NAL
That is just something to behold hundred thieves capitalize off of that massive blunder and take the first half for two
you. Yeah, not how I last wanted to end the first half hundred thieves. They are playing
their game right now, and it seems like outlets cannot match it. They're like, they're giving
a hundred thieves just too many opportunities right now. It seems like too much opportunities,
too much space given right to the thieves, especially in the early round. We look at round
number one. I mean, they gave up the entire left side of the screen, which is the operation
side. They also gave up the bridge side and bridges open. And you see them just kind of
Bunkered up no one's really able to help anybody and Adam is able to just walk down. There's so much space
There's no contestant on the side of outlast and what that's what you're able to do is spirits
I mean the engine's able to just kind of slip right in on the shield and get activated and hit a little drop shot there
And then round two we find joystick kind of walking on the zone. No one is able to help him here
He's by himself. I mean, but he's thinking he's back in 2018 able to do it whatever he wants
It's not gonna happen in this meta and against no one's even contesting on the filters there
So I'm not quite sure in the early game what outlast win conditions were because for me, that's really where they were lacking.
I was gonna say, they did remedy it once we got into round three and four and how did they remedy it?
They were getting that opening pick.
Then they did have to fight for a lot of space because 100th was already down a man.
Now they have to work a little harder to get control of them out and then they could play back into those players.
They could use those smokes, they could use those goyos, those gnarys to really slow down 100 thieves.
And that's what we even heard in that nut timeout, but just in the comms in the background.
They're playing too safe, they're playing too passive,
but you're able to do that when you have the man advantage.
You don't have to overextend, you don't have to fight aggressively.
So I got to give them praise for that.
That last round, though, that was a little questionable on the C4 from Trev.
I mean, Millie has been playing tremendous so far.
We've already heard the casters talking about him.
He had his best performance, arguably, in the previous day.
And then even in today, I mean, big opening kills coming out of the side from him.
However, that last round, unfortunately, again, for Trev Mack,
or Trev-Mac just seeing Milly have a little too much success
on those opening kills and had to reel him back
into reality really quickly with the double C4.
I mean, it really was the opening kills though.
I mean, the very first round after the two that I highlighted,
it was Milly that actually spawned, peaked,
and killed spirits.
The engine shut them down and really stalled out the round
because it really is on spirits.
And then after that,
they were adapting their operators really well.
I mean, that basement site that I criticized
for having no win conditions,
they're now playing back with the Goyo in the Echo,
which they weren't doing previously.
Again, shout out to 100 these over being the Thatcher and also countering that right back.
That's the power of information.
If you're able to feed your feed your IGL the information of what the defense is doing and what their win condition is.
The better IGLs are always going to solve it and hot and cold has been on a tear.
I mean, if I must say I gotta glaze the man, he's he's not cold right now.
He is hot.
He's leading these thieves who not for the first time through, you know, I think they have a four and a win streak,
I believe it's an organization, but we're quite on the way to matching that for no or four game winning streak right now because hot and cold has them looking hot.
Yeah, three game win streak, as you said, looking for one more to make it for this time against Outlast, who can now have to see if they can make this comeback happen two rounds down as we go into the swap.
Thank you, Jonah. Yes, three rounds away. That's all 100 Thieves need to extend their
three game winning streak and beating Outlast would be a massive boon for them as well in
terms of securing playoffs. Very, very strong spot for them in the standings and they get
to do it with Outlast moving on to the attack. Parker, Outlast are the lowest rated attacking
team here in the North America League, winning just 28% of their attacks through stage two.
When they played Lair two weeks ago against Cloud9, they went 1-5 on their offense, winning
just a single attack on Bunk's briefing.
Josh, you said good.
You know it could be worse.
You could have gone 0-6 on your attacks.
So it's not the worst possible score.
That seems... bad.
You could also call it that.
You could also say it's a bad result.
I think that would be better.
You could also call it that. You could also say it's a bad missile. I think that would be fair.
Um...
Higher than average normal kills for Outlast right now.
A lot of that is really just Millie being a heat sink for the team.
16 kills across the board. 8 of them.
Exactly half.
In the hands of Millie at the moment. And these have been high impact kills as well.
He had first blood in rounds three, four, and five, he got a 4k back in round number
four and has been on the board more rounds than he hasn't at this current point in time.
I know that when Outlast showed some struggles during kickoff and stage one, there was the
talk of a looming roster shakeup.
Millie was in the hot seat for his role and well, I mean, the way that he played and the
rest of the team played, he managed to survive the purge with Tyrant, Iconic and Joystick
coming in. It's crazy to think that Millie has consistently been improving and I really do think
now that he's surrounded by a bit more experienced players and some of that weight can come off of
his shoulders, he's starting to flourish. The conversation around Outlast, I don't know if
you'll agree, here's we hit the halfway point of the round and not a lot has been done by Outlast on
this advance. That Millie just needed some time like the rest of the team. Outlast were a team
of complete rookies loyal to each other and they just needed some time to settle in.
Yeah, I mean, Parker, I think it's important to remember where Outlast were in Stage 1, you know.
This is Play Day 7, we're watching right now.
In Play Day 7 and Stage 1, Outlast got eliminated from playoffs.
They were dead last, they hadn't won a game, they were the first team to get eliminated.
That's not a possibility for them, at least as a result of this game.
So, they're in a much better spot after changing the roster around, after spending some time
with their team and struggling in this round.
A better position, it's like Connick will get an opening duel or not, and colds.
Iconic joystick and Milly roughly rated the same thing.
None of the EPS on this team particularly good through this season.
Iconic with the most frags on the team, but right now I suspect Milly has taken over that.
Adam tossing a nitrocell, there goes Iconic.
Tyrant the lone kill amidst that fray as Gomez picks up two.
Tyrant's still living.
Two out of 100 thieves, one for Outlast.
And it's joystick to get the two-piece out of nowhere and win the round.
All smiles on the face of joystick.
Huge win for the Cyborg.
Comes alive there to help Outlast
and break a couple of six round streaks.
Prior to that round,
Hunter Thieves had a six round winning streak,
defending on the top floor of Lair,
and Outlast had a six round losing streak,
attacking on the top floor of Lair.
So we flipped the script here
in the first round of the second half.
Outlast get that advantage.
And again, it starts certainly with this opening pick
when a hawk falls and drops through the hash
right into Iconic's waiting arms. Iconic goes down, he's the next player to fall to this
knight yourself from Adam, but they just do a good job of making things a little bit chaotic.
Getting into the places that 100 thieves don't really expect, Joystick string together the
last couple of kills in a beautiful display of mechanic ability. Thought Gomez was going
to be doing enough, he was sitting inside of that mask position, gets two kills and
the players over towards Mezz, but ultimately there's enough trade game coming through the
an outlast that opens the door for Joystick to make that clutch.
10 seconds to insertion.
Joystick hits you closer to positive numbers.
At this point in time,
Millie was held off the scoresheet in the previous round.
I have to wonder what that double team kill nitrocel did
to the vibes of this outlast team.
Something that I'm not really sure if a team can recover
from that quickly, at least not to the level that is needed.
Sure, every player will tell you, yeah, it's frustrating,
but you just have to move on, take it round by round here,
put pucks in the net, et cetera.
But there's gonna be some frustration growing,
surely from Outlast and how they performed this stage
and how many opportunities that they have had
slipped through their fingers.
That said, Outlast still sitting at five points,
Space Station at nine points,
that's the very final playoff spot.
Outlast are within reach of making it.
Their matchups next week are pretty tough.
They play up against Shopify Rebellion,
and then they actually play up against SSG.
As for 100 Thieves, we've said it time and time again.
They have the easiest schedule.
They should be as close to the 12 points
that they can earn through these four play days
as possible.
They picked up two against Five Fears yesterday.
They are in position to pick up all three against Outlast,
depending on what happens over the course of this map.
Games for 100 Thieves next week.
Five Fears currently sitting in seventh place,
then they finish off the stage against M80, the team currently sitting from the last place.
So, Underdives pretty much all but certain to make playoffs as long as they don't blow it up.
Swooping nags.
Huge fight on the roam game. Gomez barely gets out alive. Spears is trying to make the same kind of escape.
But his phone got blown open. He's still existing on this middle floor.
Trying to find a way to work some picks.
Kacen was in with him, but it'll be Spears who gets that opening duel.
Taking down Joystick on the ram. A highly impactful frag.
Destroying one of the most important soft preachers. He's still got Millie here on the buck
But losing the ram is gonna make this push really difficult especially given it's being piloted by joystick
Just how the hell of a game starts so far
Spirits and Kason are still existing around. They're both inside an armory. Spirits gets traded out by Tyrant
Eventually leaving just Kason up alive here on the roam
Spirits is having a bit of a mortal day here.
Barcraf from what we've seen of him over the last couple play days.
Stage 2 has really been exceptional for the French Canadian.
When you roam on Vigil, you trade yourself out or your team is able to trade you out.
It's usually a big win.
That lurker roll now needs to be passed on to somebody else.
Adam is broken double digits, leading the lobby at the current moment.
Millie at 8 kills just behind him final 30 seconds and yet again a lethargic attack from outlast
It did work out in the previous round
It remains to be seen if they find that same success here smokes to go out flames to go out still utility in pocket for the
Capitao of Tyrant his hope is to create some cover for his team and for himself as he holds that diffuse kit
And I sure sell ripped and it goes a little bit too early of missed opportunity from Gomez
as the volcanic canister taking down Iconic.
There goes Tyron as well.
A hundred thieves working out so effectively
that the time is over.
They get the kills anyway, right under the wire
as the timer hits zero.
A hundred thieves wins on violence, not on time.
And they're two rounds away from a regulation victory.
Yeah, beautiful round by a hundred thieves.
Again, the time waste on the Rome was so massive.
Spirits going one for one is absolutely fine.
The fact that he just delayed so much time
before dying was so huge in that round.
Even Kacen, I mean, when the roam game officially leaves,
when Kacen drops the final hatch,
there's 43 seconds on the clock.
That is just not enough time to work verticality with the buff,
to set yourself up with the capitale
to go for an execute.
They tried to rush it with the defuse kid dropping talks in
and getting a plant inside of office,
but 100 thieves, I mean, with numbers,
they just swarm the site.
You know one guy has to be planting,
so that's gonna give you the advantage.
They hit all the shots that they have to extend themselves up into a 5-3 lead.
Now a good bounce back here in the second half.
Steady as she goes, four of the thieves.
It's been a pretty good team effort still far.
Gomez right now, the lone man out on this team from an offensive perspective,
but based on his role, that is A-OK.
Again, somebody has to be at the bottom of the team.
Usually Gomez with the way 100 thieves plays,
He plays one of the hardest roles on the team and one of the hardest roles in pro play
as the utility guy, the everyman.
He can be support, he can be flex, he can lurk, he can sit with the team.
Very important role to be played.
Also, it was in the game that was played earlier on the pre show
if you watched it where the analysts had to guess who people were.
I will say it was a lot harder than I thought it would be.
And they did an exemplary job.
It was definitely hard. I think Mint needs glasses to be honest. He was trolling that game a little bit, but it was a tough game.
I definitely got a couple of wrong guesses. I was playing along at home.
The spikeer one to me was the most obvious, but everything else was a little bit challenging.
But I will say Mint saying that he could see better on a smaller screen farther away than the big screen right next to him
makes me wonder what the heck is going on with that eyesight, but...
Blast needs to pay out enough for him to go to an optometrist, I guess.
Outlasts looking for some rounds to string together here as well, they're going to need
to find these players up on the top floor.
This is how the mid floor always does roll out, Millie the only one in the site so far
and it just feels like against these mirror windows.
It's not going to be easy to break through, Millie used his first Selma on the mirror
window down on the main bunks breach and seeing another one here holding things down on the
top floor.
There's always a slow burn on Bugsbury's partner because he's got a therapy stop floor
roamers and there's a lot of use so you gotta burn through to get that done.
One gas canister in pocket now for Atoms.
We hit the halfway point of this round.
A victory here for 100 thieves.
The next minute and 15 seconds guarantees them one of a potential three points up against
Outlast.
The first half was quite fruitful for Outlast, all things considered.
The very first round, saved by Joystick, pretty fruitful as well.
Millie on the wrong side of the first ult, Rekhsian!
What a flick by Kansan!
His nitro cell works, and then the gun does the rest of it on the tyrant.
Two kills for Kansan, but Outlast has come alive!
And they have found everybody on 100 D.V.E.'s TREVMAC!
Making up for that sixth round, where he blew up his own teammates,
and what a performance as Outlast takes the round.
That looked like it was gonna be done. It was a 5v3 advantage for 100 Thieves Parker, but with everybody up on that top floor, they just ended up getting slammed down.
TREVMAC in particular, pushing in through office, I think was a huge player. Gets, I think, three kills in the midst of that round, and it's the coordination for me that does it.
TREVMAC takes to the advantage of Million Tyrant going down for that first pick to make it a 4v3.
Then we see Joystick actually get a vertical kill. Hot and Cold was below, trying to hold the display door.
But he actually loses the gunfight to Joystick with the F2, that's a massive play, iconic on Skybridge, gets Spirit, then Trebnac, just keeps on walking through.
There's a really well coordinated push coming in from Outlast, and this is the thing, like sometimes they don't maybe have the best overall game plan, the utility might not be there, but when it comes to walking in sight and taking fights, they're all in sync, they're pushing together, they're causing some chaos, they're drawing the defense's attention in multiple different ways, like that's the biggest thing.
When you've got a guy pushing Skybridge, a guy pushing Office, and a guy pushing Display,
if you're a defender sitting inside of our six room, you've got nowhere to look if you have to look at 360 degrees at all time.
And it just makes it so difficult for Hunter Thieves to hold on, so credit to Outlast, really well coordinated on that top floor clear.
They can get a couple more pushes that look like that. We very well could have an overtime at EVA 7-4 when we're at it.
I mean, Kaston tried his damnedest hit information.
He took two of them down, but everybody else on the thieves
did not seem to understand the pace that Outlast hit
after that first altercation with Kaston,
whether that was a pace that they had initially set
irrespective of what happened with the rest of the team
or if it was in response to what happened
with their first push falling short.
It ultimately was the right call from Outlast.
I am just curious if it was something that was done
spontaneously or was something that was practiced
in advance either way. Credit goes to the calling whether, again, it was done quickly
or longer on. That's something that you have to commend a coach and IGL for. Now, speaking
of the leadership of Outlast, Trevmak leading the way in himself in operations with Millie
side by side. The rest of this team not in the building. They could be holding windows.
They could be holding soft walls. Hard to say. But back we'll get that operations.
It costs a single smoke canister
So hundred thieves have been shoved back from this position. They were holding
The clash is the worst possible thing you can see if your tref mac on the monty turn the corner and ops and realize
Oh boy, it's gonna be one of these types of rounds
We'll be fishing to try to find a way towards the site
But just not involved going through hot and cold he's repositioned himself over towards skybridge now
Like this a lot from teams where they've got a pressure one side, and then they're gonna go pressure the other side
Iconic is over here as well towards Skybridge. You've got Tyrant on the buck down below.
If you can bait this Clash to stand on a soft floor like inside a storage where hot and cold just was,
you might be able to work a 3D from Tyrant, but it's gonna be really tough to coordinate this.
Obviously, no, there might be something below and trip that nice to a thornstrap. That's devastating for Outlast.
For real stuff to lose your shield in that way, but a big reason why Thorns Pick Rape remains as high as it has been since
she got her, I guess you could say her mid scope or her substantial amount above, about
a year ago at this point in time if memory serves correctly, it's because she's a great
shield counter, she's a great counter for anybody, but if you're vaulting in a window,
barbed wire coupled with it can be a particularly terrible experience and it's used very effectively
by 100 thieves now, she's got one minute left sitting with an advantage and no shield to
deal with, you gotta like the chances of the thieves.
And I will say it was spirits that got the down onto Trev Mack and he was just finished
off by the thorn trap, so it wasn't 1v1 duel, but it's still, you gotta thank Trevmak, just
taking a 1v1 with the pistol out. It's not what a steam needed.
And there's the swing from Gomez, down goes Millie! Cannot outdual Joystick! Shotgun versus
the F2! It's always a fun fight to watch. Joystick trapped in that position, breathing
in some gas, he can work his way out. There's an ifty little rotate that allows the cyborg
to escape to safety. Diffuse can hand now 20 seconds to go. Tyrum keeping everybody busy.
They might not be aware of Joystick doing this.
They take out Tyrant at the last second and now Joystick will have to confront
the three remaining players of the Thieves.
Down goes Kacen.
Three kills for Joystick.
Three kills for Spirits.
Who hops?
On to number four, Spirits with the quad kill.
As Hot and Cold trusts him to get the defuse kit handled.
Hundred Thieves move to match point.
Beautiful round from the engines.
Spirits puts them together again.
He got that first down onto Trevmak pushing him through Skybridge and then once the push rotated once again
It was not obvious where that push was coming down outlast they pressured ops
Then they went Skybridge they came back to ops to eventually get that the fuse kid down
But spirits was always ready for it
He cleaned up all the attackers trying to push Skybridge partly thanks to hot and cold in the clash for sure
And then he comes back plays around with his teammates able to get those last couple picks as well
So really nicely done by spirits moving through the bomb site to make sure he was in the best possible positions to get those couple of kills
Again the thorn traps really tough not just finishing off truck mac in that round
But also doing a ton of damage to tyrants is who's playing on the mezz position
Tyrant got headshot by spirits anyways
So maybe it didn't matter in the end
But still this utility that I think outlasts are struggling a little bit to clear on out not getting the information on some of these positions
Playing the Monty against the Clash is always a difficult spot to be in and I think they did their best trying to rotate between their different pushes, but ultimately the utility was way too strong from 100 Thieves and Outlast just couldn't compete.
points in their game yesterday and now points here for 100 thieves again doing the job needed
against opposition you really should be beating I know we have spent a lot of time talking about
how competitive this region is even the lower ranking teams right now in North America are
still not bad they certainly aren't near the top that goes without saying but again the competitive
region is always hard to judge. There have been upsets. M80s one, Outlast has one, five
fears have one, so all of the bottom teams have picked up points at some point in time.
Hundred Thieves making steady improvements though. Kickoff was a disappointment. Stage
one didn't go the way that they wanted. Despite making the playoffs, they ultimately did not
make it to EWC. Their sights set very firmly on an appearance in Japan in just a couple months time.
All three points here for 100 games will
Officially as far as I'm aware Jesse lock in a top six spot, but it would certainly put them at
Basically there about a 98% chance. It just comes down to the other teams and how well they do
Yeah, I was talking with Spraboonie and 100 these could lock in playoffs today
But they will need other results to go their way along with the three points
So we'll keep you up to date, keep watching the broadcast, watch the other games.
We'll let you know if under these dudes secure playoffs, but they'll have to get three points.
That's step one to do that today, and two opportunities to do just that against Outlast here.
On the defense, they can rotate through their bomb site, they will go down to the basements for round 11.
Parker to try to close this one out before we get all the way in regulation.
Zero roam happening really here.
Spirits playing at the top of the filter stairs, but otherwise everybody very passive on 100 feet.
So expect this to be another slow burn from Outlast.
Telling us to slow down on the side of Outlast for everybody not named Joystick.
As we've mentioned the distinction that Millie has with him going positive for the first time in
his pro career last week. This time we were hopeful that it would transpire. I think he was
sitting at seven and three at one point.
He is eight and eight since struggling more on attack.
No, I will say general rule is that attacking is more
challenging for the less experienced teams.
And also depending on the map layer is a relatively
friendly map, honestly to both sides.
But at the same time, my vision of layer is being a very
challenging map for a team that has comms issues just
because of its size and what's needed to cut through it.
So attacking harder because of that ability,
struggling to get those kills. Joystick and all of his experience have been showing up for Outlast.
The rest of the team will now need to keep pace.
Spirits here with the smoke. You heard Mint in the halftime talking about how Outlast didn't play anybody in this position.
Now Spirits can play it and he'll start to see the strength of this.
He's going to waste so much time and even after you've burned through all three of these stocks with Bayfarker,
taking him out, shotgun close range is going to be really difficult.
Millie's got flashbangs and has got the skeleton key if he wants to take the gunfight himself.
Otherwise, there's no shotgun being played on the side of Outlast, so he'll be a tricky duel regardless.
They've got plenty of time, thankfully, without any roamers. Outlast have gone through this pretty quickly,
but just the Okai cam in particular makes it so devastating.
Get away to maybe a bit more patience there, but it's used to try and help spirits.
It does not work successfully, case and first kill in the round. Millie, as we say his name,
finds a kill of his own as iconic down for the count iconic and largely invisible
so far in this matchup has hurt outlasts chances it's one of the worst
performances we've seen of him here in stage two Gomez will shred through
milly hundred thieves continuing to amass good tallies there goes Gomez though as
outlast have sprung their way into the bomb site Tyrant knocked off but for a
moment he'll attempt to defuse again joystick dying right next to him
Trevmack covering, Tyrant off of the plant, and now out of the server.
Caste in a big moment to send things away, and 100 thieves prevail in regulation.
Picking up all three points over Outlast.
Caste in a couple of big moments today, Parker.
Maybe that's some payback after yesterday.
He didn't get to play quite as much as he wanted.
In either case, 100 thieves should be very happy.
They secure all three points and take down Outlast on a Play Day 7.
Momentum going a fourth win in a row and this team collects a nice 7-4 win over
Outlast you've got hot and cold standing by after yet another victory for this team
after they have well
Continued to show that this adversity
It's nothing to them Matt. Welcome in. Thank you so much for joining us again
Talk to me about playing against an opponent like Outlast
We heard you guys trying to figure out how to deal with them best during the game
What was your approach here for a team that's struggling like that?
I think the best approach is just worrying about ourselves, you know
Everyone likes to say that going into a game
but that was just the best approach to us not really worrying about what they're doing because
To be honest, they're very sporadic team like playing against those guys. It was a lot of chaos
They're just very spread out they wait, you know
to the very last 20, 30 seconds of the round
and then kind of just all three, two, one hit.
They're pretty good.
I think they're better than last season, obviously.
I mean, they should be.
They got two people from Europe.
So yeah.
That would make them worse.
I mean, thank you.
Yeah.
Yeah, NA, Marika.
Marika, congrats Matt.
First I want to say that might be the cleanest
I've ever seen your room behind you.
I know chat was getting involved in that for anyone that watches hot and cold. What's going on? What's going on man?
The bed is made the bathroom is clean
We just getting too many interviews out of you
now
You're supposedly my best friend. I don't even think you stepped the room in this you're not that I did
I did one. Okay, you would offer your bed and let him stay in your room
Yeah, we used to sleep together. That's how he acts in the green or so we did and then he left me on on one
myself. Okay, Matt, the real question. I mean, I want to know about the mentality of the thieves
right now because you guys are on a four game winning streak. You were on a four game winning
streak last day, taking into playoffs, but like, give me a real answer here. What's changed
since the last thieves? Why should I believe in you and keep calling you guys the hottest team
in Siege right now going into these playoffs? I think the biggest change for us is one mentality.
I think last stage, you know, Kason being a rookie, he very shaky himself, but just us as a team, we're kind of still learning each other and like our best, our best play style, I would say.
And now I feel like we've kind of really fell into our own as a team, our map pool's looking good.
It is very similar last stage, you know, that's a little scary in the back of my mind, but I think, I don't know, there's just a lot more upward trends.
We've kind of found how to play and how we want to play, how we approach practice, how
to get better at the things that we need to.
We still have our mishaps, you know, C9 game, but we're just looking, I'm looking to keep
the guys' mental good going into playoffs, myself included, and I'm not perfect in that,
but whatever I got to do to make sure that they're comfy going into playoffs, I feel
like we'll be the big, you know, maker break for us.
Well, Matt, I got no quest for you.
Just want to say congratulations on the stage so far.
You guys have been looking good.
I will leave you to go enjoy your weekend
and get that reset going into next week.
Great.
Thanks, Matt.
Thank you so much for your time.
Have a great night, man.
100 Thieves, they close things out.
Some good individual performances from Adam again.
I mean, both Adam and Spirits combining both tag team
yesterday and today leading the way for 100 Thieves
to get a nice three points, continue to propel themselves up the standings.
We talked about them trending in the right direction.
We heard it from Hot and Cold.
They're trending in the right direction.
This team is just looking better by the day.
And ultimately, that's what you want to see.
You want to see teams be able to overcome adversity.
You want to see them trend in an upward trajectory,
especially going into those playoffs.
We highlight even with M80 in the previous stage.
You want to lose early.
Heard Savage say that they would rather lose early than later on into playoffs
and have to face those issues.
And this is exactly what 100 teams had to go through.
They had to go through those issues very early on.
They were over the overcombed adversity and now they are in a good spot heading into those playoffs now
It doesn't get a little dicey playoffs. It's not guarantee you a spot in Osaka
So we still have to see what those games look like but if they keep keep up this same sort of tenacity
Good shot. They could be in Osaka. Yeah, I mean and I love what Han cold said right there about the
The difference between stage one and stage two right stage one was all about getting comfortable
It's a new IGL to new system and cases never play T1 before like I'm just gonna be completely honest
And now we are seeing Kacen get a lot more comfortable, him going 9-6, a lot more positive
performances, most importantly 3-0 in the entry, Adam, you called him out, he needed
to start getting back into those big games that we know he can be another dominant performance.
And then Spirits, again, the engine of the team, but also impressive in his own right.
I believe now that is six maps straight where he dropped double digit kills.
He was second in the NAO in statistics.
It was Pam is use number one. I believe that's gonna leapfrog him above Pam is you now
We got to see a Pam who has another pop pop law performance that's the former
It's going at it. Yeah, well Pam
But we'll have a chance to do that as cloud nine take on SR later on today a matchup
You're not gonna want to miss around 6 p.m. Eastern
So stick around for that right now
We pivot to the matchup of our fifth and sixth place teams the two longest standing organizations in North America
It is SSG and DarkZero, both of these teams, they want to be the one to raise that playoff
point threshold.
Right now, they're both on the bubble and it'd be great to solidify their position.
This SSG team, that is what they're going to be focusing on now because over the last
three games, they've taken that nine points they earned in the Super Week and they've
lost three games in a row.
They have not added anything to their point total.
Dark Zero sitting right above them have continued to improve and have now leapfrogged them.
So Space Station's goal, Kyle, I mean, how can they regroup now that they seem to be
trending the wrong direction because that just cannot be good on the team's mental?
And that seems to be the story, the question with SSG, right?
They started on a high.
We got those nine points, but ever since then, I'm going to be honest with you guys, it
hasn't looked good, right?
I mean, they are on a non-stop slide and trajectory downward.
I mean, their wins, we have to say,
did come against some of the weaker opponents.
And now they are playing the tougher opponents in the NAL.
We're starting to see that.
We're starting to see the real SSG.
I mean, in their last three games against tough opponents,
they've gotten a total of seven rounds.
I mean, they haven't been competitive at all
or shown any signs of hope against the top teams in the league.
And not only that, I mean, they are also suffering
on the attack side of things.
They're currently the ninth best attacking league
in the team and they're also struggling
with opening kills.
I mean, there was a game in there
where they only have one opening kill
throughout the entire.
That wild card.
Give us the wild card game
throughout the entire opening.
I mean, here's that downward trajectory, right?
I mean, the entire team just trending downward
and it's not getting any better.
And look, the only saving grace.
There's some hope in them right there.
Where's that last out?
A little bit of a little bit.
Maybe a little bit?
Maybe a little bit of up.
But again, we have to look at the schedule coming up.
I mean, it's not getting any easier for SSG, right?
They play DZ today, the SLG champions.
They play Cloud9 who's undefeated.
You don't, if you're a space station gaming fan,
you do not want to have to rely on the fact
that your last game is against outlast gaming
for you to just slip into the playoffs.
Even if that were to happen and you snag that six seed,
how much confidence does that really give you
or the fan base?
And what I heard you say there, Kyle,
was we're seeing the real SSG,
which is kind of a blow if you're an SSG fan.
You don't want the 0 and 3 team over the last three games to be the real one
But they are looking a lot more like the team that we saw in stage one
They are reverting to similar bad patterns. Yeah, I mean, I'm glad that's chocolate
They are definitely reverting back to big issues that we highlighted from stage one where the comms are definitely off
They aren't playing together in some scenarios and in that series specifically versus SR
You've been highlighting some of the rounds more for SR
They did a good job at isolating these SSG players and that on the back end for SSG is not a position
and you want to find yourself in, certainly not
against the upper echelon of teams
who are going to be targeting players, finding out ways
to isolate players.
You need to be able to be playing off of each other.
You need to be able to play these trades.
And I don't want to completely just throw space
space around the bus.
The game was relatively close, if you were watching,
but it was because of those indecisive plays.
It was because of the miscommunication
where they were running low on time.
And I would say that's really the biggest thing for me
coming into this next series, is they just
have to focus on those things.
They have to focus on their decisiveness,
whether they want to go for something or not,
or they also have to focus on their comps
and get the right idea and initiate an attack strategy
for what they need to do in order to get to those late rounds.
That's really where they're struggling.
And fundamentally, yes, it can be little troublesome
to try to figure out, especially during a pro-league match,
but it's not safe camp.
We've seen significant moments from this SSG,
but if there's going to be any time to show up,
it has to be today.
It's got to come today, and maybe on a map
that they have not lost recently.
It was cafe, cafe twice, and then border
that they've lost now in their three-game skid.
They go to bank now against Dark Zero.
Is this the territory where they can stop the skid?
I mean, I said I want to see them be able to practice
some of those things, their comms,
being able to play off of each other.
I would have rather seen a smaller map,
like a border again, possibly,
to rectify and fix some of those issues,
but going to a map like Bank does worry me,
not only just for their own play,
but Dark Zero's six and two on it.
They're very comfortable on this map.
For SSG, they are one and two.
And again, I talk about highlighting,
being able to play off of each other, using those comms.
You are playing on a bigger map where you have to be decisive.
You can't slow down.
There is a lot of the map that you
have to figure out and clear, certainly on those tacks,
to try to go for those later on executes.
But where they have been positive,
it's on those defensive sides.
So in that aspect, it gives them a little more freedom
to roam around.
But again, at some point, you have
to reel it in certainly against a team like Dark Zero.
Yeah, I'm happy you called out that they're
on the defensive side, because when
they switch to the attacker side,
And here's why I don't like Bank for SSG.
This is one of the most attacker-sided maps
that we have in our pool.
And they are the ninth best attacking team.
So when they switch over to the attacking side,
I don't have a lot of hope for them.
And I think DarkZero has been pretty good on the defense side.
I believe that was a 6-0 half in their last game.
The other thing I don't really like for SSG
is the fact that this is DarkZero's favorite map.
If you just look at the bands, this
is the map that is banned the most against DarkZero.
And this is the map that they have banned the least, which
equals. This is their favorite map. So for me, for SSG, I mean, there's got to be something
here. Maybe they went back and looked at their previous game versus Furia. And we've seen
or maybe there's some scrim footage, but hopefully there's a good reason to root for
SSG because I really want to see them stop this slide. And we really want to see these
two teams give us a show. It's the two longest standing Orcs in North America. We know there's
going to be some action, but Ken SSG surprised us.
It's been exactly 14 days since Space Station picked up their last point here in the North
American League.
It has been a rough go of it.
The desk sent it during the pre-show.
They sent it now here during the preamble.
Space Station's fly, Jesse, has been a frustrating one for them and their fans to watch.
We did talk a little bit about strength of schedule with them facing off against three
of the weakest teams to start the stage.
So it is somewhat explained, but you got a reverse course at some point, right?
Yeah, you have to imagine things get back on track.
Sooner rather than later for SSG, will it be against the Dark Zero team who have consistently proven themselves to be one of the best, not just in North America, but the world?
I guess we'll have to find out.
Here on Bank, Mint didn't love the choice.
It is one of Dark Zero's best maps.
Six wins, two losses this year, and the only loss is where it gets G2 and SLC.
and against Furia in Paris, two very good international opponents, so we'll have to see how it goes for Dark Zero if they can find that similar level of success.
Lots of players on the mid-floor for them to find, not a single player in the basement, Raid still playing on those main stairs, technically in the basement now, but a lot of Rome presence for Dark Zeros to deal with early on back.
Big map, lots of Rome potential, attacker favored, as Mint pointed out just moments ago.
The PlayStation needs a hero on this team.
Ice-Rated player is Raid, as you mentioned.
He's the only player on the squad currently in the top 25 for a playoff-level team.
That suggests regression is coming for the rest of the squad.
Hitty on the roam gets overwhelmed by Kino Rival.
We'll trade out NJR, so both of these teams losing a body in the first 90 seconds.
Hitty is the mute, maybe not such a detriment as those mute jammers will remain.
Nitro Cell will be a big loss for SSG though, as it is their only explosive in pocket.
Yeah, of course. I mean, that elevator position being played by Arrival just not maybe spotted out by Dark Zero.
They commit to a heavy roam on the side of SSG, and I think they're happy with the trade they've gotten.
It's gonna make it difficult to get this plant down, I fear, Parker.
You know, you've got a couple talks of babes, what to worry about.
There'll be Goyo canisters and impact grenades in the site.
Kino and the Monsi might be able to survive through some of that, especially if they deal with Dream here on the server stairs, but 60 seconds is still to make this happen. There's a lot of work ahead of them.
A drop in now is Kino is so menacing, chasing down Dream, GAS is there, and J9O does it with the bailiff and hand-newers elsewhere, slaughtering Aiden, Raiden, Rival, the last 2-4 SSG, and they are far removed from the cut and thrust of this execute A-bomb sight.
Where dark zero is looking B bomb site and surrounding area where the remaining two from SSG are and
Well, both is the cross from above cuts raiding down does not allow raid to get anywhere closer to the bomb site now
It's rival in a 1v4
pistol out timer working against him
Bounty still up even just a Monty against rival in a 1v1 here would be nigh impossible for space station
but Foltz gets them both, first raid, then rival to seal the deal,
and DZ start off strong with a round one victory.
Unfortunately, they couldn't stall it a little bit more time there on the side of SSG.
You know, they went for a very aggressive strategy.
They had the solace, they had the Fenrir, they had the mute going for a roam,
and only going one for one maybe wasn't quite good enough for them
without the Chonka being in sight, with the smoke playing on the stairs rather than inside the site.
They didn't have a lot of that late round stall.
a lot of teams rely on for this bank basement. It was a great clear of dream. I thought that was
excellent the way that they dealt with server stairs. Back and off to be a point in the map
where a lot of attacking teams will stall out, but Dark Zero, of course, they got an answer for it.
Excellent multi-play to come back to, you know, to apply that pressure. Jane, I know, to follow it
up for the frag. It felt like Dark Zero were really in sync for that push. Been picking off Aiden
through the hatch while we were watching that engagement on server stairs. It was just their
birthplay that took down Aiden so a couple of uh maybe unnecessary deaths from SSG and
we had better strat needed next time to go down to that basement site.
You pointed out really early on holding elevators giddy in that position if you had somebody
else on that main floor to assist him more readily how much longer could space station
have stalled out dark zero from getting that app control immediately pivoting to the bottom
floor. DZ are a team that will punish you when you make mistakes. They are a defending
major champion, technically THE defending major champion, as while EWC might now be
more in the Rainbow Six Seed Circuit than before, it is still not a bona fide major.
DZ are a well-experienced team. Newers starting off picking off Giddy. I don't know if he
was anticipating that kill. I was through the window, but might have just been a bit of
luck on his side, unless you have a better set of eyes than I do.
Yeah, no, just trying to open the window seems like, obviously, he's smart where he's firing.
He knows that there's likely going to be a player that's playing in that checker's position, that's playing at the top of the lobby, so...
I don't think he had perfect information from what I could tell Parker, but in any case, he's taking, he's playing the odds,
he's firing common spots, and he's getting a kill because of it. That's back-to-back opening deaths now from Giddy,
One of the veterans on SSG who's been around the block for a little bit of time now, struggling to find his footing early on bank.
Raid taking really, really damage as well, playing the Kanto position long angles, not favoring his current spot.
Love that Kanto call out, one of my favorites in the entire game.
For how long he popularized that with the double reinforcement and the echo play back on his Penta days.
Well, technically G2 at the time.
You guys still up now as we hit the halfway point of the round and DZ is just starting
to get into the building.
For the longest time, Foltz was the only member indoors.
Now J9O will join, slowly but surely, working their way through this cavernous map, NJR will
cut down what remained of Raid.
Raid was on just a sliver of HP and a second will be found from the mayor as there goes
Dream.
SSG brought a lot of information, but it is not helping them whatsoever.
They might know where DZ is, Jesse, but it's not an ending of any kills and certainly isn't keeping them safe.
There goes rival and it's aided in a 1v5 DZ looking for the flawless round.
You've already seen one flawless round in today's set of play days.
Will another join in making an awful lot of noise down below watched by DZ and the mayor with three kills.
Kills! NJR cleaning up in the final moments of that round. DZ starting 2-0.
Yeah, great start. And those first two kills from NJR happening outside the building, just out on a repel, waiting for the players to
line up for him, come into his line of sight so that he could gun him down. It was really nice to take down Raid again.
It was low from that elevator position. It was Kino who took a bunch of damage onto him, also playing from the windows.
So I think the first three kills all coming from outside the building to put them into a 5v2 then eventually
You know got that fourth kill from outside the building too. So it's really the windows that are coming to hurt SSG in that round marker
Information is great, but a yokai team is not gonna do much when they're outside the building the solace as well
Thanks a mapper you can get aggressive, you know if you have lobby control
You can go for swings on those big on those outside windows, of course
but it can be tough sometimes, I think, when the enemies refuse to enter the building to take those fights and
especially losing the Azami so early raid, playing in that can't-do position going down, was tough for them to be able to keep themselves alive inside the site.
I just received a very hot tip from a very hot man, aka
Gabriel Murales, our good friend, Lachseng. He said space station artists playing the same issues of them being isolated and then not having an opportunity
Opportunity to fight back. Thank you Gabe for that wonderful piece of insight
It just goes to what we were saying about that first round and now onward to round number two
Something that came up a couple times in our matches yesterday
We talked about teams playing like a bunch of individuals does actually tend to happen on bank quite a lot
There's a lot to do come on mentalize before you can get to the actual bomb site
What are the teams that was highly successful for a period of time at doing this was that old rogue roster?
Not the EU one, the North American roster back when it slashed and vert on it, they would often play like individual spreader around the map and then eventually they would all come together, Eclipse would get a couple kills, Vertical would get a couple kills, et cetera, and all would work.
But the criticism we addressed at the time is the same that remains today. If you are all playing as individuals and you are isolated with no support and you lose your gun fights, you completely give up that part of the map.
that part of the map there is nobody else playing nearby to save you and it's something we saw
from SSG in round number one and it had a little bit of impact on round number two.
Slash out mentioned in point 26. Love that. I love Slash out, gonna hope he's being carried
well by the way. I think Spencer is wonderful. Into the mid-floor, Kino on the blitz is gonna
start taking space for his teammates, dodges that, does yourself beautifully as he chases
dream back out into the hallway hoping to find some kind of a pick but dream is successful he gets
back in towards the site a little bit scared in his current position but i think they're going to be
happy with this map control dark seer have brought a very cheesy lineup with the sends the glas the
blitz trying to go just in horizontal not applying that much pressure to these top floor roamers
worked out for them so far for the map control but now they must turn their attention upwards
Giddy down for the count, picked off yet again DZ excelling in these opening moments of their
executes. One minute left here in round number three and they found a second raid off of the
board. Only a single kill across two rounds for SSG. This is one of the most disastrous
performances we've seen to start off a map for space station in quite some time. Up against
Playoff level opposition. We said yesterday we say it again today. They are averaging little over two rounds a map
Right now they are getting a single kill across two rounds and have found nothing so far here in round number three
I am only a little worried the darks here. I might be slow for the next 30 seconds
They are not a particularly quick team with how little damage has been done to DZ. I've got some good chances here
Yeah, the time has to be the only wincon for space station dream gets one back on a Jane
I know so it won't be a flaw as of the very least but these fence walls will really enable a plant just inside a cafeteria
Somebody in SSG is gonna have to go huge and I think that's Aiden
Aiden was waiting to see if another materialized they did not NJR gets picked off folks grabs him and the defuse kit will go down as
Newers locks him out from printer window say goodbye to space station. They muster two kills in that round
Which to add to their previous tally is three kills across three rounds for space station
Do you call the time out here, Jesse?
Absolutely. I think it needs to be called sooner rather than later.
SSG just don't look like they've got a foot in this game.
Even the kills they're getting, we didn't quite catch a Dreams frag in the midst of that,
but Aiden's just in a bit of a rat spot. He's trying to hold an angle and he does get NJR for it.
NJR did pipe and shout afterwards, by the way.
Nice cut, Aiden. It might have been a little sarcastic.
Didn't feel like he was doing a whole lot to help his team.
his team and I think this goes back to what Gabe was saying you know like they're not playing together
They're not playing in positions where they can trade each other dark zero give them credit
Obviously, they're playing in positions where it makes it hard to get trades back around to they're playing outside the building tough
The trade goes back and that round they're going for a really odd push where they go through lobby through the mid floor
Then up those square stairs to apply pressure to the roamers
These are hard attacks to read and they're hard attacks to respond to but SSG need to be doing a better job than they currently are
finding ways to get these kills back because consistently it's just a player
going down, it's numbers advantage for DarkZero. They're not being challenged in
the early round of any part of this game so tackle timeout does get called. It was
a good prediction by you Parker, head coach, Koma or Koma will try to talk with
the guys and get them back on track but it feels like everything is going for
DarkZero at the moment.
We've had a day of oddities.
feeling back the curtain just for a second here I said I agreed with you
earlier and you just complimented me so oddities will continue at least on our
broadcast as well now I used to such a cordial amount of time shared with you
but I appreciate it nonetheless yeah it's hard to pinpoint what's been going
on with this SSG team you know narrative is always a thing that teams tried to
focus very long easy as a team that tries to achieve the narrative as often
as possible they talk about it they tweet about it they've said it on various
podcasts and on social media and on their own streams they think that the
narrative is silly. Well narratives are something that we need to sell to the
audience so for us it's very important how we shape and respond to whatever
narratives have already been shaped by other people. Space Station played four
fun in their very first play day then they tackled five fears then they played
M80. Those are the nine points that they have amassed so far. Since then it was a
The 2-7 lost a wild card, a playoff team, and it was a loss of 2-7 to 100 thieves, another
playoff team.
The S-ray was a 3-7 loss to Shopify Rebellion, yet another playoff team.
The road does not get much easier for SSG as to their very next matchup, playing on Thursday
will be against an illegal leading Cloud9.
We know that no team can catch C9 between now and then, so they will remain in first
place.
Things get maybe a bit easier on the final playday, but at that point in time there might
be too little too late for SSG as they close out the group stages up against
Outlast, a team that definitely looks like it's making some improvements and
could really challenge them for that matchup in particular. I know many would
say that SSG would be the favorite, so in that case it upsets quite likely.
Honestly, with the way these two teams have been playing over the last couple
playdays, that will kick off playday number nine. The timeout taken by SSG does not
help Giddy whatsoever. He has been the first to die in countless rounds here
Now, Fenrir gone, an 0-4 start for Giddy, and a lot of map control gain from DZ for that.
It's not a challenge, Parker. I'm happy to count the four.
Every opening death in this game so far, helped by one man, Giddy, is essentially putting his team in 5v4 every single round.
Still committing to play an aggressive use on that archive as a roam, but not going to have much impact again in this game as he falls.
NJR has had a really nice start here playing on this, uh,
10s every single round.
It's not an off-grid, but it's usually versatile enough
to be brought on every round,
but they are particularly well-snooted for a bag.
So I appreciate NJR bringing this off,
finding so much good success with it here on-bag today.
In the 5v4, SSG will need to find a way to recover.
They've got Raid playing these stairs on smoke
instead of Dreams who have changed up the player
in this position a little bit,
even if it is the same strategy.
Dream is now supporting with these Yo-Kai cams, hoping to give the opportunity to raid, and that's exactly what happens.
Aiden's behind when he gets the shot onto Kino as his shield gets pushed away.
You've got two players trapped over in blue, that's the only real problem with where they find themselves now.
And with Flames on the board from the Capitao, this could get a little bit hairy, but they're focused elsewhere with 45 seconds remaining.
It allows Aiden to get himself out of that position.
Really good coordination by SSG there to eliminate Kino.
This will be a disastrous take for DZ without a shield.
But with the way they're shooting,
I don't think utility really matters here
at this point in time.
Raid is retaken from above.
Down goes J9O.
He was the vanguard sitting over top of that hatch.
And a retake into the site from Aiden does not work.
Newers wins that engagement himself.
Dream and Raid now last few standing.
Down goes Newers.
The plant goes off successfully, newer is yet to die, still bleeding out, FOLTZ!
Immortal as well for the time being, FOLTZ will be doing a 1v2, but they'll get dropped
in SSG's timeout, DOES pay off, has Dream and Raid save the round and get SSG on the
board!
Space station gaming man, say what you want, there is no other team in the world like SSG.
They double up on blue stairs to take that pick onto Kino.
They commit almost every body, including the Yokai Cam, to deal with the Monty, but it pays
off big time.
Dark Zero, they completely abandon the blue stairs push and have to pivot.
With less than 60 seconds on the clock, they push main, they drop the elevator hatch, they
try to apply some of this back pressure, and they get themselves in a plant, but it's just
messy the whole way through.
They end up bleeding bodies, they bleed a lot of HP when they go for that push as well,
There's still so many defenders inside of server or inside of this bottom floor
The yokai's harassing keynote throughout that rounds
Ended up just being a nice blast from dream that got that frag and NJR despite the kills
He was getting in this round
It just felt like it got a little too chaotic there's a great flank by raid as well to find his way up those server stairs to
Apply pressure on some of the guys on the hatch
It's aggressive, it's not conventional Parker, but it gets the job done and stops the bleeding so far in Grand Four.
It's aggressive, it gets the job done, it stops the bleeding. I think for a second there that you were describing a tourniquet, Jesse.
Are tourniquets aggressive?
I think tourniquets are pretty damn aggressive. A lot of people with tourniquets have the idea in Hollywood where it's like oh you just put it on and you tighten it and that's it.
It is apparently excruciatingly painful, and you have to really twist the hell out of those things, so I think they're pretty aggressive.
Okay, I'm not in the know, clearly.
Any servicemen and women, any medical professionals that have ever had to apply tourniquets can sound off on Twitter or Twitch or whatever they want to either say I'm right or say I'm wrong.
That's fine with me, but I think tourniquets are pretty aggressive.
aggressive. Either way, I do think it's applicable here. Space Station desperately
needed to apply a tourniquet to stop the bleeding. They were hemorrhaging with how badly Dark
Zero was beating in those first three rounds. At SSG, it was a very close one, but they still
pick up a significant victory in that round. I think a lot of it really does come down to how
they handled that blue hold and got rid of Kino. Well, you stopped the bleeding. Now let's see if
they can draw some blood of their own. SSG on the defense likely looking to play aggressive
once more they've got Aiden down in Teller is playing with a nitro cell. That's about to get
droned out by Jane I know who seemingly is going to find this information at some point.
Neur's on the IQ isn't really important up as well. He's bringing this to counter out Dream
on the Echo. We saw how powerful those yokai cams were in stopping Kino and the Monty in the
previous round. So now if you can use this information on the side of Neur's to clear
out some of these cameras you could get your team into an advantage state. You'd be just
pinging them from the roof to be valuable. That's what he's been doing so far but now
highlight. They desperately want to clear out checkers.
Upside down repel is NJR. We'll start the killing yet again. You guessed it.
Giddy! Giddy is having a really rough go of it. That is five rounds in a row. Every single round.
Giddy has been the opening death. Kino, round one, Newers, round two. NJR, NJR, NJR.
Since then. Giddy is basically just playing to die at this point in time. Kino gets cut down by rate.
So Kino being the first one to die. Two rounds in a row does not bode well for Dark Zero, but he's freed from the shackles of a shield operator this time around.
The utility from Zofia will be missed, but not as dire as losing your shield. 44 with 40 seconds left to go here at round five.
They're out of fire bullets, but they've still got some smokes. Fault's gonna throw those deep and try to isolate some angles.
Again, they cleared up the flare at the front lobby. So they've got the opportunity to swing in here on the east side.
That's exactly what Fault will do. He makes his way in the site, but he's spotted by that camera.
He's posted up in this position, holds one of NA's best players.
I think at this point in time you can make the case forever.
He's got a world championship under his belt,
a major under his belt with a different organization as well as he was on that SSG roster for so long.
He used to be a young gutter.
Now he's the old dog and he's still able to frag.
Well, he's on the ground, so is NJR.
Jay and I know we'll now join.
Things have fallen to pieces by GZ.
by DZ's they're out of time. The sluggishness there from dark zero and the wall that was
established by SSG works so effectively. Space station gaming now streaking they've picked
up two in a row.
South Parker, I mean they got some good usage of their utility early. Falts use those fire
capitol bolts to force Gideon to a bad position to get that fifth straight opening death onto
the support player on SSG put themselves into a 5v4 but after that it felt the utility was
It's just lacking a little bit.
Information was so strong on the side of SSG
because they had those Yo-Kai cameras up,
despite running the IQ on the roof.
They weren't really able to deal with it.
They didn't have a great utility to clear those out.
Maybe a Twitch drone would have been nice in that situation,
but they didn't have it.
And even NJR, playing on the stand, again,
I don't know if he's got a challenge from a viewer
to only play Sends today or something,
but he's been locking his operator every single round.
And in that one, it just didn't feel like he had much impact.
only tossed out one of those walls early in the round.
He sat with four of them in his pocket,
so we didn't get to see him use much of that utility.
Sorry, it's sense that he only has four,
so we didn't use any of those rollers
since in the entire round,
then felt like maybe if they had some of that utility,
could have given themselves better angles,
but they had to just swing into site,
take those fights, didn't get much value out of it,
and we will see NGR for the first time this game,
swap off of the sense and bring some different utility.
A good clawback here from space station.
They started off down 0 and 3 and during the time out it was, I don't know if you folks were able to hear at all, but basically said that the players were playing scared, isolated, not working together as a team and there needed to be a sense of urgency to align with one another.
Giddy has been the odd man out, Tottenham again all five rounds. He has been the first to die and he's currently sitting at 0-5.
Playing as Zommi though, that's an offer you do not want to lose early.
He's placing all of those Keebo barriers, seemingly the moment they generate, which is good because with his life expectancy you're going to need to get them out in a hurry.
The whole business that he's able to find a kill either in this round or at some point in the second half, SSG still doing okay.
All things considered.
Yeah, statistically, opening death every single round is about as bad as it gets, and I can confirm that if the game ended here after 5 rounds, Giddy would be posting the worst statistical game history, at least in the last era that we have data for.
Instead of working EPS of 12, lowest I've ever seen, and lowest I've ever been recorded on 16.
So we'll keep an eye on that, but opportunity to hold this back, even one kill should get him above that position.
And it won't be an opening death, it's dream and aid, and both hit the deck first.
Giddy was under fire, as you can see, very limited HP available. Raid and Rival on full HP.
Rival now taking, or Raid taking a beating, and he is gone, my goodness. DZ, firing all still this year.
Well here, I mean everybody falling rival in the 1v5 now.
Rivales does try and hold himself alive.
Foltz will shut him down to flawless end to that first half.
They could have gotten more of the look on their face suggests that before two is the best the DZ will settle for.
I mean, ending with a flawless round on the half, that's exactly kind of what sums this up right now.
Dark zero, four to two lead at the swap.
Lacks were seeing the same problems that you highlighted coming into the match.
SSG they're isolated they're disjointed and they're just not playing the game
They need to if they want to beat this dark zero team
Yeah, and that that's clearly the biggest issue and Parker hit the nail on the head talking about you going against stronger teams
They are going to punish you on those mistakes and those mistakes being made currently for SSG is being isolated not being able to play for trades
Even to stall out time with an extra player certainly in the early game now
We did see them kind of show a little bit of reprieve. They got that round once they revisited basement and
And immediately we hear Aiden saying,
could shoot everyone?
This is exactly what we need to do.
We need to play as a team.
We need to play together.
And guess what?
It follows suit.
Then they go back to that TEO.
And it was a great play from all of them.
They were able to set up crossfires.
But in that last round, again, very isolated,
not able to play for picks.
Now you're going to be on your attacking side.
And that's where the bigger issue was when we were heading
into this match of what I said is, they're attacked.
They are the ninth rated.
As Kyle said, they have big issues going into this series.
You said or I said?
You said you said it was not great.
You had to hit the trajectory and everything.
It doesn't matter regardless.
I mean, yeah, the biggest issue for me is, I mean,
essentially, they started the game actually.
We heard in the comms.
They started the game saying we need to just hold on
to our space and kind of make hero plays in our zones, right?
Don't over rotate and help anybody.
And honestly, I think that's an issue,
because for me, Bank is the hardest defensive map to play
because it's so easily to isolate picks, right?
We see most of the kills for DZ are happening
outside the map on window repels and then when you get in they're able to use the
montane to kind of isolate any any picks happening blue stairs or whatever so
soon as SSG flipped the script or the switch rather and started basically
just running at DZ and trying to break up their plans and make the rounds
scrappier that's when they started having success but again like you just said
right there I mean SSG now they have to go into the attack this is the side
that's the problem is it going to be a problem on bank though because this map
is inherently a better attacker map as I just stated.
Like, will that help them out?
And at the same time, no, because you can easily
isolate yourself on attack.
You can be one player trying to take position
and you're going against two defenders.
They have to be doing everything together.
The information has to simply be there.
And then I'd argue on a map like this,
you're going to see default dance,
but bring out some information ops,
be able to cut that time in half.
And that was another issue that we saw in their attacks,
was just the indecisiveness.
They were slow.
And again, on a map like bank where you have to take control,
You have to clear a lot of the map, especially when basemen holds are happening.
Make sure no one's lurking around. There is a lot of moving motions that need to be in play.
You can't sit in stall or you're going to windle down that time, just like they did on Border vs SR.
Well, that's the challenge here, right? SSG, this disjointed problems they've been having, those coordination issues.
Yeah, Bank might be an easier attacker-sided map, but that is where those issues can rear their ugly head down.
Two rounds right now against DarkZero.
They switch sides to see what they can do.
The attacking half will need to be better for SSG down by two,
as Jonah has described.
I mean, a difficult task going up against a team like DarkZero,
who again are such a good team on Bank.
Six wins, two losses this year,
and they're only losses against some of the best teams in the world.
We start here on the base in Balmsight, Parker.
This is a bomb site that at the last eight times DZ have played it. They have defended it successfully
Seven of those eight times only losing it once to Furia in Paris who again went on to get the grand finals of the
eSports World Cup so know how good Dark Zero can be on this bomb site
It's gonna be a very tough task for space station to battle back from this deficit
Hope springs eternal though and SSG has looked better since calling their time out two of the three rounds played
afterwards they were victorious but as you mentioned attacking will be mighty
tough for this team on this map and with the way they've played today I can
understand the hesitation and reluctance to say yes this is gonna be
mighty nice clawback from SSG but take what we have seen through seven play
days now of the NAL to heart there is nothing guaranteed at this point in time
even today the matches we've seen have been far from guaranteed so who knows
All I will say is that the entry from Darkseer on attack was terrific. Will they find those same opportunities to keep SSG at a
deficit in man count while defending because if so that will be critical for DZ's success.
Giddy hoping to start challenging some of these mid-floor players again yet to find a kill in this matchup. The opening pick five
straight rounds on the defense. So hoping to answer things back now on the attack.
change things up for him. The players on DZ though choosing just to fall back they
know that their goal is not to get into gunfights here. This is really smart from
Jane I know, really smart from Neewers to drop into the open area hatch. This is a
full small step and they don't want to be losing bodies before those final 45
seconds. So the goal is going to get into sights and start playing under this utility.
We'll see the cannon will start to pop off and his hatches get opened up.
Faults on the clash, the player I'm most watching partly. He's gonna post himself up
inside of third or to be able to place that shield down to play aggressive with it gives him some really interesting options on how he
This is G for closer together than what we saw in many of these rounds on defense Jesse
They confront the clash style stalling and buying times dying time again sick brain
It gets us all eventually
Newer's there with faults as there go the magnets and the flames do not reach newers in his position
That's a mix bending all in the firebolts
And now newer isn't a bit of hurt as they send in the actual bodies to take care of them dreams succeeds
That's SSG striking first for the first time all game
Yeah, but they don't have any utility left Parker they used all their capits out bolts two of those air jabs and made I mean
They spent everything just to kill newers and now they've got to find a way to get a plant
Here Japs to go off. Some utility, evidently still available Jesse. One firebolt as well.
Oh I'm just... I'm just riling me up here.
Rain getting slowed down, fed to J. Nidow, great calling from Foltz.
Now Aiden is taking a beating, dream in the ground as well, dying of the flames from Kino.
Ten seconds left. Aiden taking some serious damage.
He manages to pull it off, so into a post-plant we go.
rival on the board as down goes Foltz the timer almost winning it for Dark Zero
but good god almighty Aiden believed and his prayers were answered a retake from
above from DZ his rivals tucked into that small office they don't really have a
lot of information do they wear or wear his giddy he's dead at the hands of NJR
rival now needs to get active as he's picked off by the mayor yet again two
2 picks for NJR, he breaks double digits, and DZ start off the second half with a victory.
And it feels like rightfully confused, I don't think Rival had any idea that he dropped the hatch,
Rival was clearly expecting a second person to retake top floor. It's to be fair, you know, you might expect DarkZero would push
two players up above and keep one disabling the diffuser, but it was just NJR that went hunting.
Choosing to keep two players in the basement, that makes Rival very confused, cannot answer to get that trade back from his teammates.
teammates. Shocks that Aiden got the plant down. I have to say, he was so close to not
getting that if he's get on the ground. If they had won it on the side of SSG, that would
have been the play that made all the difference in life. Just a little bit lost in the position
there in the post plant. That's a really tough post plant for the defenders to win, by the
way, even in 2v3. That is heavily favorable for SSG, but NJR is just having a hell of
a game and he's seems unstoppable in this server, hitting every shot that he needs to.
7 and 4 now for the mayor in a dominating position.
Two rounds left in regard to zero.
This is the cleanest week this game.
7-2 would be a dominant statement against Space Station,
so let's see if they can find it.
Reminder again for everybody that against
playoff level teams, Space Station is averaging
a hair over two rounds a game,
and they are in very familiar territory,
much to the dismay of their fans. No doubt. Schedule doing some favors to give SSG those
nine points that they sit at and SSG clings to a playoff spot. Right now, there is possibility
that they can lose it by the end of the day. It really comes down to what For Fun is able
to muster. And they're up next against M80 and a battle that involves no playoff teams
at the current point in time, but again, the victory for 4-fun in regulation could change that loss in regulation for MAD.
All but seals their fate. They will not qualify for the playoffs, which is quite devastating.
That team finished with what? 25 points in stage 1? Right now, they're sitting at 3 points.
It's gonna rough go for MAD. They in 4-fun up next. That'll be an exciting match.
But before we get there, does DarkZero pull off this sweep defending here on Bank
and end up taking all three points themselves?
It's a golden opportunity for Space Station, Parker.
Here on the top floor of Bank, DarkZero have lost their last four defenses against tier one opponents.
But I have to say, they've drastically needed to change their strategy.
They're used to playing this bombsite with DMRs, Tubera, Aruni.
Those have been taken off the board, though, as you saw, caving the nerfs.
So find other ways to get aggressive, like jumping out the building.
The natural faults is just done, but Aiden's found a gap up the main stairs, he goes one
for one after getting traded back by Kino.
It's not much, but it's a start for Space Station.
Space Station needs anything they can get at this current point in time.
Giddy hoping for his first kill, it will wait a little bit longer.
0-8 for Giddy, one of his worst performances.
And you know, for a relatively experienced player like him, Jesse, that's going to haunt
him.
as the last man standing harassed by gas canister,
Yo-Kai, and then finished off by the UMP in the hands
of Neuer's clinical set of defenses so far.
As TZ, take one point.
They set a match point, one round away
from a regulation victory.
Just domination from dark zero.
They had to throw out their strategy
on the top floor again with the Aruni and two brown nerfs
that we start at the start of the season,
but they rely on the mirror, they rely on the echo,
they rely on their utility to do a lot of lock things down
and even the newly buffed in line.
They're typically themselves into a strong position.
It's a great gap by Aiden, but unfortunately, the reactions are so good from Dark Zero.
This is a team that is insanely talented when it comes to that coordination.
They shut down all angles of that push.
Giddy again, Parker. 0 and 8 now.
He is barely, and I say this to be clear, barely doing better than the worst EPS performance in history.
He's up by one at this point on Noah, who actually holds that record from his time on TT9.
My memory is correct, but I mean, he's been completely absent from this game, there's no other way to say it.
He stopped dying first, which is nice, but ultimately he still failed to have any impact in this game.
When you're playing the best team in North America, formerly the best team in the world,
you need all five players showing up, and they frankly cannot today.
The attackers are moving to the field of arms.
I've got to wonder how much this is mental as well for this team, right?
You saw the accolades that they were being given after their first three matches.
They walk into Super Week, they walk out with all nine points,
and at that point in time, nobody expected M80 to have fallen off,
so they were looking at it and saying,
okay, four funds of bubble playoff team, five fears,
maybe they're going to improve, maybe they made some changes.
M80 was the best team in the group stages last stage,
Space Station won all three of those contests, wow.
What the chatter was, was Cloud9 and SSG
finally leveled up, here they go.
For Cloud9, that has remained true.
They're the only team undefeated right now
in the North America League.
As for Space Station, they have not been able
to get a single point, and again,
averaging about two rounds against Playoff
and Level Competition, and it looks like
it might happen yet again.
And to happen with Giddy, currently at an EPS of 17,
that's a rough one.
This is the time where the rubber meets the road
and you need to start making improvements
for the final days of the group stage.
And it just seems like there's regression
after regression here for this SSG team.
Really tough stuff for them.
It's something they will have to workshop,
no matter their results in the off season.
While the roam clear is successful,
Space Station gaining pushed every player
from dark zero back towards that bombsite.
And before the 90 second mark in the round, that's a good mark of success for this team who has struggled in these opening duels that still a 5v5, but at the very least they've got themselves some map control.
Part of the reason why DZ might have wanted to give that up is because of the C4s down below, but Rival has managed to avoid that one from J9O.
He's on the Valkyrie, there's the camera from the stock position, that's a really nice cam spotted out here by DZ.
It might be able to clear it out, but one way or another we are still looking at this last C4 being held by NJR that could be a wincon for them late in the round.
Newer is the opening deck as Raid takes him out in archives. This is the best round SSG have had in quite some time.
The bar is unfortunately very low at this point in time, so any victory, any minor victory.
It's not really worth celebrating here.
It's a nice amount of cam to show rival getting into position.
Down goes NJR at the hands of Aiden.
The space station might be able to pick up their third here.
Giddy dies again, empty-handed.
But I will say as boogie drones have made some serious work happen, Volt's unable to
retrieve a downed J9O, SSG will clean up the remainder.
And they're staying alive for the time being three rounds for the astronauts, DZ, still
sitting on match point.
Nice execute.
Space station gaming take the map space that is afforded to them on the top floor.
They've got great soft destruction there.
I think Dark Zero were really relying on those C4s to do a bit more work than they did.
You probably don't see DZ fall off of their top floor roam as quickly as they did if they
didn't think they would get some kills with the nitro cells, but those didn't really
come their way, credit to Aiden pushing on that square position, he got that pick on
to NJR that started to open things up, found Kino as well, applying that pressure, covering
Dream as he went for the plant in towards cafeteria. Just a nice little hold after taking
that full top floor control, they didn't get baited into dropping the hatch either which
might have been a lose con for them, they instead regrouped, found the right angle to
push and got in towards that bombsite. It will be a timeout being called by Call-up,
maybe just wanting to settle things down before it gets too out of hand.
Darkseer is still in a dominating position in this game,
but the doubt maybe starts to creep in a little bit now that Space Station Gaming have found their footing.
This is a bit of a surprising timeout to be taken here, but I mean, Call Out's a smart guy.
He's captained a lot of good teams.
Smart guy is an understatement with somebody like Call Out, for those that are, he's brilliant, frankly.
And I mean his ability to get the best out of his teams is something that he's always been
You know honored for
Here he's gonna call the timeout because he thinks that the benefit for DZ is larger than whatever benefits space station will get
From their ability to talk to their coaching staff as well. DZ only needs a single round
I'm assuming there's something he saw that he doesn't like here because DZ structurally have not looked like a bad team
I feel they're still very in control of this match
And I mean, like, bombsite rotation is going to continue to support them as sites open back up.
So, I'll just want to make this one quick and painless, I imagine.
Easy, we'll go to open area after that pep talk with their coach.
Yeah, they run the exact same bombsite back.
You would be expecting a bottom floor defense, and that's certainly what SSG were expecting.
They had the twitch, they had the demos, they had the snake for the roam clear.
They don't clear, they even have views, but they're gonna have to change all of that now that they're seeing your bomb site continue to be the same spot.
And honestly, it's almost the exact same operator lineup as well.
NJR has swapped from the Warden over towards the Thorn instead, but otherwise, this is a very similar lineup.
They've also dropped the Malusi on Faults for a Goyo, so they've changed a couple things.
This has to be what Call of Use is exact timeout for Parker.
He must have said, okay guys, I know how to fix this open area defense.
Let me just tell you now so that you can fix it.
Even if this doesn't go their way, they can just play talk for a play baseman. They've won both those sites already
It was one of them again. So I like this from call out
Arguably the greatest coach North America has ever produced and hoping to set his team up for a 7-3 win
Oh
Arguably is a word that's gonna do some heavy lifting in that statement. I know there are people who will absolutely challenge you on that opinion
But who is the best coach in any history?
I'm not the one asserting anything and I choose
I do appreciate though that SSG have changed up in their approach. They'll keep the capitao, they'll keep the ram, but bringing the snake and bringing the nook is an intriguing one.
Nook on this bomb site suggests you are going to either go in through lobby really hard, really fast, or take the top or bottom floor and do the same thing.
thing rival's position right now is the lobby and Aiden oh my gets really lucky
on that one raid and rival were killed earlier on the nook will not pay off the
snake will not pay off the two new operators being brought I suppose
florist was brought in the eighth round but it's still a new operator for this bombsite
immediately not working out giddy while he's been able unable to find kills has
still found some value from utility last round his boogie drones were
exceptionally important at forcing Dark Zero out of areas that they would usually
sit in with the weighting arms of Space Station. He'll do that yet again as he's
playing from above.
This is that solo play that we saw from SSG in the first half, Crawford. The desk was so
worried about it starting to come out once again on the attack with both Raiden
and Rival being very isolated as they lose their 1v1 gunfights. They've taken their
opponents low but it doesn't matter if you're getting blown up by a nitro cell.
J9o finds Aiden and it's a 4v2 with under 60 to go.
Giddy has a chance now to start amassing some kills.
He and Dream will have to do so, or that is it for this map.
Tark's here outnumbering them 2-1 with plenty of time left for the defenders to find the
avenues SSG wants to push from.
Coalesce around those, deny them their opportunity.
Giddy back up top assessing the damage that his boogie drones had done.
He's got a hatch to drop through as well.
It's been studied by Jane I know who will died as Ratero drone
He'll get the job done down goes kitty not a single kill to be had there goes dream as well
And easy snag all three points against space station gaming
It's nice little blow to the floor as but it's all for not marker a dominant coming out from dark zero here on bank
They continue to be the best bank team in North America
America taking down face station for the fourth time this season and cruising their way up the stands
Well, it is another day in the office for Dark Zero as they continue to trend upward
and collect these wins while SSG now have lost four games in a row.
On the positive side though, Dark Zero, that's a big three points and we've got Kino standing
by after the win.
Kino, congrats on picking up a big three points.
Lax, what do you got?
Thank you.
Kino, another big game for you guys back to back solidifying, almost solidifying your
guys' spot and playoff.
Now, big narrative question here.
No, you love narrative questions.
Loves them.
How's the Chalky Milk situation over there?
No, I haven't had Chalky Milk in a long time.
I'll be honest with you.
Is that the game changer for you?
Let's just say I've grown up lax.
We're just drinking regular milk now.
Regular milk.
Ah, that's fair.
That's fair.
Respect.
You guys don't know the Chalky Milk.
I do not know the lore.
Kino was like a story.
People have addictions, but Kino's addiction
was definitely to Chalky Milk.
He was getting orders sent in from Brazil, from his mother,
his sweet mother, of just supplying him
with endless amounts of chocolate milk.
Wow, I mean, there's so many stories in there, Leo.
We should write a book and speak about...
We should have a podcast!
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, speaking about book,
I think there's someone on this DZ team
that's coming out with their own book.
Call out.
I think he doesn't get enough.
He doesn't get talked about enough.
We talk about all you guys and how good you are.
But he calls the time out in the very last round, Kina.
What's he telling you guys there
when when you're almost ready to put the game away anyways.
Yeah, that was an absolute infinite game time out.
He told us to run back open, run back the exact same shred and fix.
You know how how we played it.
He just tweets like our late round pretty much
and told us to get our head in the game and play
the shred, how the shred supposed to be played.
And we did it and we won, right?
Who could have my basement?
We could have, you know, another side, mix things up.
He was like, no, we're getting these right.
We're going to do it.
Why not?
Why not?
Why not get a good rep in a game day?
You know, yeah, I might as well.
Right.
The key before we send you off.
I mean, can you talk to me about how you feel this team is trending
as you guys are getting a little bit closer towards playoffs?
Like, do you feel like you're headed in the right direction?
Anything major you guys are still working on?
I mean, we're so obviously working ourselves, working on our fundamentals,
which are the most important part of a team.
And that's the
Like the thing that we were lacking the most I would say you know the the past few weeks and
We're keeping things simple
We're you know drinking milk doing your thing drinking chocolate milk back to the
Back to the basics back to the fondies. Okay. Yeah, we'll see all right Kino. Well, I'm sure we'll talk to you a bit down the road
Thank you so much for your time and congrats on the way
Thank you guys.
Dark Zero, as I said another day in the office, I mean that is the handling business over
SSG.
There were maybe glimpses of SSG hope there.
We heard some energy coming from the comms in the end, but I mean, really it was just
Dark Zero playing a better game.
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, Dark Zero has been consistent in terms of their game across the board.
However, for SSG, it's definitely been consistent in their issues and it's not looking good
for them, but for the other side, for the lower side of the points needed in to get
to the playoffs for 4-4, fun even for an 80 for 5-5 years.
I mean, this is a great situation to be in,
to see SSG lose, not gain any bit of points.
It is so important as we go into this next week.
Yeah, it's going to be really important.
And I mean, look, stats don't lie.
And we switch over to the attacking side.
You're going to say it.
You're not going to say stats don't lie.
Oh, I thought, OK, I thought you were going somewhere with us.
No, I'm just saying stats don't lie.
Relaxing.
And SSG were only able to get one attacking round
on an attacker sided map and you know, if you're that bad at attack, why are we going to an attacker side of maps?
I mean we talked about the map pool quite often with SSG and you know what else we have to talk about?
Yep. I mean I'm seeing NJR highlighted at the top of my eyes immediately go to the bottom.
That's a stat watcher right there. Giddy 0 and 10, 0 and 5 on the entries was getting formed in the beginning of that game.
I mean clearly this was a 4v5 on the side of space station getting into defense
And I was really hoping the admins were going to let Giddy reconnect on the attacking side
And it just didn't seem to be true. I mean 23 EPS Jesse
Jesse was giving us the kind of play-by-play there as the EPS changed and how I believe 13 is like the lowest EPS ever
He was saying that that was Noah from back in the day Giddy was towing that line Wow the entire time
Yeah, I mean it's it's unfortunate. Have you ever dropped the donut in the probably match?
I think I've only had one and man. I did I retired that same season
That's what I do. I had to hang it up. Don't hang it up. Get it. I'm gonna say
I was early one was like maybe the midway point by I mean going dropping a donut definitely stings
Not gonna be good for the mental especially when your team needs those
In the playoff situation well our next matchup we talked about it already
Points are all they're thinking about right now and maybe for one who are in last place right now in the NAL
for fun, a little bit more competitive in terms of the points.
Now with SSG staying with nine, the door has opened.
These teams still have a chance to make the playoffs.
But for fun have shown us glimpses of hopes here, Kyle.
They showed us yesterday in that game against Wildcard
that even though they did not come out with that win,
they started that game with a strong first half on attack.
They did. And like you were just saying, the door has been open.
SSG keeps losing and for fun, we've got to put together
a complete game and get some points on the board. Now, where has those glimpses been?
It's been on the attack side of things for four fun. I mean, on that last game specifically,
they were bringing the meta operators exactly like me and Lax had both been asking for,
using the glots, using the game, using the shields to great success. Getting four rounds against Wildcard
is definitely no laughing matter. It definitely shows that they have been learning. The problem is
that they switched over to the defensive side of things and completely fell apart. Wildcard
We're able to just win five straight attacking rounds against them and it almost seemed like they had no
Adaption right and that's the problem is two games in a row to good teams, right?
We're putting up good first half performances and those glimpses, but then we fall apart in the end
Well, yeah, talk to us about those glimpses legs
I was gonna say that's the important thing it was those glimpses on their attacks and being able to utilize the meta ops
Effectively now in this round five. What does four fun want to go for here?
What is the first step the first step is going to be alleviating this pressure here from master door now
How are they going to do that? It's going to be bolster on the glass
He's going to smoke off the connector door smoke off the trophy door swinging through trophy in that smoke
Killing the thorn now what is going to be the next step?
It is going to be three
Simultaneously things happening all at once you are going to have Packard come up the red stairs get the pick onto the player inside
while the two players are coming through statute to support and put pressure onto Kansas.
But something that we missed during the broadcast yesterday was what was happening on the flank.
Now, it was a beautiful setup for Mike W and the boys on For Fun as they had two important cams
getting information on that flank from aviation, I mean from blue stairs.
And they're relaying this information, Mike W to Wolfsburg saying that this flank is happening
while everything is happening towards AD side. Like I said, you're going to see Packard coming up red,
kill this player, in Skull, get traded, two players coming through statute, now the flank is happening.
These are where the comms are. Be relayed to Volsper to be able to react and shut down that flank.
And again, while that all is happening, the two players still coming through statute,
pressing onto Kandyn, not allowing him to have a fight in this, and then they just collapse
onto the site and these were the moments where we're highlighting and seeing these glimpses
from for fun of what this team can look like when they're not when they're not only playing
together they're using the operators effectively they're playing into the meta efficiently but it's
something that we need to consistently see time and time again given the fact that the door has
been opened if they win this next series get three points that puts them at nine tied with SSG
and then it's a then it's a race at that point for both of those teams to be able to try to clench
that last thought into playoffs.
Yeah, I mean, absolutely.
And I'm so glad you pointed out, again, the meta operators
that they were kind of using there,
because it was something we talked about offline,
where it was like, if they were the old 4-fun,
and they were just like, being a one striker,
and Volsper on like a Deimos or something,
that play is not there, right?
They don't have the tools to kind of break open the round.
That is what has been so important and so pivotal
for those guys on 4-fun for the attack.
But it's in. It comes down to the defense,
or it comes down even to the second half of our games.
If we have such a good start, maybe we do need Packer,
because we haven't heard him really in the comments.
Maybe we do need Packer to be like,
guys, let's close out this game.
Definitely some moments that were Packer again,
that we've highlighted time and time again,
where he really has reshaped the team
in some defining rounds, where they end up winning
seven rounds in a row.
But again, it's still going to be just as important for everyone
to be still playing into the meta effectively.
And then, like you were saying, going into those defenses
and kind of playing the exact same style, playing together,
playing for an objective, playing those trades
efficiently, because that's just what they weren't
able to when they were on that defensive path.
We talked about this, but the challenge for both of these teams, right?
It's playoff chances that are dwindling by the minute for M80.
This was a big talking point yesterday.
Their actual percentage chance of making the playoffs has been plummeting.
Right now, the actual numbers coming into the day were just under 5%, 4.53%.
These numbers courtesy of Justin on Wildcard, studying these numbers as the playoffs come around.
They're worried about the cutoff, of course, with 12.33 points.
Not necessarily what the cutoff will be here.
Again, that's an average over the last few stages.
Not necessarily what that will be here in stage two.
Because right now the maximum points that N80 can acquire,
if they get three points over the next three games is 12.
SSG and that sixth place spot currently have nine points.
It is mathematically possible they can make it.
But four fun are competing for these spots too.
SSG, all they need is a couple more points
and that will shut the door on N80.
He lacks like this is the minutia that we really get down into when it's playoffs time
That's I mean that's kind of a fun part as well as once you get into these last few play days
Everything is just that much more important than it was even in the beginning
Which is why we're highlighting these scenarios and watching them so closely because yes
I mean M80 has been looking respectfully horrible
Yeah, and realistically there is a world for them still to be able to make playoffs given how poor of a performance
they've been having because of the lower end teams not being
able to accumulate any points.
So they are still in the race, but everything
is decided on their own performance.
They cannot get two points.
They cannot get one point.
They have to get three points.
There is no other option.
They have to win out in regulation,
and they have to also rely on teams losing.
So in one end, it's in their hand,
and then in the other, it's totally on the other teams.
Well, earlier in our NAL Looking Glass segment, Kyle,
you highlighted Gavini.
The player that you felt really has
been falling short of expectations we had for him.
And I'm sure the team, in addition to him,
like, what does this team need to do?
Where do we need to see these improvements being made?
I mean, all across the board.
Yeah, kind of a loaded question.
I was trying to think of the looking glass,
and I was like, man, was that the segment I was blind in,
apparently?
I think we were reaching out to say to him.
Oh, when I was, yeah, my hand was on his shoulder,
and I'm like, gap, it's time to activate.
But really, it's on the whole team.
I mean, no one's been having to pop off performance.
You're still, we're talking about such a loaded roster
And no one is kind of popping off, right?
They previously had the NAL MVP, Ashen.
I know he's under fire by the Reddit, of course, again, right?
Where has he kind of been?
Diffuser, Gunner, I mean, and we highlighted Gav.
I mean, the whole team across the board,
it seems like there might be some internal frustrations.
I have to wonder, because we go back
to the Gunner interview, right?
And he just talks about ever since they made
those roster changes, there seems to be something
within the team.
Something doesn't make sense here for MADD,
Because again, there's just too much talent for this to not work.
Again, it was something that you said yesterday
that they ended up changing roles going into EWC,
which we know that's a huge no-go.
You don't change any roles.
Even if you feel like it's going to work out,
you just simply don't do it because it causes issues.
But something that we also know is,
once you hyper fixate on certain issues,
that maybe are small, they can blow up to be something big.
And I think that's exactly what we're seeing with M80,
with making those roster changes.
But making those role changes, then having
to come back to your regional domestic play
and still having those issues, it's only going to exacerbate
even further into why we're seeing them in the situation.
They are.
I truly believe because of that change
and what having EWC has snowballed into exactly what
this entire stage has panned out to be so far.
On the highlight of the four-fund attacks earlier,
that was against Wildcard on Villa yesterday.
And they'll be looking to potentially replicate that
today on the very same map as it turns out.
M80 must have liked what they saw.
Lex, do you like what you're seeing here?
I mean, I'd say it's a smart call for M80.
I mean, I don't say that they look bad on it,
even when they burst dark zero.
Again, it was small mistakes that really
cost them that entire series.
And then for the side for poor fun,
their defenses were really weak.
I don't think M80 was necessarily weak on attack or defense.
They had a pretty solid half for both sides.
Again, it was a small issue.
So if I'm M80, I'm looking at where was poor fun having fun?
It was on those attacks.
Maybe we see more unorthodox picks.
Make them uncomfortable.
Make them not be able to use, you know,
these meta ops that we talked about using that glass
for Wolfsburg to be able to take advantage of,
take away some of those shields.
I'm curious what those bands are going to look like,
but I do feel it's most likely going to be pretty default.
It probably will be pretty default.
I mean, there's a small chance too,
because Four Fun was having so much success
with the Ying Glass when we eventually switched sides,
that maybe they target that
and leave up that snake in that Damos.
But again, typically that's not what we're going to see.
It's usually going to be,
I mean, there's the solid snake anyway in the Izami.
I mean, Four Fun though,
I actually like this map for them because of what we've seen on the attacking side
And it's like if they could just figure out how to play defenses and against M80 who is not as strong as a
Hacking team as wild part. They are struggling so I can see for fun
I can see a world where they're able to string some defenses and get going and the confidence that I was hearing from them on the attack
I mean
It was everything so that is what I need to see because they are starting on that defensive side
I think this could all be good for them to start getting those comms going start getting packer involved a little bit start getting Mike
W
I mean they also have a lot of stars here as well as they will say that is what I worry about them starting a defense given
That's where they felt that's what I fell short and the problem with defense if you can't get started on your comms on defense
It's going to be even harder once you get to that attacking app
Which is why in certain apps I prefer starting on attack because you can work on your comms
So defense is relatively that much easier, but we don't know until we see what happens
Yeah, both teams need the points and with Osaka on the line, SI on the line, and M80, it is their most desperate hour.
Some points against Forfun. Their only hope.
The pessimistic to say their only hope, Jonah. You really gotta elevate these teams, but let's be honest here, Joe.
Absolutely correct. Jesse, M80 will not be officially eliminated with a loss in regulation today,
But it will be all but written that they will not make the playoffs for fun still in the playoff hunt
Desperately needing to pick up some points here and they will go to North America's most played map which will bring some joy
It's a very defender sided map surely that helps for fun
Not quite based on what we saw yesterday Parker we saw for fun play
Five rounds on defense on villa and they lost every single one of them to wild cards
So this defensive half must be better for 4-fun.
M80 should be licking their lips at the chance to attack against 4-fun here on Villa.
And you're right.
To play off implications, it's essentially do or die for M80.
Even if they lose here in regulation, there's some round differential shenanigans
where they're as technically aligned even if it's 1 in a million.
So we won't confirm anything until it's confirmed.
But yeah, M80 essentially in a must-win game for the rest of the stage.
It's for fun, also still battling for a playoff spot.
They've been falling a little bit in recent play days,
but they're definitely still in the fight Parker
in a good position to get into that top six.
If they can find a few more wins,
so very important to be able to bounce back today.
They go to the basement to start things off.
We quite outlandish that if a regulation loss ensues,
a one win and six loss M80 team sitting at three points
with two play days to go,
We'll still have a chance to make playoffs.
It has been a wild one here in the North America League.
The dominance from teams has not really presented itself
the way it did in kickoff and stage one,
unless you are named Cloud9.
And then the dominance has been really quite wonderful.
Cloud9 said he got six and oh, right now,
head and shoulders above the rest of the league.
And they still get to play today as well.
They'll be at our last matchup against the rebellion.
Just past the halfway point now,
round number one here is for fun.
and M80 coming to blows and Beano reads Gavin like a buck.
The Aurora only able to do a small thing.
Beano knows he was gonna die,
but he secures the kill on the Savage,
traded out by Ashen, but Packer is on the board
for Fun's best player this stage.
Packer leading by example,
and he picks up a kill on round number one.
Beautiful shot, gets in this lead now.
Into the 4v2.
You know, so good on those stairs who will work for it for two.
Now Gunner and Ashen, just Gunner I should say in the 1v4.
This one should be impossible Parker.
There's no way Gunner pulls this one back.
He will try to bait somebody into his weapon,
but nobody seems like they're taking it.
And finally Mike W deals the final blow,
gets the victory for 4-4 Fondant
for the first time in team history.
They will win a defense on Villa 0 and 5 yesterday, but they get the job done in round 1 today.
A little awkward standoff there with the final kill coming in.
I think there was some confusion as to whether you should keep talking or should throw to me for a nanosecond for me to call such riveting gameplay to seal the deal here.
Why'd it be clutched? Why'd it be clutched the 1v4? You'd want to take that.
I would.
correct. Did you have confidence that that would happen? Obviously not because you
didn't have taken it in the end. Yeah, I mean after he's dead, you know.
Good start for Mike W and Ko Packer enters as the highest rated player in the lobby
sitting at sixth in the standings. It's quite a tumble down to the next highest
Rated player Gunnar sitting in 22nd is the next highest on the scoreboard and he's in very good company
Ash and right below him diffuser below him Volsper
Below him be no not that far down below as well
Stop in a disastrous
Season for these teams stats wise there are plenty of players lower than them in the standings the lowest rated player in the lobby is
Actually savage right now sitting in the 38th
out of 50 active players. So, they've been fine. And again, I think M80's numbers are
better than their last place suggests. Their round differential is mighty, mighty close.
It just honestly feels like this team has gotten a bit unlucky with their rounds and
their games. And I mean, let's be honest here, I just from the eye test, this M80 squad has
not been playing like the worst team in North America. So, whether they're able to fix it
Now we're, we're not while the playoffs seem definitely out of reach for this team.
There's a long off season to go.
When or lose, they will have to do some soul searching here as a squad,
as they were going to disappoint and kick off an okay stage one
and then a disappointing stage two so far.
It is crazy to already be talking about it, but I mean, as I L C Qs,
that's going to maybe be the next objective for M 80.
They can't get their act together quickly here in North America.
League and opening gunfight for Gavin doesn't quite find the head of Mike W
who's challenging across the top floor. Mike retreats back to these red
stairs. That's his last day to yes and calls it a day. Gonna be a pretty pass
of hold coming through here on a aviator games for for fun. They played this
again twice versus wildcard of course lost at both times but I like the
adaptations they've made both in their first baseman defense and now here on
this top floor they've changed a couple operators around. Feels like they're
learning from a lot of the other teams that have been playing those
successful year. Mike W with two four and oh a triumphant start for him.
Volsper on the board a third for Mike W M 80 rushing into their demise as
diffuser swings in Bino on the board. A flawless second round and four fun are
off to a terrific two oh start. Gabriel London. You might know him as Mike W
but neither of those names are true in reality. The young gunner on four fun
He puts the frags together for, I believe, five kills in just the first two rounds, Parker.
And what I like about Mike is he's not flashy with it, you know?
No utility really necessary.
He's just playing his angle and hitting his shots.
He hears them rip the nades, so he says, I can step up and take this fight.
Gets even more aggressive to shut down Geveni.
Diffuser, no hope in the 1v5.
Just repels in with a prayer and sees how it goes.
Really nice start from 4-5.
Now 2 and 0 up.
Like W finding big success.
Bino was huge in that first round.
everybody else playing their standard supporting roles. I mean almost zero deaths so far. The
only kill that got him on MAD was on Bino and that was a trade after he'd already gotten
two kills. I feel like it was almost targeted at me that round after I spent some time trying
to lay the groundwork for, I guess the suspension of disbelief around this MAD team's abilities,
I just end up looking more foolish than usual.
I do agree with you though.
I do as we are.
It's not been that bad.
They've had good successes.
They've just been falling and they've been falling in the worst possible ways.
Like, 7-5 loss after 7-5 loss after 7-5 loss.
They haven't been getting any points, but I think they have been better than they show on the standings, despite how this game has started.
They just need to convert a couple of those the other way around, right?
Shopify Rebellion back in stage 1 played almost all 12 rounds in almost every single one of their matches during the group stages.
during the group stages. They needed the full distance time and time again. The difference
was, was that Shopify Rebellion was able to win a couple of those 7-5 on those really
gritty games, whereas M80 have not been able to do that. The only victory they had was
a 7-0 ass kicking against Outlast just last week on Fortress. Beyond that, it hasn't really
been much from M80. And I will say that 7-0 did help them a lot with the round differential.
But if you look at their contemporaries, at last it's sitting at a minus 19.
Oh my, hold on a second here.
All hell is broken loose.
As Packer goes down, and my W will be secured in just a matter of minutes.
Ashen can retrieve Savage, everybody back up, immediately the phone will ring, Cirque's
isolated being watched by both the Doka Bee and the Deimos now.
Mike bleeding out, finished off by Ashen as there he goes.
The phone was actually ringing in his pocket at Cirq's, debuffed, an exploding phone, finishing
you off.
That is an unideal way to end, and Mike W has been silenced.
M80, 5v3 with half of the round to go.
It's a good response from Ashen.
The only player to get kills in this game so far, but he's put to bed.
That aggression that was coming out from Forfun, jumping out the window and swinging at the
same time.
They thought they had caught them off guard, but it's only a down on staff and he's
just picked back up.
So no doubt the best position M80 have been in since this game began.
Pressuring the bomb site now starting to work their way in through the pantry stairs through laundry trying to find some way to get into this site
Looks like it is gonna be a pantry with it
start this push off
Savage shrugging off a lot of that damage Nade goes out Sirks and Bino on the case they have turned this one around
How goes the nitro cell savage dancing just far enough away from it to not take any mortal damage
But he is on a single point of HP
Nade goes in, Serks flushed out of his position,
and Nade cannot capitalize.
Serks finds two, his third on the round,
and it's all up to Gunner to clutch out.
And then Volsper now in a 1v1 TCSG in hand
for Volsper, 30 seconds to go.
Gunner can slowly work through this
as he will push the Kaede out of his position.
Volsper stands completely still
and chooses to die to the Nade
rather than the gun, Nade, win the round,
but really, really close.
Sirks almost just pulled off an absolute heist up against M80.
Clutching that one up came so damn close,
but shut down by Gunner in the end,
then it'll be a 1v2 clutch to come through
from the Fresno native.
Gunner does a great job there.
Playing around as Nades, playing around as Utility.
His first Nade forced a bit of movement
to come through as well,
whether that was him or the Blackbeard,
nading out Sirks' position.
They clearly had good utility to work through with that.
Such a massive advantage thanks to Ashen shutting out that aggression from 4-FUN.
The fact that they almost lost it honestly gives me more hope for 4-FUN after that round
than it does M80.
Cirx lost to Great's Nitro Cell again.
This play just doesn't go the way 4-FUN were hoping.
It completely gets shut down by Ashen which is great.
But then Cirx starts to go absolutely nuke inside the site.
He launches the Nitro Cell and if it connects with Savage against Savage's 1 HP, we could
been seeing a different round entirely. He hits the headshot on the Blackbeard anyways, but
they're happy to take the round and listen Parker, they don't ask how, they just ask that
you get it done, so it's 2-1 for 4-1.
An exceptionally close one from M80, but played very well by both Ashen and Gunner there.
Serks has, as a rookie, been under the microscope here for this team.
He's been performing quite well against his competition, probably a bit below what he'd hoped for in regards to his offensive abilities.
But still finds himself pretty middle of the pack. 38 kills, 42 deaths.
deaths. For a rookie playing on entry, that's not exactly ideal, but I mean,
Four Fun as a team has been a bubble playoff team, but not one that has been
able to capitalize off of the weakness of other opponents and such and make it
to a LAN yet. So I honestly think his abilities on the team are very well put
and he continues to make steady improvements. In fact, Four Fun has been
doing excellent in the scrambles that we find on Villa. And the fact that they as
the defending team had entered this map without a single victory.
And I've already won two rounds is something that
Sirks and Co can be very proud of.
Mm hmm. Yeah, it was yesterday against Wildcard where Sirks was the only person on
4-1 to post a positive KD. He's the only player on 4-1 here on Villa to post a
positive KD as well, as that was the only time they've played this map.
So he's definitely the guy to look at through this game.
Let's be a fast rush here.
The toxic babes slow things down, Bino in the exact same position as he was
In round one, we'll be hoping to stall things out.
Got a double kill here before finally falling at the bottom of these astra stairs.
So, gonna be playing a little bit more passive for now, but it's clear M80 want to get this pick on Dubino
to open up their path to the bomb site and try to work a plant in here on the north side.
Bollocks! Any mid-device close!
Intility being thrust now towards this basement bomb site.
M80 slowly working their way through this middle floor.
It's a call-in response right now from Forfun.
Two of those gas canisters had been used because Mott's already established.
I think we're really here from secondary gadgetry for Forfun, except for Packer holding that
nitro cell, likely cradling it like a baby behind one of his black mirrors, so just
needs to wait for some intel.
M80 swapping things up, Ashton and Diffuser completely scampering off of their position.
They will now target the hatches, because you see one of those Horus Lances shot out
by Volsper, potentially deny something there, but it misses, and the canister will now open
things up.
Gown goes to Fuser, as Volsper can still frag from his position.
Very well done, no all to in hand.
Bino taking down Savage, it looks like the execute's gonna happen in a moment.
Snowdice, Packard now on the board.
Gunner, the only one from M80 able to muster much at all side by side with Gavin.
As they attempt to storm their way into this bomb site, but Forfun is not relenting on their
control whatsoever.
However, another one of those horse lances shot out by Volsper, denying time.
He's on the board for yet another opportunity.
Gunner goes down and Gavin, searching for his very first kill.
Has four players to find.
One of them Volsper on very limited HP.
He finds Packer first, but the Vector a better gun.
Zero kills for Gavin on that round.
Four fun.
Winner third.
M80, maybe got to go back to the drawing board.
They do a similar attack to what they did back in round one.
Parker with the bulk of that pressure focused around the Astro stairs, but again, it just felt like for fun. We're in firm control
We saw that
The nor gadget coming out and it looked like it was failing to stop the hatch
I mean it did fail to stop the hatching getting opened up
It's a strap we saw from cloud nine a few weeks ago a lot of people to bring in these
This gadgets trying to keep these hatches closed
But even if it's utility wasn't finding success in Valtperr just took the gun in his hand and said let me go find those frags
fishing inside the garage for some aggressive picks and it's so successful to shut down M80 who just don't seem ready for a lot of the aggressive plays
Warfun are running with obviously in around three action was very ready for that
But a lot of these plays that they've been going for on the side of Warfun
Just have not been countered out or read into on the side of M80 and it's forced out of attack time out to come through from Fabian
At what point do you really start to worry if you're M80 I have to feel down 3-1 that is setting in but I mean
This is a team who have faced higher pressure situations than this before that been in major grand finals
They have one major grand finals at least the core of this team back on the Beast Coast days
But I mean is it the same is it is it different when you're losing when your team that's going through struggles
It certainly feels different for M80 now
I mean if you listen to the desk Jesse they tripped over themselves to set the stakes right M80 needs to run up
the score in this first half because of 4 funds deficiencies defending on Villa.
If 4 fun can show that they can keep step with M80, not even necessarily succeed,
just keep pace on this first half.
The likelihood of 4 fun winning the match rises dramatically.
As you can see from the score line at the top of your screen,
at worst it will be a 3-3 first half.
That might not seem like a lot, but that's a massive victory for a team that has historically
Struggled to defend this map through this stage. So for fun beating expectations our expectations
Maybe their own certainly the desks and M80 as you said they are running into serious trouble here
You got three players yet to get a single kill diffuser savage and Gavin a combined zero and twelve
I know it's been a bit of a rough stage for M80 and while we did say the underlying numbers are not the worst
This is pretty brutal for some of their players that you expect to be picking up kills, Gavin and Diffuser in particular, something will need to change and in a hurry for M80.
Well, something has changed and that's the bomb site, Parker. Trophy and stat being played by Forefund. This is the only site that they did not play in yesterday's game versus Wildcard, so the defense setup not able to be read into from the prep work of M80.
We're gonna play it with Packer on the Clash, except no, they're not.
It's savage with the pistols.
Somehow finds the frag on the Packer and opening death in the Clash, you don't see very often.
Packer was rotating between like Trophy and Astro when he went down to an angle from outside the building.
So that's a brutal loss to have early in this round.
Oh goodness.
A rough one.
A Clash losing to a Montagne.
Almost as bad as, uh, the reception we're seeing for the new Taylor Swift album, Jesse.
Okay, look, it came out today. I just thought I'd be a little bit topical here, but that's fine.
I know you love Taylor Swift. I know that it's considered a part of your core identity here.
Beto now on the run, Mike W finished off M80, bearing their fangs, looking to sink them into
this four-fund defense. And they've already taken a little nibble with two of four-funds players
and shut down statistically two of the better players on this team bino will die alongside diffuser so trades right now continue to benefit m80 moving forward but oh my goodness
volsper takes two down with him savage and gavin gone
cirks
all by himself gunner and ashen remaining with drones utility
this is a very winnable situation for m80
cirks is unlikely to retrieve volsper but is going to try for it anyway this is a risky gambit
So they will set their eyes on him and they bait him right into an M80 clean up as they take care of Circs
They win their second round
Parker there was a part of me that really wanted them to win that round on the side of 4-4 because for the first time that I've seen
Certainly the first time in the NAL
Valsper has managed to get a kill onto a shield player whilst on the Noor by using his gadget
It was really well done
Just sticks it into the shield of savage gets that down onto the M80 captain finishes them off
off no time to pull that one out based on where Savage was at.
So credit to Valspor for doing all that he did.
But I think after Parker went down and then
Mike W goes down right after the gunner.
Just puts them in a really bad spot.
Mike was down below the bomb site trying to make a play
and he died because of me in that position.
Here's the Horace Lancer that we mentioned, Parker.
It feels so much damage to Savage.
He goes down.
He's trying to pull it out on the astro stairs,
but he's just a little bit too low.
He won't be too caught up about that though, I think,
with his team winning the round and drawing closer to that 3-3 split.
Yeah, losing that clash early was really quite devastating, especially against another shield.
So certainly an instance where you raise your eyebrow and go,
what happened there? Packers usually not that type of player to die in those situations.
Certainly not this stage. Again, leading the team right now.
53 kills with a plus 12 KD, while also playing on particularly tough roles.
heavy roles for him and helping govern the team from a leadership perspective as well.
Orphan seems to have a little bit of confidence in Moxie here. Jesse is
Volsper's looking for us. I don't even know if you call it a spawn peek, but as the Zofia Gavin
just escapes. I don't know if he knew there was somebody peeking from Orphan in that instance.
We also showed a spotlight on Savage and Gavin yet to get kills. They did that last round.
So that leaves diffuser as the lone man in the lobby without a frag yet
And it's crazy to say because I feel like Gavin and diffuser particularly two of the most talented players in all of North America
They are used to
Demolishing teams just lighting up the kill feed but to be so absent today is really unusual from two of the stars on
M80 will have one more chance before the half swap, but it goes wasted
Wasted sirks the opening pick on the fuser. It'll be a zero six half from the starbreaker on an 80
Quite devastating for the fuser to go down. He will not get a single kill that first half. He's in good company
I've been a couple people today who ended up in that exact same set of circumstances and other could be had here
Patience from Packer is rewarded. You got the sledge of gunner out on repel and there's a nitro cell awaiting him. I
I
I'm not really sure what happened there, but M80 completely disconnected at the same time
I have to imagine that's an issue
With power I don't know if they're all playing on the same network or not
I also didn't see if a rehost was called Jesse. Do you understand what's happening here? Did I miss something?
So they definitely like disconnected or had a power issue there was some issue for M80 for sure
Well, we've got our desk to break that exactly how that first half went and get an answer for the conclusion of round six
Yeah, we'll hopefully have that answer for everyone shortly for now
All we can do is talk about what we're seeing in the lobby though for fun
You guys highlighted their strong attacks yesterday the worries and defenses right now at least they have three possibly four
Here to start feels like the stage is set for a great for fun performance. Yeah, they're doing a fantastic job on their defenses
We were listening into the comms on that Mayday and you could tell Fabian was getting a little flustered with what was happening on
M80's attacks talking about we're going way too slow and when we do go for these executes, you know 20 30 seconds left then
Out of nowhere for funds going for these side flanks
They're getting these picks from the back and they don't have the man advantage to be able to allow things like this to happen already
So I mean and it kind of speaks into when you just even look at the opening kills for the side of for fun
I mean four out of six of those rounds are getting to opening kills into their favor
complete transition from what we saw in their previous defense so it's really
good to see from them that they can immediately change and pivot their
pacing from what we were seeing yesterday. No exactly I mean just to kind of
piggyback off what Jesse was saying a little bit. It's really disappointing
again to not see Gavini show up, not see Ashton show up. I mean these are some of
the best fraggers in the entire world and and even diffuser I mean currently.
I like to say diffuser too, 0-6. Currently 0-6 and definitely not having a game in a game
That is a lot on the line here. I mean we we talk about six-point games often for the playoffs
I mean this is kind of one of them, right?
This is for fun that is ahead of you in that playoff race and for you to have any chance with that
4.5% you need for fun to not get a win here and you need to take those three points
So again another pressure cooker situation to see some of the stars not showing up is a little bit disappointing
But I do want to highlight. Yeah for fun. I mean the defenses were looking great. I mean making m80 execute
Yes, and and having so many layers as a fell back to site. We also got to see nor
I don't know if I missed the clip that went out, but I also think it go through it was great
I also think that was the first time I've ever seen in the annual a nor kill and I'm trying to think even an
S.A.L. I think that's the first kill. That's the first guy. I definitely see I'll probably get called a part-timer
But it's the first time I've seen it in at use and I mean love to see it
It was a 4v2 that then instantly went to a 2v4 because they were able to down Savage and I didn't realize how fast that actually chunks you.
I mean that was like three seconds and Savage was at full HP and then at three seconds he was down, got down bottom blue.
So I mean nice to see that.
I'm just glad we're actually using it because I have been watching the other regions and I do think they are ahead on the Normetta.
I think they have it in a lot of better spots right now than we do in the NAL and I am hoping it's something that we catch up on
on if once we're kind of reviewing gameplay and we get into playoffs and we're starting to prepare for Osaka
But I do think we are a little bit behind now, but yeah, it's good to it's good to see we finally got to kill with it
I do kind of want to dig into this more while we're waiting for an answer on what happened in that last round like I was talking with the
EML guys earlier this week on the show that
There's been a lot of community discourse that nor is actually bad that yeah
Like nor doesn't have a real place in the meta that teams are still trying it out
But at the end of the day, it's not gonna work
We are still seeing moments especially on this map where it is very useful
the kill aside, like, at wasting time at just burning utility.
Yeah, I mean, there's many different things with Noir.
And typically what happens when we get a new operator of the pros?
I'll be honest. I was a pro. We're kind of, we're a hater, right?
We are haters. We don't like change, but we're forced to change.
Yeah, we say this off is not that good. And then it just takes time.
We need someone to be an innovator. And typically that it's sometimes it's going to be other regions.
FaZe Clan, I think, has used it for hatches in what I think is the best way.
We've seen it on bank in a previous s.l. Game where they were able to deny the bank basement default CCTV hatch
Using it with a rune using it with Goyo stacked on top you burn you have to burn the Goyo that weighs 20 seconds
Then you have to burn through two brow
Canisters all those freezes and then you have five of those nor devices right it wastes so much time on hatches
We've seen in the NEL as well
I believe it was cloud nine actually that used it for the pantry hatch
Yep, so I mean shout out to them and thank goodness. We're finally losing but not only wasting time
Also, there there is some spots that it kind of is the best in slot operator
G2 and the email once you ban out the ace and the Habana on bank the E3 wall doesn't open
So when you're playing CEO having nor in the E3 spot because you left montane up and you're anticipating
They're gonna bring a montane up the red stairs is the best in slot operator because if that guy walks up the stairs
Exactly what we seen right there. He's not gonna be able to fall down red and take it out
So there's a ton of spots like that, and I think it's just taking time right now for pros to kind of figure that out and
Sometimes all it is is watching what other teams do and steal that before
Before playoffs though, I think that's pretty common across all regions though
Whether it's with strats whether it's with operators and I'm full of grants with you
I think it's definitely a over time
We'll see nor really come into play but for right now
I think the most important thing for me whenever we get a new operator introduced is that it's not forced
I think it's just coming in in certain areas that are situational are just as important and then we start to see it ramp up
Then we start to see a problem. Oh, yeah, I mean this round this again
It'll allow them to bring this into a 2v2 if nor doesn't exist this round falls apart almost immediately with savage being able to take
That control and again very fast from a hundred HP to zero right there
And it works really well with that strat too because they took off the ace and they had a mute jammer on the wall
That wall is not going to open, so where's M80 most likely going to push from?
It's through that bathroom side.
So, again, that's where you kind of want to use Nour.
It's wherever you're always anticipating what that team is going to, or where they're going to push.
I mean, you could also argue that you could run a Thorn or an Ella,
or even a Clash, which is kind of what we've seen in other stages.
I'm playing those hypotheticals. Nour was perfect there.
But, exactly. And sometimes what defense is, is it's all about kind of just switching up what you're doing.
You're just trying to give the other team puzzles to solve,
So they're not seeing the same things all the time.
It's like, oh, hey, there's no thorns.
There's no Ella.
Anything we can clear with the Twitch drone
that we're used to playing against in scrims?
Now it's a nor.
It's something new.
It's something they're not expecting.
Well, at the moment, the only update we have for you
is that our admins are reviewing the previous round,
awaiting a decision.
If we do have a few minutes to pull up the standings, though,
and kind of give everyone an overview about why we've
been hyping up this match just so much
and why the implications here are pretty substantial.
Again, at the top, you've got some teams
that are looking pretty comfortable.
Cloud9 is a great example.
The only team that is like confirmed, confirmed for a playoff position right now.
Now, 100 Thieves, DarkZero and Wildcard, even Shopify Rebellion,
they're feeling pretty safe after their games today.
SR will play later on tonight against Cloud9.
Our next matchup, they will have a chance to add to their tally
and potentially beat Cloud9 for the first time.
But the focus of our conversation for this matchup
and what will be the focus of our conversation for the coming weeks,
it's going to be those bottom four teams.
You got to get in that six playoff spot if you want a chance to compete for Osaka.
So five years for fun, outlast Emmett and M80 all still in the conversation.
In some cases, just barely.
We mentioned M80's playoff chances at a technical 4.5% heading into the day today,
which is why things are just that dire.
SSG is kind of playing the gatekeeper role right now.
They have nine points.
That remains the cutoff.
if they're able to collect any more points,
well, the point floor rises with them.
I mean, if your team's in this situation,
and you guys can take me back briefly into when you were a coach,
when you were a player, are you spending a lot of time
looking at the standings?
Like, we do that here.
Are you guys trying to avoid that intentionally?
Just play your game?
Standing's irrelevant.
I think they're completely irrelevant as a player.
I'm trying to map the situation.
I'm looking at it every day, I wake up.
You're just, yeah, no.
I mean, you aren't, you aren't a difference between a player and a coach or just between different sides?
I think it's both situations. I don't think you want, you don't want to get in your players' heads and be like,
hey, you guys are, you guys suck. We got to set it up.
I think you just want to focus on the key things that is causing you to be in this situation
and just take it game by game, round by round, whatever that is, and really hope for the best outcome.
But me being a foreign player, I could have cared less where we were on the standings.
It was just about making playoffs because as we've already seen, even in the previous stage,
I mean, G2 was dominant throughout all of the stage,
then got knocked out and missed out on EWC.
Just because you make playoffs doesn't guarantee you anything.
Good to be honest, it's not even about making playoffs,
lack of a strong mentality.
It's about the journey.
I don't care whether I can win or can't make playoffs.
How many points I got?
It's, are we having fun?
Are we improving 1% every day?
I mean, it really does start with the culture,
and I am memeing a little bit,
but that's kind of like what Dark Zero is all about.
It's what I've always loved to kind of do on my teams.
like, yeah, all that stuff is narrative.
I know we don't enjoy it, and I definitely don't enjoy it
now that I'm on this couch, right,
when we're trying to get answers from some of the players.
But it really is all narrative.
And with Siege being that mental game, I will say coaches,
sometimes we are looking at, and we're trying to figure out,
OK, we need to win here.
Justin on Wildcard certainly is.
He's giving us the numbers.
Giving us the numbers.
But is he saying that to his boys?
He's definitely not.
That is a taboo.
You do not want to be, if I ever hear one of my players being
like, it's like a for fun here, man, if we beat M.A.,
we're in a great spot, and then we got this game coming up,
like that's exactly what I don't want to hear right. You want to lock in to the first game that you have coming up and that's good.
We want to talk about even lock it in. I mean just looking at the stats right now across the board so far. You know we're highlighting M 80 star players not shown up in some of these biggest moments.
You're looking at a team like this with a lot of rookies. You have every single one of these players on the side of for fun putting their best foot forward. I mean Sirks at five and two at a hundred percent cost.
I think that's all time.
We've seen him at this rate at this.
You always have an insane watch on that kitchen site.
Exactly.
And then Bolspur 5-2, Mike W 5-2, B-0 5-4, and Packer 4-2.
Everyone really looks like on the side of 4-1
that they wanted, that they want to be able to make playoffs
and prove to themselves and everyone around that they
are a competitive team.
And again, it goes into those glimpses of success
that we've seen from them.
And then on the side of it, I mean, yeah.
It's very lackluster.
Even seeing it possibly a 3-3 half,
So you got one player going 0 and 6, 1 and 6, 1 and 5.
I mean, insane numbers already, just at the half.
All right, well, we are still waiting at decision
from our admin crew.
So we're going to step aside for a moment,
give you a chance to farm some more drops.
Don't go anywhere for fun.
And MM80 will continue after this.
Thank you, mate.
Thank you, mate.
Thank you, mate.
Thank you, mate.
Thank you, mate.
Thank you, mate.
Thank you, mate.
Thank you, mate.
Thank you, mate.
Thank you, mate.
Thank you.
All of us will pick a turn, it's the clue giver.
You're gonna have a first guess, which if you get it correct,
they will get two points.
And if they get it incorrect,
if they get a hint in the goal, we'll get one point.
My first clue is to be a spawn peek.
What do you mean?
Spawn peek.
Ooh, wait, I'm picking up what you're putting down.
I'm gonna guess cafe.
Yes.
Hey!
That's what I was like, I was like,
hey, I'm gonna guess the game.
That's too easy.
I mean, my pro tip for that map would be probably spawn peek.
I mean, my pro tip for that map would be,
right?
It's like kind of like a two-order-into-one-word.
Exterior breaches.
I can just get from that?
Yeah.
Club.
Oh, damn, two-two.
I'm gonna say we're wrong.
That's true.
That's not fair.
My mini-play for Clubhouse is repelled by creating a side to exit door,
or get an hallway door, and then go upside down.
But you can also recall against the building, and then we'll pull up side down and hit the veteran.
We're going to switch up mid-game, so we're trying to get them to guess...
Yeah, map at room.
Ready, partner.
I'm thinking villa, right? We've got a ton of animals on there, we've got a ton of stuffed animals on there.
I'm gonna guess villa.
It was villa.
But I also gotta guess the room. I'm gonna guess trophy.
Nah.
No, this bird bro, this bird is so hard to see.
You have never seen it in your life.
Is it in common areas? Like, where are you?
Yeah, in the very common area.
Oh yeah, we can go for the next head.
Stairs.
Alright.
And...
I mean, it's probably around red stairs.
Probably.
That's my guess.
Nah, I'll show you all where it is though.
Okay, if you turn your graphic settings up, it's actually different.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
A pro tip for Vell would be, an aides used to be really strong for the force,
Of course, it not just goes over here, so you can replicate the damage.
You still gotta kill from all up.
I got a last one, Mike. You ready?
Cade.
I mean, the mouse fortress.
Is it fortress?
Yeah.
You okay?
Like in the art hallway?
I think there's a pain thing in the main hallway.
Wait, that's Cade?
Wait, that is art hall!
I was playing my first game!
Yo, can we get a talent? This isn't a pain.
Oh, I already got the answer, bro.
Our hall is wrong. Yeah, he said it's something. Yeah, it's wrong.
Is it bottom main hall?
Can you show me bottom main hall?
Yeah, show him where that painting is exactly.
Bottom main hall, bro.
This is definitely what you were talking about.
It's still the area, sir.
Yeah. About this.
Main hall, look at the bottom of my screen.
That's not the painting.
Oh, this guy's cheating, bro.
I don't care.
He's not painting.
I guess. Is it bottom main hall?
You said show me bottom main hall.
I'm doing this! This is cheating!
Shit! Shit! Shit!
Okay, answer.
Yeah, sure, I guess.
Yeah!
Nooooo!
He's backing me up!
That's like, what are we talking about?
Any pro tips for Lair?
It's the briefing hall.
If you run outside there, and you go to the tower,
you can't get spotted for at least two seconds.
You get a good spot.
I'm a pro tip for Lair.
What's your pro tip?
No, I actually don't. Let me think.
I actually don't.
the victory.
Hi, I'm Kasein Lindsey.
I'm from Snifle, Pennsylvania.
I got into gaming by my brother.
My brother led me into eating Siege.
He bought me the game, and since then, I've
had my love for the games been there forever.
I definitely don't think I ever expected doing this.
Being a pro gamer was definitely just a dream.
But whenever I started coming in reality,
I still didn't even believe it until it actually happened.
Growing up, I mean, baseball was really just everything.
I've been playing baseball since I was seven years old.
I played travel baseball, rec baseball, any type of baseball.
Honestly, there is.
My brother's name is Grant.
He teach me a lot of baseball things,
and I learned a lot from him growing up.
After school, I would go to baseball practice.
Then after baseball practice, I'd come game until 2 a.m.
I'd have to wake up at 6 a.m. for school.
And it was a lot at the time.
At first, it was not a struggle.
But once I took it more serious, it definitely was.
Something that I brought over from baseball to gaming
was my competitiveness spirit.
I never want to lose.
I always want to win.
My brother bought me the disc of RMSX Siege on the old Xbox.
And at first, I did not want to play.
Eventually, he was like, you have to try it.
I've been playing since nonstop all day.
He was definitely the better gamer.
But after a couple years of Siege,
I definitely got better than him.
We have two seconds to go.
The pro journey stopped becoming a dream
and becoming a reality as I had to keep grinding.
My first tier three tournament, I did really good.
I had people looking at me.
So I was kind of playing the waiting game.
All I was doing is playing the most tournaments
I possibly can in tier 3 until I turn 18 to get my name out there.
There's a lot of people that want to see you succeed, but also want to see you fail.
Whenever I was trying to go pro, I always looked back at that and I just wanted to prove them wrong.
I just wanted to keep getting better every day and learn from my mistake.
Kaseen, wonderful headshot!
I was finally turning 18 and I knew that Pro League was about to start again.
I was waiting for teams to hopefully start messaging me.
We talked, we set up a scrim, the practice, and from there I tried out.
Then 100 Thieves messaged me, they really wanted me, so I just wanted to join them.
My parents definitely knew it was a big thing. I don't think they understood how big it was.
My dad and my mom always watched my series through competitive streams, whatever it was,
they'd always watch. Joining 100 Thieves as a rookie, I knew I had a lot of veterans and people
that have been in the league for a while on my team. I was ready to learn from them. They made
me very confident in myself and just doing whatever I wanted to do. One of my biggest
problems I've been trying to solve here is on stage one, in scrims and practices, whatever it was,
I play very confident and freely and it's let me open up a lot of plays that I wanted to do.
When it came to game days, I came to tense up a little bit, become a little nervous
and not making the plays I wanted to. So on stage two, my biggest goal is just to play
how I want and just play confident and free. I always meet the other team no matter what, who it is.
I never want them to get in my head, so if anything goes wrong, it's my fault and not
letting the other people dictate what I do. The role I currently play is a flex role.
I either can lurk, I can frag, whatever it is I can do. And when my team is looking at me
and they think what I can do is just to drop kills and kill everybody.
I have confidence in all my teammates and I know that we are the best team here.
We haven't proved it yet, so that's why we have a lot of people that don't think we are.
But once we prove it, people will see why we are the best team.
One of the best pieces of advice I've got from them was just to be myself,
be confident, play your game, and that's all.
I want them to say how good I was and how I'm the go of the teach.
I want people to remember me as a nice humble guy that won all the tournaments.
Well a bit of an oddity unfolded just a couple minutes ago before the desk stepped in and
we saw that case and content piece among others.
For Fun got the opening pick on round number six and then got a second pick right as the
remaining three players of M80 all situated in the same team house disconnected due to
a power outage. Now, we are not admins, we don't make this call and a lot of times frankly
I don't know the rulebook well enough to know why admins make the decisions they make but
our admin team has come to a decision that that sixth round must be replayed so here
we are back in round number six for fun hoping for the same success that they saw the first
They played round six and that might just be enough for a victory right now in the driver's seat of this first half up three two
That's great fortune for M80 to get this round to be replayed
Obviously after a player had already died on their team
I typically expect the round to stand but the admins calling that it was not a decisive advantage enough
So they're gonna have this one be replayed and gives them 80 the second opportunity to try to right the wrongs of before
they still have some serious struggles that will not be erased just because we took a couple minutes off
while our users still get to find a kill in this game. We've seen Geveni really struggle so far in
this matchup. Savage as well, but they've got a great read on Volsper, which might give them the
inruns. Cutter down goes Volsper. M80, very quick on this one. Mike will slaughter them back. Mike
having a very good game, of course, because of the re-host, all of those numbers have been perched.
So everybody sitting at zeroes across the board like W. It's really good.
He was near top on his team B now also having some really good kills as well.
So right now one kill apiece. Gunner had survived actually quite a bit in the previous round
and was waiting to walk in to get blown up by a nitrocell from Packer down below Packer.
Throwing his nitrocell, but I'm not sure where.
The Savage is allowed to live and will roam clear upstairs making a ton of noise getting through trophy and statuary in the process
Yeah, it's a great catch Parker that pre-play C4 could be a big difference maker later in this round depending on where it's at
For now for fun are just gonna have to rely on their guns to keep things at bay for m80
Rescue players are here around the bomb site. So it's just packer. That's off the site
Ashen is hunting for actually the Red Stairs player
It's going to be Mike W at the top that he was about to call before Packer walked his way up those stairs
And now Ashley's got something new to occupy his attention the force one down
It's really good coordination savage forces them back right into the waiting arms of
Action savage he's credit for the killer. This is the man advantage heading to the final 75 seconds
They may be much better shape than the first time around
With it they are within reach of tying things up
You'll get to hear a little bit more of us at the conclusion of this round as the desk has already done their midpoint segments
So Jesse and I will just truck along instead of passing over to the desk for the half-time show
Packer down for the count. Circs now down as well. And Bito will need to clutch up
He's in a really rough shape here. That will go one of those gas canisters
Nice little pure wet from his position as all of the silhouettes in the same spot
not. The fuser on half HP survives the gas, action wins, and we've got ourselves a tie
game.
Well, it looked like a 4-2 has come back down to Earth 3-3 and M80 in a must-win game.
Give themselves some life. Honestly, a really solid push from them for fun, I think. Trying
to capitalize on the moment, play a little aggressive, given it was a new round and it
was going to be chaotic coming into that sixth one after the re-host. But just getting hard
Punisher I think in a lot of those tight moments Vols for a really early death
I think maybe overextending not recognizing that he was caught on some kind of a drone then savage on the blitz doing really nice work
Making sure you can pressure some of those players back
You saw I made his positioning down below the site have a huge impact on the round
Packers night yourself did eventually get detonated
But it didn't quite find the frag on anybody as they pushed their way in towards 90 and into a plant spot as well
So good round from M80 on their attack and who knows maybe it's just gonna be that extra little time to
Resets get their mental back in shape now. They'll have a tactical timeout or a half-time timeout where they can chat with Fabian
They would not have been allowed to talk to Fabian in the technical pause unless it was about getting the power back on which I'm sure
was the focus of the attention in the team house that Ash and Savage and
Gunner are all playing and
You and I talked a little bit about that offline.
I think if memory serves correctly, when they were playing just outside of Windsor, when
Savage was unable to get his US visa, but was able to secure a Canadian visa a little
bit quicker, I don't think Gavin was ever with the team if memory serves correctly.
It would stand to reason why he was not one of the two that disconnected so quickly.
The rest, honestly, hard to tell.
Ash is not playing in his basement,
so that one is obviously immediately visible
as a different location.
Savage as well, just looking like he's sitting
right next to him.
I don't know if I have to imagine.
Is it Gunnar, the third in the house?
Yep, Gunnar is there with them.
I don't know why his cam's not on.
Maybe the power outage completely wiped out his camera.
I'm not sure.
Maybe the situation with the power is so fragile
that if Gunnar turns on his webcam,
the whole house will implode.
and it will rob them and the surrounding neighborhood of power.
I think that's the most likely outcome.
I think that's probably what's going on.
I think so too.
I think a single webcam is all it takes.
Well, um, maybe in a bit of a better situation than a few minutes ago, Parker,
but still not a strong position for an 80.
I'll remind you that four fun were very successful in their defenses yesterday
when they played this map against wild card on their attacks, I should say,
not their defenses.
They went 4-2 in the first half, finding a lot of success on the offense.
If they can do that again against an M80 team, that at this point, I think most would tell you,
is probably a weaker opponent than the Wild Card team that they faced off against yesterday.
They'll still get a regulation win with a 7-5 victory.
So, M80s still have a lot of work to do to get themselves back inside of this matchup.
Obviously, with Operator's Bans coming through right now, they will attempt to do so with the Ying and Snake taken off the board,
but a long road still waits ahead of M80.
For those that are just tuning in now for this fourth game, we've been talking quite
a bit about the playoffs as that is what is the focus for these teams.
Only two play days remain in the group stages.
Once today is in the books, next Thursday and next Friday, the conclusion of next Friday's
bout, which is play day number nine, all of the teams will have secured their spot in
the playoffs or in the long off season where they can do some wood shedding and prepare
for the SI LSU Qs in a number of months. It is quite a lengthy off season and for some
of these teams they will be in the wilderness to do some soul searching and they will have
plenty of time to search for said souls. Both of these teams are presently on the outside
of the playoffs. M80 entered the day at the bottom of the North America League standings
and despite some pretty decent numbers amongst their players and a good round differential,
comparatively speaking to their position on the charts, M80 has quite the climb ahead of them.
And yet, despite all that, Jesse, as we said at the beginning of this broadcast,
M80 are still in the playoff hunt statistically if they lose this game in regulation. They're just
at three points. This is a wild thing to say, but NA has been so competitive that there really has
there's been no clear front runners beyond cloud nine.
And speaking of, if you were wondering when cloud nine plays,
it's in a very final matchup of the day at the conclusion.
The forefront in M80 will be Shopify rebellion
and cloud nine coming to blows.
No surprise to see M80 starting on aviator games
for their first bombsite Parker.
They played this map twice
and this is the only bombsite
that they have a successful win rate on.
They've won it three times, lost it once.
Good from Savage rule to shut down some of these Selma charges.
Make sure that it's no easy way to get in the land site and towards the bomb site.
The bottom of the push has revolved around coming in through the spedty side.
They want this bottom floor control as well, of course with the balls for being on this
Sophia, but it's not easily gained.
Ashen's towards the bottom of red stairs.
Gunners lurking around that main floor as well.
They want to use the Sophia.
They're going to have to clear out some of these rollers.
Loading new mic!
Fund's biggest obstacle was defending on this map. It's been quite a while since the desk did their
pre-segment here, but the big thing for For Fun was getting over that hump. They had never won a
defending round on Villa prior to the start of this matchup. As you can see on the top of your
screen, they succeeded in defending this map three times. The idea was that M80 would run up the
score into the first half and then do the bare minimum in the second half to secure a victory.
4-fond is through a quest banner in the works here now. We'll see how they can tackle this map
attacking because while we spend so much time talking about their defenses,
their attacks are something that still remains to be seen up against M80. Packer's down an opening,
down goes Gavin, he's in the site and almost finds the second but he's shaken off of his spot.
Ashen emerging from above, he takes down Packer. Mike W trades that one right back.
Back, back and forth we go, Jesse, 45 seconds left, M80 now, on their back foot.
Baffling the packer with top red, he just jumped in bore, there was nobody to watch that position,
so a massive gap spotted and now the man count falls even farther as Valsper hits a double.
Diffuser in the 1v4 has to hold on, didn't have a kill before this round and will not have one,
didn't have a kill before the re-host at the very least, doesn't get one in this one,
falls down in the 1B4 and Forfun regained their lead for 3 on Villa.
Now, not speaking about the decision that was made, if I was on Forfun and I had to
replay that round, my mental might be a little bit rocky. It's good to see that it doesn't
really appear to be impacting the players on Forfun at the present point in time.
Packer is somebody who tends to wear his emotions and his opinions on his sleeves,
So if he's unhappy it is immediately evident the conclusion of that round you could see him jovial laughing in good spirits
And if he's in good spirits the rest of the team likely is as well
Is that downwind effect of keeping morale up or for fun?
And I mean as long as they can keep their heads on their shoulders
They're in very good shape for the remainder of this matchup
The big thing for for fun that I have it appreciated seeing is that their fraggers are fragging today
It is not a given that Volspern, Mike W. and Packer will be amassing a healthy tally of kills
Against M80 they have all shown up. So it is incumbent upon M80 if they want to keep this close
For their own fraggers to start doing that job you point out diffuser
But the troubles for M80 in terms of offense are a little bit deeper than just one player
Yeah, no doubts still have lots to work through but they'll get a few more chances
Down by one after seven, they'll move to the other top floor site, trophy and statuary.
This is one that we've seen N80 play three times over the last couple of weeks with one win and two losses.
So far, four fun. I mean, they've done a great job at analyzing kind of what the defense looks like, where there might be some gaps.
In that last round, recognizing Ashen was all the way inside the basement on red stairs, so Packer could really just walk through Boar,
to site with nobody contesting him. Another gap like that could prove to be detrimental
for NAV here in the 8th round, so they've got to be careful with the positions they're
holding. It is an extension south side over towards the old bomb site. Ashen is over there
inside of Gaze. Gaze, Defuser is an aviator as well. So you've got a couple of roamers
trying to hold things on at NAV.
I'll extend it over to this aviator AVG side of the map as it used to be referred to. Never
I don't really like the AVG call because it reminded me too much of that old anti-virus.
I don't even know if it still exists, but I mean, it's also much faster to save an aviator.
I won't give you that.
It's a rough one for Savage as the walls close on in, but Ashen is still able to fight from his position.
Cirque's good enough for a single kill thrown right out of the building down to his Volsport to Defuser.
Defuser playing very forward on that study door.
Now Mike W is in the ground as well.
That's almost half of the server gone in the first 90 seconds.
MAD wins the round in the blink of an eye.
Every Domino falling separately, not even together.
And it's a tie game.
Just a little bit separated, I think, for 4-Fawn.
It's astounding that Thurks even gets the kills.
He repels in through 90,
but Bino is attracting some attention.
Of course, playing on that Montane.
Felt like they just weren't able to get enough value
around Bino and the Montee.
Volsper was trying to walk in study.
That's when he went down to Defuser,
who piqued him from Aviators.
So they just had a really good reason
on where some of these attackers were trying to come from, at the same time Mike W was
playing down below when he lost his 1v1 duel and then missed it out as well, so...
Nice couple of kills coming around the van 80, Porfa not able to really work together
on that push, getting a bit disconnected from their shield player, but they will have time
to reset.
The bomb site goes down towards the basement as Nade tried to aim lead for the first time
in this game.
This is the basement bomb site getting so much use on this map. Villa, the most
played map in North America right now. A lot of it occurring during that super
week that kicked off the NIL stage two. Just at the beginning of
September, bottom floor bomb site played the second most. In fact, all four of
of these bombsites are seeing pretty solid usage. Villa played nine times, Aviator Games
played 30 times, Office and Art in the basement played 27, by far and away the most statistically
defender-sided map. And it's going to be even easier for the defenders as Serks receive
some airmail from Savage and immediately M80 has a numbers advantage.
Brilliant, they're going to be able to send that one out and now they've got themselves
in a strong position Parker. That is the power of the Pulse. We've seen so many teams rely
on the Pulse to be able to get themselves strong C4 kills. It was Savage who last played
the Pulse on this bombsite for M80 in their game against DarkZero, but Ashen takes it
this time and Savage takes the Nitro. Previously it was Gunnar on the mirror as well as they
really have been shifting operators around, clearly just changing things up based on what
they feel will work best here in week three of the North American League. Lots of roamers,
They still need to be worried about their partner, Gavins in China, Ashen's in Dining.
There are so many players extending here on the top floor, even Gunnar just on the astro
stairs.
Packers got his hands full just playing inside of Munchman, he's going to need some teammates
to come help him with this roam clear.
Very mobile defense from M80 and it is confounding for fun now through two consecutive rounds.
Droning communication, that's the Achilles heel so far for this for fun assault and
M80 can continue to be so fluid. It's gonna put ever greater pressure on For Fun to go
back on to drones, to communicate, maybe swap up your composition to bring more of those
get out of jail free card intel operators like Dokeabee, like Gamos, like Solid Snake,
like Lion, etc. Now as you can see Snake not an option as he's banned out and Adamos was
brought but no impact from Cirx as if you recall he was blown up by Savage in the first 20 seconds.
So, fourth body, obviously understood, hey, we need to pin these guys down, but they have not been able to do the job just yet.
5v3 advantage, now 4m80 with 50 seconds to go, but 5v3 is far from certain.
So they open the hatch, they threaten the ability to drop that hatch and go for a plant, but it's not actually what Bino wants to commit to.
He's walked his way down these astra stairs, he's looking for a way back in towards the bomb site.
Gonna rotate over towards red, maybe not.
Fishing for a way into this bombsite 3D5.
It's no easy task, but under the shield of the Monty, there's a hope.
Nade will go out now.
For fun, finally getting something is...
Adam Cirx talking some trash, even though he's been on the bench for the last two minutes or so.
Gavin on the board with one, Gavin on the board with two and defuser.
We'll seal the deal as M80 put back-to-back rounds on the board and grab the lead.
There's maybe a lesson about typing in shadow a little early, but regardless, super strong
defense coming out from N80.
I mean, I thought, I think you nailed the, you nailed the point, Parker, where it's
like once you lose your Deimos, Snake gets banned out, finding those roamers becomes
really difficult.
They kind of put it all on Packer.
I think Packer and Valsper were trying to pinch on the kitchen and work together in
that moment, but Valsper was a little bit far behind.
So Packer goes down and once they retreat back to the bombsite in a 5A3, that becomes
nearly unwinnable. It would have been nice to see them try for a hatch drop plant. I don't know. It felt like there was a world where they get it done because there was just a single nitro cell being held by the defense but it's a pretty high commitment play. They'd used to go for something a bit more standard and it does not work out for them. So, for fun, for the first time this game will be against the lead M80 taking the advantage two rounds away from the 7-4 win. They used their attack time out trying to find some way to break through these M80 defenses.
Just judging by the standings and the way these teams have played, it's no surprise
that this is a competitive match.
If you look at the underlying numbers here, 4-fun, striking first 5 times, M80 striking
first 4 times, a flawless round 1 by 4-fun.
You've had multi-kills from both teams, 3 players on multi-kills so far, Gunnar, Serks,
and Mike W all admittedly occurring in the first 3 rounds, but it's been pretty even
keel. Since then, M80s starting to see their gunners come alive. I know that many love
to engage in a little bit of hate watching with some of these M80 players, that man
right there. He's got some fans. He's got some phones. Ashen has been terrific so far
today. Nine kills tied with Mike W. Top the standings in this matchup. Reason why we will
focus a little bit more on the overall kills and deaths is because the re-host that occurred
The tail end of round six has nullified those stats or at least removed them from your screen
So we'll do our best to impart the actual numbers as there's no real way
For us to fix it. I don't know if it's my goofy Photoshop or paint that we can like put over top of it
That would be really neat but incredibly labor-intensive
It creative with it
Dropping nine next to Ash's name
You know Parker if you want to if you want to draw the assets, I think we can
I can get busy with the fans to be fun.
I can get busy.
You work on that.
I will pass the rest of the game, and we'll regroup after to see what progress we've made.
I think it's a real benefit to the broadcast.
It doesn't have to listen to me.
I get to hear more of you, and I get to stretch my legs in an artistic sense.
Savage is the exact same nitro cell he just used.
He's put it back in his pocket.
He might not be trying to run it once again.
He's over towards a statue.
It might not have been identical, but still on the top floor, still ripping that C4.
Ripping that C4, still hunting for an opening duel, it doesn't come his way, so he'll retreat back.
Kitchen is our bomb site, MAD running all four sites on Villa, as most teams have been since this map has come back into the pool.
Like W24 on this IQ is hoping to shut down Ashen on the pulse, we know how common it is to see that.
I guess not even just Ashen on the pulse, but Gunner on the Valkyrie, Gavin on the Kaid.
This is a really good defense ladder to bring the IQ forward, because he gets so much impact out of that.
information now from both teams.
It was something that we pointed out that we needed for
full or fun here.
Packer taking the demo,
sirks on another information operator on the doke.
We'll get some Intel as well from the IQ.
I know that she's a primarily seen as an Intel off because
that's not really her main focus,
but your ability to get gadgets and if there's a
vigil or a pulse on the board,
you do have some active Intel providing that your gadget is
out and they are using theirs.
It's definitely present.
I like that for fun and made these changes for sure.
What is an obvious weakness to these attacks?
Information is a problem for for fun.
M80 exploiting that by constantly moving around this map.
Defuser will get the lead off pick here in round number 10.
M80 is hoping to move to match point.
They will need more of that.
Defuser will find a second as Mike W gets on the board.
He's got to read through the wall and tracks Defuser so well.
A three V three, but Serks is bleeding out.
So the advantage in terms of bodies goes to M80.
Circs still bleeding ever so slowly.
I assume it falls on Packer's shoulder to get him back up,
as Mike W. does some scouting missions
and reconnaissance on the top floor.
Yeah, it's just such a waste of time too
to have to grab this guy back up.
They will recover him.
He was over in study.
So they've got all three players alive
for an even man count situation,
but time is gonna be the biggest problem here, Parker.
They haven't really been able to do much soft reaching
either. They lost Volsper super early in this round, so all the utility really pointing
towards an M80 round win here.
W's fired up the war machine. Two kills so far. Swallowed on by Ashen with the shotgun
in hand. Thank the Reaper for making that possible. Cirks is back up, so there is some
hope here for four fun as Packer shuts down Ashen. A 2v2 standoff. Black eye cams from
Valkyrie still off-gavin there in reserve. Gunner an active gun. Nitro self-prime didn't
ready. Cirque douts himself and the round will go to M80 as Gunner shuts the door on a clutch.
The timer would have given it to them anyway, but M80 get the kills in time. Match point for
M80. They've guaranteed themselves at least one point. Such a strong position again in that 3v3.
It's it's bolt from ash negative aggressive with the shotgun
But he kind of got caught out with a rough timing there was trying to play a rat spot
But goes one for one that's good enough from his position
The fact that gunner still had his C4 as well was so massive
They brought four nitrocells to that defense Parker only one remained when they went for that plant position inside of kitchen
But that's all they needed gunner
Just threatening that force packer to get off the plant right there
and then the fact that they also lure in Packer and then dies to Gav and hold him across.
Genuinely, they were really well played 2v2 from M80 in a position that they set themselves up so nicely
with all the dueling they did earlier on in the round.
It felt like for fun, they had a lot of individual gunfights going on around the map.
Some of them went their way, we saw some great shots from IW, a lot of them didn't,
which is why we saw that 3v3 so late.
So, good early round from M80, a better late round,
and now two opportunities to get three points in the game.
A lot has been talked about with this M80 team
and how they have gone from first in the group stages of stage one,
which honestly feels like an eternity ago,
and did it with 24 points.
By the 25, I was off by one.
It was an impressive bounce back after picking up Savage,
but it honestly looks like it was just a little bit of a fairy tale, some beginner's luck, so to speak.
That honeymoon period ended and M80 crashed back down to Earth.
It obviously is not very confidence inspiring that M80's two best performances come up against teams that are not in the playoffs.
M80's only victory to date is a 7-0 against Outlast, the last week on Fortress,
and now they are primed and ready to beat the eighth place for fun.
Four-Fund entered the day on the cusp of the playoffs and with the bad day that Space Station had,
there was an opportunity for Four-Fund to jump up and at least tie for that sixth and final spot,
but it looks like it has all been evaporated, barring an incredible run as Four-Fund mysteriously, Jesse,
have looked like a better defending team on Villa than an attacking team, something we thought far from certain.
Yeah, it feels like a complete opposite from what we saw yesterday.
Really, since the half-time, it just feels like all the life has been sucked out of 4-FUN.
They're really playing way more individual than what we saw before.
There's been no glass played. I know, you know, that was a big point of conversation for Valsper,
who dies the opening duel here in round 11. His glass play yesterday was phenomenal to get 4-FUN
going here on the attack. Now, it's going to be Mike W, who is entrusted with the operator instead.
And I've got nothing against Mike W on glass, but you have to imagine maybe Valsper would have had
had some more success with it, had it been in his arms.
They're still worried about Ashen down below.
Cirx is not in a position to immediately duel
with the mute playing inside of living room,
but we'll have to start looking for that gunfight.
Now, he knows those down as well for the 5v3.
Not looking very good for 4-fun whatsoever.
Cirx, the only player from 4-fun,
able to do some damage to this MAD team.
And it's Defuser to die.
Defuser having a rough first half of Boyle Boyle.
Is he a second half player?
six kills through this attacking or through this defending side for M80. They double up on
four fun. Both Mike W and Sirks have taken some damage, some more substantial than others,
but as long as you've got a gun in hand, you can still easily kill your opponent. So it takes
four bullets to kill four players as long as you hit him in the head. Down goes Mike W to seven.
Shit, he got the back end as he's downed.
Talk about the fade away.
An impressive bounce back from M80
as they take all three points and vanquish
for fun and regulation.
Beautifully done, the momentum swings the way of M80, Parker.
A massive must win game.
We've got a break and then one more game here in Playday 7.
I
I'm gonna keep it going til I hang on now
I'm going til I hang on now
victory is here with their backs against the wall and so their playoff chances remain
Alive for now a 7-4 win against for fun
We've got our interview standing by with our m80 winners as gunner will join us once again gunner
Congratulations on staying alive right now. I know this is not the position you guys wanted to be and focusing on the match at hand
The disconnect at the half around it seemed like you lost and then you got a chance to replay it
What goes on during that long break while you guys are talking to each other?
What were you guys thinking about that whole situation?
Well, I was mid sludge animation and just
Our power just went out and it fried my earbuds
So I played the rest of the game with no earbuds just razor sounds at the black show. I promise you
There's no there's no cheating guys like it just it just happened. You kicked your piece of it. What the heck?
I was mid-sledge animation what happened, but I mean, I don't know we're like
We didn't really say anything cuz our internet was out. We were just kind of just sitting there
And we got back we got told the round screen reply
Sweet, I mean, I'm not gonna be angry at that
At the end of the day it's up to the admins what they want to do there and yeah, I mean luckily it was I guess time to
For the good thing it is time to like kind of just sit there and relax, you know, I just do nothing
thing. So you could definitely say it kind of helped us in that regard. So it's unfortunate
for fun, I do feel for that. I'd be pissed.
For sure. Well, nevertheless congratulations and as Jonah said, I mean you guys are still
in the run, still heavily waged on SSG, but still, regardless of whether you guys make
playoffs or not, how important is it for you guys still to just be able to finish strong
with these last two playdays coming up?
I mean, it's everything for the mental. Obviously, none of us have ever really dealt with the
stage like this before. At least it's a first for me. Obviously it really sucks when practice
goes so good and then games just don't translate. And with every game being 7-5, one round away,
type of thing. I mean it's important and especially support for the mental and it's harder to
be excited and be really excited to go to these next games. We've made the best of the situation
that we are in, and just trying to find improvements and trying to find things to look at on the
good side.
For sure.
Yeah, I mean, Gunnar, just for the fans of the media out there, I mean, what exactly,
I mean, you kind of highlighted, a lot of your matches have been closed, you're going
the distance, 12 rounds, just about every single game, but where are we looking for
those improvements?
What do we think is kind of going wrong with the season?
Well, I mean, that's the hard part, right?
Because like we talked about at first, it was we had to like people were kind of going
on by themselves and their own thing and like we're kind of finding disconnects in the 5A4
so mid-round.
So we look at that for practice, right?
And we have a great week of practice, you know, we kind of found that solution and then
game day comes and then it's a matter of we're doing more cutting and be like, I got the
cut, I got the cut and no one's really taking the initiative to kind of like really get in
there and move.
and so we're finding ourselves being slow and not really explosive like we are in scrims.
And then defense comes around, you know, we look at that to fix that, and then defense comes around.
In practice, we have no problem layering on fortress, you know, like yesterday, no problems.
Yesterday we couldn't even layer, like we couldn't get to the next step. So it's just,
it's hard when there's something kind of new that shows up on game day, unfortunately,
that you're not really prepared for, whether that be because we're overthinking shit,
that are over thinking, whatever it may be.
But I mean, the focus still is to just play together
on defense, when we're in the advantageous, play close.
And on the flip side on attack, just being like, no more
just I got to cut, like get in there, walk, and be explosive.
Gunnar, thank you so much for your insight on the team.
Good luck in these next few games.
I know it's going to be intense, so best of luck out there.
Thank you.
Well, I made a big three points for them
if they shut down for fun, despite the odd moment there
in the mid-match, they do make it a convincing victory
by making that full three-point margin happen.
Yeah, it's just, again, kind of the same story for four fun,
though.
I mean, first off, congratulations to Amity.
It's glad to see them come back.
I would like to see the gunner interviews,
and hopefully they can kind of figure their things out.
But I mean, on the side of full fun,
it's exactly what we highlighted in the pre-show.
I mean, a great first half.
I mean, maybe they got a little chalk
from whatever happened with the Rehose.
I think they should have probably won four of those defenses,
but regardless, loading into the second half,
and again, not showing up.
And that has been kind of the story.
It's not only this game, right?
It's been the story of their last two games as well.
That's what we're saying.
We see those glimpses of success,
and we highlighted it again.
As you said, we want to see the defenses be stronger.
They did come out a lot stronger than what
we saw in the previous game, but then it was their attacks.
The pendulum just swinging one end to the other.
They're great on one end and not so great on the other.
And unfortunately, it's putting them
in a pretty bad situation where they needed these three points pretty desperately and
I don't know what that necessarily means for their, you know, placing overall, but again,
need points desperately.
We talked about the importance of momentum like within a game and we saw it there just
how the momentum quickly swung in M80's favor.
Once we got to that second half, we also can note how that could matter going forward.
They got a victory under their belts.
Can that propel them to further success?
Well, our final matchup of the night, Cloud9 and Shopify Rebellion.
It is another opportunity for the undefeated Cloud9 to shut down yet another challenger.
But this one maybe hits a little closer to home.
Panba and Canadian will reunite in the lobby for the second time this year.
Panba having come up underneath the Canadian IGL system, now leading a team of his own,
now has to lead his team against his former captain and IGL.
It is definitely a, is the student becoming the master moment?
I mean definitely big shout out to reddit finally. I believe it was it's savvy that posted this a while ago
I was looking over my notes. Yes. I was like wait, this is perfect
I saw something right at you ended up grabbing us a shout out to it's savvy, but it really is a good moment to highlight
I mean we didn't get to see a whole lot from that cloud nine roster in the previous stage
But we heard in that interview at the very end of the state
They just needed more time and coming into this stage
We have seen the student become the master or look like the master where we've sung all of Troy's prayers and
and everything that goes along with that,
and now they're going toe to toe to really see
and put everything into play that Pamba is the IGL.
Is the MVP of the stage right now?
Maybe the MVP of my art, certainly,
as I predicted earlier this stage.
I mean, he's performing well.
He is the number one rated player in the NAL,
at least he was coming into the day,
and he's going to have an opportunity
to continue to reinforce that.
Yeah, I mean, I think it's important.
It's Pamba party time.
We haven't been able to say that too much,
but I think we're going to be saying it more frequently
whenever we're talking about this Cloud Riot and the Cloud Night
roster, especially yesterday, dropping 19 frags.
We've touched up on this multiple times,
man, when your IGL is performing exceptionally well.
Like I said, dropping big numbers like that,
it makes everyone around you just
want to play that much better.
And we already highlight how well the team has been playing.
But again, you have to look at the man that is calling the shot,
that is able to make the plays consistently time and time
again and again yesterday, 19 and eight and close that series in an ace.
Yeah, I still have to say the most impressive thing for me is the fact
that everyone else on this cloud nine team is is so new to see.
Like no one has had a good success in the NAL Eddie.
I mean, he might think he was at an EWC event before, but the rest of that
monk brand new rookie, Uzi a brand new rookie and then center as well.
Like it's very impressive the fact that he was able to go to a brand new team and bring that style of season how fast they caught all that's the biggest thing
Well, I want to stick with you here because I know you have around you want to show us showcasing one the power of Pamba
But also like what this team can do so well when they play together. Yeah, well, let's just not say here
Let's actually go to the Telestration real quick
But I do want to talk about what makes cloud nine again so special and I feel like we keep highlighting
Highlighting cloud 9's attacks, but this was an impressive one right this is here on
Fortress and just to set it up for you guys real quick
We're gonna be attacking the bunks in games room and what are we going to notice?
We're gonna notice the fact that there's going to be three m80 players
Extended on the command side, but information is big on the side of cloud 9
They're gonna drone monk right here. He's gonna see the m80 players. We just heard the gunner interview the layer happening
They're going to give them the space, they're going to fall back, but Pamba notices this very fast.
He's going to walk in them and immediately open it up, and then we're going to go back into the top down view.
The problem is we layered pretty early here on the inside of M80, right? A minute and 17 seconds here.
What does that allow Pamba to do? Pamba and Cloud9, what they love is they love to split up and attack from all angles.
So we're going to see them attack from the bathroom side. We're also going to see a player outside of the window here, pressuring this door.
We're going to pressure as well the soda window and we're going to have monk come up the back side
What we call this at the high level is the anaconda right?
We're coming from all different angles and well, there's one problem with this
I mean M80 they had everything covered but gunner
He's gonna go underneath and lose his life to monk and why that's such a big deal
Is the fact that now the player soda the tachanka player savage
He's now going to have to watch two different angles. This is what makes cloud nine so good when they get the man advantages
Now they're able to pressure with their bodies with the shield player. So now we're going to get
Center inside with the BB and now they're going to chain flash to the Chonka
This allows them to walk up with the damage. There's that backstab now
We're utilizing that man advantage and now we can jump in take the space and it's going to be free kills from there
And I've just been so impressed with Cloud9, honestly,
just how, one, how they've been able to use the meta operators,
right?
We talked about them on the glass constantly,
the ying constantly, the bb constantly.
But it's not even just using those operators.
It's knowing how to work off timings
and how to play with your teammates in those zones so well.
And a lot of them are split.
So it really comes down to decision making.
When you're alone making the right decisions,
and for young players, we're making the right decisions.
that constantly like they are right now is so impressive.
And it's impressive as you said,
like that Pamba is the one helping make those decisions,
get everyone aligned, get everyone on the same page.
Lax, I know you wanted to talk about, right,
his individual performance, you highlighted it earlier,
but we're seeing this in comparison
to the other IGLs across the league,
he has once again set himself apart.
Again, I think this is completely insane.
I've seen a lot of talks and conversation on Reddit,
but if you look at Pamba's EPS performance
from every single match, start going into the day,
He is the only IGL in the league currently that has never dropped below 100 EPS.
He is continuously performing exceptionally well, and then you look at the very last game,
pretty much tied up there with Bulls. He's on an upwards trend, but again, he has never fell
below 100 EPS. He is consistently performing day in and day out, and understandably so,
why he is the number one rated player in the NAL currently.
On the Shopify rebellion side of things, of course, we talk about Canadian. We talk about
that leadership. We talk about spoid Namby and the fragging potential, but you guys have been
highlighting more recently the support potential, the players putting themselves in uncomfortable
positions, being willing to do the dirty work and finding that success. Surf for one, but Rexon
is the other. Yeah, and I love to be able to give Rexon his flowers because again, we don't get a
talk about too much because of the star power on this team, but even what you talked about very
early on in today's pre-show and even what we saw yesterday. Rexon is a menace. He can make
Magic happen in so many rounds if he's giving the opportunity on a map like border
You don't have to play that traditional support like you can get in there and frag and this was the moment for me
When I'm looking at this rex in place house
This was the rex in that I hated having to play against back in the old day when he was on Sonic because he is dominant
He can aim he can get multi frags going and look at the operators that he plays
This is what we talked about someone has to bite the bullet. Yeah, he's playing the ace. He's playing the no man
He's playing the floor then even on the defense. He still kind of has to sit there and wait
He's playing the go yo explain the smoke sometimes you can flex around with a little bit of a mind
But he is such a stationary and staple piece for this S. R. Rosser that enables the rest of the team
Alongside serve as well with him that again pushes the agenda push that envelope for the rest of the team to perform and excel in their
roles and that's the important thing that I actually want to I mean just the siege community to kind of understand right we can't
Stack a team with five of our favorite frackers
You're not going to play Ambien, Gavini and Stomp and Anashin and all your favorites on the one team
and just expect them to all drop 15 to 20 kills every single match.
Someone has to do the dirty work and I think a lot of superstar teams realize this a little too late
but yeah at the end of the day you need somebody like Rexon that is going to play an operator like I was talking about in the pre-show
like the Thatcher and your only job is to EMP the C4 so the bomb goes down
And yeah, maybe you're not the one walking in off the glass getting the 2ks and the 3ks and getting highlighted every round
But you're important to the team and with if you weren't there and if you didn't stay alive
And if you didn't enable your teammates the whole team falls apart
Yeah, that execute falls apart
Yeah, I mean and I've had that happen so many times on on previous teams on dark zero teams where
Maybe some a little ego kind of slips in people want to get out of the shadows and and start to you know
Maybe get in the map a little bit more or
high light, but it's just not
realistic. It's not what makes
teams work just in general. Well,
this is something that like we
talk a lot about when we talk
about like the amateur siege kind
of pipeline, right? When you have
those T two players, the best way
to get noticed is to put up big
numbers. But sometimes the best
way to make those contributions
is right, you know, in the
shadows doing the dirty work.
That's where you can really
support your team. The best
art Palmetto Bay, Florida.
Open comp land is actually
happening right now. It's
happening today and it's
right now it's happening today and over the course of the weekend so you can
tune into that on a rainbow six Bravo twitch channel if you want to watch
Richie Mingo and the other nat2 legends go toe-to-toe but for now we'll focus on
where the matchup will take us for the final one of the night and what map
these two teams have in store for us layer is the choice that Shopify rebellion
will eventually make what do you guys make is it I love this for both the
teams it's obviously a comfortable map for us are not one of their best maps
But it's certainly a comfortable map and then for cloud nine. We only got to see it first outlast
So they weren't really battle tested on this map where you could argue
SR was definitely battle tested going against dark zero we saw that eight seven they were able to break that record break that streak of losing
The dark zero however, they're starting on attack for SR
That's going to be the biggest contention point for me because when you look at exactly how I made he was playing against cloud nine
What was something that they highlighted it was them being able to isolate players in cloud nine not allowing them to be able to play off
each other. So using the ying, using the shields, using the glass to just separate players. And
that's really where Cloud9 thrives a lot. They really can play together. So I am curious on a
math-like layer, how are you going to cut off line of sight to end the help from the side of
Cloud9 once you start going for those executes? Yeah, and I think I agree with that. I mean,
obviously SR has liked Lair for a really long time and they had a pretty impressive win over
DZ, where we've seen Ambi clutch that 1v2 and brought them into overtime. So they're obviously
really comfortable on the map and I mean what I want to see from them is a little bit more depth on
the map anyways right I mean they already showed a lot of rounds and I've seen them kind of counter
stradded at different times on this map where they they failed to adjust whether it was against
CAG at EWC or it was against 4 fun in the NAL stage one right there's those times where every
once in a while I feel like they're making progress on the map they get counter-straded
and what is cloud nine kind of done this stage that's exactly what they do they'll take teams
to their best map and at this point they got nothing to lose right they are
they're already in playoff position I mean we heard from Pam yesterday of
course you want to win every game but it's just not realistic to kind of
happen so why not take a map or take a team to a good map for them and see
kind of flexing their map pool yeah flex your map pool a little bit check out
your trap a little bit as well and it's still a good map for them in both teams
are gonna be able to kind of use those meta operators really well on this map as
well I mean center to highlight him as well center by the way this is also a
a brother. Yeah, this is right because center is the brother of surf. So a little bit of
robbery here. This might be the first time center can say he's actually on the better
team. I mean, it's tricky. It's like we've seen this match up a couple of times. But
right now we have like Pam, but Canadian surf center. I mean, we got a beautiful clash
of stories happening in front of our eyes. I mean, last thing before we get into this
one, right? Lacks. I mean, we know that cloud nine have now clinched a playoff birth, right?
Can they keep that momentum up? Right? The foot could easily come off the gas here.
the dangerous thing. I don't want to get ahead of myself. Cloud9 has been very consistent.
I haven't really seen them play egotistical by any means, regardless of where their position
has been. I think they're going to give us the game exactly that we want. I think this
can also be one of the games of the stage, if not the game of the stage. It's going to
be hard to rival that DarkZero matchup, but if both these teams are playing at their highest
level of siege, it's going to be a good game. Yeah, and I'm just going to speak from experience
here. I mean, knowing Pamazir, there's definitely no foot off the gas. This guy, I mean, he
He might be quiet outside the server, even like soft spoken in his interviews, but I
mean the man is an absolute savage.
This guy wants to win every single game, and especially when he's going to be up against
some of his former opponents, you already highlighted obviously Canadian here, and he's
going to want to prove something here that he's the better IGL in this server.
Absolutely.
All right, we'll have a chance to see that now.
As we said, Panpa and Canadian go toe to toe.
and Cerf will flug it out a good ol' brotherly rivalry as we get into this one, and of course
Shopify Rebellion looking to climb their way up the leaderboard as they take on the undefeated
Cloud9 on Lair.
yet to be bested here in stage two.
For fans of Cloud9, you were hoping that a three-point win
walks you into a top two spot, Cloud9.
Unstoppable.
So far, what a surprise.
It's been this stage led by Panbazoo,
the best-rated player in the league.
With 71 kills to his name far and away
ahead of everybody else.
And Monk and Easy, third and fourth best-rated players.
What a showing it's been for Cloud9.
They love their hands full against
and insurgent SR Jesse.
Yeah, no doubt about it.
I mean, the desk talks about it,
but it's a big day in the Medina household
as brothers Damien and Devin go ahead dead
for the second time in their careers.
When they met for the first time in stage one,
it was Surf who came out on top over his little brother.
He was the MVP in that game as well,
posting at least 13 kills and seven deaths.
So all eyes will be on Surf,
not only at the MVP when they met Cloud9 in stage one,
but it's also been the best player statistically on the rebellion so far this stage.
Parker maybe not behind the limelight, but there's been so consistent in finding frags and rounds
even when SR themselves has some struggles.
Surf has been consistently finding that value for his team.
So, various to see how this one goes down.
Cloud9 with their, with the success they've been on so far.
I mean, they have to be favorites in this matchup.
I saw the community poll, 71% thinking, I believe it was around 70%,
thinking that it was SR's game to win.
polls are great, but they're oftentimes just a popularity contest. I mean, if you look at the
overall numbers, the favorite should be Cloud9, so you're really praying on an upset here. Rexon
takes care of Uzi. We saw one player from C9 on the run. Canadian could have had him as well,
SurfSlauters, PanBazoo. That's one of the deadliest players in the world that shut down, and Surf will
follow in those rolling candelas and do enough to take care of Eddie. Center dies in the hands of
and a flawless start to round number one unfolds in very short order. SR. Wow.
It's a beautiful little round to come through from the Rebellion.
Odd to start on Bunks and Briefing. Cloud9 used to go to what is often tertiary bomb site to start this game.
And doesn't exactly go their way. The top floor of Roamclear is perfect from Shopify Rebellion.
Rexon gets the opening pick. He was on the display window and caught Uzi trying to rotate out of our six room.
that Pamba goes down right after to surf on the ying who had made his way into the bathroom position
So just really picking apart that top floor from so many different angles and he was pushing the sky bridge
Canadian walked up the missile stairs point came in the ops all five players on the side of the rebellion basically
Came in from different areas of the map and made it really tough for cloud nine to recognize what parts of the map were being pushed
In the end it will be an SR victory a flawless one at that
So in a strong position to start things off you kind of expect cloud 9 to rack up the score on the defense here on layer
But I also think both these teams are good enough on attack and defense that any close ish half-time scoreline should be fine
Big map liked a lot by the rebellion as they did favor a lot of these newer maps being played
Though, Lair has really not seen a lot of picks. We saw it for just the second time in the NAL yesterday.
It is a little bit defender sided, but again, it's really hard to talk about these numbers with a map that's only been played 24 rounds.
It is somewhat nice to know that Lair has gone all 12 rounds in both times, that it's been played.
As to whether or not it favors these teams, there's a couple things to look at. How good are they on attack? How good are they on defense?
of the Operator's Band, etc. C9, as you said, going to that tertiary site, maybe a bit of
a gamble to start off, did not pay off. It was a good assault from the rebellion. They're
a little bit slower this time around, but that's to be expected.
Ambion the Jackal, in an age where Snake is banned, but Bamos exists, Goku exists, Lion
exists, Drones exists. Finding the footprints is not usually a player's first, second, third,
fourth option for finding roaming operators but it'll be the goal for
Mamby. At the same time his captain has just fallen to monk who is outside the
building on a bit of a field trip. Makes the back home stay down there. Will even
barricade up behind him. Gonna have to watch that one back. I have no idea how
Canadian went down.
It's gonna give some praise to our observer. To observing has been excellent.
I was gonna make a joke about oh well there's a couple things we haven't seen
today but realistically it's been excellent coverage and that obviously
credit goes to the observers that we have and of course the in-game directing too.
I haven't missed all that much today, so I will allow monks run out this time
around. Lucy taking care of Ambi, not the start the rebellion wanted after such a
good beginning to round number one. You got to go faster or else you allow C9 to
punish you. Monk will find his third kill. This boy is the only player from
Sica from this rebellion team able to stand up to C9 now it's surf against his brother and co
They had some sibling rivalry in the game with Zofia and Ellen now. We've got some in the server, too
It's not the only region with brothers playing
Talk a lot about Nate and handy doing battle down in Brazil surf just buying some time
He gets taken care of and it's a relatively easy round for C9
Yeah, it was a jump out of the yellow window, by the way, that got the opening duel for
Monk. He jumped out. Canadian was droning outside the garage door, and they got the
jump out for the frag there. So that's how Cloud9 started. Then they find Ambi pushing
down yellow. That garage-focused push from Shopify or Bellion really does get stuffed,
I think, before it even gets started. I think that'd be fair to say. Monk put a triple kill
on the round, getting some massive kills in the midst of that, did eventually die to Surf,
but he knew he was in a dominant position. He was just fishing for his block kill. A
triple will be all of his help too, and that's good enough for the round with Cloud9 won
a piece, and now they get to go to the primary bomb safe for the first time. So, honestly,
a very strong position for C9.
It was easy to get that close out kill, as he and Monk have all of the frags from C9,
from coming in the second round after it was a flawless start by the rebellion.
Pambazine having...
Yes, Pambazine's having one of his worst starts an entire stage of 0 and 2 here.
I don't know if he's gonna be able to recover in time or not.
Pambazine has hit, of course, a monster. Highest rated player coming into this planet, a
133 EPS, just disgusting the stage that he's been having and specifically on the IGL role.
leading a team that has really demolished all expectations, being as good as they have been.
I think Pambazu is in strong contention for MVP of the stage.
I mean, Brazilian fans have been tripping over themselves to talk about how good VitaKing has been.
And he's sitting at a 137 EPS, not that much ahead of Pambazu.
Yeah.
I mean, people are talking about how Vitaking's putting up one of the best performances they've seen from a Brazilian player in ages, and I think for good reason Vitaking has been set-stational.
I mean, if Pambazoo's a monster, I don't even know what word we'd use to describe Vitaking, but I mean Pambazoo is doing it on, I don't want to say a worse team, but I mean if you look at FaZe Clan and C9 next to each other, I know 90% of the community are going to be taking.
So, Pambazoo getting the job done with his supporting cast as strong as they have been
is, I think, a greater accomplishment than what Vinikings has been putting up, and that
is something that is outrageous to say because Vinikings is putting up an absolute clinic.
But, cramming Pambazoo for doing that while IGLing, that's a tough thing to do, and fragging
IGLs are really in vogue right now, Jesse.
Yeah, we've got at least one in the server, and we've got one more traditional IGL as
well.
Frexton takes down Uzi for the opening pick immediately traded on backs as he's trying to get aggressive
Looks like maybe around that storage side of the map
It took a long time to open the mask while Pambas and Uchi who was stalling them over quite some time
They could eventually get it open, but for shoppire valley and they need to be very conscious of this clock
Canadians got that a few skid outside of our six room
He can try to make a play in but center is starting to throw some fire footage over here and Eddie is close by as well a
A lot of threats on this C-9 team, Eddie, the second lowest rated player, and even he
is very high up.
I believe he's in the top 15 last eye-checked, so everybody can kill you dead.
Ambi will find center, by the way.
There's Pamzoo to get rid of, spoid and get Ambi as well!
A twofer with his final bullet in the mag.
Eddie will take care of Surf.
Who's gonna find the final kill?
It's Monk!
none of the previous aggressors.
One thing I really love about this Cloud9 team, Jesse,
is how low-key they are.
They almost never celebrate when things go well.
This reminds me a lot.
I hate to make this comparison.
This reminds me a lot of that old Empire
and Virtus Pro roster, where they would never
emote whatsoever.
C9's got a job to do, and they've
been doing it very well so far, undefeated in this stage,
and they are easily handling the rebellion
through three routes.
Yeah, I think Cloud9's done a great job
reading their opponent, especially in that third round. A lot of the rebellion players
were trying to push through Skybridge, get themselves into our six room for a plant,
but they made a bit of a call, both Ambien's SPOINT, the two best players on SR, at least
mechanically, historically, rotated off to go push in towards Mezzanine, push in towards
Mask. They pushed at the exact same time that Pamba was returning from the flank. I think
a lot of more inexperienced players would have committed to the flank that Pamba was
on, they would have tried to push bottom green. In fact, the Pamba did not commit to the
and said got those two kills that you just watched was absolutely critical for cloud nine to win that round
Very much subdued in their celebrations, but the impact of that play is not lost
I do imagine that the mental of cloud nine starts from the top as well Pambazoo has never been a particularly
expressive guy if you go back to his early days on that DZ roster he's always
kind of steady as she goes he's personal you hear him in interviews he talks a
lot more than I think people would expect and mint as said repeatedly that
Pambazoo has a bigger personality that he lets on he just does most of that
talking through his actions in the server across the three regions that
have not been splintered apart that means no APAC so across Brazil MA and
and EML ignoring the results today.
Amuzu is the most kills across all three of those regions.
The reason why we're ignoring the results today
is because it's obviously given teams an opportunity
to play an extra match.
Amuzu has a chance here now to continue to rack it up himself.
He is fast approaching 100 kills,
and there's still two more play days to go,
and he's 29 kills away.
I think he's probably going to break 100 kills
before we get done with the groups,
and that is really quite a tremendous feat.
feet. Some people in North America are close spirits, pretty close to and with the schedule
for 100 thieves he might hit up but Pamba's really in a class of his own and he's making
his whole team better.
No doubt Pamba has been an incredible star for his squad. I also think the narrative
of him being quiet is like kind of overdone. I think in the last three years he's shown
in interviews that he's actually very personable and gives great content pieces, great interviews.
when he was a young 18 year olds LMG only player.
Maybe that was the case, but it's definitely grown
into his role and I'm not surprised to see him
taking the leadership role here on Cloud9
so seriously and finding so much success with it.
For now, they found a lot of success in this round,
stalling things out.
Parker Shupfire, Bellion have not been able
to take the top floor like they previously did
and are gonna look to rush a plant
without clearing the top floor at all.
I'll go the fire and the smoke, so rush on in,
but has not netted any success just yet.
Canadian attempting to defuse Plant's point
will die in the midst of that smoke.
Uzi's still holding court from above,
but they have missed the opportunity
to get rid of Canadian,
and Eddie's bot will take Pambazu out.
A blunder from C9, we've seen some of those today,
one of which even happened on this very map earlier on,
in a post-plan, and no real sense of urgency
between these two teams
as the timer continues to run against Cloud9.
Canadian will call for backup surf into position any not relinquishing control from above
Gauzing the bomb site in flames as best as he can
But there's very limited time here center hops on the defuse kids all of a sudden
Protecting him do they pull it off? Yes, they do. Oh my word. What an incredible retake from cloud nine
Oh my god, that is not an easy round to win
It looked like everything that could have gone wrong went wrong in the early part of that round for cloud nine Parker
It's the team kill. I don't know what it is about our six room today Parker, but it's cursed
It was a double knife for some team kill earlier today
Then it's at the Chalka team kill on the Pamba and he just not able to thread the needle get the fire grenade down through the floor
But monk doesn't care nobody told monk that this round was going poorly
Brilliant shot coming out for monk in that round saves it for cloud nine huge from center to jump on that disable
make sure that he can win that round for his team on the objective. A 3-1 win or 3-1 lead
very deserved from Cloud9. Almost makes that first round seem like such an aberration here,
right? Rebellion walk on in, own the place, five kills, not a single drop of blood spilled by Cloud9
and we're thinking, okay, hold on a second here. Rebellion might be cooking something up and then
Cloud9 answers back. With two very strong rounds and a scrappy third round as you pointed out,
some mistakes committed by C9, and they still managed to save themselves. I know a lot of
the conversation around Cloud9 tends to center itself around, well, eventually they're gonna
fall off, right? And of course, strength of schedule is important as well. But Cloud9 consistently
shows up against good teams. SR is one of the best teams in the world, and despite their
disappointing results at EWC, there is still good reason to believe that they are an incredible
force to be reckoned with. If Cloud9 can deftly handle them here on this map, that'll be seven
games played, seven regulation wins, and again almost certainly cement themselves in a top four
position just based on numbers alone. It's been an incredible run for this team and the wheels
look far from falling off. Cloud9 are the real deal. I know people will ask those questions at
at least until they prove themselves in Osaka, but yeah, this team is looking very scary.
They're very well put together.
Now back towards this bottom floor bomb site, I mean, it's a perfect rotation from Cloud
9 after losing that first round in round one, so they're going to have the opportunity to
win twice now on the basement.
Very much committed to this round, at least Monty is after the shots he was hitting with
the TCSG in the previous round, he's trying to run it back.
Surf should be his target, working on the floorboards, but instead it's Boi the first
to go down to Pambazoo and I'm not sure that was a runout. Might have been just on to Willie
early there on the bottom floor. Shopify Rebellion really suffering for a lot of these aggressive
opening deaths. It's a bit of a regression here from Spoit. He entered as the second best player
on this team. He hasn't really been able to find very much running up against tough competition
and Cloud9's gunners are shooting today. That's for certain. Starf taking care of Vi Monk as it's
Monks turn to lead the team one thing about this triple threat with cloud 9 is that you never know which one's gonna pop off
Could be Uzi today could be Pambazoo tomorrow and today
It's Monk shouldering all of that weight all the while if things are going back for cloud 9
Jesse we'd be talking about our center is zero kills, but he also only has one death
So we don't really need to shine the light on him when the rest of the team is doing what they're doing 45 seconds ago
SR three players remaining to a full
C9
How do they get themselves into a successful position Canadian will wander right in and second burn off the clock ambi shutting down
Pambazoo a hail of bullets from both teams rex and now on the board as well down goes
Uzi Canadian finding the protection from the escorts that he brought with him
Knocked aside from the okai drone as Eddie pilots that to great effect
Okai drone now taken out so shouldn't be too much of an issue Canadian can attempt to plant the diffuse kit while rex and nambi watch above
Eddie Sender and Monk compelled to call into action, Monk continuing his incredible play.
Eight kills as he takes care of Canadian.
Rexman attempts to defuse Kit, leaves all up to Ambie, but it's Monk! Monk! Monk! Monk! Monk! Monk!
Monk killing everybody! Breaking double digits and Cloud9 is up 4-1.
It's like this man's invisible. I don't know what to tell you. Nobody on Shopify or Belly could find a way to shut down Monk.
Twice now in the late round, he's taken what is really kind of a bad position and turned it on its head again
Shopify rebellion were getting that plant down, but there just wasn't enough coverage on Canadian. It's tough, right?
They were trying to push that 3v5 from the beginning. It was gonna be difficult
It was a spawn peek from Pamba. He ran out of electrical
It was peeking out of electrical to get spoits then the one-romer monk on the top floor took down surf
Or if that made the push already very difficult from Shopify or Rebellion, but they put together
a great effort.
Ambi and Wrexen were fragging, they dealt with the yokai cams, those were my biggest
worry.
Canadian got into a plant spot, but then just retaking that position, I mean so smart by
Monk, he ended up pushing down those filter stairs and I think they weren't so worried
about connector between the two sites because they killed Uzi in that position.
Wrexen got the frag onto a player in that spot already, so they didn't think there would
be anybody else to worry about that's why canadian planted where he did nobody
was watching for it but monk came down those filter stairs he got into that
same position and he took down canadian throwing that round into chaos and
capitalizing on it himself with two more frags I mean just a really impressive
round from monk forces the tax of time out to come through from super but at
this point one more attack to try to salvage this half the best you're gonna
they get from him before too.
This is an ideal place to be in.
I mean, again, it's only been played technically
this is the fourth time,
because we did see a layer earlier today
in the outlast game, but heading into today,
it was a defender side of map, not by much,
but a defender side of map.
I don't know if it's too early to tell whether the rebellion
and Cloud9 are better attacking and defending teams.
You would be the guy to have those numbers to speak,
but I think, again, I think the real Canary
and the coal mine here for cloud nine is center.
Senor's had to do nothing, Jesse.
Literally, he's had to do nothing.
The only round that he had a bad look
was when they got run over in round number one,
and everybody from C9 died at the hands of SR,
a flawless start to this match.
And then after that, Senor's just been,
well, he just reversed.
His camera just, his camera just reversed.
I don't know what happened there, but we got flipped, Senor.
But he's had to do nothing.
He just has to play the utility game.
It's never really in harm's way. He's only got two assists to his name, which he's not really involved in the killing aspect either through these, you know, five rounds that have been completed.
And because of that, it just shows the lack of pressure that SR is putting on the bomb site. If your main support is not involved in anything, it means that your fraggers are killing everybody too early.
Yeah, this is exactly the game Center loves to have, you know, where he can just play support beyond cams, use utility to help his teammates.
teammates like this is the role he plays on this cloud 19 it's really four
fraggers plus center center doesn't maybe get the love that he deserves
because the role that he plays but he has such a such an impact on this roster
just by playing around with the utility with the information it's been having a
perfect game so far again again it's not really been needed too much the
rest of shopfire rebellion we're gonna have to find some way to apply fresh to
him and the rest of the first one in the bathroom facing a lot of utility
Canadian manages to take care of Monk, but not before Monk has shredded Rexon, that's his 11th kill.
The next closest is four. Monk is carrying this team like a baby koala on his back.
Surf is hoping for an opening to get in and do some damage.
Shaken off by a razor bloom, shaken off by one of those gas canisters thrown out by Eddie as well.
So maybe back to the drawing board for SR as the captain, Canadian, picks up his very first kill.
very first kill, beyond that not a lot to show for SR's first two minutes of this attack.
It feels like a must win round for them too after their talk time out. Rebellion know how critical it is to win this top floor.
Great swing from Pamba, helps take down Troy, and he got Uzi in the midst of it though, so we continue to be at even numbers.
Shopify Rebellion, even if they lose some of these fights, they're playing really well together and are working themselves into trades.
This is anybody's game as we get to the last 45 seconds.
I'll get to see how center's feeling because he's almost certainly gonna be involved in the action
First point of contact Eddie up against surf and Eddie will just peel away and hide in that rat corner
His center buys as much time as possible center almost certainly coming to blows with his brother at some point in time
Eddie looking for an escape and he's got the hatch below him so he can get out of this position if he wants
But he's gonna frag anyway
Goodbye to surf the fade away as Pam as you taste kerospoit
Center with the final kill, and a 5-1 first half for the unbeaten Cloud9.
Unbeaten for a reason. You're seeing it right here against Shopify Rebellion of all teams.
Cloud9 continue to put up insane numbers. They show us that even in those chaotic moments,
that they are coming out on top.
I mean, they weren't able to separate. I mean, in 4SR, they weren't able to separate Cloud9.
They've always, like I said it, they're always so strong at being able to play together.
But then you have to look at this round four.
I mean, what was this retake?
I mean, it was a great setup from the rebellion.
We gave them praise for it.
But immediate transition, immediate response
from the side of Cloud9, specifically in Monk
to being able to shut it down.
He's clearly been the highlight player so far in this half.
11 and 3.
And something that Parker was talking about that sticks out
or stands out clearly in comparison to the other teams,
they do not get hyped after any of these rounds,
Even though they are so convincingly well done,
no one is getting excited.
No one is getting hyped.
They're just immediately going straight into the next round.
Oh, that's just standard for them.
You know what I mean?
I mean, I've done the day in the office.
A lot we are highlighting, Monk, though, for a second here,
because this is something when I was digging around the stats
a little bit.
And who do we talk about?
Of course we talk about Pamesee, the NDP.
Of course, we talk about Uzi, even,
who was the highest rated player for a long time this stage.
They're early on but monk actually for me is kind of slept on that. We haven't been talking about him enough
I mean, I know he's part of that like three-headed
Fragrance system or whatever they kind of got going on
But he is the highest rated in entries for this team and that's what's so important
I mean they are miles ahead of every other team in the entry department, but it's actually monk who we just saw two and
Oh right there. I believe he was 13 and two already coming into this game with an 87% entry rating
He's the one giving them the advantage and then Pambazoo has taken the advantages and he knows how to close out that round
So it's it's so impressive to watch this team again. He's such a young player rookie player
I think last stage was his first stage right so it's so impressive just to see
Him kind of get incorporated in that Pambazoo system and only get more comfortable now
The other funny thing is that start that's cloud nine strong side as we say right, but you know lax
Now we normally go, oh, now they're switching sides.
And oh, this is the rebellion.
No, this is Cloud9's also strong side.
They're the best defending team.
And we've just seen it right there, right?
That how well they help each other on the defense
is the most impressive.
They're able to flow over and help each other so well.
But now on the attack side, I already
did an illustration about it.
We've done one in the past.
I mean, now we get to go on to their actual strong side
of the map.
Listen, they're using their strong hand.
I know what you're getting at, when you said that.
However, for the side of SR, I got to be honest, I am a little worried.
We know that they're a mental team.
They did bring in Phoenix to be able to be that mental coach, to kind of keep everyone together.
But we heard in the comms that round five, I believe Pamela runs out, spawn kills,
spoi, and spoi, it's like, this guy's unbelievable.
I can't believe that he's doing this.
And then in that timeout falling right after that, we hear super.
I mean, he's definitely pretty upset with what's going on, that they're losing their composure,
that they aren't focused on their game plan.
They're too focused on what Cloud9 is doing.
This is nice that they are going to be on defense, kind of dials things back a little bit for them,
but it's going to be even more important that you can't allow Clive now and to get these opening picks
and to be able to move around the map the way that they do very fluidly, even on a map like Fortress.
Well, I'm saying back when you did the, the Teleshares, all right, should have, should have went in with that,
but yes, they could, you move fluidly on a map like this on there.
Incredible. Well, with Cloud9, I mean, it's a four-round cushion right now as they shift over the attack,
So yes, we know that SR they are the ones with their work cut out for them here as we go into the second half
Thank you very much our friends on the desk you're very final half-time segment until next Thursday greatly appreciated
Cloud nine sits atop the NA standings we have said that about a thousand times today
But the numbers just in case you're curious are pretty simple Cloud nine just needs one more round to guarantee themselves a single point
and they clinch top four. It's really quite that simple.
Yeah. Top four is super important too. That's dark you in the upper bracket. That means you have two chances to win just a single best of three.
And if you can do that, you're headed to Osaka. You're headed to the major to represent North America.
That is the ultimate goal of the stage we're playing right now. Cloud nine, very close to that.
But playoffs are their own beasts you can go flawless in group stage if you fall apart in the best of threes
Then that's all anybody's gonna remember so
Still work to be done, but cloud nine
on the precipice of a
monumental accomplishment even still given their previous results
Attacking on layer now. They're trying to be a little bit cheap
I'm gonna work this way towards the top of green stairs playing on this nook and this is a weird spot to stay with the nook
I'm not gonna lie. It's pretty rare to see somebody get aggressive. You might try to bait them into Skybridge
I think that's the goal. Pamba's gonna try to do some work on this wall
Hoping somebody will push up aggressive in a skybridge so that month
Talk a little bit about this best of three is that'll be quite interesting
We have not seen this cloud nine lead or this Pamba's you led to cloud nine in best of three is in stage one
They did not make the playoffs. They finished in seventh place on the outside looking in
It's only best of ones played by them at that current point in time against the best of the best and best of threes
That'll be a real test of their metal
But C9's been able to pretty deftly handle every single adversary so far
Again just a single round they can lose they can ultimately take six
Guarantee themselves atop four and then sandbag the rest of this if they really want to but I got a feeling the kind of guy
the Pambazoo is. He's not gonna be happy about that. Rush on in now! Jesse is
center-tied immediately to Ambi, and now it's Monk's turn to ascend the stairs.
Maybe not quite the rush that they had hoped for with a minute still on the
clock, as everybody on C9 is meeting their demise at the hands of various
players from the rebellion. Fusey and Pambazoo last few standing points will take
care of one Canadian gets the other. Now it's all up to Pambazoo who downs the
sweet and will secure the kill. At this point in time, Pambas, who just wants to pad his stats,
Canadian will lead by example, two frags for the captain as SR starts their second half with a
successful defense. Yeah, that's an instant GG go next. If you're Cloud nine, trying to play
off some cheeky strategies. Again, I like the idea of posting up with the top of green, trying to
bait someone into Skybridge to punish Pamba playing on that Maverick on the outer mask wall, but
Nobody falls for it on the side of SR, then that smoke ying play through display gets shut down.
Monk has nothing to do except for walk through barbed wire,
just a disaster of a push and one that they can quickly forget and move on to a new strategy when they come back here in round 10.
It's important to note Shopify Rebellion, I mean this is a team that expects not just to be top 4 North America,
but most recently we're in the grand finals of the last major that we've played.
This is a team with high expectations and who have been in stressful situations.
They won't be dissuaded, the fact that they go down 5-1. They know they're moving to the defense, the more favorable side generally on-layer.
Certainly the side where Cloud9 have been a little bit more successful.
Almost all of their defenses the last time they played this game versus Outlast.
Chalfirebellion, don't forget, won this map just last week against DarkZero, a huge revenge
game for them, so they've shown a lot of their own defense strats, that's something
you've got to keep an eye on, late into the second half, with new strats, new keeping
strategies, if Cloud9 maybe will be reading into that, but it's difficult when your team
like SR, or when you're up against a team like SR, who just has such a deep strata
to begin with.
It really is a battle of the Titans, even though the score line at the moment doesn't
reflect that.
I think the suspicion here, Jesse, is that it will tighten a little bit.
You don't imagine rebellion walk away from this with only two rounds.
They are usually better than that.
A drop of rebellion can clinch a playoff spot with a set of scores as well, but those numbers
are something that you can dive into.
As for the remaining matches that these teams have to go up against, two more play days,
of which we'll be next week Thursday and Friday, 5-9 plays space station gaming on Thursday and
rounds out playday number nine against wild cards. So both of those teams maybe not as steady as they
could be but still pretty strong adversaries. As for SR, they play up against Outlast on Thursday
and then close out the stage up against Five Fears. So two of the bottom tier teams for SR
I mean, things get a little bit easier and Eddie is off to the races.
Down goes Canadian.
He's only good enough for a single kill.
Surf with his own shotgun.
Out dual center.
Eddie dies to Rexon.
Emando in hand.
Shredding through them.
Ami on the ground.
Down goes Pambazoo.
Ami's still retrievable at this point in time.
Munkin Uzi now with the last two standing.
They catch the point looking in the wrong direction.
There goes Ami.
There goes Rexon.
What happened to this round?
The dynamic duo of Munkin Uzi clearing out
the entirety of this middle floor, it sends surf on a potential suicide mission to this
bomb site. You've seen surf be able to pull this off. You said he's kind of the unsung
hero of this team and he will not get past Uzi. Six rounds, match point for Cloud9 and
they've locked. Top four here in the North American League. Stage two.
If it doesn't work, try, try again. It's the ying strategy into the top floor that pays
This is all for cloud nine in round eight Parker very similar to when they were attacking the top floor bomb site just in the previous round but shopfire
belly and they move one floor below and the defense falls apart really nice space taken up by Eddie the fact that he rushes in and kills Canadian through those toxic babes is so impressive at such a tough position usually for teams to clear out
Canadian panics a little bit. Eddie makes this face for his team. They really do follow up on it. The majority of
Cloud9's players were pushing in through our six room. You saw Uzi get a good couple of kills in the midst of that.
And they're correct. That is top four locked in. For the first time that round Parker, the brothers went head-to-head.
Surf did kill Center. Center's been in very few gunfights generally, so it's been rare to see him go up against his brother.
But surf came out on top as center tried to rush in through the bathroom
It was really just a distraction though for the rest of cloud nine to make their way in through our six room and
demolish the rest of surf's team
Five seconds to go
This is pummeling after pummeling after pummeling that C9 have given these teams
You just take a second here to go over the record against current playoff teams at least those that are in
The top six C9 started by dismantling 100 thieves 7-0 on the very first playday
The handle DZ and what was a really exciting 7-5 matchup?
Beyond that it really hasn't been all that much for this team against other playoff teams
Cloud9 definitely has benefited from playing the bottom four teams already
So things will likely get a little bit tougher, but all of C9's numbers are good individual player numbers great stats on maps great
around differential. Great. Hard press to find a weakness of the C9 team against
other North American teams. What remains to be seen is if Cloud9 makes it to
Osaka, do they get figured out by some of the other international teams? A reason
why we ask that is because some teams do really well domestically and stumble on
the international stage. Other teams like Wildcard for example don't do as well
domestically but tend to stack up really well against other regions. This is
still a young team. Pambazoo is still learning. There's still some younger players on the
squad and Cloud9 will have to learn to play best of threes and potentially best of five
if they want to conquer Osaka. Good utility uses from Cloud9. They combine those impact
EMPs with the Selma charge from Uzi to open up that rocket wall that's often one of the
missile wall. It's often one that can be tricky to deal with, especially with the Kaede on
the board being played by Canadian, but the juggling is no good. They managed to get that
site that's all they really need knowing that there's not any rumors in the
mid floor being spotted out but Ambi does exist on the top floor at the same
time Senter is winning a 1v1 against the captain of rebellion takes down the
Kaid and gets the man advantage over to cloud 9 a very direct push coming in led
by the Monty clearly read by SR they use their toxic babes they're gonna start
popping some of these fires but it's gonna be tough to stop this one Senter
starts to move his way into the bomb site they have plenty of time to pull
this off to right part of the advantage of being quicker to the punches that you
got more time to land a second punch if the first one misses and cloud nine
hasn't really taken a swing just yet surf will gun down Uzi his brother
giving a bit of a leg up here his centers a bit of a bullet magnet himself
they are shredding this C9 advance center almost gets his brother but
point has his back and now it's Eddie in a desperate attempt to keep cloud nine
In this round 30 seconds to go for him to find the four remaining players of SR
Incredibly unlikely here Jesse
He'll bait for a bit why not
And be both hunting for that final kill Jesse
No chance is that push again was read really nicely by Shopify rebellion despite the fact they lost that opening pick
They just had such a good read on what was happening because it was so obvious from cloud 9. They were going primarily just in through the garage
I know monk was pressuring up on that top floor
He was trying to shut down ambi
But ambi got the better of him once you went on that top floor
It really limits that push down to just one dimension and frankly surf kind of said watch this little bro and
Killed all of Senthir's teammates despite the fact that Senthir was threatening ADSing and pressuring him with the Monty
It's kind of a fun interaction there
You won't he will not get credit for killing his brother as surf got picked back up
Keep an eye on that on that matchup. It's currently 1-0 for surf
Even if that's not exactly what the players will be focused on depending on how this game ends
This point in time if you're the rebellion obviously a victory is
What's top of mind for you? But two points is all you're going to get again
we'd have to go to the numbers people of which you are one of as to whether or
not even a single point here for the rebellion would lock them into the spot
there's a full games worth of distance between the rebellion in fifth and
space station in sixth so I mean the top five is pretty walked in I think it's
fair to say I would be quite surprised if any of the top five teams in the NA
may help fail to make the playoffs.
The real prize is going to be that sixth and final spot.
And of course, you want to finish in the top two
as you pointed out, only a single best of three
at that point in time is needed for you to win
and you make it to the big show in Japan in November.
Shop Firebellion are in a position
where if they can win this game,
even in overtime that will lock them into playoffs
into top six with a victory.
They would have to win their three straight rounds
win in overtime one point is not enough to confirm them today so that's
straight from Sprabuni so we know it's true rebellion still in this matchup
still fighting with everything they've got I think you're right that as part of
the top five they should be safe even if they lose this game to Cloud9 to make
playoffs and have a chance at getting into Osaka but top four is what really
matters give yourself two chances so if SR could get an upset win here they'd be
in a much better spot to walk that down as well.
It'll be a long road from here to the conclusion of that match.
Rebellion will be doing three consecutive rounds
and then two of three in overtime.
It seems like a Herculean task at the moment
because they would have to more than double
the current tally of rounds.
They have a mast and while Cloud9 has some odd blips here
and there, they have absolutely looked
like the better team so far today.
Really good depth on this squad.
Struggled to find a bad performance,
Even if you look at, again, Center, who is the lowest numbers,
he hasn't really been tasked with too much.
And when he's needed to show up,
he's done a pretty good job, particularly on defense.
It remains to be seen if he can hold it together on attack.
He was playing a shield in the previous round this time.
A Ying, so another very high utility operator
that will provide tons of value.
This pulse will be the main counter for this position,
a very familiar operator for Canadian.
He just needs to stay alive
and not find himself in harm's way.
Ambig down below, tracked by the Deimos.
Monk will be wanting to find this pick, but he loaves up instead.
Nice Nitro from Ambig will get the opening pick.
Right as point finds Uzi, and Cloud9, they're off to the races.
Two kills very quickly.
Treadmack did that against his own team.
You don't need a Nitro style to only claim one if you're SR,
and it looks like it's going to be a flawless round,
not just a flawless round, a perfect round.
I don't think a single point of damage was done to SR,
unless that final interaction did some damage to I believe it was Rex and a really good bounce back from SR two rounds in a row
But again, what are the win conditions here for cloud nine?
I think it is a very real conversation to be had cloud nine have now secured a top four spot
They are in very good shape to hold on to a top two spot
Do you continue to potentially try everything and show real strats?
Or do you maybe take it easy now that the job has been done?
I think we're way too early to be taking it easy Parker.
I mean, the win is one round away and you know that that could make the difference
between first seed and fourth seed potentially, right?
I mean, yeah, top four all have the same theoretical chance of making it to the major,
but it is a better boon to get yourself as high as possible
so that you have an easier opponent in these in these playoffs.
I think everybody kind of expects cloud nine to be the number one seed
coming out of this group stage but it's not guaranteed by any means and there
are teams like 100 Thieves, Dark Zero, or even the Rebellion if they come back
and win who could upset Cloud9 for that number one spot. And if you're in second,
third, fourth all of a sudden your first round opponent could become much more
difficult so I definitely think Cloud9 need to lock in here. They are one round
away but so far in the second half it has been quite dominant for Shopify
Rebellion. The rounds that they have won have really not been close. There have been a
lot of like aggressive ying plays into the top floor which did work when the
bombsite was Bunk's briefing but when the actual bombsites up here it doesn't
feel like they're having that same level of success the pushes have been a
little bit more one-dimensional from cloud nine than what we're used to seeing
from them so an opportunity to talk to their head coach have a little chat with
vivid reset the mental for these next few rounds to try to walk it out in
regulation still plenty of time to land this plane and I mean I agree with you
for the record. I do not think Cloud9 have done the math and said okay guys we got six
rounds now we can just take it easy and lose. Who cares Teehee? I don't think that's what
Cloud9 is saying. I just think it's something to ask ourselves because there always remains
a possibility that that might happen. You know, there was a period of time where Penta
literally laughed in our faces and was like of course we're not saving strats are you
guys stupid we want to win? We're, this is how it goes. You just lose some rounds and
then years later they're like oh we were undeniably saving strats of course. Why would we bother
to try when we already had it locked down. Sometimes teams are not honest with us about
their machinations, so always something to ask and speculate on. And of course, for those
of you that are watching, it's something for you to talk about as well and argue about
on Reddit, social media, wherever you so choose. The Collin item made some small changes, bringing
lots of hard destruction, bringing some denial and sent her back on that Monty as the shield
will reflect the bullets. Rex and answering that are rather preparing for that. We're
the newest operator in those porous lances, which we saw, I think the desk speculated,
was our very first porous lancer kill earlier today.
I believe so. I've not seen anybody provide evidence to the contrary.
We're going to try to open up the main wall here on Bunks. Looks like it will be successful
as Uzi on the map. We'll deal with a lot of the main batteries and this might just be
A rush in partner, the utile flicks forward.
Any waiting for the call might have denied a nitrocell
or any explosives spent here living.
Diffuse kit goes down and everybody is still alive.
C9 were spectacular in the post plant
on their retake in the first half.
Can SR emulate that to save their chances here?
15 seconds already burned off of the clock
and nobody coming to blows just yet.
The time continues to work against this SR team
As right now, they're coming up completely empty.
What is this strategy from C9?
10 players still alive, 15 seconds on the defuse kit.
I don't even have the words for what we're seeing.
Canadian will attempt to hop on the kits
but with one kill C9, wiping the floor with them.
And that's the point of no return.
Cloud nine kill or no kill will take the round.
And with it, the match, all three points.
C9 remains undefeated.
They are the most fun team in Rainbow Six.
I stand by that.
Cloud9 always creative, always finding a new way in,
completely catching the rebellion off guard
with that rush Parker.
That's just not where most people rush on the site.
You always go green side, but they just take
the very least amount of that patrol they need
and win it out.
Massive game from Cloud9.
Center takes down his brother.
We've got a desk full of X-Quality.
right down this game.
What a way to finish Cloud9 with the creativity.
We heard it from Jesse, the most fun team
to watch and see right now in that last round.
A perfect example.
We talk about their ability to play the meta,
their ability to play together, but they're
strap-making their creativity, their adaptability
on full display in that last round.
I mean first he said desks full of experts. I mean, I don't know. You're an expert. I'm still a little new with this
So I mean I will agree with him on his cloud. Not as definitely the most fun team to watch her down the any
I know man. They already have haters. This is something we were talking about to offline is like
We're gonna start calling them the best of one team and are they gonna be able to do it in playoffs
But what you can't you can't argue right now? Oh wait, yes
We're curious. Oh the North
Yeah, well, you can't argue though is the strength of schedule, right?
I mean they have now went against the juggernaut. They've went against playoff teams and they beat the teams that should
They should be they beat the teams that were above them last stage
I mean at this point and of course, they're undefeated. They have that three-headed dragon that got Pam is you your MVP
Monk finally were highlighting a little bit more now again. He's been so impressed on the entry
Wow, they actually got him to two and one on the entry finally
He only had two of them the entire years or the entire stage afar, which is really impressive
And it didn't even seem like they were even pulling out the full strap look
I mean they were kind of hitting a lot of rushes a lot of the time even that last one
Yeah, that we were we were kind of speculating
I thought it was a really smart idea to go for that rush strategy
But I also thought it's really smart from the rebellion to use the nor from above which is something cool again
Something new why bring the nor above so that way if you like the old way
You would use an element above there that just gonna get EMP right if you throw an Ella down to get TMP
The bomb goes off and we as we see an SR dear cloud nine did have the thatcher. So he used to nor I believe and that's on a complete fraudulent
Coach here. I'm pretty sure you can't even feed the norm putting that out there
I'm pretty sure you can't even or so that's a really cool
Strategy that they used and regardless didn't end up working. It seems like they kind of missed but really impressive stuff
I mean on the on both sides even for SR to kind of start bringing that back for seven there
I mean at least they made a competitive that didn't make it make it competitive
I was hoping, you know, it's gonna be a little bit of a barn burner like the dark zero SR game that we got to see
But again, I'm not cloud nine has just been so impressive and I agree. I think we all agree
I mean you already picked Pamba being your MVP, but this cloud nine
This is not if you were to ask me before the stage even started
Are we gonna see cloud nine at the level that they're at? I would have never agreed
I would have never suggested that they would have looked like this regardless of them needing time or not
I mean, they really have been an electric team.
It's amazing how quickly the conversation shifted from,
okay, they'll probably do okay.
So wait a minute, can they prove themselves?
They still have some tough games to,
they are the best team in the NAL
and they continue to reinforce it.
Because they now, I mean, to close out today,
absolutely dominating the rest of the competition
and showing us that they are in fact the best team.
No matter who you throw at them,
I mean, as they wrap things up here,
I mean, they crossed the 20 point line right now.
21 points to their name.
They haven't even gone to overtime once.
They've been completely flawless.
This is, I mean, we saw a flawless group stage last,
I think, end of last year.
It was Shopify Rebellion who did it in stage two.
They did go to overtime a few times.
So it was not a fully flawless performance, but Cloud9.
I mean, somehow we're at the point where we're saying,
there's a world where they may never lose the best of one.
I mean, it's looking like it so far.
And the way that they've been playing,
I mean, whether it's been on defense,
whether it's been on attack, they
are adapting on each of those fronts.
Like he was saying, they're strong sides.
Both of them are strong rightfully so.
And they don't really seem to be lined their foot off the gas.
And I think there is something to take away
from what Parker was saying, just to re-emphasize,
is they don't get excited after these wins,
where every other team, win or lose, around like people
getting hyped these guys are showing no emotions. We've got center ready to go
for the interview we've talked to this man I mean a handful of times now just
so many victories for cloud nine this victory though maybe means a little bit
more you get to take down your brother center last stage he got the better of
you this time you guys got the better of him does that is that add a little
extra to this win today? Yeah it definitely does last time I played him there was a
7-5 lost and 7-4ing, you know, it makes it a one-run better. So I get bragging race.
So how does that dynamic work at home? I always find it interesting, you know, we talk about
handy and naïve over on FaZe. Now we're talking about you and serve. How does that dynamic work
at home when you guys are at the dinner table with the family? Like, what are those conversations?
I mean, what is the conversation going to be going in to possibly tomorrow's dinner,
but with the family and the success over your brother? You know, whatever we do talk, it's
It's mainly about scrims, like I think we call some teams scrim stars and other teams.
We have like different in-streaks team, but like you know, there's sometimes where we
mainly don't talk about the game, like outside of playing each other, but like the times
that we do, like we'll just talk about like scrims, talk about stuff like that.
But surely you got to talk about this matchup to him, right?
Surely you're going to say something about what happened to this.
I'm going to put it down on the fridge.
I'll make a tweet about it.
Yeah, nice, nice.
print the tweet out, tweet goes on the fray, perfect.
Yeah, exactly.
Center, I mean, you guys are 7-0,
and what the Reddit or anybody is calling best of one warriors.
What's going to change for you guys come best of threes?
You guys are already looking ahead in the schedule,
looking, how are we prepping for playoffs at this point?
You guys are already guaranteed it.
I mean, we're going to do the same thing that we normally
do, prepping for regular matches.
I mean, at the end of the day, the season's still not over.
We're going to try for the next two weeks,
for the next week for the next two games, but for playoffs, I mean, we're show up how we normally do.
We've been doing great. We've been, everything's been quick and not well for us. So I mean,
just got to keep it, keep it going. Definitely. I got, I just got one more follow up question.
It was something that Parker mentioned and I was talking about through the desk is you guys don't
seem to be very animated after any single win. Doesn't matter if it was a big play. Everyone
just is kind of just another day in the office. Is that kind of the attitude that Pamble wants
everyone to kind of focus on and not get too overhyped not not lose sight of the
what's happening in between these games I think Rob definitely play the fact
because he never gets excited over anything he never cracks a smile so I
don't know maybe it's rubbed off on us but mainly in the comms like when it's
intense scenarios I'm like the one trying to calm everyone down I know when we
went up 6-2 or whatever it was I was telling everyone that you know it's
not over like we got we said we got our point we could clock out but I was gonna
I'll say, we saw any type of GG a little early.
We ought to disconnect that.
He actually didn't mean to.
He didn't mean to.
He actually thought the game was over,
and then we'd call them in again.
All right, Senor.
Well, congrats on getting this one over, your brother.
I know that was the most important part of this matchup.
Today, you guys are secured top four in playoffs.
So we will see you then.
But maybe we'll chat with you next week as well.
Thanks so much, man.
See you in Bundle.
Go buy it.
Yes, sir.
Yes, I mean, hey, see you in Bundle price.
I mean, come on.
I mean, there's a man who's got to be skyrocketing.
Be completely fair.
This is the best roster that Cloud9 has been able to put together.
And I'm not talking back when they were playing in Korea.
North America, this is by far the best put-together team
that they've able to represent.
And it's looking good.
So I completely agree.
I mean, it goes to your point.
Those Cloud9 bundles have to be getting sold out at this point.
Get close to it.
Well, what a day here on day one.
Played a 7 now here in the North American League.
That one just to close it out, as we said.
We were looking forward to that one as our game of the day.
But to think, just a few hours ago,
we started things off with the old JJ Spiker Clash.
And five fears, another rivalry here in North America,
were able to come out on top in that,
as JJ moves to 4-2 over Spiker.
Here, this in his career in the North American League,
here in T1, Dark Zero and Space Station.
We got a bit of a show there.
I mean, Kyle, this, it was, I think, a really good preview
into what we can expect next week
with the stakes even higher.
Some teams locked in, yes,
but those final few positions on the leaderboard in the balance.
I mean, yeah, the biggest thing to take away from this week
is that space station and four fund still are not
capitalizing on their opportunities to kind of break away
and take that six spot.
And now with M80 on the board, I mean,
that was a big game for them to get three points there
and now kind of put themselves.
I mean, I don't know what that does in the percentages.
But it's not over.
6%.
6% now.
I don't know what it does.
But at the end of the day, now we
had a really tight race happening for that six spot.
And it's all going to come down to these final weeks.
All about playoffs, all about Osaka
as these teams look to lock things in next week.
The EML Super Week will kick things off on Monday, Tuesday,
and Wednesday.
We will be back on Thursday and Friday
to round things out, action continuing Thursday
at 2 PM Eastern for Lacksing and Mint
for our entire studio crew here in Copenhagen.
I'm Jonas Willinger saying thanks for watching,
and have a great night.
Switching the game, they know the name, they know the name
I can't take me to the light
The wind has been through the night, it's time to turn it into city life
Let's keep it light, let's keep it light
I