⚠️ VOD is unavailable.
valorant VODs on twitchBroadcasts 30+ hours are truncated. View the Raw Transcript VTT for the full version.
I know you want it
I know you want it
I
I'm here with no other than Lyce for a happy way, as well as there for some translations.
Thank you for joining me and congratulations on making it to the champion Shanghai.
Obviously, Lyce, you have had some experience playing at a major Valorant event.
Obviously, VCTC mentors around, but with Masters Shanghai two years ago,
how does it feel for both of you to now be playing in front of the Chinese crowd for a champion?
Actually, the first feeling is very honored.
Because I have experienced the Shanghai Grand Finals in 2014.
I am very happy to be able to participate in the 2016 Shanghai Championship.
Everyone is very enthusiastic in 2014.
I think 2016 will also be completely different.
And then the local battle is very happy.
Of course, I will do my best.
Actually, it is my pleasure to be here this time in Shanghai.
Because last time in Masters Shanghai, I already experienced like kind of filled the passion from the crowd.
And this time we're fighting on our homeland, like home ground once again.
And I'm very happy and excited to be here.
Excellent. Happy way with Ryo.
I think the first time I was in the main tournament, I was pretty excited.
Because I believe the whole tournament will be very exciting.
Yeah, actually this is my first time like having an event on my home ground.
So I'm very happy and excited as well.
And I hope this time, and I wish I am certain to see a hype vibe here, because this is our homecourt.
Excellent. Well, of course, best of luck to you guys in that endeavor, and I hope that you can really deliver on the big stage.
I did want to ask though, because obviously you qualified for this event via championship points, because you were able to be so consistent and do so well across the year.
One of the things that we saw happen in VCTCN was teams that were maybe a little bit more unexpected slingshotting to the top.
What do you think happened for Tyloo and JDG to be able to improve so much and make their way into the grand final and also to this event?
I feel very happy to see that they have been improving all year long, and that they have been taking on the experience of the war.
Finally, they have successfully completed their second match.
I think that the whole match and the entire UTCN are all growing together.
I feel like I'm very happy to see the improvements from JDG and Tai Lu.
Actually, they were growing throughout this year and gaining experience and finally got a good result.
But actually I think like visiting all of the teams we are making progress as a whole.
Okay.
I mean, happy where are you more than happy to take them out if push comes to shove.
If you have to play Tyloo in an elimination match, are you happy to kill them off?
Actually, I haven't thought about it yet.
But if it happens, then I won't lose.
Actually, I didn't think about this before, but if we have to do things like that,
we will win.
Okay, excellent. One last question for each of you, and I'm hoping that we get some unique answers.
Number one most recommended food to have in Shanghai for any of the fans that are traveling in that have maybe never been here before.
Let's start with you.
So there is a food called Malaga. It's kind of like dessert, I think. If you like sweet food, have a try.
okay there you go one by you happy way for me i will choose mahchang it's a
Sichuan traditional hop hop okay be spicy but if you guys like spicy you will like
i can't i i absolutely agree i just had it last night so there you go thank you guys very much
Thank you so much for joining me, Bear.
Thank you so much for the translations.
Back to you guys.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I just didn't get close enough, I know you won't
I know you won't
I just didn't get close enough, there's a chance to see the trainers
I know you won't
I just didn't get close enough
And I know you
And I know you
This stream contains fast flashing images that may affect viewers who are susceptible
to photosensitive epilepsy and other photosensitivities.
discretion is advised.
Today two former trophy winners go head to head and one squad will make their champion's
debut.
Hello everyone and welcome to day two of Champion Shanghai.
Coming in from the Jing An Sports Center.
Victoria here alongside Ender and Mal to break down today's double header.
And it's going to be a big one.
Stadium is crowded again yesterday, day one.
I think it's the first time we've seen a completely packed stadium from the get-go.
Oh, it was so much fun.
And it wetted my appetite.
I wouldn't say I'm fully satiated yet, but I'm hungry.
I'm hungry for just a little bit more epic valor today. Yeah, it's a good appetizer
And I think even now they're getting the crowd hyped up you're probably here through the microphones
I have a feeling it's gonna be much of the same and yesterday Mel
You were all over Shanghai visiting all the activations which fans were at as well. How was the energy out there?
It was so fun
I'd throw I think everyone that went to the artist alley went home broke because I saw so many people with backs
full of goodies. I normally don't really partake in Artist Alley but the things
that I saw at this one I had to buy legit everything. Yeah, you came back here
with a lot of shopping bags. You saw it. You know who else went broke? Tai Lu,
unfortunately, right? We just saw Payprex went out in the first series 2-1, but G2
came out and looked fierce in this opening series versus China's number one
team. Dominating on that second map Trent in particular had an absolutely
phenomenal showing out there.
Definitely. It was really exciting yesterday and today we've got group D.
Some are calling it as D for death because we got some of the top teams from the regions playing today.
We've got Karmacorp facing XLG and Nongshim versus NRG to start today off.
I think that's going to be a huge one, both of them trophy winners and a little bit of a revenge match going on.
Yeah, it'll be fun to see them square off.
Of course, you know, maybe haven't found the same success
after they've won their individual trophies,
but it's champions and anything can happen now.
At the end of the day, they've proven
that at some point in history,
they had that winning formula.
So if they can kind of get back to having that form,
either of them can make a run here
and it starts with these two teams
that have proven the winning formula at some point.
And one of them having literally almost a return to form
in the exact same compositions,
It's gonna be such a treat.
It's gonna be so much fun.
And I think we've seen just enough now
from the players yesterday.
We've seen other players give some takes
about the other teams for us to have hot takes.
Now this is a favorite one here on the desk.
So let's share our hot takes.
I think we'll start with mine.
Okay.
Yeah, I mean, I only know what your hot take is.
If you wanna talk some hotness, you know.
Yeah, well, I'll let you know
that I do have pretty hot takes.
Usually right, we'll see about this one.
my hot take is both an EMEA and a CNT will be in top three.
If I had to choose, I would say Carmen Corp and maybe EDG.
That's my hot take.
So please, you can rate my hot take.
That is extreme fire.
I was going to say, I'm going to perceive this as America's
shade because I know you have A-Pack number one.
Not necessarily.
I mean, it's a little plight.
Honestly, that one is a huge sauce up for me.
I think A-Pack.
OK, so you know exactly where you're going to get
It could be, I don't know, well, I'm like, my hot take is about eating me in China.
I think right now it wouldn't be a hot take about first place.
So would you like to rate my hot take?
Oh, I had this.
Okay.
You got extremely hot.
Like, many people cannot eat that.
Yes.
Okay.
Well, you guys, I'm going to prove you all wrong.
Let's see your hot take, Mel.
Mine's crazy.
What's yours like?
Okay.
Well, you might not follow on this because I think an APAC enjoy would really appreciate
that I think it'll ton will be the best performing Korean player at this tournament. Oh, that's
an interesting. Okay, explain your case. Yeah, I actually was introduced to a ton just seeing
him play this year. I wasn't familiar with this game before, and I'm just so impressed
with his mechanics and composure. And I think like I'm not saying G E is going to make
a super deep run at this tournament, but I think for the presence that they are
going to have here, he is going to pop off. I was incredibly impressed just mostly
with his mechanics. I don't know much about really decision making behind the scene stuff,
but he seems like a really solid player to have like anchor like it seemed like they
could depend on him in some really tough moments. I kind of like that take. I think if this was
in London, I would say was mild because he was the only Korean player. There are no crazy
things like that would have been crazy. We got T1 playing this all say it's pretty
spicy. I like that pretty spicy and I got to refer to you on judgment on this case
coming in from Pacific so I'll lock in with. We have buzz also we have meteor
who's playing a jet now though. But like if T1 collapse then all of a sudden you
know. I'm standing 10 toes down I know there's currency is here but I'm still
going but I'm backing it on although I think it's a good take though it's
very interesting take and Ender how about you. Trent will be the best
player at champions we already saw one game and off that one game sample
He's already the best player champions to be fair sunset, but this is a double whammy because it implies that
G2 is gonna make a very deep run as well
Which I think is possible Trent already has been playing insane Valorant all year long
He already has the ability to be the best player in event you go back to Bangkok. I'll stand 10 toes down on that
Yeah, I'll stand with you. I'll stay with Bangkok and would have been MVP. What I would have done at all
And this is his chance to double down this time around if it was just Trent being the best player
I would say like it's getting spicy, but now that you think that G2 is also gonna win all with Trent MVP
I think it's very spicy thing. She hates America's
Pretty spicy, I mean honestly, I just I don't even think it's not crazy. You know what?
Now there's too many good players here
I think no matter what the contention for best players always going to be spicy.
Exactly. That's why they're way, they're so many good players here.
I think that it's pretty spicy there. Not too bad. Not too bad.
I guess we'll have to wait and see how things pan out.
Now today's first matchup is the subject of our MasterCard fan poll.
We have the Masters Santiago winners facing the 2025 champs.
And we want you to tell us who's coming out on top.
So you scan the QR code to cast your vote.
And of course, use your hashtags, ValorantChamps or VCT to let us know what you think.
Mel personally really wants to see all your videos.
I literally was like, I'm going to look through the hashtag.
I'm going to respond to three.
I'm going to find some hot, like actual hot pictures.
Guys, don't give me no softballs, please.
Please.
Let me see some good ones.
Now, every team here is trying to win Champion's trophy, of course.
But there's another prize up for grabs during the grand finals.
And it's the MVP bracelet.
So we have two former winners about to take the stage.
We have Brock and Dan be facing off today.
I don't know if they're going to be wearing their bracelets
coming into today, but you're saying that.
Doesn't look like it, unfortunately.
Yeah.
OK.
Is it too early to ask, should we
be keeping an eye out for the MVP of the tournament right now?
No, it's time to start looking for it.
I think this is a great place to start, right?
Nongshim and NRG with their track record.
And of course, to the individual players,
I think when you're looking at it,
like what Brock was able to do at Champions last year,
just literally dominate the entire world, be a trend setter on a specific weapon, never
seen that before.
You'll get so many people upset about God.
You'll infuriate the community and then walk out of there with a diamond bracelet on your
ear like, come on, it doesn't get better than that.
I think it's so interesting to me just how different they achieved these MVP bracelets
that they have, like you said, Brock did it through very like abusing a gun in a game,
but no one, I say abuse, but no one else has really done it to his extent.
Let's say mastering a gun.
He mastered it and he also plays incredibly intuitive and smart, perfect percentile decisions.
And on the other hand, he went in super furious, fast and furious, running it down, like insane
mechanical ceiling.
It's just such a different MVP bracelets to me, but I don't know.
I feel like this is a meta where the duelists are rewarded more often than not.
Yeah, it is.
And so it's kind of curious if a different team member might end up winning it.
And then the last time these two teams faced off was earlier this year in Santiago, where
Dambi ended up winning that MVP.
And Nongshim had a really interesting comp then, they were the masters of the Neon meta
back then.
Yeah, and they just took over the world, right?
Of course, mastering that Neon, not abusing it, being so incredibly good on it.
But then their year went on this weird like full circle loop after that, right?
Then the huge surprise all of a sudden became that they got first round in playoffs in stage one, right?
And that comes after them changing their comps around of course the Yoru and Neon nerfs hit them extremely hard
And like you've seen with a lot of different teams of course Valorant
All of a sudden nerf comes in and they try they start second guessing their identity changing roles changing players
And it wasn't until the end that they put it back together here to qualify for champs
They put Francis on the Neon. Yes. That would it appalled us for a little bit
I mean, well, how do these decisions even happen now?
Like, do you believe in this kind of experimentation?
We're in the same frequency because I was thinking that bewildered me.
When I was looking at the console, like, what is going on here?
But I find that in the pursuit of trying to be ahead of everyone else,
because when you're trying to be the best, that's exactly what you're trying to do.
A lot of teams see a patch change and they immediately assume
that this is going to be the patch that's going to kill an agent and it doesn't.
And I think NS is the team that was a victim of that, where they really believed,
We've got to change so many things up.
We got to completely up her identity.
But as we see now, the Euro changers have come into effect where yours a bit
stronger now with the teleport and they're looking better than ever.
So I really love the return to the identity.
Oh, definitely.
And I'm glad Dambi is not on the Phoenix anymore either.
Now, while Dambi was a complete menace over in Santiago, over in Pacific,
he's cooled off a little bit because Francis being back on the Euro has
completely stepped up in a really impressive way.
This year has been defined by double duelist entirely and it is such a treat to see not just the neon player popping off with the Yoru,
but not in the way where at the beginning of the year, we all hated playing against Yoru's, right?
It was so annoying. I would argue now Yoru requires such a higher skill ceiling to actually get value up.
Yeah, now it's like a little treat to see him come back in every lobby, but still have players that are very good at him.
And for Francis in particular, see these clips, he was playing the Sova during the group stage.
like he had pivoted away and it wasn't until the break going into play-ins where all of a sudden
turns on a dime. He's playing Joron basically every single map and looking real good while doing it.
Yeah this comparison between the two with Dan B winning the MVP bracelet in Masters 1 Santiago
to now Francis's current form on the right in stage two playoffs. It's really making the case to
call back to the MVP situation. He's looking extremely similar to his own teammate that got
that very bracelet. Exactly. I think it's been really impressive and I think this is really promising
for the squad. Dambi was talking about this over in Pacific where yes they're using a similar
double duelist meta, but he believes that they have leveled up what they were using in Santiago.
So you're not going to get the same non-shim from Santiago, but an upgraded one. And I think
that it requires so much prep and you can really see that this is a result of the hardships
they've been through. You don't get this non-shim without the non-shim we just talked about
about the one that was flaundering around that lost their identity. We had the experience that I
say we like I'm on the team bro. They had to experience it. I sure don't love to have you
at least like trying to squad in the player room. Nah that's too kind but it's they needed all of
those moments to recognize who they actually are and what they need to win and I'm all here for
it. I love this new reinvention of themselves. Now you see RB standing up there. He has switched
they were also experimenting with IGL's. They switched him off. He's back on the IGL role
And it's so great to have him here at champs because this is the very first champs where we have no representation of DRX or KRX, which RB was formerly part of the OG squad with vision strikers back in the day.
This is the first champs they're missing, but at least RB is here and he's just been such a mainstay in this event.
Yeah, and RB is going to have a chance to go do it again for vision strikers.
Let's see what he can do on the stage.
Now, of course, give me a tough competition right off the bat, right?
Because NRT on the other side coming off champs winners in their own right.
But this is a fantastic one to test him against.
Exactly.
Kick it off.
Exactly.
In fact, you know, with the return of RB, let's see what he has to say together with Mika Pabs.
Mika here, and I'm standing with RB of Nongshim and Bella to help with some translation.
RB, welcome back to Champions after so long, and welcome back to Shanghai as well.
What's going through your mind as Shanghai welcomes you back?
I'm so happy to be back here in Shanghai. It feels like home and honestly it makes it even better
because we're on the champion stage.
That is amazing.
Good luck to Nongshim Reds first
and good luck to you RB.
Nongshim fighting.
Fighting.
And their opponents are gonna be energy once again
and their jerseys are looking absolutely fantastic.
Okay, so how America's ended.
Energy wasn't at the top.
Some people have some questions about this team
and the injury.
So give us a little update on that.
I mean, honestly, we're champs.
Forget about it all.
It was a one-day thing for Mada. He said it was a medical emergency.
Of course, took them out of that lower final in game five. A tough finish.
But this team is so good at forgiving the bad things and so good at remembering the good things.
Of course, you remember what they were able to do in Paris last year with two young players
joining the team that hadn't played in tier one before Brock and Mada stepping up
and dominating in stage two to go on and lift the trophy.
And now they come into this event without roster changes throughout the year.
They're a stable squad.
And yet, they've had back-to-back lower finals that they've just barely lost in the fifth game here.
They're a team that so easily could have been in finals, so easily could have won in Americas.
But still, that domestic trophy has eluded them.
Yeah, even without the domestic trophy, I think that there's a lot of reason to throw your support and your analysis behind NRG, right?
I think NRG is a team that really benefits from having practice, like a lot of practice.
I'm talking eight months leading up to champs because last year they were also flondering
through the main six first six, eight months of the year.
I voted a very specific number there, just want to shout that out.
And at the very end they looked amazing and it's because the way that they play really
benefits from getting the reps and laying the appropriate structure.
This is a team that doesn't play for like gimmick wins and stuff like that.
They play for the four month vision that they have.
And I think right now is a great time to start believing in NRG despite not getting that win.
And part of that vision of course is the back-to-back champs winner, or at least he has two trophies
in his hand.
It's Ethan.
Let's see what he has to say over with Mika Babs.
I'm standing here right now with a man who's got two of these shiny trophy things.
It's no big deal and he's holding a collection or something.
Ethan, what is the most important thing, the previous wins that you've had in LA
and in Paris. What's the most
important thing that those wins
have taught you that you're
carrying today as the tournament
begins?
Oh, the most important thing I
think is just to keep improving
throughout the whole tournament
as it progresses, I think so
should you as a team.
That's amazing. And that's
a winning mindset. Good luck
to you.
Now there is a member.
There were no roster changes
and all of that, but we do
have to talk about the
addition of Kiko and
Sam, you know, taking the
step back.
Yeah.
And then you start, please.
You don't want me to take
this one. I mean, Kiko
Kiko, for me, this is the guy that I was tracking all the way back in 20-20-3 when he was on the Ascension team that should have won the Apex squad that everyone was so excited for back in the year.
Your team won, bro.
I was a K-1 fan. Back then, he was dominating on the jet, then comes into this NRG team in the offseason with the idea of you have to fill the massive shoes of S.O.M.
And yet, over the course of this year, he has carved out his own identity in the team. Yeah, he's playing the Omen, but so much of his success recently has been on the jet for the team.
I'm sure you love to see that considering you just said his background is really jet heavy and I just love Kiko's flexibility
Right not to say that they weren't able to play jet back when Thomas on the team
But Kiko has been on another level this year
It almost feels like it doesn't actually matter what agent he plays that I look at the bottom there
Brimstone on summit omen cypher chamber and jet
He has such a great pool of agents and he's so dependable also
Yeah, I think he played fantastic over in London especially on the home ground turf
but I'm sure he wants to go a little bit further in this tournament.
Now we asked you a little bit earlier about who you thought was going to win today's matchup.
So it's time to see the results of our MasterCard fan poll and what you guys thought.
So let's see what we ended up landing on.
Wow, that is overwhelming.
Nongshim, I'm surprised.
I'm genuinely surprised about this.
When was this pull made?
Was this pull made like with Eastern time zone considered?
or is it an impact time zone like rigged?
But the time zone is chipping out of the energy crew
needs to show up.
They need to wake up.
They just get so their support, like come on,
they won the last champ.
So we're just going to write them off 37%.
Not on my watch.
OK, well, that leads me to predictions.
Did you guys both end up predicting for energy?
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Well, you're starting about the way it is.
My boy, did I not?
No, I did.
OK.
I'm energy all the way.
Listen, this is more than America's bias. Yeah, this is from countless hours of interviewing their teams
And I just love the structure that bonk are and Ethan and their assistant coaches have brought in. I love how they play
I love how they jump around for each other. It's something as basic as yo, it's a 2v1. I'm gonna take my classic out
I'm not playing for the KD good chance. I died
But there's a hundred percent shot of you're getting the trade and I love that
I'm a big fan of how they play energy for as long as I can remember are just the best team when it comes to the
Valorant fundamentals, right?
Their TACA PS understanding is out of this world.
And I think while Nongshim can scare a lot of teams
with a more aggressive looks and plays,
I don't think NRG is a team that falls victim to that style.
I think this is actually a very good
salicing matchup for NRG.
And I want to give a quick shot to the global power
rankings powered by AWS.
I picked Nongshim and I'm also going to say
I don't think it's purely biased.
I do think right now I don't know how well this will
work over into the future of Nongshim but right now they are leaning into the meta and I think
they're absolutely fantastic on it. Yeah I mean they've been great and I think on the other side
there could be some potential weaknesses. I think NRG's map pool is very interesting to me because
on a handful of maps they're absolutely the best in the world but on the others they can be abused.
Well we will have to wait and see we got NRG facing Nongshim and they are absolutely
ready to take the stage. Hope you guys are ready for day two of Champions.
I think every time I come to a champs, I feel like I can obviously win it all.
Ever since the first win in 2023, it's just been remembering the feeling of winning, and that's all the motivation I need.
Last year, we came in as underdogs. This year, we're defending our throne.
We played Longshin first. Last time we played them was Santiago and they're playing that
tournament. We're playing a very good team, which will be very exciting for the first
match.
Longshin, you won't revenge for Santiago. We're going to get it.
I don't have any loss
Okay, if you're in the pool for the towel, I'm gonna let you kill the ball.
Uh, nothing like a revenge between VCT's best and Raining Champ's energy has a bone to pick with Santiago Winner's Nongshim Red Force.
This is going to be a good one. Both these teams have lifted trophies in the last 365 days.
And now we're going to take a look at the maps.
And this Vito is always going to be interesting for me because while NRG have incredible win rakes across the majority of their pool,
the two danger maps where they are winless in stage two are Abyss, that's out of here, and Sunset.
And that is where we finish here if NRG don't win this 2-0.
This is a really, really strong video.
I feel like this is a, it's gonna be a great match to watch.
I think NRG is looking good on the Lotus recently.
And I think Lotus specifically is a map
that is extremely contested in America.
They're either very proven on this.
And I think their loss versus loud
in BCT Americas in the finals,
I wouldn't call it a fluke, but I wouldn't overread
into it because of what happened with Lottie's hand,
which hoping today, like everything is fine,
I think this is going to be,
if there's a strong case here to be made for a 2L.
Yeah, I mean, this is one where I think
energy need to hit the hit it running out of the gate here
I also think split is another interesting map for me because it's one that energy had not played in stage two and we end
Up letting that through as well
So energy come into this event with less practice almost any other team besides the America's teams
Americas ended later than anyone. They were in Sao Paulo
They had traveled back to LA before traveling here
They have way less time to repair and yet they're playing a map
They have not played in stage two and finishing on the map that they are a winless on and despite that you still think it's going to be a
Nrg because no Jim has had time. They have looked good in Pacific
They've cleaned up their comp into an even better fashion and when they're interviewing all the players in this group
They're all kind of being like, yeah, I hope you make it to play us
But only Danby stood up and like well, I think we're gonna win first in our groups
I have a strong belief in energy defense. I think that's what it comes down to for me
When you look at a team like non-gym, they can be so damn oppressive on the attack.
But energy historically, we have seen time and time again.
The structure they have set out by the leadership on that team
has been proven to absorb anything that's thrown at them.
Their defense sides are far none the best in the world,
and I am expecting to see that in full force today.
Have you seen big improvements on that since Santiago?
Because I think this is something that we will need to fix.
I think possibly but honestly I think defense is still an area where I think they're going to be strong
And I think one of the things that they will have known from watching that
Finals from no mention when I'm chin got reverse swept was the punishment that went down to Ivy on his attacking sides
The lurks were absolutely destroyed
He likes to go for these very high-paced lurks and Wibbley's first friend so many aggro plays just shut him down
They were ready for it. I think NRG they've done their homework. They're gonna be prepared
Well, they better be prepared.
One thing's for sure, at Champs, all the teams,
you want to win your first match.
You want to have that strong first impression
coming into the tournament, losing the first one.
It does kill a lot of momentum for these teams.
I mean, like we saw yesterday,
Paper Rack, something mentioned,
and Momentum is everything,
and you have to win this first game
or else you're off.
It's such a bad start.
You feel like you're already, you know,
you're in such a bad position in the lower bracket.
It goes without saying, but NRG,
I think one thing that NS could look to target
is when I watch energy's comms things can honestly get really chaotic and if NS bring that level of chaos that we talked about earlier
If they can just rough them in their defaults in those long planned out rounds that Ethan likes to mid-round and draw out
I think that could definitely school trouble for energy now Brock is a player who won MVP last time
He was on the champ stage and of course we have to give him a flowers for that
But who else is a key player here on energy? I mean for me. I'm very interested in how moda is performing
I think one of the things that energy have struggled with over the course of the year is working on into their comps
They've actually steered away from it on the majority of their maps even here on
Lotus they have typically been playing the rays which has been a lot better for Mada
And I think for Mada the rays he's looked quite comfortable on but I also think once we move into the later maps if there are
Comp changes and whether or not what are we gonna be playing on split the maps where he's allowed to play second entry for the
team. Think about his harbor on please. That is where he was absolutely on fire. Now it doesn't look like any changes for NRG.
Mod is going to be back on this race, but that is the talking point for me because the last time he got up on the stage and played, that was the hand injury game.
We had timeouts after timeouts trying to get that situation sorted out. It was a tough moment for him. Now he's a chance to instantly redeem himself and kick this tournament off of the back.
It's really how you view it. I think a lot of players could crumple in a situation like this. Honestly, where you're on that stage again,
And the last time you were in this situation,
you are haunted by what happens with your injury.
But I think Mata, he's proven he's
a championship caliber player.
And I think he's going to be, like you said,
taking this as an opportunity to redeem himself.
Now, any other player I would argue,
Neon is a much better pick.
But Mata on raise, it's purely comfort.
This guy is next level on this agent.
He said in interviews, he's not even cocky about it
really.
I think it's very well earned.
And no, there's really no reason
I wouldn't see it on this map, so I'm happy to see it.
This is really interesting.
Nongshim has managed to hide their lotus for a lot of stage 2, but seeing Francis on the
chamber here, I think they're taking a slightly different approach than they normally do.
So I think I have some questions for the casters and their thoughts on this competition.
Send it over to Paper Thin and Achilleos.
I like it.
I mean, I think it makes a lot of sense.
You want to get an operator into the hands of Francis.
What better agent than a chamber?
So it is an adjustment.
They're not going to be going for that double duo, it's with him on the
which has been the bread and butter for them in stage two with this resurgence of Nongshim,
but I think this is a little bit of a side adjustment that makes sense. Yeah, I totally agree. I mean,
I think they tried to raise with him last time. I go to school, believe sports. It didn't really
feel that comfortable for him. It doesn't do that ever again. Yeah, I think we're okay. We saw
it. They tried it didn't work. Also, this allows you to slot in the Viper here for Ivy as
well, which I think is going to shore up a lot of the problems they had on that defender side.
They went 1-11 on their defender side.
They got absolutely blasted by global e-sports.
So this is, to me, trying to correct some of those problems.
I think they're going to be confident in this attacker side no matter what.
So it definitely makes some sense with this change that they are making.
I mean, confidence as well.
Imagine who's going to be exuding here from NRG.
This is their map pink. They have looked incredible on Lotus in the past.
And when Brock is in the game, it's always a concern.
He has been incredible. It's absolutely one of the best players in the world.
Who can come out on top, the second matchup between these two squads?
Not since Santiago have they met.
That was a 2-0 win for Nongshim.
And RG, you want to try to change fate.
But already Francis is going to take it down a clean shot to start from Mata.
Nice work from Mata there.
I had a chance to talk to Mata the other day before the matches started.
I just said, hey, is everything okay with the injuries?
He said, I'm 100%.
I'm like, let's go, buddy.
That's what I want to hear.
And that right there is a great start.
Now they're going to clear this face,
try to tee up Ivy for a little bit of a late lurk
if they can make their entry.
But the toxic screen going to delay any forward progress
here by Nong Shin.
So Ivy's going to try to create some confusion over
on the A site.
This is seemingly kind of a fake door tap
where he's trying to show that they're going to see.
But in fact, they're going to A. Meanwhile,
NRG, they're just playing retake all the way here
at this point.
And they've got an extra player so they can be a little bit safer, a little bit more cautious,
and let those sheriffs just sing.
They are so good with those weapons, especially Brock.
And Dabby trying to sprint forward, takes that space towards backside, right on the rope.
He's got some shots in, but he's quite a bit of damage as well.
Brock is going to be a lot of terrible on being a 12-ville, going to be taking down
Dabby.
It's Wich City right now!
His Ivy now has to do it all, turns back, gets a shot to keep going, cannot
get the kill.
The opening pistol goes away with the RG.
Exactly what you want to see.
Brock really hot with the sheriff.
A good opener for Mata.
And it's smooth sailing there for Nong.
For NRG.
Nong can't really get much going.
And NRG.
They want that revenge so bad.
Even though it was a 2-0.
That they suffered.
Even though it was a 2-0.
I'm going to finish my point here and hope that this tech pause doesn't last too long.
the last two long, one enemy remains.
That was a close two off, yes, one in the map was 13-11, the other was 13-9, I mean this
was not an easy map for a nonchim by any stretch of the imagination and they're not the same
nonchim that we saw over in Santiago, there's, even though they've gone back to predominately
the Nianyoru style, they're not as proficient.
Wow, a crown so high, big cheer for a tech pause, that's incredible, that might be
You first.
Ha!
Ha!
Ha!
Ha!
It's amazing.
Ha!
And a round at a time, that is for sure.
Ha!
Ha!
Ha!
Ha!
So now, it's just been incredible, just two days in.
Yes.
And hopefully, we can get through this one quickly.
Not quite sure what's happening down on stage, but I don't see...
I don't want to run around with fire extinguishers and lanterns and whatnot, so...
Did another...
a quick one here. Yeah, I'm like looking down and like, well, I don't see anything.
Nothing's no pyrotechnics on stage, so I think we're OK.
I'm I'm very excited for this match, though.
I mean, this had to be one of the matches in this group stage
that you had marked on your calendar. Oh, two Trolls be lifting teams,
two teams that are coming in with really good form.
You know, came up short, yes, regionally, but for me,
I was starting to think that Nong Chin was just going to kind of turn
into that Santiago team and just run away with things again.
We're quite there.
Same with NRG, where I felt like, man,
if they catch fire, then they're probably
going to be favorites coming into this event.
And you know, might have had a little bit of an injury.
It caused a little bit of a slip up,
but I never, ever count NRG out.
They're too good.
They're too smart.
They're too well-coached.
They've got amazing players.
You've got the two-time trophy lifter with Ethan,
two-time champ's trophy lifter.
Yeah, I mean, if I think about teams that I trust
Defining success, especially with prep time, NRG is probably the first one that I think of and the second one's actually global eSports
Because we've seen what they can do when they have a bit of fun to really dissect how their opponents like to play the game
But NRG has been at the forefront of that in my mind for quite some time
It's a reason why they lifted that champ's trophy last year in Paris
Another big reason for that trophy lift is, I think that guy right there, it's just been
Insane for them all year long already starting things off 2-0 some very nice sheriff shots in that pistol round
But I think we're just about ready to get things underway yet again
So hopefully you can get back into this action here and watch this
Anti-Gecal from NRG and see if they can just continue to string together these rounds
The timer is ticking now. So there we go. All right, very good
You know Brock is obviously widely known for his own play
But I want to reiterate time and time again that what blows me away as a sheriff
He is incredible like up there with device some of the best with that gun in the world
And you know what that's what I like about the most when he's using an honest weapon
That is it's not a gimmick
Not cheap
I mean it doesn't really matter what he's got in his hand
Vandal fans of etc. No, he's amazing no matter what you're just capable of a down-to-jump thing some space up
Next to the earlier coming away with tears the paint shell
able to take down X-Ross, gets that second one,
cycled in, lobs it over to the side of Rubble.
And already, any hope of an aggressive push
here from Nongshim has widely been squashed.
Yeah, I mean, they're throwing you two early at this A-Rubble fight.
They want to make sure they take control of this space.
You know, Nongshim tried to get ahead of it.
Sometimes you can with the neon.
You can throw the fast lane and kind of scoop by everything that's going on.
But this time around, really on point, again, is Mada.
Let's get that opening kill.
XR has just lost in the sauce in the background.
I'm not sure if he got caught by a seize from Ethan or what,
but I didn't see it in the assist feed.
So I'm not sure if it was just a little bit of an oopsies.
Can you go?
Oh, locks off to the shot.
Gets the reveal there on to Francis.
Just waiting to see if he comes pushing
through riding along this door.
He's shot.
Francis will be able to get one,
Kiko taking out the mod up now with a third.
Ethan will have to clean up.
It's gonna be a race, just three charges away
from having a showstopper on line
to two-zero start for NRG.
Yeah, beautiful work.
You don't mind dropping that Marshall at all.
He's just gonna buy a new rifle.
Whatever the preferred one for Kiko is,
usually available.
Oh, he's trying to jump up on the box
and just got caught.
A little bit of a micro mistake,
But, again, eco round, so you're gonna have those better to have them there.
Then in the follow up round, let's see what RB can dial up here.
Try to counter what is being shown by NRG.
I mean, again, a compositional shift for the side of Nome Shim.
I'm sure they prepped the heck out of this map knowing that the summit,
generally being their band, they were gonna have to find something.
Oh, Ivy, try to be able to enact a lurk when Winkley gets dispatched.
Not well, gonna be identified meanwhile Francis just a lurk over towards that C door side of B main
As all the rest of long shim scratching their heads a little bit no control over towards a
For a very painful round Ethan on that jiggle peak
I think he spotted just enough will take a little bit of damage bottom try to collect that elimination, but
Francis will be able to skirt away meanwhile. Damage is tanking this snake bite
He's down to 57, has some regen auto behind this, but
They're going to get sent from Kiko
He will just backpedal away, NRG not looking to take any risks here.
Want to play this out in a full 5v4
Spend their ammo
Whether they have such a good chance of trying to convert this one, meanwhile, Scuba taking the space
RB, Gifford by Mott, but Scuba quickly shuts him down, X-Ross with one, Kiko
Now out of the picture
sure.
Damn, he's playing forward here, onto the splat, going in shoulder to shoulder alongside
Francis, but it's gonna be Scuba able to find X-Ross, and swing in, and he's taking
his feet.
Francis now positions, identifies, he up and over, and fires one, cannot get the second.
It's Scuba with a 3DK and NRG with a bonus round conversion.
Oh, they're so patient, but they're so good when they are.
just taking their time. Again, winning the early fight there. I mean, thought maybe he
could get away with an early push. You know, it had been a couple rounds in a row where
energy is showing some presence. You thought maybe this one, they back off a little bit.
You got contested in there where two players there, throwing him down. That was great.
They get up on top of that box, giving a little bit of space. You know, an option
completely pinned in on the back of the site that's exactly where energy wants
them now they're going to be able to keep that outlaw into this round there's a
guardian in the middle hero guardian into the hands of Ivy to see if you can
get anything done meanwhile modern just swinging out to Lafayette Francis
trapped there top of the rock so far so bad for Nong Shim can't get
Anything started and I these rounds so far and look at this. I mean, they're already surrounding this B site
So much stall you till you have to bait out as long shim as well
Between the vice and the viper even with a shot on the school
But you don't get any actual damage through these clip is reach an armor, which will be stuck at one
Looks like once again, Nongshim looking to just go for a 3-2-1 entry into the C site,
but got two players nearby enough to try to shut this down. Snakebite, Thorne's gonna be set up as
well. There's the bite through. Long gets triggered at Scuba, just casual. Paid away,
shot to Dundami, Arbina getting tagged up as well, because here comes Brock.
The Odin at the ready to jump, he gets the spot on the beat,
flushing it to the wall, but then Stewart goes to space, takes him down the spike,
now stranded as Manna arrives on the scene. Yellow sinks out,
HLs is absolutely screwed. Surrounded by all of NRG and picked Lim from the Lim.
I'm not even sure if they really got any damage here on that round.
other than the regen armor, I don't think so.
I mean, they didn't even take it out.
It just went down to one and all's well that ends up here.
This is great map control.
And Francis a little bit uncomfortable on the chamber
here so far.
Scuba has been a monster on this sea site.
He has been shutting Longshim down over there.
Got a great read with that phantom.
Oh my god.
Should be mentioned that Francis has played chamber
before, but it's not been often.
This is, I think, a fifth official match on it, or something like that, or not many.
So he's a little uncomfortable.
That's going to bring out the early time out here from Nongshim Red Forest
to try to see if they can figure something out.
Again, this is going to be really tough for them on this attacker's side,
because they don't have a lot of great ways to deal with the vice util in particular.
I see they're having tough times kind of figuring out how they're going to get
past the wall, so I'm sure that's something you're going to be talking
about during this time out is, how do we bait out some of that Utah?
How do we deal with these storms in the wall over on C and B
to make a little bit more map confusion?
How can we create a little bit more space on A as well?
They're basically getting beat to the punch
at every single twist and turn.
Yeah.
I mean, for, I think, the coin was
win condition for the long term at the moment
is just start being able to click heads.
Because at the moment, they kind of just all
have an equal share of nothing.
There has been very little impact.
Two kills for Francis, two for Ivy.
Down be at zero.
Players have to start stepping it up
because then at NRG right now, I mean,
They showed up, ready to play.
They want this win and at the moment,
Nongshim look like they're still groggy.
They're about to be off for this round.
Both Francis and Mata are gonna be sporting the snipers.
All right, well, let's take a listen in with Nongshim
as they look for the first round win.
I'll go in.
Everybody, come right on.
Oh, they're going to be here.
They're going to be here.
They're going to be here.
They're going to be here.
They might still be here.
I have to get the CT!
I'll pop over
I have the CT
I'm not going to see you
Let's back off
Watch out for the red
I'll help you if you don't have the red
I'll stay in front of you
Perfect!
I don't have any items
Let's use the gun
Okay
I'll use the Trader of Sangmin
They call it, so
All right, well the stable round here down for notion at long last
You know G
I'm getting punched in the face there
The blink of an eye to quick kills into a spray down to find Brock and that's just round over nothing more for
Ethan and Madda to do.
Yeah, listening in a little bit to the comms,
they were looking for some contact play over at A to C.
What exactly Francis could figure out on the map
while they sat at C to decide if they were going to pull
the trigger on that, go for the rotate.
You know, Francis saw two players.
He knew.
He called it out.
He said there's two over here on A.
And that's when RB thought, OK, C might be the better option.
We can just let loose with some of the util
and just kind of do what we do best.
And that's teamfight.
That's scrap.
That's where Nongshim's kind of hallmarks are,
is when they're able to utilize their utility very well.
They're able to get a few players on the board that hadn't been there yet.
Question becomes, can they get a follow-up round?
Will it just be NRG maintaining complete control of this half?
I'd be considering maybe trying to go for any kind of push,
but now you've got Mata playing too deep there at the back of Rubble.
You can see as well in that previous round that Nongshim really wanted to get that vice wall
early to create some question marks on the map for an NRG, make it a little bit more difficult for them to get the reads.
Here at this time, Brock's playing a little bit further forward with this Odin to try to prevent that.
And so it's making it a lot more difficult for Dongxian to try to do some of the things they want to do.
Oh, Domby.
Panning it up, he go, lying away there inside of the smoke, pushes forward to be able to find that kill.
Even though they get a hopper deal on Brock.
Why are extra facilities to find that wallbang when it's being modified and lively?
potential lurker now gone meanwhile Rp from the shadows in the back of a looks
again our G do have a strong suspicion of this can Rp get anything done from
this position is my question he's trying to drum up some attention with
that smoke might have worked well enough to get a plant down but the
post plant 3v4 gonna be very very tricky play here on the B Rp now
Starting to scale forward. Maybe he can get a catch on Amada.
See's that awk go through. He knows at least that one player is going to be here.
Ethan occurs with glance back behind him.
RB now giving an opportunity to kind of scale forward.
Eyes tied in.
The Salah turns back, but RB has been rerouted.
He's going through the connector.
Francis looking for anything that he can get.
He's trying to take out a shot.
Does Matt have to do so?
Now these RB in a 1v3.
Push the backside to smoke about the fade.
to the shot, G-Kalv.
Get some of the Vandal and NRJ
give themselves another round win now up 5-1.
This just feels like Nolmship doesn't really
have answers if they can't take some of that early map
control and deal with some of that ice suit
till that they're just kind of throwing
weird ideas through.
I mean, they're just sending Dambi on his own,
past the vice wall.
Just dead to right there.
There is nothing he can do in that spot.
They're not using that to set up a quick rotate over to A or something like that, not trying to sell a fake with it.
And this is a big stack from NRG over at A-Rubble. They're anticipating and reading what RB is going to want to change up here.
Torre to force for Francis, pops that, checking over towards C, meanwhile Dambi on this entry slowed up.
There's not going to be bounce, just a decay there.
See how difficult it is for Hongshun to even try to take space and how many bodies they have to commit.
just to kind of move around the rubble and now they're just getting that up.
Yeah, and part of it's because you have that anticipatory
sees from Ethan that catches Dombie in front of Rubble, like as he's
trying to scale past it. So they're gonna try to use this little bit of info they have that
there has been a ton of presents at Mound to try to move their way forward here and Kiko just
deletes Francis. He's just out looking deep in the night. TP's away,
No chance for a punish.
And now again, Nongshim is scratching their heads, wondering what the hell they can do in this round.
I mean, there's not great options no matter what they do.
You've got Barak over here with the Vice Util.
You know that he's over there with that Oden. He was spamming away with it earlier.
Seems like maybe that's your best of bad options.
Mada took to the corner, but we're gonna be popular.
He's got him out.
Demi shut down, I can't.
Again, Archie.
I've absolutely solved this one.
He said, well, they can't win if we just don't let him play.
Now they're gonna go for a last second pivot over into the A site.
Kiko is here, and he's got the shutdown.
Look at that second Ivy.
This man should stay alive.
Now for the plan, let's get all this weight now on the shoulders of R.P.
Look at this backstabbered Modder, has to read.
NRG are looking indomitable on Lotus.
The teamwork here is incredible for NRG.
The way that they are setting up for some of their individual players,
Ethan in particular here, doing a little bit of dodge.
I mean, Kiko just incredible.
But Ethan there baits Dombe's ult out right to the operator.
Then Mata is watching for RB's lurk.
I mean, that is a phenomenal round.
That is so well thought out, so well handled.
This map looks like it's NRGs all the way.
The discipline here is incredible.
We're going to get the second time out from Nome Gym,
it looks like.
I mean, it feels necessary.
You're starting off on your attacker side.
Tommy has one kill.
He is 1-7-1, the menace of Santiago
has very quickly been put to bed by NRG here.
It just doesn't feel like there's
that coordination, that combination
that we're used to seeing with them,
being able to kind of flash and dash and things like that,
that just aren't in the mix with this composition,
because you've got the chamber there instead of a yoru
or something else.
So you're left not able to kind of play your game,
And Nongshim just isn't able to muster much against this oppressive energy defender side
that they are playing extremely well.
They have great barrier drop reads, they're taking early control, they're pushing Nongshim
into the spawn, right off the rip on a lot of these rounds where Nongshim is then just
trying to make some good guesses on the map and when Nongshim starts to scale, starts
to show a little bit of presence, a little bit of utile energy is right there to punish.
And then they've got players flooding in in the backside.
Top to bottom.
They have been very, very impressive.
And it's going to be a mostly eco here.
Another hero rifle for Ivy.
Two stingers in hand.
Not going to even matter too much.
Another lot of has that operator.
A real reason for him to drop and go for an outlaw,
even though he's got plenty of money to do so.
Oh, yeah, and she get this slot forward here from Francis here
Denifies it as vice wall
Maybe gonna try to
Use some of those smokes over towards C mound to kind of deny a little bit of information there to Kiko
Use this timing off of NRG's toxic screen
No noise heard, I don't think by Mada here.
He's been acquired for now.
It gets popped over on C.
Alright, as NRG realizes exactly where Nongshim's trying to go, that will quickly be abandoned,
but Brock is still here at the side and just down to try to draw his attention, but
Brock shifting over the side ends up being created by part too many players from Nongshim.
He's taking down the Odom now, going to be recovering, fighting one, looking
for that second, but Scuba does manage to out-trade him, gets a double second,
Second clean shot there on the Francis.
Tarby, TP's back home or in towards Tray.
Kiko, TP's forward behind the box.
Well, back to him.
Kevlar gonna be bound to top it.
Swear on the Rosie.
Cleans up that kill.
Might get by one more, but it's gonna be a master card
to Rifty for Nongshim to get their second.
Yeah, a good timeout taken here
to give Nongshim a good idea
on how to utilize the Viper smokes against NRG,
waiting for that timing a little bit later in the round.
You do some smokes of their own
on the other side of the map here
create a lot of options, a lot of question marks that NRG has to try to
account for for the what feels like the first time this map that gets wrong they
throw the pit on the other side so that's a good time out little fist bump
there between the coaches but it's gonna take a little bit more here for me to
be oh yeah you don't feel comfortable at all about any kind of run back for
Nongjim. Well they have their own pit available for post playing if they can
Oh, I don't think he knows the key to TP forward.
Oh, he wants TP out.
Yeah, just to avoid catastrophe.
Get that freebie off.
You want to be able to make use of it.
You want to be able to retain it.
Now becomes such a problem for Nongshim.
Because you can lean so heavily to the other side of the map here as NRG.
You can see four players already in the BC direction.
I'd be waiting for this repeat see if they give it to him
So the answer is gonna be no
Well bottom
Grab the orb over at eight. It's one charge away from having another showstopper online. Good read here by RB
Knowing that he's shown enough presence on the other side of the map that they could start scaling the other way
But that haunt is gonna start dragging more players over
Already a shift being made here by energy and this is taking far too long for an old gym
Mauna tucked in behind the box. Could absolutely be there undoing one kill but pull the showstopper
sends out a couple shots. Straight forward though, rotates into the side, you don't know
if he can go through the smoke, but Mauna gets one of the showstopper out.
Get six shots from beyond the grave and broke it back site, moves down on B.
All of a sudden there's now just two players remaining.
Counter swing through scuba, it stares Ivy dead at this round.
It's going to be a looting up barring Francis, killing both players in these next six seconds.
And it just does not have the chance.
Once I just hold onto the operator, it is another round for NRG up 7-2.
This is just a good idea that takes too long for Nongshim to really deliver on.
And again, it's just a little bit of util and immediately all of NRG is shifting their weight to the A side of the map.
Escher Dom, he's able to get one.
A showstopper in the back pocket for Mada Brock.
Sitting back with an Odin.
Always going to be a threat.
Ethan again, baiting for his teammates.
Love the selfless play from the IGL to tee them up.
It has just been tremendous teamwork,
like the way that they improved themselves
for today is phenomenal.
It's the collat through that.
That's the result they kill.
And they can't go through the smoke.
This is the headshot of the Francis see America's dial just span the smokes
Rockets are being no site necessary
I mean barely appeal back to one kill but considering that Ethan was already low on HP you see how long it took him to be
Olafana he's down to 33. Oh
X-Ross out of 36
This is bad. It's just an absolute madness.
It's nobody better in those scenarios.
It's so safe with that Odin, and he makes it so oppressive to try to get anything done.
So it's over to Plan C, which is the B site.
And everybody very weak. I mean, you might just think about a save.
I think they are. Yeah, I think you have to.
I don't think you have any other choice. You've got two players
below 40 health. 30 seconds left.
Where are you going, Dambi?
Into the grave.
It's going six feet under.
Well, two weapons to try to be saved.
Looks like NRG not really going to go aggressive on the hunt here, even though they absolutely
can.
Very much should.
It's a colossal 51 health between these two players.
Well, the money's a little bit weird for NRG.
I can give him a pass on this one.
But again, too good.
Too good, man.
NRG has phenomenal ideas of taking a rubble control.
They'll show you a bunch of different looks.
Like we saw the previous round, they throw that smoke
at the door, then they TP Tiko right behind rubble.
They do it again here.
And they just catch Francis through the smoke.
And that's what has made America so tough right now.
Phantom heavy region, even though that's a vandal
They'll just spam away through the smokes in the Chokes. I mean you have to be really cautious with it
Gotta find your moments your timings and it's tough
Just Francis with a headhunter here
I don't think that space let's manage
Scooch's way forward
Meanwhile mod not the wiser
Critical kill is found.
We'll get eliminated.
Kiko's able to find that one, but full pivot from Nongshim
just cutting over to C-side that has widely been abandoned.
It's a great read because you're anticipating his energy
because there are two kills on A that you are going to have
to reinforce that site that it's going to feel open
for the side of Nongshim, but Scuba spikes up and brought in yet.
So this does buy a little bit of time for NRG
to start shifting their weight back over to C.
Hit gonna be in on top of this one just locking off that waterfall position does not cover the spike critically though
Scuba they easily able to script through this
It's been spotted that smoke there the dummies lying inside of
The cash are plenty for an RG but
Can you actually try to play this one out? This feels like an impossible task.
Looks like Brock just wanted to try to get any potential exit kills that he can.
And he will be able to get one.
Takes out RP.
I mean...
That would have been one hell of a way for a round to go, but at the time it just wasn't going to be there for him.
X-Ross will be able to find the shot, and that's going to be a third round waiting here for Nongshim.
Okay, and it's a good mid-round call here by Nongshim and RB after a great little lurk play from Francis
Very unanticipated as you can see, Mada and even in no clue
But he was gonna be there to be back to the judge. We don't see it as much these days, but he will
Bring that out from time to time
So a big smile there from Francis there finally able to get a little bit of something going
I'd love to get this fourth even though I don't know if it's going to matter too much here on Lotus.
Very hard to say. That's being a back-to-lead defender side from them.
Oh, they're incredible, man. I'm so impressed.
Francis looking to try to replicate that success with this time, Maudits, playing a hell of a lot further back.
back. They just can't scale. There's such a quick clear that that prowler, no
ability. They do at least get the thorns popped. Francis gonna be hearing one
player over in tree. Just a matter of are they gonna be able to bypass Mada?
You do have the toxic screen. Okay. It's actually gonna be no one from scuba
going up first. Francis can try to swing at the smoke, but Mada more than
prepared continues to have the right reads that gives you an opportunity here
to at least get the plant down as long shim because the chamber kill doesn't
kind of give you enough information as energy to make a quick pivot to be that
flood retake but they have a fair amount of you till left for this see
send out nice and early rp he's gonna go pushing for he sells a paranoia as
at the ready, sends it, meanwhile Ivy will intercept scuba there, B.
Now they have to be concerned about that potential flank coming in.
Ivy slowly shifting his way up towards the top of site,
meanwhile R.P. able to get in on top of that, off, down, down,
be finding Ethan.
It looks like Nongshim should be well slated for that fourth round.
Time is bleeding away, double push out of the smoke.
Now that's just going to be a kill of peace for Nongshim.
They recovered as much as they possibly can.
It is four rounds going to be enough. It feels like the pistol is going to be absolutely necessary
Absolutely four rounds in two timeouts. That's all notion. All right
Well, let's see if they try to run this one back or a bit Archie just gonna turn it in speed on the other side of this break
Of course.
Verizon Shine is the new rewards program exclusively for Verizon customers and a MyFarizon app,
with a chance at once in a lifetime experiences every Monday, with weekly wins, plus daily
drops all week all year. Tickets, prizes, deals, experiences, early access, swag. Good
habits aren't worth breaking. Find Verizon Shine Rewards in the Mod Verizon app.
I think last champs I had a lot of Odin moments that like kind of blew a lot of people's minds
but yeah I think that was the main thing last champs was amazing.
Who would you 1v1 on an Odin?
Who would I 1v1?
Hmm one of you want Odin I want to play Adam my teammate Mata. Oh my gosh, okay
It's gonna be friendly fire apparently on the side of energy
And we are back! It's time to go to the second half of Lotus. NRG have been looking fantastic to say
the very least so far. Opening pistol, four-round win streak to start things off. Nongshim can only
recover four rounds. Yeah I mean I think in just about every category I can conjure NRG
What's better then again a few good mid rounds for nonchim but for the most part
They were beat to the punch in the macro in the micro and that's where energy has really made
their bread here
And I'm kind of curious though
I mean it's gonna have to be a step up from everyone in nonchim it just goes without saying right
Yes, I mean I need to see Francis be comfortable on the chamber on this defender side
You know Ivy had okay success at times other times was really shut down on some of the lurks
So I have to wait and see
I'm going to push it from R.B.
Does not get to clear that on.
I'll have to stick around a little bit.
He'll now have to keep his way out of the safety.
Quick little back pedal.
All of this is just to get that push forward,
grab the orb from Anna, and then back away.
Like the patients being shown there though by Ivy.
He was waiting with that snake bite.
Hasn't used it yet.
So pretty good read here by Nongshim.
This is pretty standard for NRG.
NRG. How much can Francis get? If anything.
Well, scuba peeking ahead of that wall, raising all the way.
Francis looking for a follow up, but we'll just take the TV out, but he's out.
He's not to safety.
I didn't realize I was up and over the top and I was behind, but now the damage found.
Paint shell blows up in his face.
Monta ends up making that a one for one.
No, he's has been cut again outside of that door tap.
So what a shot by X Ross, a critical find there.
4v3 Brock continue to apply some pressure over towards C.
30 seconds left.
Depa door either open things up for the teammates to join more.
He can just sign it over towards B but X Ross are back to it is able to find another
Kaleigh.
I'm going to be taking down the block.
RB that opens up C-Site now.
Dambi quickly trying to pivot his way over.
Kiko at 45, but Brock still 100 in the health bar.
Ivy on that swing.
Gonna be taken down there, and shot connecting.
And that was all, on at the shoulders of Dambi.
Spots him out, relay ball, gonna be set, but Kiko!
Oh!
Clean shot to get the second pistol for NRG.
Great work by Brock, winning that individual battle
against RB. Classics were in the mix here for Nongshim and this heavy investment works a treat again.
Having those sheriffs available, oh that is slick.
And Ivy tries to take that one-by-one and Shots doesn't have any hope.
Kiko, nice work there to get ahead of that relay bolt too.
Beautiful. That's a good question. It looks so favorite for Nongshim.
And yeah, just putting your faith in Brock
B
Have a tank a little bit of damage from the thorns and again just push forward
Why some pressure get the orb try to cycle the showstopper up on a halfway there now
A lot of players tucked in the tree, but it's just so far ahead
He's not within his product move.
He's just out stranded.
You can see right down the circle.
He's in the outskirts of it.
So couldn't take the TP out.
There's just maybe a little bit of a bait play there
to try to tee up the players in treat.
And then our G isn't going to fall for it.
I don't like this lack of contact to just have the right read again. Yep
Avoiding this stack
Not liking what they're not seeing over an egg. So an MDC site
Maybe notion just to cluster up and try to get out of the spike I
Would think that'd be the best option
Wouldn't expect that a flood is gonna work here
Now a Brock here.
3k formance to Zax Ross.
He's had a shot, Mano wants to try to collect this one.
He'll lose his life, but gains another charge.
One away from the showstopper with that death.
His energy, the double digits, 10 to 4.
They're just picking up right where they left off on the other half.
I mean, it's great macro.
They're using their util early to take control of that C mound space.
They don't really care too much if they give up a little bit of space over at A.
They're working those warps getting that showstopper online very quickly.
I mean they're dotting their T's crossing their eyes and that's exactly what you would
expect out of a champion's lifting trophy team, especially with Ethan at the helm.
Credit to the coaching staff too, who always does a wonderful job getting this team to
the internationals and having them well prepared.
I'm going to try to counter this, but now NRG showing a very different look in the
early part of the round. Don't want to go for that C-mound play. Yongshan had three
players there to try to counter that. Just seeing if NRG was going to try to triple dip.
They've dipped to the other side. So Francis under a lot of pressure. You do have X-Ross
slowly making his way over there. Should get there just in time maybe.
Plenty of noise being heard by Francis. He's done a couple shots, gets some damage
through scuba down to 45 we want paint shell towards back site so it will avoid
that last pack for paranoia gonna be chucked in but he can't quite swing that
corner and this is over this is done there is no way to get back into this
It's RB you should be saving!
Mata gets the 4K NRG up to 11!
It's just brilliant.
It's just absolutely brilliant from NRG.
No shit, trying to throw something
a little bit off-kilter at them,
but Ivy's out there by himself!
That's the showstopper, baby!
For Mata, and it binds two.
Oh, you can't do it any better.
Two bonuses converted for NRG.
I think we're going to split pretty quick here.
I don't think we need to play these next two rounds.
I think we can just skip them.
But you know what?
In fairness, let's go ahead and just do it.
We don't need to change the rules mid-torture.
It's Brock.
Instant shutdown on the Francis.
Wall's here.
The third now, Ivy will be able to take him down with great effort, falls to 16 HP, four
players alive already, nicely settled inside of the ace site, this mic will get planted.
This should be pretty well in hand you would think, I mean you're going to be able to
scale through tree a little bit as an old shim that's stinger trying to work
through the back lines as Ivy to see if he gets a value out of it but then our
G's just dug in man
once the opening shot of the outlaw reposition and they pull connecting on
to the line
She's got a fine stamina now. It's all under the shoulders. I think
There's just no way in hell
12 to 4 map point here in the hands of energy
I mean Brock is just amazing
He is so fun to watch as that wall set up perfectly behind him
So ready for this contact this slow peek around the corner from Francis Francis is shot just goes way wide
Just holding the line from heaven finds two more big kills scuba with a nice head shot
I mean this has been a tremendous map just a chuckle there from Ethan
Feels like an easy day at the office so far
We bought out and Francis will be able to find an opening kill
Good pick with the operator, gets a shot over on the Keiko, meanwhile the entry-kite
is bogged up a little bit.
Right, just have to back pedal away, and retain this weapon move.
We'll just go ahead and make the steel garden, and it spams out all of his head under bullets.
Meanwhile, okay, R.B. catching scuba with a knife out.
Well, I mean, early op kill into some good back control, some good holds.
So Nongshim keeps themselves alive to potentially fight another round.
I'm not counting out NRG just yet.
Oh no, not at all.
Maybe a little bit more now, but Rocky and Ethan are still alive.
He rolls a port at the moment, but he can jump up the top of the rock, locks in, ziblify,
and that headshot, RB down for top rock, and taken out of the equation, and the next rocks,
Snappy with that shot, so okay, still yet some fight remaining in Nungshim, they will
be able to find a fifth, but they're going to need seven in a row, if they want to
push this into overtime.
Look, we've seen it before on this map, but I'm not confident in the least.
I mean it is good to take an unbelievable, just shifted methodology.
And here is NRG, again, you've got some rounds to play with where you can throw some kind
of odd ideas, you know, with scuba just trying to see if he can get away with something unusual.
But there's pause on the clock here.
This might even just be a timeout call from NRG.
Yeah, that's what I'm assuming.
Just bring this one to an end.
and is what Bogar wants to do.
See, and this is, I like this time out
because you've got one more to play with.
You can let a lot ride before you have to invest.
You know, you can let them get three or four more
before you go for the second one.
Just stop this now and this quickly.
Don't, because a big thing about this,
like you see this sometimes
where teams might make a slight run back
after getting absolutely bodied on a map.
They run like four or five in a row and they kind of make it look like, you know, a fake comeback, but
That gives them some energy some momentum for the rest of the series and you want to avoid that
You want to stop that right in its tracks keep that ball in your hands in this coin base win condition?
It's it's not this time out. It's not just about this map. It's also about the next
for sure
Still the opposite hand here for Francis one way from the sort of force
He's no as a night ball ready to go
Maybe that will be a turning point for them because if they can get Kiko one more charge,
could just try to go for the death off the night ball and get a cheesy T.P. in somewhere
deep.
Maybe that ends up being a case of having somebody tied up to hell on Kiko.
The counter swing is able to find that elimination.
RP now taken down off the top of Rebel and okay, it looks like the timeout worked
to treat.
Just Francis and Ivy to practically scramble their way over to the A site and try
to dispatch NRG into 2v4.
Kiko's paranoia hit 2 there?
That was unreal.
Must have done.
What an execute.
That's probably GG.
My view.
Goes down the bottom of the drop.
Mada not going to be giving the angle over to Francis that he would desperately love to have.
This gives him a potential backstop opportunity as well if he continues to wrap through stairs, but
Here the top
Jumping out Francis find the first repositions looking for that coverage
Intensitating mama to arrive over the top of the process
Get some trouble third. He's trying to hold it to happen. That's a model strike
Energy
off the floor with Nomisha Red Force.
That may look so impressive here on Lotus.
Incredible performance.
Oh boy, well let's see.
Nomisha can pick themselves up off the floor and then our G
are going to get 2-0 victory of their own after the break.
Oh
The city of love becomes the city of thieves!
They plunder, they plulfur, and they persevere in Paris!
How do you reset between maps?
Let's go back to the ready room, get some water,
breathe a little bit, and that's about it.
What's the confidence level like going into that map?
You guys haven't played it in quite a while.
We have a high confidence level coming split.
We've been practicing for a while and we're just playing some comfort picks
and we'll see how it goes.
I think the last time we played split was, I think it could have been Nonshim in Santiago, so we'll see.
Revenge perhaps comes full circle. Excited to see it.
Welcome back everyone.
I have two things to say about the first map.
Two very big observations.
One energy continues to be one of the best Lotus
Teams in the world and my other observation is that no no should probably should keep hiding the Lotus until they
Change things around at least if you're playing against energy out the way from it
Yeah, I think there's a lot of things that was very unusual there coming from no Shim especially for it, you know for the Pacific
Talents here
I think putting the Francis on the chamber was an odd choice
And I think they were not really leaning into their strengths at all
Yeah, I mean Francis also just got completely shut down in terms of opening engagements as well
I think that energy really had a good read on the map
They're holding a lot of good positions
On the defensive side to punish early lurks from Ivy and any early openings from from Francis. I feel like let's go ahead
Oh, yeah, let's that leads me to our hyper X reflex moment
It started from the very beginning and I don't think it's just a moment
It was the entire map but it started at the early round exactly really well late off Victoria
I feel like winning the bonus here to me was the most important part of the map or important part of what we watched
I think not only is getting that round win obviously important
It's first of 13, but for me the IGL and me and I can hear my coach's voice
Ebby's in my head winning the bonus means you build that economic advantage to get the operator online
And not only do they win one bonus, but they win both bonuses
Exactly show software in the second half the mod is off in the first half in those early rounds really set the tone
There were so many maps I can think of that it really came down to us getting an operator online and for NRG
Let me walk with me here. Let me take you on a journey. Okay, so they win the bonus
Mada gets the off online Mada what sets him apart from all the other offers is his
Mobility around the map and I'm not just talking his great saddles
He has incredible pick selection and look at all of these rounds that are off the back of him
Offing or putting the threat of the mind in their minds that he could be offing. What does that mean?
That means there's less utile for these side executes and that opens up rock to hold down the sites with vice because there's just no
Utile because they're using it all to snuff out and find where moda is and it also makes the calling
I think so easy for energy on defense because the rounds when they have the off
They have a forward line of information and that they could make rotates off of with very early reads on the map
And on the other hand if they do get hit into their weak side
Well, there's a visewall over there. We saw a few times where there's an empty site with a visewall that nongshim run into
But the spike gets stuck behind the wall so energy are already in rotation
Bring people into fight nongshim before they have any time to set up a post plan
It felt like there were so many win conditions for energy and that defense half if you're an IGL out there
That is a beautiful half to watch
I really think if they painted such a beautiful defense mosaic from the side of energy
But Nongshim I really am expecting them to show a little bit more force here on the next map that map of course great kudos to energy
But so many mistakes made by Nongshim
I'm really looking at maybe I don't know a lack of
Composure on some of the rounds and maybe a lack of communication
Especially there was this one round where it felt like there was a perfect team play to be made with the pincer into heaven
And from the a flank RB had a great play and it just fell apart
I really want to see them bounce back in the second map. Yeah, and speaking of the second map
I'm very curious about this. We haven't seen NRG play split for quite a while.
We even heard Broncar said it might have been in Santiago.
He's wrong by the way. Coolest. He played it three times in stage one.
But I understand forgetting and not wanting to remember because the last time that NRG played split was back in April.
This was a map where Mada literally afterwards is rage tweeting complaining about shotguns in the game.
after he only dropped 4 kills versus crew and after that NRG started pivoting so many of their comps
away from the neon to play for comfort and what I liked in that interview was I heard
Bunker said they are playing comfort on that map and that gives me a lot of confidence
even for a team that hasn't played it in months. Well leading into map 2 we also have a word
from Silkenon's let's see what he has to say. I'm here right now with Silkenon of Nongshim
and Bellanim to help with some translation.
Now, Sillcanon, I want to ask about the Francis Chamber.
What is the reasoning behind that pop switch?
And can we expect any more surprises like that,
heading into split?
I think the game is enough to play the role of the player.
But I think we need to fix the surprise.
Good luck on Split.
Now, I think this is going to be interesting.
If Summit was the second map, I would say yes.
An easy 2-0 for NRG, but it's not.
It's going to be Split.
And this team is excellent at it.
Nongship.
But I am curious about this.
We're talking about Comfort picks for this.
This is a really good sign because Bunker has said in the past,
he's implied that, you know, there are certain metas,
there are certain strategies that don't really work for them
and that they are trying to fix it.
And specifically, it has been that Neon like double duelist meta, I think for them.
And I think that NRG was a team that back in stage one when Levitan was taking over the world
with the Neon really struggled playing against Neon, specifically on this map, the tight quarters
and controlling space around mid.
NRG are going to come first in some ways.
Kiko's raised, but Mada's back on the Neon.
This is actually classic stuff for them.
When we were looking at the veto when the match started, I was ready to stand 10 toes down
and say, I think this is a fine veto for NRG.
the team. And I'm not sure
what the team is. I'm not sure
what the team is. Yes,
Historically, their split has
not been looking up to par. But
in my mind, I view energy is
an insanely prepared team. They
were more than ready for the
fact that split was going to be
the first map played here or
the selected by NS. But seeing
mod on the neon like you've
been saying, it doesn't
inspire hoping me. I was
really hoping to see some sort
of mixture of jet in Phoenix.
Yeah, honestly, I thought
that he was going to be
the one playing the rays. If
they were going to bring
that in after what he just
not even the primary duels that he's been playing in the jet. This is completely different.
I was ready to stay in Santos down. I'm gonna stand a good four. I'm gonna be honest, that alone is
sending me a little bit, but I could see some potential in the Neon. I think Mota in the past
has found great form, but this year it hasn't been his year in terms of that Neon play, but
if he's able to bring it back, I think that is their only big win condition against a team
like NS who's so strong on this map already. He has specifically struggled in Neon versus Neon
duels especially if NRG play again previously playing there struggling he
was just abandoned right hold on to the mid space alone they need to shift that
play style they need to get him playing for the names I fear or this map is
gonna look ugly yep or it's gonna be a bigger because it is split as we send
it back to our castors Achilleos and paper thin one could only hope after
what happened on that lotus if we get a better out of this split then I
I will be a happy man. Let's see if they can do it just that.
Francis back over onto the Oroo, a very welcomed sight.
A couple moments on the chamber, but it looks like he was far from comfortable.
Yeah, for sure. It's definitely a work in progress there on Lotus for an Ongshim to say the least.
Meanwhile, there for NRG, we have no idea what this split exactly is going to look like.
We haven't gotten a look at it in stage two, so kind of some big question marks here.
They're going to be able to handle Nongshim, who's been really good since swapping back
to the Yoru on this map, in particular on the attacker side.
They've been really strong.
So like the decision here to go for attackers first on Split as NRG, Nongshim a little
bit shinkier on the defender side.
I think you could just continue that momentum, continue that snowball, put Nongshim on
the back foot, try to seal the deal here into and complete your revenge for Santiago.
Mirror of the Neons, no talking about it, not having the most confidence in a lot of it.
I think if he didn't even do a fraction of what he just achieved on Lotus, then he's going to be right as rain already.
And Archie identifying a very empty A site.
Yeah, this was an easy plant. It's going to be a full flood retake here.
I'm almost caught in transition and there's one down, Kiko.
And multi-phase forward here, it's going to need to kill Favadu, it's dead.
And Archie looking to go three for three on these pistols.
Rb expecting this one gets a couple shots to the shoulder of Ethan, but it's so very
healthy.
Swing ready to come through, just jumps to the corner, hits the right click, Rb down.
Even with these sheriffs, they're just locked away from the site.
It's a very clean shot from Ivy, but it is not one that is going to give them a
round win. In this point, just looking to try to find any kills that he can, but it's gonna be Ethan with 3 and just giving it a clean up.
He'll go down to the spike, but 3 players will survive and NRG will find another pistol win.
Yeah, it's just great theory here. You're giving a free site, you're giving a ton of space. Take some of your own and they catch gnomeship very out-guard and they're able to create a good
Tensity of fire there up in towards the back of screens towards the CT spawn.
Let's go guys. Very nicely done. Just have each other though. Just have each other though.
Absolutely. You get everything that you want on that and you could just keep taking it.
Exactly how you practice. And now look at this. It just got a counter swing to the other side of the map.
Not quite hitting the accelerator here yet. But absolutely can.
Good crash. Wood put Francis for their beaver.
He actually spake the TP. They're going to take it.
I think real curious here to look at the buy for NRG as well.
We've got a little bit of time to talk about it.
They go for two pistols and a Marshall.
So trying to make a big bonus.
Trying to continue their streak of winning bonus rounds.
They will have a decent shot at it potentially, you would think.
you would think unless somehow some way
Nongshim recovers. They don't have anything bought into this. There's no bandits, no sheriffs, no nothing.
They're pop flashing and haunting in the garage. Meanwhile, no one's home. This should tell them everything they need to know.
Which is gonna do a damn thing about it.
Cleared out everything other than the spawn, so should know that this is going to be a hit.
Just now execute starting here from NRG.
It's going to be tough.
There has been set.
He goes for the fucking shot.
It will be Francis to collect it instead.
Yep, just into a meat grinder goes Nongshim.
Ground to a fine paste is X-Ross.
With this classic.
Needs to get two kills really.
To be able to find any real damage.
Whittles away at Rock.
Of course, if we go back for some more armor.
But Rock is bounding forward right at him.
right at him. The second kill four. There's NRG. Very clean, the Anteco.
Yeah, they're gonna have a really, really nice bonus if they so choose.
Let's see exactly how they want to jungle the economy, but just holding the line.
And when you're giving these post plant setups, NRG is so good at stopping these
floods so far today. Haven't really given Ongshim much.
Brock there just stepping into the fray now look at this an outlaw and four
rifles and there's a couple half-armors here on Dungshim as well.
Rex Ross at RB would go down to one shot.
This is a good read on the economy knowing that there was a little bit
bot in the util department for Dungshim that they can punish here.
Let's see if they're able to accomplish that.
Being thoughtful on the map is something the desk was just talking about was a little bit difficult for mid-control to be established by NRG previously on this map.
So something they're looking to maybe do a little bit with this outlaw.
Mada going to be the one holding the sniper rifle.
Everybody else just looking for Nongshim to get a little bit antsy.
They play double duelists, so they do like to try to take some space on the map.
But right now, just that haunt there over on the A side, maybe making them think about
what they want to do here.
NRG completely waiting.
There was some timing, Utah, from motion.
Try to see if they could get a reaction out of NRG, but Snake Fight was used by Ivy
in mid there.
Kind of dwindling through the resources a little bit.
They both tried to delay.
They exchanged with the other side.
22 seconds remaining.
And a fourth of a moment, NRG.
Unable to think of any space.
It's going to be able to find mana.
It's a catch up on Nikiko.
A little bit of damage going to be found.
Broke down, collecting that outlaws.
Can find the one, but he can't get his might forward into the site.
Downfield clean up three.
It looks like maybe he is woken up.
Nongshim not going to allow for the bonus to get converted this time.
Yeah, this is massive for Nongshim.
Avoiding a lot of big threats in this round.
The Outlaw only able to find one.
They're just able to hold their lines.
They play their default pretty well.
The time's ticking down so low.
They can commit four players over to this A side by the time the hit comes through.
So they've got a pretty solid read on that.
Some good spam through the smoke.
See if they can keep it up here.
Still a Bulldog and a half armor for RB.
It's not money, but it's to make sure that just in case
we're going into the next one.
I'm just going to be cleared there.
Francis will make his exit that puts him back across towards
a but energy are really committing to either side of the
map. Quite yet.
I say that as a lot of setting up the fast line does
meant to beat the paranoia spike still going to be left
though outside of ramen.
Because our bees able to get so far forward there towards
garage. He's going to know that this hasn't been fully committed to just yet. I mean, so much
space being given up. Double stack in the mid, a lot of considering that push out, but
this is just back away.
Big cluster though. NRG, four player push.
So Ivy 24th moments. That's what I'd say. It ends up being pretty shallow,
but a little bit of damage on the bottom, but can't capitalize on it.
It comes away with that kill.
Push out of the B RV tucked in behind the box goes swinging only
find the one.
Meanwhile over a garage Francis has fallen.
Signing from Dambi two with the bodies and NRG.
Right back into the driver's seat as X-Ross
Wilders drips away.
They find just the perfect moment there.
Van Nongshim is trying to spread back more towards a 2-1-2
setup.
Ivy gets caught in a bad spot where he's trying to make a decision.
Is he going to try to challenge with his rifle or is he going to throw the snake bite?
The snake bite turned out to be not the best option there.
Getting nearsighted into the relay bolt.
He was just absolutely smothered out and then they just explode onto the site.
Francis and R.B. surrounded.
Francis can't win the 1v1 against Ethan.
And then it's just round over.
Donby trying to do something a little bit sneaky, slow walking through his fast lane and then trying to explode, but he's shut right down.
And NRG are just giving Nongshim fits here today.
This slow play style where they're able to take a little bit of control early, keep Nongshim into their defaults, keep them guessing on the map.
I thought this one might go okay for Nongshim at a moment, but NRG,
last moment takes that mid pivot it's a beauty it's an absolute beauty
it's just been amazing to find in these gaps in the set-ups from Nongshim they
have that multi-man stack in the mid as soon as they pull off that angle and RG
they cluster up they push mid instead
I'm gonna try it again a couple shots out but Rocky will walk that tight rope
his Orbit, scores three across to the top of ramp.
Spike hasn't been picked up yet, but it's just Axe Ross over here on his lonesome on A.
And they're in spawn.
Payne shell over to elbow, blast pass, he's trying to escape, but he can't get away fast enough,
but Ethan, keeping him to the side, will be able to shut down the enemy pain.
Beautiful timing by Ethan.
Scoop upon the person for that second.
Francis will be able to take him down a little bit faster.
RB, clean shot of the Guardian.
It's a one-tap tunnel, and they're in with the player advantage.
Paranoia to delay.
Game crash.
Set towards backside.
That's going to be a fake.
Could have actually taken that alongside the Paranoia.
They would have just had Ethan dead instead.
It's going to be a little bit more difficult for them.
They're trying to push their way forward, but France is finding Brock.
Isolates this down.
It's just Ethan.
The 1v2, and he cannot find the first.
Longship pushing back will manage to find themselves a second round win.
Yeah, and this is going to give them the dimensional drift off of this diffuse.
So, all's well that ends well.
It's a little scrappy here.
I mean, I'd love the idea early round from NRG, taking so much space over at 8 Heaven.
But X-Ross, able to find this one big kill on Akiko.
So he tries to go blast packing into site thinking maybe they had left it wide open
or that there was only one player in the site itself.
Like you mentioned, I was just thinking the same thing that Paranoia clips even
and they could TP into that but didn't matter.
Still able to kind of break things down.
I'll be starting to sound like and self a little bit more.
He gets loud.
That is no no doubter.
Immediately out of the name.
Scuba quickly assassinated.
Offwards having it looks like energy.
Trying to see if that like he's coming in fast on their heels but he's taking
his time.
off that poison cloud. He just went for it. Crazy aggressive stuff from Donby.
Francis tucked away. Cannot track Bronco on that drop. Donby however, in around the back
of the line. Kiko out over the top of the rafter. Comes away with two, but he just ends
up taking it right into the base of Ivy. Kiko though slipping the net. If he gets
one. He'll have a showstopper online. It's absolutely a wall where he pulls this off,
showstopper out, backs it against the wall! But because RB gets to kill a little bit faster
the round, comes the way of Nongshim. Oh, what a try by Kiko. I thought he had it
there for a second. But RB knew what he had to do. He just had to get the kill. Oh,
So, so close.
He understood the assignment.
He hates the task.
That is just by a millisecond to not be able to happen.
We can see a realization there.
Now it gets a little bit concerning for the side of NRG
for the first time in this series
in terms of kind of the situation they're in.
So that's going to be bonkar ripping the timeout button
in here in the Coinbase win condition.
I think you're looking at a lot of problems
that you're going to be facing because at the Nongshim
has built up a very healthy alt economy.
They have everything but Ivy's pit coming
into this next round and probably
into the next one after that.
They're going to be able to bring an outlaw through.
You're going to be on an eco.
So a lot to talk about here.
All those, oh man, the first four rounds,
I thought we're just brilliant from NRG and since then
Just gotten a little bit out of their hands some good ideas in the macro department, but
Nong Shim is generally going to be beating you in the micro to be honest like that's kind of their MO
It's gonna have to find ways around that the cornfields win condition. Don't let it Nong Shim
Build up the momentum. Don't let them ride that wave
See if they're gonna be able to squash them here. It's going to be a stinger by frenzy for Ethan
We've seen it in the past that he's really reliable with the snipers generally, just looking for
anything out of place as RG is anticipating maybe that Dombie is going to try to make
his move at B main this time.
They want to try to do a 3-2 crunch into the b-site
No, the check paranoia not clearing out our B
So very much down a flag. He will be able to find one, but scuba collecting that Kale R B
I'm gonna line it up. We'll just reposition
Don't put the side meanwhile Francis
What's around Ethan really got on top of them there, but either way he's dead and that's an outlaw into the hands of
Mata
And all players remaining on Nongshima susceptible to that gun
Oh, this is real bad, Ethan still has the paranoia, too.
Take some pretty crazy heroics here.
So RB just looking for the check, it's a confirmation there.
Right fall, gonna be going through and Ethan will get caught.
Down B able to find him as he gets touched down into the open.
Really full, gonna be the best damage scuba to spread with the cross with that
singer in hand is able to find the kill.
Hit him, he's gonna be popped.
His X drops falling down to 21 HP.
RB though up and over the top drops down.
Just praying and praying to no avail.
Pushing in the smoke bottom, has him dead.
What a round to be found.
Come on, please.
NRG with a Stinger by! Come out on top!
Oh, this is brilliant stuff.
Able to take that mid control again.
They even had Ethan sitting in the garage waiting to paranoia on top if he needed to.
He never needed to.
He's able to just catch Francis, maybe outside of the scope.
No, he had it. He just missed.
He was waiting for it and just absolutely whiffed the shot.
Oh!
Come on, boy!
Do what he can, but he's just not ready at all for that.
Incredible work, but it's more about that mid-presence that they're able to create.
Ah, it's Kiko's turn for the outlaw.
Oh!
That two!
Disgusting shots from Kiko!
Quickly dispatching the aggression from Nongshim here in A. This round, back
It's time to move on to the next
Yep
Ivy you just like to die to the spike or
Anybody that's not Kiko or small scuba, but mostly Kiko
That's the dream here
They're just so ready for that aggressive hit
Kiko on point with the outlaw
That's going to be NRG going up to five and I wouldn't be too surprised if you see a timeout from Nome Shim after this one.
We'll see though, Andy was an eco so coaching staff might give him another round but I wouldn't mind it.
Got to squeeze a few more out of this defender side as Nome Shim I think to feel comfortable.
We're not to have that operator online, but you'll be able to be able to run Ivy down.
Another charge, two away from having a showstopper to pay ground for him on the raise.
And that's exactly the worst player for that orb to go over to.
Great work by Energy. Again, the macro has been great.
In terms of getting those alts on cycle, making sure you're taking orb control,
making sure that the alts are going to who they need to.
The kills in this case.
Now they've got their alt-cycle just to match Nongshim's.
Nongshim does have Francis with the operator for this one, still hanging on to that dimensional drift.
Overdrive for Dombie, but Knight falling in overdrive for Mata.
See what they want to do.
Well, Mata's shot not going to be connecting it. I mean, Mata's just ignoring him.
He's just pulling his way past him and he ain't dead. Up over the top!
Text NRB, Ivy is dead. And NRG again in a favorable position.
Francis going forward with the dimensional drip and all that exit. He's just gonna have a shorty
He's just going to have an operator. He's only gonna be able to find one
Nothing more here for Nongshim his energy
Move up six to three. Now they're just out playing them
In every aspect they're getting ahead of what Nongshim wants to do off the barrier rip again. They turn up the speed
They turn on the chefs
They send it into orbit
Even gets right up there.
They just disrespect that hold that
Nongshim attempts to make at the door.
Absolutely love that.
That's what you want out of your neon player with Mata.
Just fearlessness, just get in there, cause chaos.
Great crosshairs.
Make life miserable for the opponents.
They're not even getting rowdy of these record wins at this point.
They're just dumb to it.
But it's expected.
They've been there, done that, man.
It's just a caliber of player you've got on that NRG squad.
Longstreet, I'm trying to pump the brakes here.
One of these one-conditioned tie-ups.
Trying to see if they can scramble,
collect these last few rounds in this half.
There's a chance to make it six to six, which from there,
maybe you feel decent about your chances.
They're getting ready to go into another thrifty attempt.
Not really been able to get those off the ground.
No, and Kiko's going to be right back into that outlaw again.
So you're going to be facing pretty similar scenarios, pretty similar ideas.
You know, I think as Nongshim, you've been sort of pushed and pulled around the map.
The conditioning here for NRG, you think that they're going to start trying to work mid a little bit more
After the success they had in one of those rounds,
he tried to go for some extremity plays,
and that's when NRG has you beat to the punch.
And showing that just legendary prowess
that even as his experience as an eSports player is very deep.
And it's really showing in the way that he's
gotten as NRG team prepared for rounds barrier drop.
So they're going to show a very different look
than the last time against the eco.
They're playing it slow.
They're taking their time trying to track Nongshim.
Another thing you have to keep in mind
is that Nongshim could try for the slow creep up,
maybe through mid or something.
He's got to keep a player watching that.
That's what Mato is doing.
Now they're going to slowly make their way over to A.
And it's a great read.
This is definitely the weak side of the map,
even though it shouldn't take too long for Nongshim
to get in the position.
The C's there.
Re-fire on this smoke, damage is being absolutely shredded.
He's got a really bolder just tried in the lane.
Now at our cheat.
Hit the accelerator.
Which towards backside somehow.
That may not dead quite just yet, but it feels as if it's a matter of time.
Oh, look at the assists in that kill feed too. That was beautiful
Ethan just instantaneous with it that is a flawless to shut down any hope of a thrifty and Archie
walking up a lead
Four rounds now in a row
This is what the timeout has to be about this next round
Absolutely
This is just beautiful coordination
Everybody knows what they need to be looking at a couple players trying to kill kill Dom be there back screens
You got players watching that's how I would summarize these maps so far. Yes. Yes. They are electric
Everybody's getting involved. There's that showstopper right off the rip. Our beats been spotted those men's back
Out of the way has to give up the space
Got to assume that overdrive is going to be coming into play for Nongshim here.
And now Nongshim trying to make this a 5v5 retake with an operator in hand.
It's really damn much trouble to eat that he's going to drop down break his ankles in bed.
Here and all he has sent through.
At the bottom.
The overdrive is down Francis.
He's eliminated Ivy now.
Hicked it hard.
Rbc to the bottom.
What a reply but that is just about it.
One enemy remaining.
And every twist and turn everything that no shim tries to do it is just bad and aside
Clipshot to scoop up an X-Ross is going to be overwhelmed
They cannot even find that second kill Kiko gets a 4k energy get up to eight
They just can't get anything going. I mean NRG there hitting them with Util right as they try to make the execute.
You can see Dombe gets it decayed down. Mada goes for the overdrive. He gets dinged. It doesn't get finished off.
And he's just holding the line. They're just holding that back sight. Just smothering.
Nongshim out. He's cheering him on to run down X-Ross with the AWP. I love it.
And now you have a glass cannon guardian for Francis. He's looking to play point.
Come on! There's no escape! There's no victory here!
I don't know if Nongshim would have cooked something coming into this series.
Careful, they haven't cooked at all, it's raw!
And they have every solution, every answer!
To every question that Noem Shim can try to pose.
This flank has to be monstrous.
RB taking his time with it, but all the while Ivy has fallen
and now they're on the pivot.
TP's over the back pillar.
It's going to have to be one of his best.
It is it.
Tomby now in a 1v4.
Should be impossible.
Doesn't have the slide, doesn't have anything.
Just a running gun.
And four players from NRG.
Well, they know exactly where he is.
The flank is coming through.
And here it goes.
Skuba with a third.
And that is nine out to three, NRG.
Absolutely bodying Nongshim at every twist and turn.
It's even better than it was on Lotus.
They are incredible today.
Gonna take one of the best halves we've seen from Nongshim.
It feels like it's gonna take an active guard for Nongshim to get their way back into this game.
We'll see if he's listening.
On the other side of this half-time break.
The city of love becomes the city of thieves!
They plunder, they plilfer, and they persevere in Paris!
me with some translation because my Korea isn't that good yet. Dan B, you were once the
best neon in the world over in Master Santiago. I'm wondering if that is still true today.
I wasn't in London, right? And he wants to finish the next part in English.
I'm here. I'm back. Oh, Dambi is back. Looking forward to it Dambi. No swing fighting
Here we go about ready to go into the second half of split.
I'd say we're here for a good time, not a long time, but we're not even getting that.
This has just been clinical from NRG.
No, it has been.
I am so impressed in what's maybe the most impressive thing out of it all.
I could sit here and sing the praises of the way that they maneuver around the map,
the way they think about things.
It's their micro. It's their individual play has been top shelf and it is completely shut known shim down
They have outplayed them in every
Thought process every regard
And Kiko has been incredible on the raise the raise theory has been brilliant
constantly making sure that they
Funnel those alts into that there is some damage taken by X Ross from that bandit as well as Francis
Yeah, both of them. They both got tagged. Yeah
Actually, it was X-Ross trying to scale here.
Still
Couple sheriffs again, couple bandits too, so the one tap potential there for NRG
Ivy's gonna look for some space but be denied
At least gets the paint shells out. He's bought a lot of attention over there
Usually he's just off on his own
I'll flash into the site.
I'm sure he'll be hurt him or it's all something either way.
He takes his fight and they just lose it.
Ethan seeing how many numbers there are around that corner.
Back pedals away and he's got reinforcements behind him so he'll just decide to pump
the brakes.
They don't want to push the issue.
Ivy out of the middle of the final one.
The scuba will be taken down but Kiko's there to trade it.
Cover going out.
They really want Ethan dead. Paranoia buys himself some space. Relaybolt now going to be sent in.
They just continue to try to play hop to site.
Looks like he's going to work a trade unless they all line up for Kekel, but Nongshim will be able to find their first pistol of this series and get the exact start to this half that they needed.
Yeah, they're able to finally kind of do exactly what NRG did on their pistol round.
pistol round just on the other side of the map just take some space towards the
defender spawn. Just kind of hold the line there make it really difficult X
Ross waiting for the high five. Tomby gotta get it going here this half is
where Nongshim should absolutely be doing their damage.
Updiving, is finding value off the rip, mona dead.
Francis rushing forth.
I know that they have Brock Fox in here, but still a little fine one.
Poor timing to be able to swap the gun there, but Kill is still going to be collecting all the same as X-Ross takes it down.
Stakebite locks off Ethan and Kiko for the moment.
All righty, awarded with a kill, heath him down, realistically keep going scuba, it would
all just be about maybe trying to find some damage, but which is classics in hand, it's
going to prove to be difficult.
They're still at Stinger on the floor, curious if Ivy tries to rotate over to grab it
or if they just ride it off.
Either way, long ship, looking good as if they will close this out, get the two
0 start to the half that they very much need. Yeah okay starting to win some of
these fights some of these skirmishes over at mains this ground of course NRG
doesn't have to really the firepower but those confidence builders that you're
going to need here as Nongshim to get back into this series. Rhymes just
looks a little bit off today. Kind of you know we saw earlier with in that
outlaw shot on to Ethan when he teeped forward and they're kind of not
pulling the trigger he was reading that corner he just sort of second
Gassed himself in the moment.
Couple rifles, in terms of four rifles, two vandals.
A lot of looking for some of that free fire spam again,
but this time Nongshin's going to scoot around in the cubby
to avoid some of it.
He's really taking his time.
So a little bit more spring right here.
Gronk is there, up and over the top, listening with NRG,
and seeing if he can shut down on the test
if it's supposed to burn.
OK, play three, have it two.
You guys
They have like no you guys
Six, six, six, six.
Six.
Lower, lower, lower.
Enemy, right.
You're good, you're good.
You're good.
Nice, guys.
Good fucking job.
What the fuck is good?
What is a good fucking job?
What is that?
What a fucking reason.
Wait, wait, also, also, I got good job.
I got good job.
I got good job.
I got good job.
You know, I was thinking something similar.
I know.
Very nice round.
Yeah, this is a very good one in the end.
I don't think we'll make it a little bit close,
but there's conversion out.
Any found on that, puts in our G now, up and double digits.
I'm still trailing by five. I don't know what R.B. is doing here. He was playing Yoru and he was taking his big clone.
Yeah, he's a clone, yeah. It's part of that new Omen tech in the new patch, yeah.
He's playing the new Arena mode, the 2v2. Yeah, that's it, yeah.
It's one of those rogue-like abilities that you can pick up now.
Okay much quieter here off the rip and energy hasn't changed much still kind of that
Put mod at ramp default see what happens this time. He's just holding the angle
I'm gonna be able to see much but he's gonna hear a lot
so
See if you can find any damage
Pays for it from Kiko.
So they have it traded as he gets back to 12.
Brock, however, great coverage.
Shots a dummy on that aggressive push with Francis now.
Able to find that enemy fade.
Their own knife fall out of the equation.
Kiko falls all the way back,
but Mono with the judge in hand is able to get in on top of Ivy.
He's playing with the kill.
Weapon gonna be upgraded.
RB just lingering here within the smoke, talks over into the corner, free lay
bolt sent in behind him, the study is going to be found, Axe walks into the final one off
screen, but RB does shut down the hold there at main, makes up for his curious
play in the previous round and Kiko at 12 HP, he's not quite going to be able to
find this one, can't make a go of it, has to go and save, the round here for
Nongshim.
This one, kind of on a knife's edge for a couple of these moments.
Some early trades.
And there's a timing where NRG tries to send three down ramp to clear that space.
Nongshim's being very cognizant of that, using that opportunity there where they do lose Ivy to that judge.
I mean, Mada was, they were talking about a Mada was complaining about their shotguns on this map.
Well, you know, if you can't beat them, join them.
It almost works out for them, but just enough there from RB hiding in that corner, absorbing that relay bolt.
Key thing he does there doesn't make any noise.
Just keeps holding the line how he's the top fragger for Nongshim up to 11.
Okay, little hiccup with one second to go on the timer.
These things can happen.
Yeah, you know, anything is possible.
It's champions.
It's a timeout.
I thought for sure that this was a tech boss.
the last second time out from Bonkar.
OK.
And RG sending out their second and final of this map,
barring and going to overtime.
Still a very comfortable position up by four,
but like we said before, you don't want
Nongshim to start building momentum.
You don't want them to start believing
in their capabilities.
So I don't really mind this at all,
but it feels like it could have been
tabled for another round or two.
Well, we've seen that Nongshim can be kind of streaky, right?
So we saw it in the finals of Pacific
where they win the first two maps,
and it looks like it's theirs.
And then GE just kind of has those moments
where they're able to get their confidence
and kind of really push Nongshim into a spot where
they would no longer look comfortable.
They didn't look like they were playing like themselves.
So yeah, absolutely I get it.
I appreciate that.
Blancar is messing around with the timeout tech here.
He's waiting until the last possible second to put it in
there.
But this one may be a little early, hoping that he can get a
run back force another out of his opponents.
He's done a nice job so far with his team.
Having him prepared, a 9-3 first half, you can't ask
much more on split. Especially on that attacker's side.
I mean, given that that was, you know, where they opted to go to, they certainly
utilized it. This is what I'm trying to say. Brain's not braining. Trying to just get back into the
game. Timer's going to be ticking down though, so we should just be a moment away from
resuming this one and see if that timeout call ends up working out here for
Archie the quick word in with silken on being up for notion we continue to try to run this one back
I'm curious what this time out was about and part of it that I'm seeing already is that they're changing up their default formation a little bit
They're gonna let Kiko be the one now try to contain
Amen a little bit little Mata over towards mid
We're gonna see if they can get some value out of that
Well Ivy able hole is already barely hangs on
5 health, it's a shut down there on the keek out.
He gets that kill, grabs the orb, that's a showstopper online and a player down for Nongshim, so critical that he's able to win that fight.
Now they're going to have a wide open B site.
You know, again, we've seen this a couple of times from NRG today where they make a pretty hard read off of some early kills on one side of the map,
One side of the map, Salt Unlotus, Winnowshim, you know, got two kills over there.
They pivoted and opened up a lot of opportunity in terms of region.
What's available on the map?
Oh, quick dink there for Don behind the mile.
Yeah, man, I mean, just run away.
Has the rifle in hand.
Just go for the save.
Looks like overall that's exactly what they're all going to do.
Is there still a gun?
might still be a gun bear from Kiko.
No, they scooped it up, they scooped it up.
Okay, so Scoob is just going to be carrying over this stinger, I suppose.
Either way, another round going to the way of Nongshim and this one in flawless fashion.
And it's massive for them to try to bolster the economy that has been wavering this entire series.
Yeah, this is starting to look a little bit more comfortable for Shervin Nongshim.
Into a decent position.
There will be that nightfall. Francis not gonna catch Ethan there.
Ethan able to duck behind the corner just in time, but you have R.B. Zaltz.
Something to keep track of. He will go for some wild ones at time on the Omen.
Kind of that Pacific Omen style where they look to try to see if they can get away with the big play.
with that ultimate, and a weaker buy because of a couple players low on cash in death.
So Stinger and Spectre there for Ethan, economy on the precipice for NRG here.
They can't make it go on this one.
They'll be working with scraps.
Ethan looking for the punish.
That's exactly where RB's trying to go.
Finds that kill.
Frank's getting Kiko at the same time.
Fast lane getting set up.
But somehow Mono killed the slide out of there without taking much damage at all.
Quite impressive, but by the way, this round still looking decent for Nongshim as night
pulled on the cross.
However, the punch out of Skulva!
He gets a sneak punch on the Francis!
Follows up with a Stinger kill.
On to Downby and out.
This is a 2v2.
Ivy rerouted X-Ross.
Fucking backside.
Ivy critically does manage to take one down with him.
Swing it up though and Brock!
A clean temp to take out X-Ross!
And NRG get the round win.
He is so reliable.
What a great round from him and Scuba.
Breaking open Nongshim's post plan.
Where was Francis?
It's my question.
Well, there's that TP I'm talking about and Ethan reads it.
Did he, oh, he walked into it.
He did not notice it was underneath him because of the nightfall.
It exploded in his face and landed at his feet.
Maybe he just thought he was dead from the decaying and development.
Curious, in some way that I will use.
But again, I got to give it an idea of credit.
Yes, and as well, reading what I was just talking about,
that RB will go for some wild TP plays,
and he waits it out long enough that RB has to commit to it
to get that first kill, even though it's quickly traded out.
It's just nice little things like that.
Timeout call from Longship.
I hope.
It's not.
Well, it's like we might have had something get unplugged.
Oh, yeah.
Yep.
Oh, OK.
Plug it on the mouse.
Should it be able to get back into things quickly here?
Shouldn't be too long.
That was a massive win for NRG, in particular because of the economy.
Oh yeah.
I mean, just a massive pendulum swing for them.
The economy, I mean, it's still shaky.
It can still be broken because of how close the round ends up being.
But if they didn't win that one out, it would have been completely broke back onto
a full thrift, a full save, and then it would have been Nungshin getting ever closer
to tying this up.
Instead though now you've got pretty much a full buy a couple half and reach it armors into the mix for energy
But you know that showstopper
Ready to go and you're almost getting into a big old cycle as notion as well. So
Key round for them now on the other side of things. Oh not almost gets punished
I'd be waits for his opportunity
With a big one same time though space taken in mid
3 player push from Nongshim IV just going to say Tuck it, aim aim.
This is a tough read now for NRG.
They do not have much map control.
They do use this smoke though to scale forward.
They can lean A still, but that's going to open up B.
That Ethan there looking for the paranoia.
Doesn't hit Francis so he sticks around.
NRG is still not comfortable and they might be walking right into a trapping fence.
This could be Hallage 4 of that mana, taking down Dami-Line of the Roads and Soma!
I'm not sure how he went, didn't manage to find that second kill.
Dimensional drift through, look at the masked proc, gonna be spotted.
So we're gonna figure out exactly where they wanna go, but it looks like it's gonna be that AE site, I would think.
But now RB, he's counterswung into B, so he's calling for the pivot.
30 seconds left.
He's still lying in wait, flushed against that wall.
Ethan now down.
Suddenly it is just Kiko and RB in pole position.
For a second he wanted to go for a knife,
but as soon as Kiko turns around,
you have to pull the trigger.
That's what I was just thinking.
I'm like, what are you waiting for there, RB?
You really want to get the knife that bad?
That was a great round off the rip,
Taking that mid control again, it creates so many question marks.
What am I doing?
What am I doing?
He's just a lunatic.
He is.
So it's the beginning of the round here.
Quick feet here.
And it creates so much confusion for NRG that they have to decide.
You know, they have to start pushing out of the map, trying to get info.
And a little bit of early damage from Ivy as well.
Just, again, creates so many question marks on what exactly Nongshim's going to do on that round.
do on that round. You try to counter by putting two players in the ropes and
Long should be able to fight out of it. Look at this judge though. Ethan, a glance in
the slide forward. Well he does actually manage to bite Ethan first. Either at the same time, pick the park scoop, but that's gonna be a gun collected by him over in mid.
Seeset down the top of the leg. Long just noted but Francis has gotten himself in the back,
Sighton brought down the wiser.
Overtry, immediately shut down.
It's a big round for Francis.
It's Noshin, Ronald Applin for a thrifty to come through.
They move up to nine.
Whoa.
It felt uncomfortable.
Again, no energy.
Putting that shaka into good use.
I cannot believe Donby got that kill before he died.
That is just how good he is on Neon.
And that is an even better kill for Francis to stop that overdrive in its tracks.
Right as he's getting going.
Here we go again, Alts.
That showstopper's still there.
to follow up and then Archie get the shutdown. I'll be on this way to be
dead and modest as faster on that draw is it is only X Ross finds one but nothing
more and then Archie get themselves up to match point. Well they're just they're
just ready for this they know exactly what's coming again pre-barrier drop
reads for NRG are off the charts here today. They know exactly what that
Overdrive there what they're gonna want to do scuba brilliant shot. They've got the showstopper there. They've got even TP over
Immediately like as soon as that has any kind of contact over at a even is right into his ultimate
That's a huge read and now it needs now you need three in a row is noongshim
That is unreal.
Being walking in the mid, Tom be pulling away from the angle, X-Ross setting up the prowler.
I realize it's just how close they are.
Sprint's in desperation trying to find a timing shot.
They're making the wrong read this time, our NRG.
They put three over at B.
I haven't seen much.
They can crash at the ready.
This is TP forward into the site.
Look at how patient Brock has been.
Opsman passed over into the hands of RB.
He said Brock playing patiently but an elbow spotted dummy.
Picking off scuba and now X-Ross enacted on this flank.
Back from Ivy, goes unscathed.
Spot out next wall.
It's not going to be looking for more.
It's happening with the one kill.
It looks like NRG happy to just drift away and go for the safe
All the takes is just
Couple kills here for noongshim very patient at the beginning of the round catching stuva out of place and then
eventually
Outweight in Brock where he throws some utility in it opens the door for X Ross
Very very
Calm and collected. Facing a very tricky situation, of course.
Now they need two more just to get it to OT. Is anybody going to fall?
Oh, wow, wow. That's a haircut.
Yeah, I mean, the fact that he even checks the box.
The mod up.
Fortunate to not get caught, but X-Ross looking for something and he will be able to take Ethan out.
So some more damage dealt economy again shaky here for NRG a bit of a mixed bag
but still plenty of firepower here it's gonna be half-armors across the board
All right, as long as you push this thing over time, it's gonna say scuba's got that
pit so you're gonna utilize that early notion does commit a smoke up there so he's gonna
be down one for a bit.
I would imagine you slow down the pace here as long as you a little bit to see if Francis
can find a pick. Try to make your move off of that. Know where the raise is. Know where
the viper is. Trying to just piece by piece figure out the map here as RB. Francis is,
he doesn't know it, but getting further and further into dangerous positions. NRG is content
to take their time for the most part here.
I really want to try to draw some attention over to this B site.
Hence the util dump coming through.
I hope he's gonna end up getting clear to Mod. Just pulling there, main.
RB dead despite that drop, and it looks like this could just be it.
A 3B5 to try to keep this map going.
With 36 seconds remaining, and X-Raw still in transition, making his way just now past the spawn.
He go finds the timing over around Debbie dad Francis
Is there what I have to be an ace clutch and there is no damn shot surely
It's the time
14 seconds remaining
The double-faced from screens perhaps
There under the site
It shall be his grade, 13-10, 2-0 in the series.
NRG looking for that follow-up trophy.
They take their first step here at Shanghai.
NRG are looking for Destiny in Shanghai.
They have completed step one.
It's their revenge against Nongshim Red Force.
For what happened over in Master Santiago,
this was incredible.
They looked so well prepared for this match today.
In every regard, so impressed.
Their raise play on both maps, absolutely amazing.
Both Mata and Kiko, dominating in that department,
loved the theory, loved the macro they had built
around that agent.
Brilliant work.
The Brock is usual, very powerful.
Scuba break, Ethan's making some incredible reads
as always, Mata right back to his normal.
Nobody wants to play them right now.
No, certainly not.
He's looking incredible on the stage.
And even the desk talking about it,
with the shortcomings that you can have for Mata on the neon,
he was still steady.
12 and 12, more than willing to just put his life on the line,
play the hard entry, go play out,
try to get information for the rest of the team,
and play around it brilliantly.
And for Nong Shim, a very rough start, obviously.
Back at Santiago, had to run all the way through
into that grand final and they're going to get first taste of that lower bracket.
But we'll see if they're going to be able to hold on.
But now let's go ahead and send things down to the floor now and hear from
NRG and the Horizon Post match interview.
Mother, mother, hey, OK, take the selfie and we need you.
OK, so how was the game?
You know, it's a getting that revenge on Nong Shin.
So how do you feel about that feels great?
We've been working very hard for champs.
everyone's getting serious and the hard work pays off.
He was very happy, because I just asked him how he felt about his success today.
He said that they were really working hard in training, so he got everything he needed today.
He also felt that he had a hard time.
He also wanted to ask if they won the first game of the year,
and we saw that they got three kills.
So he wanted to ask if they had any other thoughts about the game.
And also after the first pistol round, you're winning that on Lotus, and we saw you guys have some Spectre, so maybe there is some weapon theory of Lotus.
Spectres?
Yeah.
No, we just felt like buying Spectres. Whatever we feel like.
feel like. Okay, he said there's not too much of a chance for him to think that he's trying to get rid of this gun.
What's more, because yesterday Baby Wei also showed his Chinese in the back of the room,
did he have any chance to show it?
Baby Wei showcased his Chinese ability yesterday, and maybe you want to flex a bit? You know that?
I know Mata and Ubi, that's like what I hear all the time.
Everybody, give it up for Mata!
Woo! Give Mata some applause, okay?
No luck for you.
One map. Ten players. One shot to get it right. Every victory is built on someone holding their
ground so the team can make the next move. The anchor that makes every rotation possible.
At Globet we play that same role. Supporting the technology that powers the world's biggest
It's biggest games, so nothing gets in the way of the moment.
Globent, powering your missions.
Tomorrow the crazed players enter the arena.
Welcome!
We're alive from the arena!
Chasing the moments the squad lists for priceless. Whatever the game takes you there's Mastercard
It's the new rifle the warden a cop or a drunk we're gonna share some thoughts based on some in-game scenarios
This one I gotta stay as a drop for me. I'm about the same day delivery the warden for the enemy team
I'd say this one's actually a cop for me in the sense that you get that 50 damage per body shot
Typically playing into eco people don't have armor and I think it's super efficient to be able to kill people in two shots per body on those rounds
Oh, yeah, right because of bread and butter. She's posted
Yeah, they all say this is a cop for me using the warden taking long range fights
I feel much more confident engaging those imperative engaging those advice with other weapons such as a bandeau
Yeah exact same for me here
I'm gonna keep it a buck.
This one's a drop for me.
When I'm entering as a mobility duelist, I love the Phantom Cheese.
I love my running gun, and I'm not really too worried about precision.
I would say it's probably also a drop for me.
This one is a cop with the Warden, because typically playing against a double controller
cop, the entire game's gonna be slowed down.
So with the Warden, I get those chances to angle out and really find the duels
that I want to take out of the status as a drop,
not having those bullet tracers to get counter spam
through the smokes is like really helpful.
Some of the reasons you might drop the Warden
are because it has a slower fire rate
than other weapons in its class
and also has a shorter magazine size.
Some of the reasons you might cop the Warden
is because it does 50 damage per body shot.
It has a very high first bullet accuracy
and it has a larger magnification on the ADS
than other weapons.
I
Welcome back to day two of Champion Shanghai and our second match of the day is about to
get started.
It's going to be EMEA's Carmine Corp versus China's Yilai Gaming or XLG.
Make sure you're here back again with Ender and Mel to help break it all down.
Now, EMEA's CarmenCorp is an amazing story.
In kick-offs, he had one win,
and then all of stage one, zero wins,
so no one expected them to be here
at the very first champions.
Yeah, the fact that they turned it all around
to be to the champions,
even if you look out in the bigger story
of CarmenCorp's as well,
going back to 2023 at the start of the partnership
pair, this was an org that was laughed at in-game.
This was an org that was struggling.
You think of the melons moment,
and Vera taking off his headphones.
It was a team that had so much talent on it,
and yet they couldn't put it together.
So the journey back then of having Zeish,
who's an assistant coach, who's subbed himself
into the roster to try and make it all work,
to now qualify for their first ever champions
as a favorite, as the best team in EMEA.
This is truly a Cinderella story
that has come full circle now.
Especially for this coach, Zeish,
he was so emotional on that win over in Barcelona.
But he's really put together this team
and the team has highly credited him
for completely changing the vibes on this team
from a lot of pessimism and self-criticism
to a lot of optimism and now this independent streak
that they're going on.
You can see the emotion just not even on just his face
but the entire body language.
You love to see, you can tell how much he has sacrificed
and how much work he has put in to get to that moment.
So that just must have been so cathartic to feel.
But if I had a nickel for every time there's a team or a player
here at champs that went 0 and 5 this year.
That's not true.
And then one there in division, I would have to shout out to
super high.
But it goes without saying I feel like it's often we talk
about coaches and everyone understands how important
coaches to a team. But I don't know if we really truly
internalize it because they completely turned around after
he came in and yeah, there's so many coaches that will be
with the team and they'll have highs and lows
and it kind of feels random.
But the fact that Zeich was with the team
at the literal lowest point you could get for
is to be any organization in the scene
and climb up slowly.
And especially we have such a dedicated fandom
behind it as well with that pressure always on you.
The fact that he has seen it through
to be at this moment, it's incredible.
And now he only has one thing left to do.
Yeah, I mean, it's a big thing he has to do here,
but he's already achieved so much with the squad.
And thanks to him, one of his goals really
was to get narrate onto this roster.
And that was so critical, I think,
also for the team to come together.
I mean, you talk full circle moments as well.
Come on.
Narrate after leaving EMEA to play with Sentinels,
being less than the hopes of the fans
and narrate himself on that team to now come back
to a car mean fork.
And again, fight through a tough entrance to the stage,
but now find his footing on chamber of all roles.
Yes.
It's been amazing.
I've been lucky enough to actually see
Nairate's entire journey from the beginning.
I've had the pleasure of playing against him in tournaments.
Back in, I'm talking ages ago.
I'm something like on to you right now,
but seeing him back in Mad Lions,
and honestly, it's not so unfamiliar as story
because back in Challengers,
bear with me here, anyone that has been
following North America.
I'm talking years ago.
His team also went winless, I want to say,
back on Mad Lions.
So this isn't actually too unfamiliar.
It's as full circle as it gets
on top of the fact that he's playing the team
that Sentinels lost to you last year at Champions.
It's just so good.
And now the fact that he is playing such a pivotal role
within the team as well,
because this is a guy that,
while he was always, you knew he was incredibly talented,
he's typically been in like support roles
back with Sentinels, right?
But now he comes in and looks completely absurd
on the Chamber.
He is a focal point in the Carmencorp play style,
which has become so six vessel.
He has given so much freedom
that I don't think he had previously
Listen to now go off on missions to work get the pick that will pivot the team's call in the round and win it out for the team
There are a lot of young players on this roster
But I think having Mary and to get to together on this squad
It's gonna help a lot because this team is new to champs
Yeah, and I think for Mary especially to go back to the role thing
I want to say the Chamber in Phoenix looks so good on him
I was watching last year with Sentinels and I think he is a great in the info in a sheet or clear
But you can tell the raw mechanical prowess
he brings to a fight. It was being lost on a roll where you need to play more in the
late round, play more your Uto and on chamber famously you just go in and you pee with the
teepee and you win your fight. So it looks amazing on him. But yeah, the youth of this
team is such a driving force and it's so passionate and it's also reflected even in
the coach that we saw, right? Zeish is just overall with the motion and I just,
I love the presence they bring to the stage as well.
Oh, absolutely. It was so heartwarming when they won that and the MVP over in Barcelona
for EMEA stage 2 was DOSIA. So let's see what he had to say ahead of this match over with MikaFabs.
I'm here right now with DOSIA EMEA finals MVP. My gosh. Now I want to ask how are you
ensuring that you're going to keep this sort of performance ongoing both individually and
within the team as well? For individually to be honest I don't really care. The main point
It's like play as a team because at some point if you're gonna play correctly as a team
Everyone gonna shine in different games. Well, if it's been working this stage, right? Just work on this stage too. Excited to see it
He's always so chill. He's just, you know, Dacia go kill. He's that kind of guy
Play as a team through well. Yeah easy wins, I guess. Okay, we say that like it's so simple
But this is a team that was grinding through the dregs of 0 and 5 like
like sometimes we can look at
a problem and describe it so
simply as just play as a team,
but to get to where they are now
this they had to really claw
back from such crazy deficits
and they had to reach those lowest
lows to talk how more they are today.
Absolutely I mean he was on
Booms Esports earlier as well.
He's experiencing losses.
I think it just make you know
builds character and we will talk
a bit more of that over on the
team though they have XLG and they are no strangers to the global stage but they are coming off a
really rough stage too over in VCTCM. Yeah this is a team that comes in as the number four seed
from China and I think after watching the number one seed drop down yesterday there's even more
pressure here with so many Chinese fans in the audience to come out and perform and we've seen
them perform previously just earlier this year that win against G2 in London was I think kind of
shell shocking for G2 fans who are coming into so much hype and expectations into that event but
XLG proved that they can hang with the best of them. Thinking back to that event what really
sits in my mind the most about XLG is some of the firepower that was on display. They
obviously weren't able to make an incredibly deep run in the tournament but for me one of
of the biggest highlights was
happy way. I think happy way is
in my opinion this could be a hot
take. Speaking of spicy takes
earlier, I think he could be on a
trajectory starting from here
similar to the meteoric rise that
we saw Cheech you have when
EG won champs. I feel like Cheech
you. He was always a great player
but EG historically had never
made those deep runs in
internationals and something
clicked and it felt like
And I think it's only it just makes so much sense that it's poetic
I think happy way could be in that same position because if you ever watch this guy play it will blow you away
In fact, let's talk about masters London now XLG famously shut down
G2 but part of that was thanks to happy way. Yeah, I know happy way did fantastic
And what we have right now is of course the championship points the teams ended up qualifying in through on XLG
end up getting that second ranking there to be the number four seed and I think
that this just shows you of course they got some points back at London that helped
them push along here but this is a team that ended up being fifth six in the
regular stage there's still a lot of work to be done to have faith
especially again considering the the struggles that I think lower seeded
Chinese teams have had on the global stage before but with their track
record they they could show something if they if they can show up
against coming cold. We changed that narrative. But if they don't, it starts
to become a little bit of a drought here under the home pressure.
Definitely. I think when both of these teams are at their highest, this will
be a very evenly placed match. But the question really is who's hungry or who
is more prepared coming into today into champs because we have seen a peak
form for both these teams. Now the player to watch is, of course, as we
said, happy way. It was a player that many could not stop talking about,
I guess the same reason that you also have been on and on about him.
So I think we're looking at him.
We're looking at Lysor as well.
Yeah, I mean, Lysor's been great,
but I would double down on Happy Way and sort of say that it's shocking
to me when you go back and look at the games that XLG win and the games
they lose because they live or die by happy literally in like nine of
their last 10 wins.
Happy way top fragging in all of their recent losses bought fragging
Like, they only lost, you know, three games in recent memory,
two of which two Billy Billy gaming.
But Halfway has been the carrying force to propel XLG to their success this year.
He's absolutely their win condition.
There's no way to talk around it.
He's one of those players that knows how to take over at any moment.
And look at the stats here.
This is exactly what I'm talking about.
Like, XLG didn't end up, you know, getting the win in London,
but he made his mark and he did it with such prowess
that there are so many clips that are so memorable from him that I am expecting no less. My expectation
for Happyweight is very high going into this event. You know I want to kind of rewind for this team
a little bit. They are an Ascension team and they were a bit of a surprise for VCTCN since the
very beginning. They were described as almost like a flower growing in the desert. They are
based really far north in Harbin where they're you know that's not an eastwards hub for China.
So they're far away from like all the places where you can be practicing here in Shanghai.
Everything about them is a little bit different as well like a show of hands. We remember the insane Lotus comp
They've been playing for the last year
The triple senty
Yeah, like they had such a unique style and way of playing and yet they've actually changed away from that in stage 2
They finally gave up on it a kind of got exposed back at Masters London
So they've been trying to make the right
Adjustments to make that deeper run to do better than just a fifth six
But this team has already come so far.
Now there's another player that we have to look at.
It's Lysor. I mean, he's from Pravella or CFAP.
BV who we were talking a lot about yesterday during that famous Wolves run.
But let's see what he has to say over with Mika Babs.
Mika here and I'm with the Laura to help with translation
because we have a Lysor of XLG with us.
Now XLG had a breakout performance in Masters London
and I'm wondering how confident are you that you guys can replicate that
Okay, then, on the Shanghai stage.
I think our performance in London is decent, but it's not our best performance.
performance. After the journey of London we've learned a lot of things and figured
out our little problems like to fix our our details and right now I think we have
the confidence that we could have a better performance in this champs.
Alright so there's more to come from XLG good luck!
Confidence is exactly what I want to hear from this team. Masters London they
played well but there's one thing that was a topic over and over again and
And Monday we even heard it directly in the interviews from our humble goat Rarga who kept saying like I'm not that good
I'm not that good and he just wasn't confident in himself. Honestly at this point. I'm convinced it's a bit because
I interviewed him the last year I think back in Toronto
I can't remember exactly where but he said the same thing. I was like where do you rank in the in the duelist
He's like I'm the bottom
What do you mean like the like the performance he puts up divestically
He's been solid and now he also has the track record on the international stage.
So you know what?
He stays hungry.
He stays humble, but he can shoot.
When you say humble, go Victoria.
Heavy on humble, almost to his, not his benefit.
It's a little insane.
It's a night and day difference between you, when you see him playing with that confidence
that he plays domestically versus the international stage.
But here's the thing.
I would have rated XLG much lower coming to the champions if this was their first international this year.
However, it is not.
Rarga turned things around.
We saw those interviews coming out of the group stage in London.
But afterwards, especially against that win versus G2,
it's like he turned a new leaf.
So I'm expecting a freshly confident Rarga,
someone that's more experienced,
that's coming to this international stage.
Maybe not so much the humble go.
I want to see a little bit of cockiness out of him.
Nothing too crazy, but more than what I've seen.
Look, in London, they already took down the number one seed from America.
They take down the number one seed from you today.
I didn't predict them to.
Yeah, who would've transferred it?
What did you guys predict for this match?
You remember?
I also like KC.
I mean, Carmen-Corp looked insane, like not even stay humble
or whatever, but you have to think
that they are the strong team coming into this one.
XLG, until they prove us something,
until they prove they've found growth since struggling
towards the end of stage two.
My vote has to be with KC.
Is that the same case for you?
I feel like, listen, it is, I am with KC,
but I'm a little scared.
I mean, I'm not as confident or super steadfast in this
because XLG has proven the capacity
to be underestimated and come out on top.
Okay, I'm a huge G2 believer, this is no secret,
and they obliterated my goats.
So this is not like an 80, 20, 70, 30 kind of game.
I think this is actually more 60-40 in terms of KC.
Can we get a check in on whether or not
Carmen Corp have any sickness going around?
I need to know. I need to know.
I checked the temperature.
Well, I I also ended up predicting for Casey today,
but I don't think this is going to be like the first match where you guys were
pretty sure it was going to be a dominant energy win against Nungshim earlier.
I do think they are pretty evenly matched if they are both not sick,
they're both playing their best.
And I do think, you know,
seeing them in the hallways they're looking pretty good right now.
And again, the question, who's hungrier?
Who is more prepared as they come into champion Shanghai?
Everyone, let's welcome our two teams to the stage.
It feels amazing to make champs again.
Last time at Champions Paris on Sentinels,
We failed to win a single game.
So being able to give it another shot is just a blessing.
XLG are stepping Stato's home!
A punch to the gut for a North American giant.
XLG is one of the teams I've played the most internationally.
I've mastered it as champions.
I think that they're a very strong team.
They have a lot of results.
I think KC, this group, Leret, after they've won the game, their overall strength, their individual strength, they've been put into the team.
And if Nome can fight like him, and try to make the same mistake, then we'll definitely win this game.
XLG? Good luck.
I want to fight for you, and then what?
Let's start the show.
China's Ascension team is back for another shot, perhaps the last shot for the trophy.
And they're facing Carmichord, who's having their first champion's appearance.
But I do want to look a little closer at Carmichord's roster.
On their IGL, it's Aves.
He is so young.
He's new to the stage, one of the few Amina representatives here.
He has been gone through the fire, through the gauntlet to become that IGL that he didn't
originally want to be.
That was not why he originally joined this roster.
But he learned from Sada, and then he went through zero wins over in stage one into a
trophy win in stage two.
And Mel, I want to ask you, you know, that kind of impact for an IGL to go through
this kind of growth and the learnings you get from losing.
He might be young, but he's been through so much this year to build that great,
build that wisdom that every IGL needs. The reason why you see so many IGLs,
older ages, because they have been through it. They have lost so many times, but in
every loss there is an opportunity to learn. And there is so much respect that
I have for him in the fact that you can turn an 0-5 period into something of
championship caliber. I can't say enough how impressive that is even
amongst every IGL in the world. That having that great and sharing that
with your teammates is unbelievable.
It's a huge journey.
He's already embarked on, and now it's that next step.
Stepping foot into champs and trying
to lead the team to a victory over an XLG.
That is a history of upsetting Western teams.
Nere remembers it last year at Champions
under the Sentinels banner.
He fell to XLG.
So things are just a little bit more personal for him
in this matchup today.
And I'm feeling like these teams are coming in a lot more
a lot more confident than any previous tournaments and that's a good sign for both these quests now
We saw the map drafts come through just now. How are you guys feeling about it?
I always love to see a chamber on Sunset
I love seeing that age on that map there's so many great picks and opportunities for the tack chamber on the off
So I'm happy yeah, and the truth is we just haven't seen XLG in a while
So kind of no matter what we're going into this map veto in a little bit of darkness for XLG
But XLG, they know what to expect on this map of Sunset.
They need to have an answer to that chamber.
Now, while we have a team who has a lot more experience,
XLG, I have to say two of the players on Climbercorp
are very experienced on the international stage.
So he's got to himself also hold the trophy.
Yeah, seeing the Yoru and the Wayle come out
from Nomen and Yorga is not unfamiliar whatsoever.
This is their bread and butter, it feels like.
No man on the Wayle creating space for the Yoru
and the TP.
It's pretty bread and butter for them.
But for KC, one thing I want to mention,
you can be prepped as much as possible,
but prep against a chamber comes down to one thing.
Can you shoot back?
I think whatever a team is running,
a very good duo, a very good chamber,
and the prep kind of goes out the window completely.
Your players cannot actually execute
and follow through with the frags.
Absolutely.
I think the benefit for XLG is the fact
that they're starting off on the defense side,
gives them some options to be prepared for Nere
to be activating on those looks.
You know that's what you're getting in a car maincourt game.
So you have set pieces.
You have the doubles.
You have the tools to run those mid-round refights.
It's just about choosing and guessing
right where the stack is that you want to hit.
Now, let's talk about them a bit stylistically.
What has been so pivotal for a car maincourt
is how they chose to play.
They're playing a lot looser, a lot more independently
thinking, a lot more adaptable on the fly.
And how does that match up against XLG?
I mean, it's primarily on the attacking side.
It's so fluid. I think it's it's very hard for teams like fully prepare it
I think comes down honestly
They're shooting back against them because a lot of it isn't trying to craft how to
Bunker a site against a full exec coming your way
It's about being prepared to take the duals Carmen Corp run a lot of tools in the mid-round
They're super effective at narrative. Neri is leading the charge XLG have to show up shut them down
Thank you so much. Oh, it's time to dive into sunset and to take us through it
We got Uber and what?
Last year XLG sent a narrate home from champions. Since then, he's lost his place, question his future, return to Europe, suffered, but now has risen all the way to a regional title.
Today, the team that ended the old chapter, meets the player who has completely rewritten himself. It's KC vs XLG in our opener.
KC are the least likely team taxed to turn around the most dismal year in their region's history
versus XLG and Ascension team.
What's pen to lead China into the future?
Now here to show that they won't be a background character in a city that demands a protagonist.
KC starting a tax side. It's been in the chamber for now, right?
For so much of this year.
Here, Fred and Butter.
If they send their best foot forward at the start of this series in the sunset, folks.
XLG playing well and truly off this AE side.
Merritt will be the one to inch forward.
Forget to.
Get open! No, no, no!
Merritt might want to get active off the back of this,
but Leo's having to get a free headshot as he backs up.
Merritt under pressure, dodged away from that saturate,
and Dostia comes to the rescue.
Happy way.
Look a little bit... OOOH! Not a violent!
And it's up to Lysor!
Someone who seems to have a key match against Naread every single year!
Whether it's IFPX or Wolves or XLG, he always runs into him.
Up against the last duo you'd like to meet in a match versus KC,
Dost and Naread have been the two standout stars for this roster.
It's up to Lysor now to unravel this.
Has to reckon with this smoke, one of his own down on the B side.
Karinoya, not available, has to smoke refreshment out, has to fight and narrate, puts pen to
paper early.
That's not 3k off the rip.
Already an opportunity to show the global crowd the level of play that he has been
at in recent months.
XLG get off to this hot start.
Grouped up just fighting straight death ball top mid.
But eventually when they run into that chamber,
have to deal with the headhunter on the pistol.
The trades eventually go Casey's way.
There is a stark difference in these two teams' success
on pistol rounds in stage two.
Casey, number one in that regard in this tournament,
and XLG in last place.
They are going to have to really level up these pistols if they want to be the number one seed out of the MIA.
The last thing you want to hear heading into a series, so important to get off to a good start.
But KC have already dominated in that metric.
The round one of Sunset follows in a similar fashion.
Alright, ping down by the cameras. It's going to be cleared pretty much instantly.
Off to the site we go.
It's just a map as well where we... CKC, excuse me.
in their obvious comfort roles, whenever they've been able to get
Nairate on chamber, they're already at a massive advantage.
On top of that, you're getting Levin on the Neon, where he's been fantastic.
It just streamlines everything for the team so effectively.
Such a decisive result against Team Liquid in that EMEA final.
Seven rounds was all TLGit.
KC kind of showing the Magnum Opus the final form of their development over the course of the year.
This team could not win a damn game. Back in stage one.
To compare their two stars on KC to the Duelists on XLG right now,
Raga really made a name for himself as a player during the Euro meta.
He was so dominant and regionally playing it.
That's why there was so much hype behind his name when XLG were finally debuting globally.
And then Norman on the wayway, like to some extent, I think you could categorize him as a wayway specialist.
He is really dialed in on the agent.
Talk about it.
Poda talked about on the desk of how important that confidence is for Raga.
It's humility that seems to bleed over into a lack of self-belief at times.
But he's in front of a home crowd now, virtually, right? With the whole scene pitting their hopes on him.
This is when you're going to start to believe in yourself.
So you're going to be pushed off towards that A side, the Viper, and off meta pick on this
map, but we've seen some success with it from the teams who have run it.
It's just not a common one by any means, but it's so effective at controlling this A
line, constantly just threatening that you could be pushing up, taking space towards
Elbow.
It really keeps at least one player pulled across to this extremity for so much
of the round.
Yeah, you've got no bad crash right because Blank pretty quickly, and he's just as well with Edith there because the Paranoid comes in thick and fast.
Casey now gonna assert themselves and take this Eliboe control, and Leo's gonna get into position over by short, but there's some mid-control unfurling here as narrates getting set up.
Leo, good little first exchange, one for one.
Oh my god, can't believe Mary got away.
Great Elipore, yeah.
And he had two people pulled into mid on the XLG side and still Casey haven't quite extended their
control of this part of the A side.
XLG just have absolute hundred percent confidence
the Casey are going to be finishing on this A side that they are just grouped up in elbow ready to pop out.
Certainly not wrong. The smoke's about to dissipate. There's the wall, but Leven gets a better oraga.
No chance to pay off him for Lysor.
Refresh the smoke, get the stall you till going, but it looks like Casey, a building ahead of
Steam, that can't be denied. Levin on the side takes a fair bit of damage, but no opportunity for
LightSword to get eyes on him. Partnay on the dying seconds, his happy way wants to get entrenched,
as that smoke comes down, it's going to get hot and heavy on the A side.
That's unbelievable, we've even gotten into a four on two, Casey finding advantages everywhere,
but happy way wants to wrangle this round back. He's the player, the scene has been wondering,
What's his status? Can he step to the level of these teams internationally?
So far, he a one for one in Leicester.
Up to face his destiny, head on.
XLG get an early pick.
They have the correct idea that KC.
Yeah, they're just going to take elbow control, noise cut, re-hit.
They've got four players all the way drifted towards that A side.
But it's Raga playing in a position where he's fully exposed,
doesn't have a gate crash.
And no one else on the team is ready to play off of him.
So it's a mistake exploited by KC to just crack into that site,
remove one of the anchors, convert a bonus.
XLG knocked down two of these pistols now.
Narade started to stretch his legs four and O for the game.
He's via the wall.
Well, constantly.
Have XLG looking over their shoulder
in terms of this A side of the map.
XLG wants to just go for this walk down mid.
So he gets to his wall position.
This is going to be tough to put a multi-stack in play.
It's no matter just steps up.
That throws things for a loop in terms of the attackers' plan.
They've left the insert of Narrow over the A side of the map,
but even he looks like he's getting out.
XLG going for a bit of a gamble.
Big over-rotate over towards that A side.
Hoping the KC would finish there much like the last round, but that isn't the case, there's more than enough time on the clock to just take a slow, paced, walk into B, silent control.
Marad is pitting a heck of a lot on catching a rotate here. Kamankov per virtually blind as to where the defenders are set up.
They get a chance to push up towards his B side past the one way.
30 seconds left.
17-10-ative.
Now Kamako realizing this, nobody here at B.
So they're apprehensive to take any space back site.
So it's said they want to fight through into market,
but span through the smoke, and at the very least
post up Levin in some kind of crossfire
later in the round where he can just continue to play
from market.
Touch right, Levin might need some help.
They're right, gonna be there with a double spray down through that smoke,
and Hama steps in.
And so once he analyzes,
Drag himself over towards this B side.
Round essentially done.
Casey, make the correct move.
Not even really aware of how many players
were stacked towards that A side.
They pull out slowly and hit an undefended B side.
Only the side that you till in play.
Ultimately, they had much better weapons, right?
But I'm still impressed by that decision of theirs here
to just take that control into B.
They're smoked downstairs.
Yeah, it's a little bit too risky to go back side.
So we're just going to take control towards market,
set up a situation where we can swing off of each other there.
If we need to, have a late crossfire onto the spike,
just putting themselves in position to win the round,
even if things got a little bit out of control.
If XLG find another sheriff head shot,
they just have a nice foundational set up contingencies.
Two rounds happening on different sites there,
but you saw both occasions.
There's like multi smoke kills coming down.
Leaven's having to get those kills on the A-sides
through the Viper wall, excuse me, this time.
Took great response to that saturate throne at Leaven.
Come on guys, win condition here.
Shows finally an opportunity for XLG
to get some decent weaponry to hand Raga,
availing himself of the op.
Yeah, specifically that operator is going to be pivotal.
Getting it into the hands of the Yoru,
not winning that pistol round and getting bonus.
It's late to get it online, but better late than never.
XLG are going to need to use that off-the-control space.
It's especially going to be effective in locations
where that Viper wall is up, and Rarga can be just posted,
making sure that nobody is walking up on it.
At the same time, the total forces are
edible for merit.
So a cost-effective ram where he'll have himself.
He tries to grab onto an AWP-like weapon.
Four rounds to the good, come on, Corbin.
Get to see what XLG can offer on the international stage here at CHEVS.
Finally, they got some weaponry.
Cedroga has decided to post it up.
Two posts up, excuse me, over towards this B side.
XLG want to go for a trap play here.
Paranoia ready to go.
Paranoia, no man trying to play off his convergent path comes in,
comes in Levin, actually in a bit of a pocket here, then unaware that he's tucked.
Now Rezabon to catch no man out, that's the tip of the spear now broken for XLG.
And still Lysor opts to solo swing the line.
It's all too easy for Levin. Raga pulls the plug early.
Doesn't want to take the fight at B, falls back to the site.
A little desperation from Lysor wants to get in that.
Delayed trade, it's just too many players from KC.
Can't get away with a pick.
And at this point we are just agonizingly getting to a situation where XLG just want to save this up.
But Raga is just caught in no man's land, tumbling out of control.
Never had a chance into this round.
They had an idea as to how they wanted to play, A.
Send the AWP towards B.
Set up the track play with a convergent pass.
It just doesn't net any value.
value, Leo would have to make a monstrous play here from Elko.
Not bad.
And down close, but not enough.
He somehow got that straight transfer onto the second.
All right, now we're cooking something,
but yeah, that is not going to be enough.
We might see it in a replay towards the end of the round.
But it also felt like XLG weren't super
sure how to fight aggressively for A-Main
when the Viper wall was up.
Leven got to see it in that little pocket.
Even though there was some pressure that came down,
there was also a convergent pass.
No one really checks for the neon close to the wall.
Leo didn't really have a great opportunity to get involved with the wall in his face and he's just playing from link
Man there it opens it up his first kill to first death numbers specifically on the chamber are
Ridiculous, he's 60 for 18 in the second stage
He's taking 28% of the first fights for this team and he's winning them
78% of the time it is obscene what he has done on this agent
He has been getting KC advantages in countless rounds, just guiding them to wins.
He is the main reason that they have been able to turn around their year from the 0-5 stage.
It's a winning at the second stage in the MEA.
It is pretty ridiculous to turn around for this team.
Obviously it's not a player change that we see.
It's more so just in the coaching department as they step in, sort of hold the reins.
Narade says he feels like the changes helped him focus on positivity and just treating one another better.
Oh, I saw exactly Tim Ganyd!
Gentle looks for Narade there!
Team mates, not opponents, get treated better just to be clear.
XLG already.
Forced to play multiple eco rounds in this half, we're only on round six.
There's some action here. Oh, Rocket just quicker on the click there. It's beautifully done!
Happy way, all the same, just being a distraction. Rocket gets two.
If there were ever a moment for him to come to life to hear the roar of the crowd and start to build some confidence, this team need him in prime form.
Rocket, lost that up cheaply in the previous round.
That is definitely confident. That is definitely confident.
It's one of the other though, isn't it?
Both end of the spectrum, Rager tries to take that fight.
No man, no steps up into the headshot.
And Aves is waiting and waiting.
Okay, so you just posted on the angles,
offered up 1v1s, isolated, and they win them out.
Just weird situations, have to play into here to trade.
Happy way.
Doesn't make much inroads here, it's on Rager.
And now he'll be decayed down,
forced to fight for the sheriff, and Aves
makes quick work of him inside the pit.
Ultimately, XLG find the advantage,
but just can't get on the same page there.
It's just weird, like, you're adding into a fight.
The back of the beast, I know that, I imagine,
there are probably some situations here for XLG
that are uncomfortable and maybe unfamiliar.
The shots were so stunning for Murakus well
to open this round up.
But the back on the 4-by,
they get the arc back in the hands of the Yoru.
It's been four years since Sugetsu
was out of the trophy to his case.
Four years since Masters Copenhagen back in 22.
Quite a career.
No man chucked down by this.
Hoping to get deep enough to leave our scratch,
but instead it's taken to six.
It's Raga though.
He found 11.
Top mid.
Just as he was trying to make a split
on towards this B site.
So certainly slowed the attackers down.
With that neon removed,
how do KC effectively crack into one of these sites
on an Agzak?
We're going to want to take the time just working around this
off, trying to control some space, find a pick slowly without making too much
noise straight up here going to be very difficult.
Merritt has been left in the wake of KC.
Doesn't have a way to clear this corner with you till it's kind of know
it's possible. He's got to know it's possible.
What is the player on XLG bold enough to go for this the fate of all agents Leo's quite a bold player
I think he's actually gonna get a freebie here though why
Leo that takes this shot eventually keeps us in suspense. I'll say that much
Smooth spoke now back of it all to spend the side spawn raga's gonna have his sideline cut off to us
We steps into the fuck. It's just gotta be XLG's moment. They can't let this round slip
They have to stop the bleeding to have to close this out
Dossier speculating here through the side of cage making plenty of noise, but Ryker's going to be able to give them all the info they need.
He is now messing around. 5-1-2 dimensional drift, they need this.
What bad?
Big saturate, Abbas able to shake it off for now, he's back to fighting form, it's on the corner!
Brutal stuff as Dossier comes to the rescue.
XLG, how have they let this get to this point?
A 2v2 at once also shows a little too much leg, Abbas finds his third!
And a Kazakh Stadi!
Puts the period on the sentence a brutal round for XLG to lose.
You can't be doing that!
Even investing that drift just to ensure that they can close it out 5 on 2.
But they can't convert.
Casey is just shooting right now.
They play off each other towards Link.
The second swing comes through.
And back to the Doldrums.
That's a backbreaker.
So XLG deflating the energy in the room hit its peak as
Everyone here thought XLG finally they're getting theirs on the board and it's still just sleeps away
So tragic
Never try to go for an exchange but Raga is there to allow the defenders to trade up
It's not exploding all over the map. It's gonna be a nightfall from the attackers now.
Who's like, so TPs forward. Yes, he's looking to get involved.
But it's Dosteev once more, sees Raga, has the better weapon, and does him in.
A nightfall being committed right now, two versus three.
It's ball from Leo, but necessary.
No man still with the chef, can't recover a gun. What can he do?
Dosteev solo in a quarter of his half is actually getting involved.
No man has to pull it after the saturate hits, just get a fan in the hand, but it's a crossfire, pure and simple.
Left and right!
Come on Corb, lying in wait, as they not chop their eighth straight round.
You can't say that XLG haven't been shooting at some of these options, they've gotten plenty of sheriff kills,
but they just can't find the conversion.
But isn't that just a metaphor for this year, for this team?
This team, XLG, showed us they can beat elite teams.
The problem is they've not been able to build a tournament,
run off victories like those.
They've been consistent in that they've failed
to reach or clear that final hurdle.
They come here because of champions points.
Got another chance at the fall by.
As Casey, Levin, apply a lot of pressure
towards this B site. Trying to draw as much attention as they can.
Raga gets another opener.
Raga very deep there.
Danimals at mid side of the map.
I can't say he's not playing with confidence.
He's making bold moves.
He's trying to find advantages for XLG and he is finding them.
That's exactly what you want to see out of Raga.
No hesitation.
And yes, short-headed as they've been in so many of these rounds, Casey have put something together in the last 30 to 40 seconds.
Look, it can't be understated how dominant Casey have been on this map. They're flawless on it right now. No one has been able to even really test them here.
Leven steps up to the plate, but this is a bit of a sell.
Have you a very interest over towards the B side and hey, maybe gets a piece of you till
out of the opening.
Now the over drive got to be popped, whatever it takes to run on the cage sufficiently,
to keep XLG interested and by Jove, it's works!
And no man, calves him out.
Now Kaohan and Corkham, going to get active over on this A side of the maps.
Leo, snake bite a bit of an issue for him, is forced to back up.
And now this Casey will get their plant opportunity to get you close up in this smoke.
Leo, surely looking to test this.
SHORLY!
He wins it out!
This has got to be it for XLG.
Neural theft reveals Narad, as he tries to post up.
And Leo will stay tucked if he knows what's good for him for now.
Shots going wide for Narad, can he find it in?
No, he cannot!
Celcius!
Fights one in, two there, jumpin' on him!
Leo gets his third in the round, and XLG get their first of Shanghai.
I'm walking the line, it took a lot, but it stopped in one.
It took a lot, but it is a relief.
Feels like a release of tension in the building.
That the crowd finally had something to seriously cheer for.
Now can XLG capitalize off of the weight of being 0 and 8 removed.
Get the arc back in the hands of Roger here to try to continue, to try to build off of the success.
They'll be looking to get active early, yet again.
No much to see here through mid-smoked out as he is.
Kanakoff also reluctant to commit to the center of the map, and Raghavard have a tiny here.
No, they've already scondid.
Just wants to make use of the gate crash.
Presence known.
Repost somewhere else to try to catch off a KC player.
this can is somewhere in B-man. Happy way is, always been throwing it in there.
Let's get the info. Atria spotted. We've seen Happy way push up into his
own one way trying to take fights. This feels like the kind of round bogey you'll
just sit tight. Again, Raga pushing up wants to make use of that gate crash.
Casey feel funneled to go towards this A-side given that Happy way did spot
out three of them over in D main. Is that cat crash renew? Proud of the open of the
out of force, Raga offline on its own. Ligo though picks up the other side, tucked in
the corner, Levin ready for him. He picks up there this high, he's fully committed
alone but Raga does get that trade and the timing of the conversion pass from
no one else. Just lovely, and the edge! Connect! Raga now really has got to assert
himself the only player over in A, happy way, miles from being out of assist.
That conversion pass does not net no man the edge in the round in the dying seconds
We'll see the stick
Ruckett needs to play this one very carefully. He is still alone
Alone for the foreseeable for at least the next 10 seconds
Casey all they have to do is not give him an angle not give him an opportunity
Let the time drift away and don't allow that to be an easy opening
This is no guarantee happy way to get to here, Raga realizes, yeah, they've called a cancel
on this.
There's no safer way to get out of the round alive, and that rate is handled.
The Raga has to get the heck out of there, just as XLG starts to build some momentum.
Things go horribly wrong here around 10.
We're seeing XLG find these moments of advantage.
convergent path those thrown out from no man was excellent then he ends up in a
situation where he's taking a 1v1 and against KC right now you can't be
offering them up the individual skill really is on max they are in such prime
form so for Leo to give an opportunity for Leaven to take that 1v1
I just can't be afforded that's not how you're gonna get across the finish
line against this KC team. But it must say in the last few rounds the early
action has certainly belonged to Raga. You want to play, let's play. For the force,
Herald did it. Raga wants to play in his aggressive style into mid. The
game crash gets him safely back towards Boba.
So get to aware though that Raga has really been rampaging through mid of
these early phases. Does he see this gate crash cross? No. No idea what's being set in
place here, but he is aware. Eraga is posted up. Leo tries to get something for his money.
Some sharp shooting ends to get to. It's a hell of a shot to get XLG back in the round.
KC want to burst in towards this B site. There's a crossfire here. Lysol can play
off. No man, maybe a saturate time. It could be huge. Here's a really ball. Comes
He's going to be an Omen hit with a Paranoid. He has to get out instantly.
He's now not going to be a factor for the next few seconds.
Doshka is close deep here over towards Marketside.
He has to be hearing this.
Nightfall for the defenders.
Lysol speculating here, post it up.
It's no man getting rid of Doshka. He was tucked in that smoke close.
Avis wants to pull the wave, but can't get out alive.
There's Lysol can't get some on the cross.
Now Rage going to save the round.
Oh my goodness!
Leo and Happy Way.
Stand to attention now, they've got to do something about Mary.
Will be posted up on the line and they're not ready for the swing.
Fantastic retake there from XLG.
The case of utility going into the site on the exec, it was perfect.
They completely disrupted Lysor and No Man's ability to play off of each other
from backside and market, but crucially, Lysor retained all of that space
Just outside of market. So when the night far comes in XLG already have a lot of room to work with and you can take the exact
Suffocated
Lysot has officially left his chair
I do feel like he's tying with Cielfab BB on that Wolves-Roston rubbed off on him a little bit certainly started to see him get a bit more animated a bit more active
Someone who early in his career was expected by FBX to be a franchise player up build around
No, I didn't mean no man give him an opportunity.
But for the time being, Leo's gonna be forced back by the paranoia.
It's just too easy for Levin to capitalize.
He's hoping for more.
He's actually pushing up over towards that both of the side and XLG not ready for
this increase in pace from the European squad.
Seven! He's not behind him already!
Casey just realised they can take liberties in mid, press right up to the choke points and explode into the site.
Raga conserted about just the pure lack of map control for XLG.
He makes it all drift! An interesting commitment here in the 2v5, but Dustin finds half the way. Now Raga's going to have to go it alone.
Next he'll emerge out and he'll open and try to fight for his life.
But the Egyptian puts in the bed.
He just has to try to make the most of that on the final round.
Casey, play a fantastic half.
A map that they're flawless on and you've seen exactly why.
Ten and two is the score line. Come on, called lead by eight.
Heading into the second half.
The city of law becomes the city of bees.
They plunder, they plilfer, and they persevere in Paris.
All right, Dante, I have a question for you.
You've been playing a lot of Omen.
A lot of Omen.
Are we going to see you play something else at some point?
At some point, maybe.
Maybe?
I mean, do you like playing Omen, or do you want to play something else?
I like playing Omen, too.
Okay, you're not too bored.
No.
Okay, all right.
Well, sometimes I'm calling, like, can I pick mix?
It's a kind of thing.
No, just play in your Omen.
visit. But maybe it's not yet. Maybe it's not yet. Maybe we will see it. Maybe, maybe, maybe.
From the worst record in EMEA to its number one seeder champions, there may not have been
another team ever that has travelled further without changing its name than Carmine Corp.
And they have picked up where they left off in this opening game of their group.
The fans of this team have experienced the lowest lows, some peaks, qualifying for Masters
in the past, but here at their first Champions, a roster with plenty of players who have not
been in a situation like this or playing like they've been here many times before.
The individual form is rock solid across the board today.
Frankly, it seemed like they put XLG in a number of scenarios that they are either inexperienced
in or unprepared to handle.
It's a big eight round difference off the back of a strong pistol, which has been where
Casey's bread has been buttered, it's one of the strongest features of teams here
at Champions.
And they're the ones fighting here who's happy to take the engagement.
Teleport from there, it just beat for 11.
And the way it's up in the right door, Quinn has to fight for his life.
There are Fez on the move, it's Jossia.
I feel like I've said to the rescue for him a number of times in this game, but that has been the case.
It feels unnecessary to even say that XLG need this pistol round.
Half HP for Leo and Raga.
It's susceptible to sheriff. One shot from R.
There's big health advantage for KC.
And it's just going to be a straight up three-on-three fight.
Raga, he's going in the round. He's kind of doing it all right now.
Arves takes the trade though, Rager a little bit larger the fact that he still wants his action.
He wanted his ace through, but he'll be denied it and Arves is the one who emerges.
Lysor continuing a worrying trend on this map, not being out of half the impact this team needs.
I'm not sure if at any global in XLG's history that we have seen Rager just bursting out the game,
This well right away he is hitting some sick shots
Just hasn't been enough it's so tragic for XLG
But it is a testament to where KC are at that you're getting longer looking as
Clean as he has ever looked in terms of that individual aim
But KC are making the right work of it
That's because they've got fire players that are hitting those shots
Five players are all looking very dangerous in moments like that.
And honestly for XLG, you just might not have a number of opportunity to call a timeout.
This map, not before KC get to 12.
There's a coinbase win condition.
Castrides over some of the weaponry being reached for by KC.
And conversely XLG, a question, are they gonna force it?
They have to. Yeah, they have to. They got the spike down.
the spike down they've got a force and boy it has to get involved to give them
the game plan to win this round or it is just wraps on sunset boy this roster
for quite some time has seen XLG who've sort of knocked on the door of being
that elite team at globals to really take that next step forward and there's
been no question that XLG can beat those rosters being married notes at
all too well there was a package from the tournament by this team of the
Sentinel Spanner. But XLG have been unable to build a tournament campaign off the back
of consecutive wins against those top teams. They're not going to force... Nope. Rago gets
the right boss kit. Matt's eats. Full armor and a sheriff.
I'm pretty shocked they're not forcing on this round. Effectively allowing KC to
gets a match point unless Raga can impose his will on the server. His sheriff has been ridiculous.
I don't doubt that he could find an advantage for XLG.
Dostya extracts himself from this corner. Doesn't like what he's seeing.
In fact he backs straight on up. It's going to be a retake. Folicer for KC.
They're going to get a rebound weaponry in just a moment. I suspect his arm has found no
in the side, I'm just looking to get another, it gets in that dangerous especially with
Narek, I didn't hit him happy way. XLG are going with our carbine caught to get to 12.
Refusing to spend in that round.
KC just so quick to get to that side and support each other as soon as XLG
Pushed through with that waylay, dash, KCR, just as quick to support their anchors.
Obviously gets a heck of a lot of value on his own.
Now he ends the round as Leipzig, I mean he pats the numbers a little bit,
he's in a quiet map for him, and happy way.
Someone who this big question to happy way frankly goes off the boil towards the
latest stage is rather off stage two in China.
leading many to question his form.
Palace Leven get away with this at full health as well on my hands.
Casey just hoping to end the game with a pace change on defense.
That paranoia into the side from Leven doesn't result in the kills.
Rarga speaking of has gone so many that the dimensional drift is active in this round.
It needs to be the catalyst of XLG getting a third.
Leven has to take much convincing to pull back off the site.
For now, I'll come and call Bill Converge, a gambit to win the map here around 15.
XLG, nothing left in their kits in terms of utility going to come down to the gunfights.
That's where Rager's looked his best so far, if I'm honest with you.
No man traded for an XLG with the player advantage.
A group up and flood, perhaps through Boba.
7 get thin here for KC and Leo is mindful that narrate is lingering close
but he's sitting on a buggy very hard for the American to get value there
it's already cracks them open a little bit here so gets you just gonna
challenge nothing ventured nothing gained he knows there's a chance to keep
the cap on for XLG to make it much easier to get in than Leo not just
3.
XLG just keeping things simple, dimensional drift, clear out the side, post up that side,
let Rarga take point, he's the reliable hand for the team right now, he's able to shut
down KC on the re-entry right away.
Makes him get forced into the retake with some suspect weaponry.
Naray is going to get himself an outlaw to hand though.
Abbas!
He only had bought a stinger.
Naray wants to test them down mid,
but no man with that heavy armor survives the outlaw shot.
It finds XLG the opener, keeps hope alive.
He's doing it.
Happy way guarantees passage to the top side of bid now with that cyber cage
Okay, she's getting a bit exploratory though in the market
Arvez wants to play up close get some stinger value
Meanwhile
XLG looking towards this A side
Happy way would love to get involved in a major way this XLG team has been defined by him and roger as a duo right now
it's 50% operational. He has got to get in the mix for this team to find success today.
Looks like a pretty dangerous situation at the choke there, but
Carmine Corp actually fall back to this B-side properly, going to give a bit of ground to the
attackers who now announce themselves. And Armas has given himself a great position here,
Crossfire set up with back sight. Here's the walk across through the wall,
the Tarbes! Imagine from the corner! One by one XLG! They are reaped from the field since
they're Lysor. Casey just understand exactly what is happening in that situation. Open
and shut case here on our first map of the series. Carmine Corp dominate. Provided the
world that EMEA still possesses some serious firepower. But the results of the micro-comp on
in this battle it's a strong showing which leaves XLG with their obis as a must-win map in this series.
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
and I'm standing with Sage, you've waited such a long time to get to this spot and you've
waited such a long time for the team to get into this form.
So who is the primary driving force for the team momentum right now and the state that
they're at going into champs?
I would say, I don't think there is anyone special.
I think our team culture drives the energy that we have.
We are really friendly with each other.
We try to create a family.
We are saying everything really honest.
So also, it helps us.
When we have any problem, we just let it behind.
We solve it instantly.
And we don't hold any grudges against each other.
So I think there is no one that I can specify.
But of course, what I could say
is just the team culture.
I would not have more, just like the team culture that helps us and all that, you know.
Teamwork really making the dream work.
Thank you so much and good luck!
It looks like the momentum from Barcelona continues on here in Champions on the big stage.
The boys are looking absolutely on fire.
Now, I think the whole team is absolutely in good vibes
and a lot of that might be credited to the performance coach, to the team culture.
like you was saying, Narade is also credit this team, this new team, and the coach for
having this optimistic culture and openness of being able to communicate with each other.
And Mal, I mean, you've been in these situations and just understanding sort of that kind of
mentality of going into not bottling things up and being able to be open, vulnerable
with your teammates.
I think that is a dream environment for a team.
Having been in that situation, it's such a good feeling knowing that you can have
those moments of vulnerability with your teammates and honesty because that is what
everything is built on.
a lot of playing in the team at a high level is trust because when you're on the biggest stage
and you have like half a second, a fraction of a second to make a decision and you have that
subconscious level of trust that deeply from your brotherhood of your teammates, it's unreal and it's
very visible. Like I think a lot of teams say they have it. Casey, absolutely they have it.
Yeah, you can see it in the stride of every single player on that team. Levin is also
So another player on this team that a lot of us were kind of questioning about him joining this roster, but he's improved leaps and bounds on that knee and on the squad.
So I think I don't really see any weaknesses on the squad right now, which is why my hot take was what it was.
I know it was a little hot with Casey being top three, but they're looking really good right now.
In fact, let's check out our Verizon high speed moment of the day.
This one definitely goes to Casey.
Yeah, I mean, look, this was Casey already up six and now finally XLG should have around when it's a 2B5.
the IGL Aves does this to a quick little 1-2 to bring it down close then Dojic comes
involved they play so nicely together to finish off this round. I mean what can they
do and I just wanted to point out a little detail they're in the 2v5 they
did double swing lane there at the at the beginning of that clip so if Aves
wasn't getting that incredible 2k it was going to be followed through by
Dosia so I think that I mean that kind of round it's the kind of thing
when you're in the moment and that happens and you're on the on the side that's doing the 2v5 it feels
like you can do nothing wrong you can call any strat you could have any micro you could be down in
any disadvantage and it feels like everything is winnable and you just can't lose at that point.
I think we started to see also the rise of the fragging IGL which was here in Shanghai last time
when we had Masters especially with Munchkin on Gen G and ever since then it's become quite
important for that to be part of a team success not necessarily every team but how do you guys
feel about that, like how Office is doing long-troll.
I mean, Office was absolutely unreal in that opening.
This is a guy that joined Carming Corpus' first ever tier one
experience last year, and now playing
his very first champions ever.
What a way to leave a mark on your debut map here.
We're going to see this flip again,
so it's just that good.
But he was consistently dominating.
And then you go to the second half as well,
And in the leading pistol as well, he comes away with an unreal clutch here as well, a 1v3 to win it out and keep this team, this snowball rolling.
It is such a difficult position to be in Ava's issues. We touched on it a little bit before this map of how much pressure there is representing an organization like K-Corp being down 0-5.
But there's so many things that you need to be a great IGL. You need the vision so your teammates know where they're going.
You need to have the calls so they actually know where they're going in game, but on top of that, he has everything.
He has the fragging power. It feels like if they're going to be shooting like this, they are absolutely making a great
contending space here for that top three finish at champs.
All right. Well, I also want to know what the opponents are thinking. Let's see what coach Boya has to say ahead of map, too.
Nika here with Havoya of XLG. Now that was a very tough score line, of course, on that first map.
So I'm wondering can you give us a little bit of a hint of what was discussed backstage and what's the plan heading to the next map?
So we basically discussed that we have to be out of self. You have to play as we practice and I hope you're gonna show it on Abyss
Hope you guys find your identity and good luck
Well, and there this is gonna be really interesting when we talked about this early a piss wasn't played in stage 2 4 cn
So this is uh, I think we can't really know what to expect here
No, I mean, XLG had the benefit of going out a little earlier in playoffs to start practicing here.
And Abyss was a map they were piloting back at the start of the year in kickoff the last time it was in the pool to make success, of course.
But I think in some sense this comes as a big wild card pick to Karmenkorp.
I don't think most teams are expecting the CN squads to have an Abyss ready for this tournament.
And Karmenkorp certainly would have loved to have this slip through the pool.
It's a map they only played the one time in a loss to Enterprise Esports.
So for them as well, this is a map they need to prove they can play here on the stage.
I think surprisingly, with Abyss coming back into the map, even in America, there were a lot of teams that were first picking it when it first came back.
But if I can just speak bluntly here, that interview did not give me any confidence in XLG.
It feels like we don't have a strong solution for what we're going to see here.
And there's so much playing.
And I think a big part of what he mentioned was, do what we do in practice.
But to me, the what you learn the most you can do in matches and they did not have that opportunity to play abyss in a match environment
This is their first time and we're seeing the yoru and the way
I will say as a caveat to everything that I'm saying not to sound too Debbie Downer is that this is a bread and butter again
Double doulas combination for them
And I think if there was a place to start it would be there and I will say the copiers that abyss is a map
You know it's a huge map. It usually just comes down to running execs and playing post plans
It's almost so big that it's hard to make a lurks pay off in a major way.
We're seeing Naira looking at the yoru there, but XLG, I think, are going to love to just
run hard hits, simplify this game, don't fall into the typical KC play style.
Another tip I want to give to XLG in terms of the scales here is they are playing the Harbor.
I am a huge Harbor believer on this map on Abyss. He was used to great extended Americas
and for good reason. All of his utils solves a lot of the issues you run into on Abyss
and notably KC is not running a harbor.
This is a huge pivot for KC.
They were playing the Neon before,
single duelist with Nere on the chamber,
now rocking a double duelist setup,
something you'll always see from Nere with this yore.
I'm really excited to see if Carmen Corkin
can prove they have a 7th map in the pool.
That's right. And let's see if XLG
can bring us to a map 3 as well
as we send it back to our casters, Uber and Wyatt.
IGL Aves leads from the front in our first map of the series.
And if the one guy that has seen every phase of KC is popping off,
this team might be pried to make a deep run.
Began his career with them last year,
and he has been through the ringer with them,
but they've never given up on him.
That's a 9th, 12th, a 7th, 8th, a 9th, 12th to finish last year.
And then this is stage one, 0 and 5.
But now, leading his team at Champions in terms of, yeah, he's the IGL, but also top-dragging in his first game,
debuting on the global stage, that is beyond impressive.
Now again, we don't have any data from XLG on this map, just the way scheduling worked out.
We didn't see a miss at all in China.
Not seen in a whole lot from Carmine Corp either.
It was a challenges team coming up through play-ins
that beat them on this map most recently.
However, we have changes from the EMEA squad.
If we look now, putting Narade back on your duty.
And this simply has to be a map win for XLG.
They want to give that first map win
to this crowd here in China.
Give them something to seriously get excited for,
but Narade just wants to put
Those hopes to rest.
Now he'll open up the account for Carmine Corp in a big way on Sunset 2.
These pistol rounds have been sublime from the Europeans.
And you can't see Raga out of the picture that early.
His form today is no joke.
But on Sunset it was only enough to garner three rounds on the board for the team.
Oh man, this is looking a little bit too clinical right now.
Surgical extraction of all of XLG's key pieces across the map.
Blacksaur and Leo, chime on in.
Springing their step signs of life perhaps, but it is again...
...headshot from Levin.
That's a disgusting shot.
Casey takes so much space, just contact, walking up mid,
catch the XLG players one by one.
And it's just a never-ending display of the individual skill that this team has.
No man gets out of Leaven's purview for a time, but his position has been pinged down.
We'll have a double face on this exact line, but no man, it's all but impossible!
Leaven chalks up three in the first round, a Carmine call by three from three in pistols.
11, another one of the players on this Carmine Core team that was effectively homeless.
It's a team of players that to some extent didn't really have elsewhere to go.
In some cases discarded, he was looking great with BBL because the team just go with the
direction of picking up the All Challengers team.
Heads over to Casey, they give him that opportunity and he is another one of their
roster making the most of it. XLG might get a play for this orb. Mara mindful there could
be something behind this Cove. Eventually it's cracked and yep, we're up to the map.
There's a clean exit to the round with no orbs hand over. Quick value out. Now let's
Let's see on the bonus rounds, what KC have in store with this double dive cough.
Varek's LG, it's his harbour difference right, we talked about harbour in non-mirror match-ups
especially on maps like Abyss, definitely something to reach for often by teams in
America's.
Yeah, I hard agree with Mel, I think the harbour is incredible and the numbers support
that is the highest non-mirror winrate agent that is actually frequently played. It's 66%
non-mirror winrate. That is ridiculous. Let's cross stage two globally.
Carmine Corp. Confident. They'll find victory without having to reach for it.
And now it's going to get pretty deep here off this gate crash.
getting back in a relevant position in a pinch ahead of the Recon. Some information garnered.
Spawn out a couple XLG on a Reclear mid just a bit. 11. Expeditiously into the site.
And Lyser was going to forfeit. He is relying on the rest of his team to get here in time to support him
in this anchoring position, fully exposed now.
It's out in the open, isn't it? Proud of it, a peacock.
Can't believe I've dropped off that high ground.
The one, Ragi, is now attending the site.
Flash in, Ragi has to pull that straight away!
And my goodness, that fell apart in the screaming heap!
Leo has to try and salvage now, but he has multiple angles to care for!
And Zagetsu comes up from behind!
Another disastrous first buy round for XLG.
Well, that's at least what it seems to be.
Unless, unless happy way can finally get involved in this match in a major way.
You think Arvis is watching this by coach? Get the hand off of the saturate!
And no man is simply not ready.
KZ are just applying so much flanking pressure.
You're watching it just fully divide the attention of those XLG anchors.
Leo doesn't know where to look.
They're trying to get back into this site to support Lysor.
But KC are everywhere. They've got them fully surrounded and XLG are playing with their harbor on that double flank
So they're not really set up for like that obvious big retake effort
Don't mind me one of my dramatic close-ups
Never to saturate into the close he wants to fight this time. He'll get it one for one
Crosshead place we got stuck here. There's no escape for them right now
Now, round the corner we go, Raga caught out.
Lysor and Hapuway never committed to this.
By hook of my crook, they'll be exiting the round.
And then eventually Hapuway will be overrun.
This sees Lysor very much on the outside looking in,
but good damage at least for XLG on a low ball round.
Lysor got his catch on the opposite side of the map
while that action in the main was going down.
And Harry is giving him an opportunity for the 1v1.
He knows.
He's not going to give him that opportunity for long.
Just teleports back to safety.
Double up with Darcy and clean this round up
in fundamental fashion.
Narada set up by Amain.
The tower presence, Casey, have the perfect crossfire
on the spike.
Lysor doesn't really have the time
to take this apart, pincer by pincer.
The cover, the spike, try and make this a 1v1, but Dossier is ready to spray down at the spike.
That's just not possible, KC. Set up in those two positions, it is wraps.
It's another round, honestly, we're on an excellent ego.
We are seeing them make a serious effort at winning.
The sheriffs are just crazy.
How is Happyweight?
That one kill got him to saturate with the one tap.
It's ridiculous.
They keep coming so close to winning
one of those tied turning rounds.
But they're always just inches away.
And so now we head back into the blender,
potentially, of these multiple eco rounds.
They have to play out of this first half.
Getting Rocket into the game again is going to be paramount.
He looks like he looked like he was
He's able to generate his own momentum on Sunset, yet to frag here on Abyss as our Cormac's win-condition displays.
But again, getting it up in hand on this defense side, being posted up, maybe on that B-side.
He had to get off the site for free if the pressure is too much. Plenty of options for the Yoru here.
It feels like XLG with Raga is firing as opposed to when they're not. Two very different outfits.
We have just landed in the exact same situation as map one.
You finally have the opportunity to get this off into Raga's hands on defense.
But it's late in half already.
You're down the pistol, you get bonus.
And XLG are constantly playing from the position of clawing back.
That's where KC have them at all times in this series.
Raga might just be in position to give the opening.
A boy calls in for XLG, around 5 time out to try to set them straight.
Let's see if the fruits of his labour will yield.
Perhaps not on the dockets.
I'm not sure I had Raga getting blown up inside a smoke on my bingo card.
Alright, I saw here in the back of the side how the Spheri has already touched him
and lights him up like a Christmas tree.
That is about as ugly as it gets.
If there were any moments that just fully turn you two-dimensional, it is Rorgum crying the offence just.
Bro looked like Paper Mario after that.
Hitting it domed in the smoke.
That is emblematic of the level of oppression Carmine Corp have laid down in this series.
to try this number four seed an XLG who has shown moments of brilliance.
It's like the effortlessness that others can just walk up and click on the smoke and find that opening kill.
And then the subsequent easy decision to just blow up that A site, close out the round with ease.
You can feel it in the pity stomach especially now in this room with the crowd has been hushed
In fact, there is a question of who is going to be the hero from this region for this crowd in this city
It wasn't tyloo yesterday
XLG are crumbling in the face of Europe's best Europe's hope at turning this year around
round where it best finishes in Santiago in London.
They did not meet the mark.
They did not match the expectation
that you have for a region that
has had teams as dominant as fanatic in the past.
But KC, they might just be able to make it happen for EU
at the last second final hour on this year
if they can make a deep run at champions.
in so many ways, just like Tyloo.
All right, a 0-5 stage into a Stage 2 championship.
The difference is, KC get off on a great front foot
here in Shanghai.
Troy, is that Europe, EMEA, a region that's been
under assault, not only by the critics,
but also by tier two teams who make an absurdly
deep run through play-ins in Stage 2 playoffs,
which is talked about.
That just adds to the criticism of the region.
Come on Corb lost at Enterprise, what in that upper semi in stage two?
On this map, it's all able to take the series with the point remains.
But here now, they look like they have certainly shored up their map pool.
Switch to the Double Dive comp that sees Nere on this Yoru.
So many opportunities to hop on this team.
Has been critical for their success.
XLG are just nowhere, remotely close to being in position to spring a retake.
But we might finally see them in just a retake situation, if not for the disruption of KC.
They don't want to allow that reckoning to get maximum value.
Conversion pass there from Levitia makes it impossible to follow up on that harbour ultimate.
Here's the cosmic divide though.
Doshi and Levitia, the inside decide itself, and in terms of taking doors, there's nobody you'd rather see.
And Levitia in that right going for it.
Happy Wayne trying to be expedient about this but it's given away his position
Lysor has a chance to go down a backstab but it could get ugly and again it's
KC on the left side of the kill feed and Raga on the outside looking in.
KC just understand the win condition with complete clarity.
XLG finally in a spot where they are going to be playing for that full
retake. They know it. They are fully aware that the reckoning is on the way. So they play forward,
they counter with a convergent pass, back up towards the site, and then play around the wall
with the pop flashes through from their right. With the perfect timing to full blind Leo,
every little detail, every aspect of what KC did there was just perfect for the situation that
that they knew they were finding themselves in. Testament again to the quality of this
team if you, for some reason, needed more proof.
And so XLG are back in the blender folks. One round on, one round off. It's a nightmare
ride that never seems to end. So I'll be showing us and they hear a rifle for Raga
Who is yes to get into this game?
Obviously it's gonna
Summize that lightsaw is posted up on the side here crucially sees the sovereign Levin's gonna get ahead of this outfit
far too easy
Okay, not too shabby again these sheriffs are opening up some opportunities now, but that was brutal
Narade there reaches for the up and Leven knows exactly where Noman is looking to play from.
Happy way, not in much of a position to assist him, trying to get behind that high tide in exchange of damage.
Leven can't get on Noman up close, but it's Narade who's not shoved up his dirt, trying to play the decoy there.
Still caught out. Look how uncorked don't care why, they are sitting on so many credits.
Sales full of confidence, smooth seas ahead as far as we can see.
There it's still just easily able to set up Sugetsu to clean up that round.
He's got to be feeling good to be back on this global stage for the first time in years since
champs in 2023. And on a team where he's got his best shot at winning another trophy.
He is the master's winner in this lobby once Herald did as one of the best players in Europe.
Had his down couple years but never gave up come on cobb look leisurely. Let's see if it sounds the same
That's not you have to smoke. I step. Okay. Come come come. I'll do it. I'm running
We're joining someone break. I'm gonna go to the side. Guys, take side and freeze. It's fully freeze. Wait, so right now check your left
I'm still alive somewhere. Just keep freezing boys. I'm running to my side and hit. Keep walking. Keep walking. Where did you go inside smoke?
Wait, I cannot. I cannot. Come left, come left. Careful this guy. Yeah, yeah, this is a guy. I'm gonna stun this.
Yeah, do it. Are you coming to my side again? One side, one side. I found another one again. Peekle, peekle.
I'm really impressed by the way that KC were able to control the tempo in that
execute and just dismantle XLG's positions. Leo is caught on the cross
trying to get into an anchor spot but KC don't rush even when they have that
You can see them slow down in front sight, wait out some of those smokes to drop.
It allows time for a narrate to just wrap fully back around, and then they take those fights together.
Even when they're dominating in this fashion, they are still dialed in.
No mistakes, nothing for XLG to exploit, not rushing things.
They are here to win, to close this game out in dominant fashion.
as I call it my twin condition, having it around number nine,
another much needed time out here.
Here's the boy up.
Needs to work on some kind of game plan here for XLG.
I mean, it's funny, a lot of teams to reverse their fortunes, right?
If they're struggling, look if it's something new,
an infusion of maybe new blood, a new player or more.
That wasn't what CarmineCorp really reached for.
They made changes in the coaching staff,
maybe the philosophy of the team.
Zeish previously, a player on this roster gets his opportunity to lead and all of a sudden
his team is looking completely different.
Like there is no greater turnaround that you can have in the Valiant World than what we
seen from Carminecourt this year.
You cannot go 0-5 to champion since stage 2 by accident.
on Sunset this was the point where XLG were able to put one up. Another round
where it's Sheriff Bi with this Raga hero rifle.
The moment is very ambitious in this round but the read is off.
Oya has given them a bit of a trap play towards B. If there was contact made
from Raga pushing down convergent pounce would be ripped a cool idea
but KC nowhere to be found on this side of the map. XLG pushed it off
They're lying though in this map and others is easily able to spot this way late now very deep in enemy territory
So what's the punish supposed to be for Carmine Corp?
Slowly they're scaling into this mid control. It'll be a line held by lightsaw here
It's the first line of defense and it's covered
Casey know where the gap is on the map know where they need to maneuver to
Now with top mid fully controlled by them you can see XLG a bit
I feel like they need to go for the Reclear.
My meatletting mid, and they've got a great opportunity to kill him.
Happy way, great time to activate here.
The pinster comes in, and Leo chimes in with a classic.
Now right now, with it all to do.
Ryga Hanna, but his position is revealed.
There's still a spike to be recovered.
He's mindful of where Leo is, but hasn't done a big amount.
He's about to be crossfired.
Get the spike, get on out. Back to A main, we go.
Now it will sneak in each fall in Leo, playing to the final ASLG!
Get some game to them!
From the crowd, jubilant, but also relieved for this MasterCard thrifty.
It felt like there was only a matter of time until one of those showed up.
Exotic Air boys have been able to get at least a couple with the pistols.
Finally this time it is enough.
Ostensibly!
Extraordinary put themselves into a weird spot with that three player push off that B site
and still they're able to put together a nice crossfire, get fairly well at Braga's hero
rifle.
They're just going for the play again.
Exact same thing.
They might just work this time.
Braga gets on out, no rip off the converter path yet though.
Narek gets all the info towards this B site.
Casey want to work up, take this space, but XLG do not want to give it up without a fight.
Hunter's fury, Raga trying to play off, but loses that 1v1.
That's the audio player on the big site there for XLG, did I position a deal with this?
So once again forcing the full retake, so gets to absolute rectitary behavior.
That's the win! Extra 18 health!
Spike planted.
That is just dying.
Bro, honestly, and happy way caught by Levin playing on the off angle.
Bro's inside the chef's hand making that ragoo bro, I'm telling you.
It's a two-feet kick.
Oh buddy, back to an eight-round deficit here, is Carmine called.
Play it on thick, a flawless round to remind XLG, for there, no push over.
Maybe it's a different story if Raga can get that kill on to them.
Come on.
Oh, that's just brutal.
Oh, that's just brutal.
I mean, Hibaya is just...
The Hibaya cooked.
He's trying to laugh it off.
I don't blame him.
He has just swan-dived into the penny press.
A flattening experience that round.
Okay.
Chinese fans.
Not really sure what to make of XLG coming into this tournament.
Show it! Show it!
You are on tipi service also!
They want ulti city maybe guys
I need you guys!
Very fast guys!
I plan!
Come man! Come man!
Don't go from it!
Where is the ulti guys?
Where is the ulti?
Go use ulti!
I'm making the slow to counter
Go use ulti now!
I'm trying to know
Go for CT boy, CT!
I'm on CT!
I'm on CT!
3v3!
I'm on CT!
You are ulti!
You go back!
One! One!
I got one from heaven, I don't want to hit him
I'm standing
I got slow, I got slow
I'm on the other side, I see him
I see him, I see him, I see him
I'm on the left, I'm on the left
Left side, I'm on the left side
I just killed
I need help, I need help
Nice
Let's go!
Let's go!
Good job, good job
And finally a situation for XLG where they could really make the most of running this
harbor and get a great retake off.
You see the value of the reckoning, the value of throwing down the cove and getting the
shield up on it, all of his pieces of utility that just rock in this situation completely
come to fruition to get XLG that second and Lysori is then determined to stand up.
Not much movement past that but he will stand up, he's always got you on that one.
I feel like he maybe needs to be the guy that generated that momentum, that energy.
Come on Corko, plenty of it.
And they're going to make use of it to run over these B sites.
Now Ray taking his lips inside the smoke, a challenge against Rocket that goes right.
But amidst all of this, Sugetsu begins to scale into mid.
He can be left as that loose end to cut off rotates, the constant job of a Sentinel on attack start here on Abyss.
While KC worked towards this A site, Happyway still has that full kit.
Can absolutely see a situation where XLG would be happy to just play for a retake.
Wow, that kill for Walga. So important.
He's going to confirm his agent now.
Carmankov going to activate a response.
No, there's no point trying to hide their intentions.
Leo commits the fight and goes down.
Happyway throws the wall out, but the team really isn't here
in time to play off of it.
So that high tide not going to be an effective tool for long.
96 points of health, though.
That's all Carmankov had to work with.
With three players.
Certainly bruised up by these early encounters.
the right environment for no man to clutch up and practice a kill, but Josh is going to be the
Raga with four in the rounds.
You know, there's barely clinging to life. Not in any position to stop this.
Has to hop from it over towards this side, and outs himself by breaking down that door.
And down with back, he wins.
Finally, two sides of life from China.
At the end of this first half.
Raga finally comes to life. Crucial four piece. Crucial one-to-one win on the plate.
He has got XLG in a position to make a run on this attack side.
There'll be a strong attack side to take us to a set stick around.
It's a six round game.
The city of law becomes the city of thieves.
They plunder, they plilfer, and they persevere in Paris.
If Long's in willpower, we're in absolute a series, this crowd in shot high would have
given it to XLG already.
However, this is Valorant.
Fairy Tiles don't always get to breathe the rarefied air here at Champions.
And XLG have a long climb to get back into this game.
Anubis, you are never out of the mix until you have played that attack side.
is the favorite side on this map and the most favored attack side map in the pool right now globally.
We have seen plenty of games where a team go down horrifically on defense only to side swap and run it all the way back.
Obviously the odds favorite KC right now, they've got to, but this is a situation in which XLG could make it happen,
but it has to start with a pistol round. That has been a pain point of this team.
They have the lowest win rate for pistol rounds of any team in this tournament right now
Based on those stage two stats. It is 1-0 in this series
That got to turn it around right now. This is their moment make or break
Come on corporate you reverently giving up the site
Know that this Harvick and ready packed away for a safe taking there
It is the pings out from the recon
decimate XLG
Yet to even plant the spike there without Raga.
Dying seconds of that high tide, at least allow for the spike to go down.
No man wants to get so impressed with what a force-bending of the train.
Attempt to fall to pass! Now wants to get involved!
Put themselves back ahead in the round, and our face is going to go hunting.
Asola wins the other. And there's another no man frag to not shock.
3v5. Apparently not an issue for XLG.
It's over the IGL from Carmine Corp, standing in the way of their first pistol in the series
and no man.
They've got to make it easy.
Ah, there's gets his.
XLG!
Get a pistol!
And now they've got a chance for real.
They could just stabilize now on this second round, begin to build up the economy.
Now on this second round begins to build up the economy and clean by for the bonus
We can live in a world where they can absolutely make this happen
And I think off the back of a moment like that where you are seeing confident play out of no man and his teammates who
Immediately back him up to take that fight in spawn
on. Doesn't matter how the round comes about, this crowd will celebrate it anyway. This
game is shrunk to a four round affair. Not hard to get a nice little second round clean
win when you're playing Abyss and you've won that attack side pistol. XLG with a decent
hit on this bonus to keep the momentum going, really to build a level of momentum for the
first time today.
There's danger in spades though from the CMEA squad, now rate 14 and 6, 14 and 4 after
the first half.
XLG are keeping it simple, they have an exec comp, they might just want to burst here
into a Cove to get close.
Flashes over top, Recon coming through.
Yep, big side, XX are the go-to here for XLG.
Armistice doesn't get anything off his Recon,
Trinus Pregnitz getting a little bit dangerous,
good damage done.
Leo down to 36, no man, 56.
Hytide going to expire,
what is the set up going to be for XLG?
They are in Trench, five in sight.
They want to fight at these choke points,
they're not playing for spam at all.
No tower presence, but it doesn't seem to matter. No man's going to get dealt with straight as he comes out the door.
I saw Noxious 3. It's going to be on no rates.
He's going to fight this 1v2, and he's heard this surely.
Skirting around the edge, he sees, he's happy when he gets the drop, and now...
Decoy out onto the side.
Has a sense that his opponent's waiting in a main.
He's going to be quick about this though. Five bullets in the chamber, and it's enough to account for Leo.
Still, no time for a defuse, five kills with the round.
Again, goes to XLG.
His willingness to fight in the site together, not acquiesce the space,
has gotten them ahead on the pistol when they were even down players,
and now winning out a situation where they have the weaker weaponry.
They're fighting at a choke together,
Lysor taking advantage of a nice little moment to swing out and connect those shots with the Guardian.
Most experienced player on the stage, period when it comes to globals.
And I feel like it's on the international stage where you see him elevate his play.
What a difference. A little bit of a leaf makes why this rumours lit up.
This XLG team are one that, by their own account, are their own worst enemy.
It is the mental battle that they lose in these international tournaments.
Nobody even saying, it feels like we know how to win games, but we lose the mental
battle when it comes to trying to lift trophies.
If there were ever a time for XLG to get past that, for a guy like Rarga to get past
that.
is playing in front of their home crowd.
It is feeding off of that energy
to feel a surge of confidence in the high pressure moments
that they just usually cannot manufacture themselves.
They are a team with players that are a little bit more low
key, but in this environment, honestly,
I don't want to see just Lysor standing up,
no man getting excited.
I want to see the entire team just living in the moment
and completely playing off of the energy in this building.
As it stands, Lysaw has to combine kill total
of both his dualists.
Some work to be done.
Slow start here for Ragnar, right?
My test is flying and it whips it out!
20 kills in 16 rounds!
He is feasting!
And that time out here for Carmine Corp
opportunity to reset themselves but Aves almost gets caught with Util out. He must know this
is coming, posted up on the line but Lysor gets his 11th.
And don't fear to find that opening. Swings right into Aves. Now XLG just had to group
up to go for this. A execute to going to leave Lysor in the vent. Backstab and presence
for the late round. The most relevant factor here is going to be Sugetsu Bakatsai
playing off the trip, the cage. Can he buy time for the rest of the team to get in here?
Because it looks like he wants to retain this backside space.
His kill trip is gone though. Still he slaps Leo down!
Playing whack-a-mole with the enemies over.
Short handed as they are, XLG have the weapons, Cosmic Divide there for Lysos should
have been required. He's under pressure though. Saturate, booms at his feet.
Some damage taken but he wins out that fight. Happy way, folds back, tucks in
out of the site forces narrowing to extend for it but it's on no man struggled to
find his game four kills to his name and a lot of bodies to shoot at here
Sugetsu knocks him off his perch and Karabai and Klopp make 10
he's just that close but can't connect the one bullet necessary for the
transfer. It's a KC who are set up by Nere in the beginning, catching that kill right into the angle
being held. Raga's shot just off, gets no damage off it. This comes to get to it. Yeah, it's that
confidence and decision to retain back site control, catches the pick off the jump up, but then
just has the space for the rest of the team to come back in. They've been
suffering on the retakes when XLG have posted up deep backside in Sugetsu with
just a share of nullifies that opportunity. Is that Cosby Divide? Narade dominating
this game and it's a freebie set up by the kill-trip.
Not should learn it by no man though and XLG have fully committed towards this
B attempt but they've lost like so now and Sugetsu emerges from the cage to
Take matters into his own hands.
Narrate is a menace.
If you can believe it, at the start of this year,
he was getting blamed for the fall off of Sentinels
being thrusted to the primary, doulless position.
To the extent that at the end of kickoff,
he was ready to bench himself for the better of the team.
He didn't know if he wanted to play the game anymore.
In between maps, frustrated in tears with this Sentinels
team, feeling like nothing he could do
could make a difference. Now, it's running rush shot over XLG.
24 kills in this map.
And here's a big part of the troubles for XLG.
Levin getting on the board here in a big way.
Narrowing left as an insert will pull out.
Despite being 24 for 7, he is not going to take an unnecessary risk.
Just allow his team to thrive as XLG play right into their hands.
And again, it is a despondent hush in the room, because just as XLG start to show some promise,
I can't quite go and remind them of who they are up against.
Pying off the side here, no man was able to aggressively punish that posting,
but Haves is just dominant.
Just sharp as ever, that first kill is a tight angle, instant headshot connection with the Phantom.
And this is it XLG have left their fans in limbo confused and not sure what the trajectory this team has been this year
Consistent in that they've not
Been blowing anybody's minds
They might have blown their chance to get an early win in this group
But if there are ever a time to win around it's one where they have a trio of high power
Ultimates on this a exex split
She gets it ready for this though
Gets off the line, Levin picks it up though, the tower control goes to the attack side team in the post-plot
Mary without that drift for the retake what is in a pivotal position regardless
If he finds the timing window to deal with Leo that could be a crucial backstab
No member the conversion pass, last saw him on a capped line, but no cut to the quick instantly, mirror effect
It's gotta be a reach for the reckoning as well.
And straight out into the crosshairs walks no man.
Rager is downed from being sent home by XLG to knocking them down in the opener.
Narrates redemption arc.
It's another beautifully symmetrical chapter.
What a start for EMEA's number one seed.
Was considering not even continuing to play the game this year,
but trusted Coach Zeiss that he would put him in a position to succeed,
but also to just enjoy the game.
This is Nereath at his absolute best,
the Nereath that was promised when we watched him on the come-up.
The Nereath who smiles now just as Zeiss promised his mother
when he came back onto this roster.
He couldn't look more different than his time in America,
his time on Sentinel's an ill-fated run for a kickoff.
A man recubinated, a man giving back to the team that gave him a second chance.
And if you've been a coal minecourt fan for years, perhaps since the beginning of our partnership,
it's hard to believe that this is where they're at right now, the very top of EMEA and absolutely
dominating in their Champions debut match. They are the torchbearers for EMEA. It's been a
tough year for the region, but if there was ever to be a glimmer of hope it is
this team of an unlikely five, discarded from other teams in the region, but
together they have been so good. Send out a stage for the Verizon post match
interview. Narete, hello. We, Narete, what kind of need you to do the post-match
interview. Okay yeah I need you. Okay so first congrats on a win and you guys
look super solid you know a really convincing win today so I want to know
like what kind of mindset do you have heading into this champions. I mean for
us it's the same mindset that we're going into in any match just in general
we're focusing on like one step at a time not even like caring about who
we're playing just focusing on ourselves and trying to bring the best
version of ourselves out and I think today we did that.
they've become very, very grown up.
What makes them so good now?
I mean, you guys look so good.
You know, from stage 2 to right now, it's evolved a lot.
So what kind of, you know, expert made you guys so good besides the growth change?
I mean, we're just focusing on, like, communication, mainly, like, how we can talk to each other,
how can we improve inside the game and also outside the game.
And I think, like, we're only focusing on ourselves.
We're not focusing on other people, like, what they can do.
just purely focusing on like how can us as like five players be the best we possibly can in the game
so how much potential do you think you showcase today i mean it's hard to say like you never know
like some teams can have an off day some teams can have like a really on day you never know how
you are so for us it's like maybe the next match we could be worse so it's just focusing on
the same things as we did today and hopefully it will go well okay he said actually he thought
The biggest challenge for them is that they are getting better and better at communicating.
They are focused on what they are doing, not too much on other people's mind.
They are getting better and better at playing games.
About the situation, I think every team has their own situation.
They may not know what the situation was like.
They only hope that day will be a wonderful match.
The last thing I want to ask is, can you share your reasons for moving from the 2nd map to today's night road?
like TP, the ult is very strong, especially on an exact type of map, it's very strong to have like a yoru instead of a chamber.
Okay.
and look and enjoy it.
What a match! KC is looking absolutely on fire and joining us we got the IGL Aves. Congratulations!
Now I gotta ask you, how was your very first day performing at Champs?
I think it was pretty good, like my own preparations for the tournament have been going pretty well.
and also for the whole team.
Yes, it's been going very well.
But how is it for you personally?
You know, this is the first time you're on the champion stage
as an IGL playing against, you know,
Chinese team, the whole crowd is rooting for XLG.
Like, how did it feel for you?
I think for us, not only me,
it means so much more than anyone else,
because we went 0-5 and split one in kickoff
within the NTA.
I think we won only one game
and it was looking very rough for the first season.
Like, I mean, for the first half of the season.
But now, yeah, we've been playing pretty well, to be honest.
Yeah, and I'm very happy about this.
Yeah, I'm curious, because you mentioned the turnaround
between stage one and stage two.
Did you have the opportunity, like when a bunch of teams
were visiting London globally to get
any scrims versus global talenters,
this really your first experience going up
against foreign swaths?
Yeah, I've been playing against a lot of other regions,
like in facts.
And I kind of know how they're playing.
I know which play style they like to use.
For example, America's Pacific, they're all different.
Chinese even is very different.
So, yeah, like I played them before.
I would say that K-Corp, especially in stage two,
do not play like other EMA teams stylistically.
Like how do you think you match up
against a lot of these other global teams
that outside of your region?
I think we have a very hard style
that some teams we're trying to like,
or do it and it's very very hard to get specific players and yeah our style is
sometimes very hard to counter because we like we don't have a lot of set things
we just think everything depending on what you're doing we have to change a
lot so yeah it's like kind of hard to achieve this style to be honest. I'm
curious like speaking about your style this this new abyss look that you
showed today because you'd only played the map one time it was a lost enterprise
But your comp changed pretty drastically today. How did you end up settling on these agents?
Narade picking up the Euro for example. We tried to like as you have seen against Enterprise
We tried to do the same exact pump with Shamburg
Like we didn't have Shamburg wiper, but we had something at center
And we tried to do it on this map
But we actually realized that it's not my goods and then we tried like double do this pump
For example of playing from other maps with Phoenix name
So we already understand how it works.
So we tried Duel and really and it's so pretty good.
That's why we chose it.
I liked it. It was really good.
It looks fantastic and it looks like your momentum from Stage 2 is continuing on here.
But you will also have to face NRG, I believe.
Any thoughts about them?
I think they're a pretty good team. They're very experienced.
Yeah, it's going to be a fun match for sure.
Yeah, and your teammate, Nero, is also remarking on the kind of comms that you guys have been working on.
It looked like you guys were actually really solid over in Stage 2 already.
What specifically were you improving coming into Champs?
We were just improving, like, listening to the first call, because sometimes you can get very chaotic.
And we were just improving how we cannot be chaotic and how we can always listen to the first call,
so we're all on the same page and not canceling each other calls,
because this is actually what's making some teams lose,
Because they're just not on the same page and they're just talking over each other.
And this is for me the most important thing in comps.
Like you just need to be on the same page, you need to be very specific, not chaotic, and it's going to be very good.
Is that something you find yourself monitoring, like even in the game today?
Or do you feel like the team's sort of settled in and found a good place?
Yeah, I mean, we need to keep murder games for sure, because even if we at some point fixed it, even in the preparations,
there was some matches again.
So we need to keep working on it, even if it's very good right now.
We need to keep working on it so we don't lose what we have.
And you do have some experienced players on your team familiar with the global stage like Sugetsu.
Are they helping out in any special way, giving advice to the rest of you guys?
Yeah, I mean Sugetsu and Arita are giving us advices.
And not advices, but kind of they're letting us know how it works in international
because it's very different than EMEA.
And they're just telling us how it works in terms of like schedule,
how it works in terms of like on stage.
So yeah, they're making us more prepared for sure.
What is that feel like for you now like playing on on a stage like this with the crowd against you and I mean of course like
You're in a different country different diet different everything like that's a lot to adjust to you
Yeah, I mean at the beginning I came to China at the beginning. I was not very happy
Because like the culture was so different to do with a lot of jet lag and right now
I've been doing it so hard and I like the country so much
And yeah, like about the stage to be honest
I've been playing, like I've played with this similar type of stages for so like too many times
I think three or four times maybe even five and
It's one of our kind experience to be like I really like playing it for the big crowd like it just for me
It's an experience. Well, I mean that that sounds like you want to stay for a lot longer than
So, you know that means going deeper in the tournament and now that you've got a little taste on the stage
How are you feeling about the rest of the tournament for Casey?
I don't like to set any expectations any of us know not only me
I don't like to talk about what's gonna happen in the future. We're just gonna take it again by game
I'm not gonna think about being in the tournament or not being in the top four or not for a bigger crowd
I don't care about all of this. We're just gonna keep doing our things. We're gonna try to
Control like focus on what we can control and just yeah go forward
Well, will you give me a team or a player that you're personally excited to get the chance to play against for the first time?
team maybe
Maybe okay. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I like it like we prep against them and I like the way they're playing honest
So that's why I'm trying to get them in a position. Yeah. Yeah, I have a crowd against you, too
That would be crazy. Yeah, that's gonna be really really fun
Well, thank you so much. I'm gonna stick with us for a little bit here as we wrap up everything for a day
To hear at champions and here are where things stand in group D at the moment
Of course, I was you will be facing against nRG next and you're saying like you find their playstyle kind of interesting
Yeah, I mean, I think they're a very good team
I've also heard that comes before like from like when they're playing official and then there's a listening in the rounds
There comes a pretty clean
Idea, I just think they're a very good team. Yeah, I feel like it's interesting like stylistic matchup as well
So I feel like their defense side is pretty walked in and they don't have a lot of holes
That are easy to poke and find or as you guys that's like your whole bread and butter
That's exactly what you're doing. So you you excited to match up against them
Yeah, 100%. We played against them in EWC even, and it was a very, very fun match, so I'm very proud to play with them.
Now, here tomorrow's matches, we've got GE facing Vitality and Loud and EGG. Any quick predictions you want to share?
I would go with EME, but I'd be for the first match. And second match, it's a bit tough to be honest. It's very hard to say. I think ELEG.
Because you want to play them?
Even though I think Clouds are insane, we also fight against them, but I think Edyji will win this game.
Alright, alright. Cool thoughts on that. Well, thank you so much for joining us, and then there of course.
Everyone, thanks for joining us for Day 2 of Champions, and we will see you tomorrow for more Valorant Champions.
We're going to see four more teams. Welcome to the stage.
Good night.
Bye-bye.
I
I'm not sure if you can see it.
I'm not sure if you can see it.
I'm not sure if you can see it.
I just can't take my words off of you, tell me that, tell me that you're part of my game
I
I
I wonder if the sun burned out tonight Would you let me go or hold me tight?
Just one touch, but I raise the light Say we'll be alright, say we'll be alright
Tell me you need it Make me believe it
I'm barely breathing
Come on, get up, get up
It's getting colder
Health's freezing over
I guess they're coming closer