Brazil every time what's that about no, but this was good 530 game amazing
I don't even consider the late game because usually we have the late games that I consider late games are like 910
Those are those are awful, but this was 530 like great. Okay nice. You said well, what's your what's your coffee of choice?
You got milk or what's the situation? Listen, so it was interesting because I saw like
cafe com canella which means coffee with
Well, what is it? What is it? How is canella in cinnamon cinnamon? Yeah, and it sounded very good
I love cinnamon and everything but the only thing I don't understand about Brazil is that like they put so much sugar in the coffee
It's actually crazy
Sugar guy well
I used to be like when I was a kid
But but now I feel like I'm on this like mature mature kind of like age where I want to feel a little bit dead inside
You know, so I don't really like sugar with my coffee. All right. Well, I hope you wake up
I feel good
I want to talk about the games we've had in the group stage as well because a pretty smooth run for you guys
Obviously, I feel like some people kind of maybe doubting fury a little bit coming into this year with some slower results
I don't count pro league just given everything that was going on with Fallon not being able to play playoffs etc
How do you guys feel like you're progressing because you made it out really clean in the group stage?
Yeah, I feel I feel like we started the year a little bit slow, but ended up kind of
Coming into the finals in crack also we kind of knew that we had we have it inside a
Little bit a little bit after we kind of started out in ourselves in a way
I feel like
Maisie actually said in like a podcast or something or an interview that they had this a little bit like
They thought they were playing perfect CS on season one when they went
Hey, they had like the insane run and they kind of started doubting each other or like
Maybe getting a little bit too irritated from like some mistakes or something like that
and we kind of forgot how close all the games were last year and
To some degree started bashing ourselves a little bit and I feel like that that kind of lost a little bit
of inside trust in between us and like we started slowly picking it up back you
know and thankfully like we didn't qualify for two playoffs which was EPL and
Blast Rotterdam and we actually had like 16 17 days of just sit down and
grind and that's what's showing now. That's got to be some welcome time off
as well because I feel like just going back to back event you know especially
for a team like Vitality who are reaching the final every time deep in
playoffs like you get no time off you're straight off to the next event
And so how did you use your time off coming into Rio?
Yeah, I mean, that's the thing I'm kind of bringing up a lot
during Interes and everything is like the scheduling.
It's just very hard to be, I feel like people are so like,
oh, the level of CS right now is very low and everything.
Yeah, of course, because there's event after event
after event, you don't have any like, at least a week
of just like practicing between the events
can do a very deep change in the playbook
for a team or everything.
And otherwise the team's leaders or whoever are from the tactic
side or the whole team, you have to do it extra.
Every event, you need to change something.
You need to think about new strats.
You need to think about the new system and everything,
and everything.
And when the schedule is so packed and tight,
and you are a team like Vitality that's
qualifying for playoffs and that's reaching the Grand
Finals, I don't even know how they do it.
It's super tough.
And having this 16-2-week period of time, this is like a blessing.
Well, you're into the semifinals, so you at least get another extra day off.
Final question, would you rather play Na'Vi or Vitality?
I mean, the thing is we've played Na'Vi this year twice.
I believe we played them in Cluj and we play them now.
And it's very nice. I enjoy playing against Navi, but it's always very hard.
But I feel like every team in the world right now wants to play against Vitality,
because even looking at the last year, the biggest improvement happens when you play against the strongest opponents.
And obviously we would want to have, I think the arena would be sick for the Vitality theory game.
All right, you're on the harder matchup.
Well, best of luck, good luck, and enjoy your day off as well tomorrow as well as the week.
I'll work out.
Vongia, Vongia, let's keep moving.
Let's grab someone else, maybe.
Fallen, can I bother you for a minute?
Oh, a busy day, a busy day, you can just say.
But is it nice to be back in Brazil?
Definitely, definitely.
A lot of familiar faces.
We're playing very good.
Everything's perfect so far.
Your track record in Brazil has been semi-finals at best,
so what's different today?
What's different in Rio?
Not really, I've been to finals, I've had 1-1.6 tournaments, they're just cutting out of there.
They're too young for that.
But mostly, I'm looking for a little bit more success in CSGO and CS2 events.
So looking great, I'm looking forward, maybe we can do it all.
Alright, fantastic, and you know, you can just certainly draw the play against Team Vitality in that semi-final you guys are waiting.
You know, what changes from Krakow to now?
to now do you feel like you have more chance in a BO3 against a team like Vitality obviously
took Mirage off them in the crack-off final how are you feeling about that potential match-up
if Vitality are going to go through?
Honestly I think both teams can really win I think we have a chance to beat them as
well like we proved that in the past but it's really going to depend on who's going
to show up on the arenas and they usually show a lot so you've got to make sure that
you're playing your A-game as well but the way we have been playing lately I
think we definitely have a chance so cannot predict the results cannot really know if
going to win for sure, but their definition is there.
And I wanted to ask a final question about the NAVI game as well.
9-3 down, pulled it all the way back.
Very impressive show of resilience.
Can you talk to me a bit about that game
and what that was like on the T side of Nuke?
I was very happy that the team never gave up during the match.
We knew that we were having some unlucky or underperforming
some rounds on the T side.
They really had our number there.
But when we changed our halftime, we switched it up.
I told the guys, it's 9-3.
And in CS2, that advantage can go off very fast.
Your win pistol is 9-4, you convert the first by 9-5, 9-6 is free.
Your win first goes around 9-7, you saw it, it's 9-8 in their pressure
because they already came back into the game.
So it's literally one pistol and one go-around, you can be back in the match.
And I just took to it, I just really believed that we could do it.
And there's many, many individual performances that happen,
the many situations that we play well together,
coordinated some decisive micros, some ideas from people who were dead,
sometimes they were just letting it happen.
Some risk as well, like there are literally rounds where we send this guy away
trying to set the faker away, he kills everybody.
Matic was a big clutch.
Like, I don't know if you saw that,
but his character in game literally
speed up so much that I don't think
the guy was ready for the fight.
So there's so many things happening in the game,
and that's just how it goes.
I think that's watching the match back.
And now he kind of played some advantage situations
with too much confidence,
and that gave us a little bit of a margin
to really come back in many rounds.
I have to ask about Yuri as well.
I just remember top four ready player in the event.
He's put on some incredible games.
His flash assists are next level right now.
What's changed for Yuri at the moment?
Flash assists, really?
Dude, I don't know.
I've casted all your games.
I feel like Yuri is just like, every time someone's four
white, it's Yuri in the kill feed.
I don't know.
Yeah, really, yeah.
That's nice.
Nice to hear.
I remember a round where we were going outside on yoke,
and he threw a flash that we didn't expect him to throw.
He blinded the Alper and blinded Maddox,
but Maddox got the kill.
Well, sometimes this goes away.
His flash, he's playing very well.
I'm happy with your performance.
I know he has been working on his game a lot lately.
And, you know, he's very known for his strong T-sides.
And a couple last months, a couple last events,
he wasn't really at his best.
But this tournament, he's proving what he's capable of
and helping the team a lot.
Also, my best of luck, see you in the playoffs
and enjoy your day off tomorrow as well.
You thought you could escape with no interview?
Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe.
Oh, why not?
Oh, well, nice try.
I wanted to ask about, you know, your first event in Furia,
you guys got to the arena in Kazakhstan,
in your home country.
Now you're in Brazil,
what are your expectations for the crowd here?
I don't know how the same is,
and they told me about crowd here.
This is amazing.
And I remember when I was watching, I am a real manager.
Crowd here, very amazing.
And people in Brazil,
where they like to support team from Brazil.
And I like this.
Have you spent much time in Brazil with the team?
you explored? Have you gone out? What's your experience?
I like here because I like good weather how I caught and but problem
different here for me they're eating every time same and I don't like same
food but I need to change every time they they can eat rice every they can
eat the for off and the rice every day but for me it's hard but I like Brazil
I like you try the barbecue. Yeah, no, no, no, but last time when I tried I think it was the house and
when we played Dallas and
But I want to try maybe we'll try today. We have dinner with team and then maybe we will go
I want to talk big picture arenas, right? You've played in a lot of arenas. You've been in obviously Astana
You've been in Chengdu Hong Kong Krakow. What's your favorite so far?
Of course I would choose Astana because it's my home country and but for me when I play
with crowd I would like because I can do something with crowd just playing emotions I'm so happy
when I play with crowd without crowd it's a counter strike.
I respect that well there's gonna be a lot of emotions gonna be a lot of counters
strike this weekend so that's a lot.
Thank you, thank you.
I'm here with Mezzi ahead of the IEM Rio playoffs. Mezzi how are you feeling?
I kind of forgot what it was like for you guys to lose. Do you have the same feeling?
Yeah, I mean, it's definitely not a feeling I want to feel too much. I think it was a frustrating loss against Falcons.
I think not playing our best CS, but at the same time I think we should.
Still a lot of mental strength. I think after the first map, after Mirage, we probably should have won this.
But I think a lot of teams at that point would probably just go down even further and the second map just get blown out.
I think for us, we still managed to bounce back and show some good CS, and then, yeah.
It's unfortunate to lose, but we'll just do it the harder way, going through the quarterfiles this time.
Yeah, we don't see that often. More time in the arena, and of course, you know,
Na'Vi is your opening game. That's a match-up that you guys have had a very favourable history.
I don't think you've even dropped a map to Na'Vi since Robson's joined that team.
This is a team that loved to anti-strat, you know, Blade loves to prep,
and we've seen them punish a lot of the teams, think about Fury back in Budapest at the Major.
You guys still have a great track record against them, even in playoffs.
Why do you think that is, considering they're a team that do their homework?
Yeah, I mean, I think of course they always have their way of doing things with their preparation
and kind of trying to anti-strike the opposing team.
But I think a lot of teams also do that as well.
But I think going up against them, we always have...
I think our style against them is always variable.
I think just the way they play, of course they have their small things
I'm trying to expose it when they what they see in the preparation
But I think the overall way of playing is still is pretty similar to when we prepare
We see the kind of a lot of the same things and their kind of foundations of why they play CS and the way Navi plays CS
So I think we just match it well against them, but it's never easy
I think they're a team that are kind of improving with each tournament and the individuals are
Shining as I think Macaz is playing some really good CS
So it's always going to be tough against them and I think something that we need to step up this
Going into the past is definitely our individual level
I think we're kind of not playing as well as we have done in the previous tournament
So I think if we want to win of course our team CS and our foundation needs to improve
But overall as well our our individuals also need to improve as I think
Including me. I think we haven't been our top level and I think if we can just add an extra 5%
I'm not I think it'll become a lot easier in these games as well
And if you do win that game you're going to place fury on home soil as well
Now apex is used to being the villain that's nothing new
But are you ready to get booed by 10,000 people? I don't know for sure
Well I think, I mean I said to the guys, I think in the real major when I went to the
game and the players from Fiora played Na'Vi and it was like honestly one of the best atmospheres
I've been to a lot of football games, different sports events and this was like it was insane
so I think if we can get past Na'Vi which I'm hoping we can and get in playing against
Fiora in this arena it would be crazy, I mean we're ready for it, I think we've
had it a lot of, of course it's maybe on a lower scale but in some other arenas
we've had it where the fans are against us, but I mean Apex and all of us enjoy it, whatever
it is if they're for us or against us, we're going to feed off that energy and do our best
to win as well.
You guys have been pretty nonchalant when it comes to pressure and all the streaks you've
had and all the expectations and setting new goals. Now obviously you've had your
map streak broken and your series streak broken at this event. Does that remove
pressure? Does it not bother you? Do you not think about it? With the Grand
I'm on the horizon. Does that kind of make it easier or harder or do you just not care?
Do you just show up and play games? No, I think we I think those type of records always nice to have
It's it's like an added little extra to kind of keep on pushing keep on going
But at the same time now they've gone
It's like it wasn't like there was any added extra pressure or anything in our back of mine
It's like we need to keep this street going we need to keep doing it's like of course last year
I think it was a bit different because we kind of had those records in mind
and we kind of really wanted to keep pushing it and it was maybe a little bit of an extra
pressure but now it's kind of like we've done it and we kind of just want to keep on adding
to the record books and stuff and now it's not there, it's also fine, like we just want
to, at this point we even said to the guys like in our goal is to win here, we want
to win the Grand Slam and that's our main goal, whether we do it the ugly way like
we do it now, not playing the best CS and kind of just getting through matches or
if we can kind of just blow out the opponents then that's the way it is but I think
Our main goal is just to win, there's never that added extra pressure of these records
or map streaks and so on, I think we just want to show up and play a good CS.
Million dollars for the grand slam, what are you doing with your spoils?
I don't know, at the moment there's only 70 things you can buy and I've got a family
at home so probably some more toys for my daughter so that's all my money goes to
now is the family so.
Respect the family man, final question, we saw you guys get lost here, when's
haircut coming is it coming before the playoffs? Not before the playoffs, no, maybe before Atlanta
or something. I mean, maybe I'll keep the same haircut, just something a little bit different,
it's getting way too long at the moment, but yeah, it's bittersweet, of course I don't want to
lose, but at the same time I definitely want to the haircut, so it's coming soon. All right,
best of luck in the playoffs. Thank you. You just said you've been playing volleyball on
the beach? Yeah so we just with you know Kai you know UFC so we were out with the
UFC fighter called Kaioboraleo yeah and we played the football with him and we
we had like a full day in Rio a bit on the beach a bit in the mount like we've
seen a lot of things it took us out in Rio and kind of showed us the city so
it was cool but I haven't swimmed in the beach. Oh dude the waves are crazy
Be careful, be careful. The major I almost drowned.
Yeah, it looks so dangerous when we were there, we were like nowhere we're going in.
Probably not insured for that either, so I gotta watch out.
What's, you know, you've been really getting into sport and exercise and gym
and something you've talked about recently in helping your form.
I see you playing the tennis ball dropping game.
Is this all part of, you know, why you've improved this year?
Do you think you've been focusing more on yourself as a person and your health?
Well, to be honest, this year, I feel like in 2024, I was good individually, but the team was kind of shit.
And I took the good things I did in 2024 individually.
And in 2025, I tried new things, but the team was great.
And I think I just mixed those here a bit, and it works out for me.
The tennis balls, per se, we started that in 2024.
Me, my gym, my personal trainer, and Jack, the performance coach.
that before every game we try to kind of, you know, get the hand to eye coordination,
warmed up a bit, during gym time, maybe you play a bit with the tennis balls,
kind of just mix things.
And I think it's, you know, necessarily, I cannot tell you like,
this is what makes me kill more in the game.
But I just know that even if it works 1% more, it's very beneficial.
So that's what I'm aiming at, like just to increase 1% by 1%.
I think that's also the performance coach Jack Goal, to offer every player the opportunity
to go 1% in three months and that's quite healthy, like a bit of inflation.
Yeah, sure, take any edge you can, right?
I wanted to ask about Mirage right now for you guys.
It's a map that I think a lot of teams have actually struggled on at this event.
You lost it twice, obviously, to the G2 and to the Falcons.
Even some safer Mirage teams like you think Spirit and Malz, they've also had some struggles.
What do you make of this map right now, in your map, or is it something like the weakest one at the moment?
Well, I think against G2 we're kind of sloppy all day long, like not Mirage related or anything.
And I think against Falcons we had like a really good city, but we decided we kind of rushed into some things.
We lost like two rounds, but if we won like those 1v1s, we win the game potentially, and I think they played well.
I think for us now, we're really good in those tactical maps.
And we find, per se, a bit of a struggle in Mirage,
even though I think we're really confident on the map.
But for me, maybe it's different than the perspective of the coach,
of Dan, the IGL.
But for me, I'm very confident on Mirage.
I know we're good and I know we're doing really good things.
But just if two rounds don't click, if the etchets don't click in two rounds,
Everybody's so competitive that you cannot capitalize off that.
I think that's the case for now.
Do you like MR12?
Because I feel like this is a resounding thing I'm getting for every play
about how quick these games close up.
We see all these comebacks, 9-3.
You guys did it yourself back the other day,
or back yesterday against Falcons, since overtime.
Do you enjoy this more than MR15, or do you not really mind?
To be honest, I think that in the MR15,
maybe people went for a bit more clutches.
But I think the faster the game becomes, the better it is, the more entertaining it is,
the more in the end of CSGO when it was a bunch of nerds baiting, saving every time I was getting bored of that game.
So now I'm happy with CS2 being aggressive and don't kind of change how people look at the way of entering and stuff
so people became way more aggressive in their rifling, like in how they rifle.
and thank god because it was I was getting CS go end of this guy was not getting bored it's not
fair to say that I'm bored but it's just the game is so dead like there's nothing happening so when
they when they did the ag when you can break the smokes that made the game a bit more faster this
kind of thing that's the thing I love I think the more Valve do that the more I enjoy I think
some people maybe would call it like the game actually I think it becomes more flashy but
less smart less like wow what a play but I think it's better for the game it's
more entertaining less time that is like grey zone watched you know like
people saving people doing nothing people waiting I think it's I think it's
for me way more fun when the game is just round round round round over the next
map like it's way better for me I love that on changes to the game have you
tried the new anim graph beta thing I'm sure you guys are too busy to like
get too deep in it but I think we've got a team playing it later to for
content. Do you have any takes on this? Have you seen this? Have you seen the changes?
I just saw some video on Twitter when it came out, but I didn't try it. I actually don't know how to
go into that. But I think once we settle all with all the tournaments, maybe I will try after
Atlanta basically, but I'm not sure when does it come out. Maybe it's gonna come out soon. So
I'm gonna have to plan it. But yeah, I don't care whatever they bring. They just gonna
I think no matter what update they do, nobody likes it for a while, then everybody gets used to it, it's the same shit over and over, so for me I don't think it's too bad what they do, but I think recently they're trying to make the game a bit more realistic, but by those terms, a P250 bullet to the head should kill anyone from a lot of range, you know what I mean?
I think it's don't try to make it too realistic. It's still a game still skip it between the game boundaries
So don't go
It's my new AI the robin cool. I will let you follow them a five final question 5-7 busted nerf it
Fucking nerf it no, okay keep it the same. I think it's easy easy. We need to buff. Oh, okay
I respect that season trial best of luck see in the playoffs. I'm ambushing you on the way to the the media day
How you doing? How'd you sleep good good? I slept good after this smacking yesterday. It was a bit of a smacking
What do you make of it?
just
our
Unfortunate usual sometimes we just don't show up on the day
And how you feel about the playoffs obviously, you know spirit first game
That's a match you guys have had some trouble with you know in the past few months
What do you think about that game right now?
Yeah, I think they feel like we are comfortable opponent for them for sure. We they won five or six times in a row now
So we're definitely the underdog doesn't matter what form they are in
But yeah, we're just happy to be back in playoff and hopefully we're able to show a better level than we did last time against him
Well, also last time in Rio, which was a couple of years ago now
You guys had a great time in the playoffs you two out fury you destroyed them in front of the home crowd
Was that a bit of do you remember that game? Was that like a library in this arena?
Yeah, it was a bit of a library, but I think that for the Brazilian fans it would also be
nice to see Fria go far and have some good match-ups.
So I think this time they are a completely better team in all the aspects, so I don't
really think that no one will do that to them again in this crowd, and I think that
they really cherish in this tournament.
So I'm excited for the crowd and for them to play with that stage, with all that
energy.
You guys had a great last year, I know it's obviously rough sometimes to look
back at some of the Arena games, but you were the most consistent team in that top four,
you were safe second place the whole way. What's the goal this year? Is it to establish that again?
Is it to try and find your consistency after a slow start? Are you thinking big picture at the
moment or are you just going tournament to tournament? Well, of course, it's pretty obvious
that our form at the moment is not as good as we were last year. Definitely, we felt a
drop-off in terms of individuals and also as a team. So, I think that at the moment,
it's kind of hard to say what is our goals. We came into the year with the high ambitions but
unfortunately our level was not good enough to reach those yet so for now we're just taking a step
back and re-evaluating during this time after we lost last place in Rotterdam to figure out what
is going wrong because not the same mouse we were last year so yeah we want to be better but
But at the same time, we just need to grow back to our form again, yeah.
And what does that look like?
Consistency is one thing, the question for you guys was like, how are you so consistent
in 2025?
Now that you've hit a bit of a bump, what does that look like trying to get back in
form again?
Yeah, it's a good question.
I think it's really difficult to be honest, when you are having such high highs, but
we never won a trophy in 2025 except the first tournament we've been in, so just
So many finals lost, so many semis lost.
We were the most consistent.
We were also happy to be that team, to make playoffs so often.
It's so much experience for the players and us as a team.
But at the same time, every tournament
losing in such a fashion in playoffs is just devastating.
And it caught up to us on 2026.
And yeah, for us to go back into it,
we just need to refine our form, the trust in each other.
It's a bit difficult at the moment.
So many tough losses and not the best games from us.
So we're trying our best and we're working a lot with our staff around the team and hopefully
it does click back together because at the end of the day you also need a little bit
of luck and a good momentum.
Yeah, it's counter strike so you're form dependent on the day, how are you feeling?
I like the point you just made about how you guys have so much stage experience.
Are nerves completely gone when you hit stage games, right?
Everyone's very comfortable, it just feels like another day in the office at least?
No, of course not.
I think there is not any team or many players that can say that about themselves.
I think they would be lying in my opinion, so I think there is definitely some nerves,
but we know how to handle better the losses now than we did in the past.
But I think when it comes to the day, we definitely still have to be better
when it comes to these top three teams that we play, I don't know,
FURIA, Falcons, Spirit or Vitality,
that we need to show up a little bit better to the day, be more of a team.
I think that we have not been doing our best at that.
And yeah, other than that, we're going to keep it a secret to what we need to work on.
Alright, I respect that. Final question.
Are Mauser contender here for the trophy area?
I would not say we are a contender at the moment.
I think that we need to refine our form.
This is not also determined we want to peek in.
It's more to regain the confidence in each other first.
We're not looking at who we're playing as.
We're looking more at how we are playing at the moment.
So for us, of course, we would like to say,
I would like to say we want to win the trophy,
but it's not our main goal at the moment.
All right, Arne Sausser, thank you for your time.
That's a lot.
Magics, big news.
Have you heard the news?
No cries to BC game at Atlanta, thoughts?
I think he's a fraud and he's washed
and he's just farming in a plumber's and.
Washed with no HLTV profile?
How do you get washed that quick?
I mean, we have seen he's running throughout,
like the first rumors and the first years, you know,
social media presence.
And out of that, it is not farming, damn it.
Not farming, OK, well, keep our eyes on Atlanta.
You guys are going to be in the center after this,
but Rio right now, first game, Mals, 5-0.
You haven't played them since Austin.
You feeling good?
What does it mean, 5-0?
You've won the last five games against them.
I did not.
Is that not true?
Fake news?
It's absolutely not.
OK, who won the games?
Oh, it was Donk.
It was Shiro and sometimes it was Chopper, Nier, Sveig and Zolintyx.
Personally, I won them only one time and last time I faced them I lost and lost them, as you said.
So, I don't know.
Okay, well, I'm still feeling confident for you guys.
Taneer is looking quite good, or at least he's had a couple of good games here.
What's it been like trying to integrate him and make him comfortable?
I think he had his second highest rate of gaming spirit against G2 the other day
So you played two BO3s in one day. You managed your energy well. What have you got to say about to me right now?
It's about when it basically works with everyone. You need to
Have a space and have a comfortable zone for everyone to perform
you know
It's not like
We're trying to give him the most resources or whatever. He's just
Doing slightly better in some similar situations, which he had in the past. I feel like it's about
You're facing a situation
You're losing and you're sucking and after this
you're going through it and
the next time you just play better and
If that works this way, it's good
Well, it's going good so far. I wanted to ask about Sotvic. You talked to Stiko about him after one of your matches saying you have to do a lot more work as a guy leading up to games maybe in prep.
How are you balancing that right now after a couple more matches with Halley, Sotvic, you and Halley not here?
Well, Holly has been doing the game plan completely and we are doing this in the rule kind of.
I'm deciding what are we willing to do and Sotfic is supporting me and I'm asking him sometimes if that's good
or is this gonna work or is it bad and we're trying to figure out something.
Is Donk feeling better? I saw his telegram post yesterday.
We'll have to wait and see.
What do you have to do outside the game to keep Donk happy?
I see you guys have a special bond. How do you keep him so happy in this team?
So, the daily routine is ordering a big McDonald's combo featuring 20 nuggets, a double cheeseburger,
diet coke, definitely, for sure.
So, TikTok brings, right, like two hours daily and this is like the basic, that's the minimum.
Can I see your algorithm?
Do you have your phone?
Can we scroll some TikToks?
No.
No?
It's private, it's very personal.
You don't want to see it.
Why don't I want to see it, Magic?
Just don't do it.
Instagram or TikTok Reels?
Instagram Reels or TikTok?
Well, I'm missing them usually. Sometimes it's the tiktok grind, sometimes it's Instagram reels.
And you know, when things get rough, we're going to YouTube shorts.
YouTube shorts? Surely that algorithm sucks.
Yeah, but you know, when everything is falling apart, you just get to this point.
I think it's going to fall apart at IEM Rio.
I hope that we will not have to open YouTube shorts again.
Wow, that's inspiring.
Thank you for your time.
Best of luck.
Our fourth year in Rio de Janeiro
and by the end of this weekend,
another name will be added to this city's legacy.
Of course, it all started back in 2022
where outsiders came out of nowhere,
quite literally, to secure the trophy at the Rio Major.
the last two weeks. We've
seen a lot of the players
in the last two weeks. Vitality
the year after in 2023 and
Navi, of course, our most
recent victors in 2024. The
latter two having the opportunity
to do the double here this
weekend, but they have quite the
challenge ahead of them as I
would argue this is one of the
most stacked playoff brackets
we have seen in particularly
in counts of strike history.
Of course, the team right
behind me falcons despite all
the noise already secures their
to see if they can make it
there. Of course, it's going to
be Navi versus vitality. Rematch
of Rotterdam later on this
evening, but we're going to be
kicking off the action with
miles versus spirit. It's all
going down at the intellect
stream. Mars is Rio 2026.
Rafa, really making history. Absolutely phenomenal.
And Ace is the champion of the Angel Extreme Master.
You're a fighter.
Still not quite done.
MC is going to take this fight for three seconds left.
Last three rounds and the match is going to start in 204 to see.
And this is a massive move for this one, but he's got contact with just the Nexus kill.
He's just jumping up.
And it's all done!
I'm trying!
An unbelievable run with a 4-0 victory over Classic.
And they did it again!
It's all over!
The
The Intel Extreme Masters Rio 2026 is brought to you by ESL and partnership with Intel,
Acer Predator,
Jax,
and DHL.
It is what we've all been waiting for, the playoffs at the Intel Extreme Masters
Rio 2026. My name is Freya Spears. Of course, joined by Siko. We had such a blast during the
group stage. I'm excited to kick this one off. Absolutely. I mean, this is the loudest crowd
we have in the world, probably. So this will be just awesome weekend coming up. I'm so excited
to get this one started. But it's not just going to be us for today. We have a very
special guest indeed, Tago. Welcome. It's so great to have you here. How are you doing
this morning? I'm good. Much better now with you guys. How is it to be back at a tier
Brazilian event. I imagine you want to be on stage but getting to experience the atmosphere here, it's pretty great.
It's actually good to have a big tournament as I am in Brazil. It's actually a pleasure being here and watching and I mean that's something new for me, right?
I used to be on the stage playing. I really miss that but also it's good to be on the backstage and doing things and watching.
We were talking about your t-shirt. This is a throwback. I absolutely love this. 2018.
2018 my first major I worked you guys could you just tell me your memories of that major it was a brilliant event
I was playing for liquid at that time and that was the face-it major in London and
I think we played we lost the semifinals to the champions Astralis
It was a great major as always
The group stage was really nice. We played at a different place then we went to the to the actual arena
So yeah face-it major was was a really good one and it was your first major, right?
Yeah, first major that I worked it was a great times great times in my home city as well
It happened for me that I happened to be at that major last place. So well the different stories
I'm sorry to bring up that to a mistake. I have to ask it because you obviously played against Astralis right in their primary
Right, who do you think is better?
Vitality right now or Astralis from back in the day?
Wow, it's really difficult but I can tell from my own experience
Australia is very good to play against. The level of team play was insane. I'm not saying
that Vitalis is not the same. They probably are. And they probably want to be better than
Australia in the future if they keep going. I don't know if there's much more to do for
them. But yeah, right now I still think Australia was the best team, but Vitalis is getting
there for sure.
Second Grand Slam could help that cause. Australia's only got one, if we're saying
only about that.
If you go by the metric of achievements, obviously Vitality are a little bit step ahead, obviously
one tournament away from another Grand Slam, but also if I think about back at playing against
them, it felt like Astralis, you kind of knew how to beat them, but you couldn't do
it because they were so good, but with Vitality, you don't know how to beat them, you know,
like, it's kind of like a different story where you don't, you're not even sure
if you're skilled enough to kind of pull it off, and for a lot of the teams they're
still figuring it out.
Finally, we've seen some weaknesses this tournament, so there might be some interesting
playoffs ahead of us. Literally only one team able to beat them this year. And that's Falcons.
They'll be in the semifinals coming up tomorrow. But I think we need to dive into our checks
prediction. So if we bring up the bracket, we can go through these games one by one. Let's start
with Vitality. They can be going up against Navi. Is Navian for a rough time? I do believe so.
I think it's really unfortunate that Vitality, despite showing their, I would say, like a
big game this tournament, they are starting in the quarterfinals and Navi have to be kind
of this kind of first guy to try to stop them. I do believe that Vitality are just steps ahead
even when they're playing their B game. We've seen a couple of individuals stepping up for Navi,
but I don't believe that will be enough to stop Vitality even if they're not playing their sharpest
game. What are you predicting, Taco? Is it Vitality to take down Navi to go through to the
semis? Yeah, I think Vitality is going to win this one. It's good that it's a European
and maybe that's what that way, right?
So both teams know each other a lot.
And I know that Kavi knows that it's very difficult
to beat Vitality, but Blade is a really good coach.
I think he's going to come up with some special thing
and maybe they have a chance, but it's not for that.
If Kavi's not in their best day, a good day for them,
I think they're not going to beat Vitality.
I have to say that in Rotterdam,
they actually got beaten 0-3 in the final,
but Blade actually came up with a really sick game plan
that Na'Vi individuals couldn't like kind of convert into win.
But the game plan wise, they were ready for Vitality.
It feels like right now, it could be that individuals step up
because Mikasa is having an insane tournament
and also Emma is having a couple of really heavy play
performances throughout the group stage.
So this might be actually way closer than Rotterdam.
I like your argument,
but we can still slap a Vitality W on this, right?
They're gonna be progressing to take on Furia.
Let's talk about the other quarterfinal though.
First game coming up today,
Maus versus Spirit.
Did you ever get the opportunity to be in a server
with Donk, have you ever even played just like, you know, face it against him?
Yeah?
What was it like?
Um, difficult.
The kid's good since always, I feel like, already in CSGO, he was already good in the
end of CSGO, he was already good.
Donk, well, I think he's gonna show up today and he's gonna play insane and he's
gonna help also, Spirit to win the semi-finals, but I think it's also gonna be difficult
for them.
What do you think?
I've had a couple of words with Spirit because don't mention on his telegram that he's feeling
sick, extremely sick during the group stage. Whenever he's focusing on the crosshair,
there's an insane headache. So I asked, how is this happening? How is this looking right now?
And yes, he's feeling better. And what you just said, he makes perfect sense. Like he was
demon in practice, but he was tenfold better in official games and on arena. So
I do believe that Spirit are going to take this one home.
And Miles just don't have a good record against Spirit either. I mean,
Like you've been there obviously back in the days when you're going up against an opponent that just keeps on beating you
That that's so tricky right like does it get in your head mentally when you're like, okay?
I literally never be in these guys. Yes in liquid with Astralis. I
Think we lost maybe ten times ten grand finals against and not ten but five five grand finals
So so that's at the same year, which is insane. So yeah, definitely is a thing like a mental
Let's go with a mental block and some some teams
you don't know how to play or even also some teams they have a lot of confidence
playing against you because they know your style or something like that I
think miles is also not looking good because I am at least from what I'm
reading on social media they are about they are about to change a player or
something like that so that's not a good mood to play a tournament like that
and let's see I mean that could be a good thing as well when you play
without any pressure it's also it's also good but let's see how they let's
see how they play today.
Perfect segue into the topic of Falcons, because we know, we pretty much know, I'm not going
to say we know for definite, but the Ruinbill has been circulating, Karaghan coming in
to Falcons, they're obviously going to be playing what we think will be spirit in that
semi-final. What do you make of Ataco when there's so much discussion around your team,
around a roster change happening, does that make you more free as a team? Does that
put more pressure on? Like what state do you think Falcons are in right now?
Well, I think for Falcons, what I said for our experience is like the same thing.
I think playing a tournament without any pressure is good for them
because they already have that pressure.
People talking about them, people expect Monazzi, Nikko, Kiyosuke to win tournaments and stuff like that
because they are great players, they are big players.
And playing without this pressure because they're kind of going to change a player,
carry on his coming, and I think playing with this pressure off their shoulders is really good for them.
and I expect Falcons really strong in the semi-finals.
And not only from the individual's perspective, but also from the team's perspective.
No pressure for Kixen, it's just as hell.
I mean, calling-wise and individual-wise, he was really solid throughout the group stage as well.
And he, whatever he's answering through these questions when we're addressing the elephant in the room,
I like the answers, even though there might be PR trained.
But if you're a team like Falcons and you do not perform and you're not winning tournaments,
since the last time they basically brought monocene, well there are always going to be
rumors about the replacements and leading is huge part of this team when you have so many
strong voices. It makes complete sense that Kixen might be on the on the chopping block here,
but what he's doing with Falcons right now at this event is remarkable. So who makes it
through to the grand final between we think Spirit and then Falcons, who's going to make it to
the grand final? I think Falcons is going to make it to the grand final. I think they are
are the clear favorites, at least in my mind.
I'm doubling down on this, fuck us, I am making the finals.
Oh my gosh, okay, so the other side of things,
this is where maybe we can have a bit of a disagreement
because Vitality, in theory, we predict are gonna face Furia.
What do you think, Tango, some of your ex-teammates,
do they have what it takes to take down Vitaly?
Well, there's one team that has been against Raleigh
in a grand final, and did this for you, right?
In the past, they know how to do it.
I think they are in a really good mood
as well in the team because they had some time to practice.
They played good this tournament.
I was talking to Stiko as well earlier.
I'm not sure if that day off is a good thing for them
because in a way, it's good to kind of warm up
on the stage with the crowd.
It's going to be loud and it's difficult to play.
So for them, I'm not sure if that's a good thing
a day off.
So in my mind, still, even though I'm supporting
I think Vitality is gonna win because they are the favorites, but I think if there is there is one
Chance for them. I think it's this tournament at all. They look in really good. I
Would throw in a spanner and I'll say furio. I mean they have a six. They have a six in Brazil
There's a lot of precedence behind me. I have a security. I
Do believe that that's six men on the server in terms of all the ends. It's going to make a difference
I felt playing against the Brazilian crowd back in 2018, that was the hell to play against.
I am not thinking that Vitality are not able to pull it off,
but I do believe that Furia has just enough her hand in these terms.
Okay, so what are we going with? We've got a split decision here.
Should we go with Furia? Should we follow her heart?
Let's go with Furia.
Yeah, let's go with Furia.
Okay, okay.
The best people are going to kill me in Brazil.
Okay, so Furia Falcons in the grand final, a best of five.
Who takes it? Who's winning?
I'm gonna be honest. I think Falcons are winning this tournament. It has it was destined it was destined to win
Okay, I do believe that there is some higher power here
Orchestrating everything because the way Falcons have been playing this tournament
We have not seen that Falcons in a long long time
Maybe I am Melbourne last year when they could have denied the grand slam of vitality
They didn't do it in apex right after the final set or a little bit after like two weeks
said that they should have lost the final. He thinks Vitality were not actually a better
team on the server back then. So I do think that Falcons right now with this all pressure
environment, they're going to take it. Yeah, Falcons are, they are looking very strong
in this tournament. But I think if you're making it to the Grand Finals, then it's
going to be very difficult to win against them. Then the proud factor, I think
they're going to be warmed up from the semifinals. They're going to get used to the stage.
I will continue with my argument, with my opinion.
Yeah, sorry, Nico. You're not employed in this one.
It's going to be through here.
They're going to be left in the trophy on home soil.
I think we should get the show started then.
We're really kicking off.
It's our first quarter-final coming your way.
Hi, I'm Henry, Henry G. Greer, new general manager for Team Falcons.
And today, I'm going to give you a peek behind the curtain as I build a colossus on Colossus's
new fantasy mode.
We're going to kick things off with a triple pickup.
Kisuke, Monosie, Niko, my boys, welcome to the team.
And I'm biased.
Sue me.
So Daniel is a personal friend of mine, not very mad.
Seems the site has a technical error.
Cut!
Right, you've gone over budget.
What do you mean gone over budget?
It's fantasy, right?
The idea is you build a team within your means.
Well, that's not very realistic, is it?
Look, it's classic fantasy.
you can pick any player within reason.
And you can build your roster.
The best part with Colex, you can win actual prizes.
Yeah, that's all great, but one question.
This budget thing, if I'm maxed out,
how am I gonna afford S-Attack?
What?
Can't build a colossus without S-Attack.
We got miles in the house ready to take on spirit in their quarterfinals.
Spinks, could I bother you just for a few words?
You used to this by now.
Tell me about yesterday.
No games.
managed to get out and see the city at all? A bit. We went out for dinner. We didn't go to
the beach or anything like it with the media day but we had the time to go for dinner. What's the
routine in the morning when you have the first game of the day? What did you get up to this
morning? So the team we wake up, we go for a teamwork, 30 minutes, enjoy the sun. I love
enjoying the sun. We play a bit of ball. We go breakfast. It's a bit of a warm-up,
some DM session, everyone have their individual way and then we'll come in here to the arena.
Okay great, so nothing too strenuous for you Spinks. Final question, memories of this arena,
what's the most memorable moment for you here in Rio?
I just remember the fans are crazy and it's like here it's not like an esports or CS game,
it's more like a football game in the arena and as long as you're not against
Fui or any Brazilian team it's nice. Well thank you so much for your time Spinks, good luck.
Thank you.
Hey, Sotvik, welcome to the arena. How are you feeling?
I'm feeling happy to be here to play for the crowd.
Yeah.
And I'm really proud of my guys that they are thankful to them,
that they made my dream come true,
because I didn't play in front of crowd when I was playing, so yeah, I really happy about that.
This is what I wanted to ask. Do you have absolutely no experience? Usually coaches are experienced guys, but you never played in front of the crowd.
This is the biggest audience you will ever face, right?
Yes, yes.
Okay, I wanted to ask about your Stark, Stark Donk.
He's obviously shared on Telegram that he's feeling pretty sick and he had troubles with Headache,
and whenever he's focusing on Crosshair, he's paying doubles.
How is he feeling after the short break after a group stage?
He's still a bit sick, but he will do whatever he needs to perform.
I will not waste any of your time, and good luck seeing you on the stage.
Place it in matches set your starting point, face it rating measures your impact as you
climb.
The soft ELO reset narrows the gap between the highest ELO players and the rest of level
10.
Your starting point will be based on your recent ELO inactivity.
We're introducing Facet Rating, so you can see exactly how much you stack up against others at your level.
Facet Rating measures how much your actions have increased your team's chances of winning the match,
taking into account the full situation.
Season 8 launches April 22nd.
Good luck, and have fun!
Is it still there?
At least I cleaned that one head
What the-
What a mess
You think?
You really think?
You're the shit
Yeah, 0-3, I was like...
It's so hard to play with VK, it's so hard.
I was running, running.
I just stay in ladder room and I just look in left side monitor and I saw 4 headshots, it's easy, easy.
It's last premium, I'll stop.
Yeah, in general.
There was a moment when Borya said he would take the house, we went with him and killed him.
I let Borya go to Epitune, and then I went to the pit.
It was clear that Voxy would go to Zegi and I decided to jump and kill him.
We were fighting, but I don't know.
I told Info that it was clear, and he said that he was going to the cave.
I don't know, but he just decided to jump.
Do you have such a shampoos?
I don't remember.
But we lost a colleague.
That's a big guy.
Easy moment, because I have good position.
But it's triple kill, it's so hard.
Good demand.
Nice one.
It was my first day.
It was a gift from NAVI.
How do you say it? I was trying to record it, but I thought that I'm gonna kill you.
Keep out, he killed everyone.
If you see him...
But the last kill is...
I see that he's gonna kill you.
I remember this.
But Halzer can have mistakes.
He's beating me, but he needs to not pick.
He's just waiting for us, but he's dying.
I don't know why.
Two versus five.
And we know info for the two last guys.
One full HP and second guy low HP, don't tell me low, low, low, and I don't know, again he's going to first guy, going first, and he's low HP and I kill him and my guys kill last people, easy.
Oh, juicy aim.
I remembered.
There is juicy one-tap on the snap, I don't know.
Oh, yeah.
Wow.
It's easy moment.
Chopper telling me info 2 behind, and I know info 1 low HP and 1 full HP.
It's not buy, it's forced buy.
And I have good position for me.
Full buy.
But it's so... like it.
Thank you, but I shored him.
Oh, it's unstoppable, Clash.
It's semi-final, right?
No, it's 2-1 shot.
Is it a group?
Yeah.
Oh, it's groups.
OK.
It's in-fume, Clash.
Like it.
It's super.
Like it.
Well, did you hear the gladiators terminate Phelps contract phase replace neo within KJ
how to bench the Duke after exiting Rio 9 through 12 the most stock playoff rocket
that we've had in the past six months it is the Intel Extreme Masters and it is Rio
My name is Tracer at this you might know me a stunner and I've been here for quite some time alongside of these gentlemen as well
I mean you guys have also been here for quite some time
And I'm not just talking about the confines of Rio itself
I'm talking about why and came the middle yank of pound of it's a former coaching fame and then also down the end
We've got Jacob Pimpinkey who once upon a time played for team liquid in Wade 930 kilos now
Let's quickly on to the pharmacy arena. Shall we Jacob? Yeah, let's do it
You said yourself a stack playoff a stack tournament group stage was delivering and a lot of different fronts
I think we broke some viewership records as well.
We have a few events in Brazil without it being a major,
so it seems like people have an appetite for Counter Strike
and the teams have delivered as well.
And most importantly, we're at Trace's favorite arena, pharmacy.
Pharmacy, there we go.
He comes there a lot, doesn't he?
He needs it, at the very least.
I'm so confused.
Just take your multi-vitamins, I don't know.
Yeah, take your medicines.
Yeah, I suppose.
Also, Vitality on the cusp of winning the SL Grand Slam.
There is a lot going on in riding in these playoffs.
What will this playoff tell us?
Yeah, we were getting into the tournament, thinking first, okay, can anyone take a map off of them?
Let's start with that. Okay, they can. It was G2, right? Can anyone beat them in a series?
Falcons can. All right, so now they have to go through the quarter-final and then that side of the bracket,
you know, Navi, the second-best team in the world, a rematch from a grand final just three weeks ago.
If they can get over that, Fioria in front of their home crowd in Brazil, right?
Then a potential rematch against Falcons or Spirit or Maus on the other side of things.
That's a tough run. This would be a legitimate, even for a team that's been as dominant this year as Vitality, that's not going to be easy.
No, they have to do it the hard way, but I guess when you're fighting for a million dollars plus, you know, another ESL Grand Slammer,
I think you have to do it the hard way in some sense. So yeah, they really put out the landscape for them by losing two Falcons in that game,
starting in the quarter-final. I'm curious to see how they're going to play later on today.
And I'm curious to see if Vitality are starting to show a bit of fatigue.
It's been a long period now, they've been great, they've even outdone themselves compared to the 2025 level,
so I guess it's only normal that they slow down just a tiny bit.
Yeah, we'll have Spirit taking on Malz today, which should be fun to watch around the edges.
We'll get to see which versions of themselves show up in the server.
Maybe we can get some insight in on that right now through Doc. What's up?
I'm catching up with Dong before your first game here on the stage.
I wanted to ask about your road here so far.
Obviously this is not kind of like spirit as business as usual
Was a little bit hard. Can you share with us? Why that might be I?
Think the our route was really tough. It was I think a lot of
Mups that we don't have to lose and I think
It happens only because we don't have our coach because like it's
Like a lot of things that he was doing now
Now we have to do it and it was kind of difficult and it's hard to recognize what's not enough.
I remember during the group stage there was this moment where I believe you lost the map
against Red Kennets and you stayed in the booth warming up instead of joining the guys
outside and talking with the team.
Do you feel like you're relying on your individual performance right now that you
have to step up instead of just talking with the team between the maps or was
it's just a rare situation? It wasn't about my individual performance, it was more about
that I cannot go outside, because I feel like I'm dying. So I was sitting just in the cold
place, you know, and it was like, I don't know, alive in me.
Are you feeling better though? I mean, you've shared on Telegram that it's really, really
hard for you to play, to focus on the crosshair now. The audience is going to impact
that as well they're going to be cheering, growing, shouting, it is really hard to focus
on the game right, so how are you feeling?
I don't really see the game, I hope for everything to be fine.
Let's do it, good luck on the server.
Jimmy, great to get to catch up with you ahead of this quarterfinal, I gotta be honest,
whenever I've spoken to Miles it hasn't felt like the most confident version of
yourselves at the moment.
If you're going to rate your form from 1 to 10, 1 being the worst, 10 being the best we've ever seen, where would you put yourself and why?
Maybe at the moment like, I would say like 8 maybe, at the show like we have a short so far. I think we still have some way to go.
But at the same time coming to play us now with this form, I think it's a good in a way for us because we're not also expected maybe to win so dominantly against these top tier teams.
So we still need to prove ourselves from this tournament, like in this tournament, and now
in the playoffs I think we have a lot of good opportunities and I hope we can also deliver
now.
You're talking about other people's expectations, what are your expectations here?
I mean our expectations of course are the standard, we still know that we are a really
good team but of course like maybe not the most confident at the moment, like if
it's being like truthfully but still we know like we are really good and I think
We know like when we are playing or like a good game, we can beat any of the teams, but now starting off with spirit
I think it's a good matchup for us even though I think last couple of times we lost first system
But still I would say we are confident and now in front of the playoffs again because last tournament
We did not make it here. So it feels good. It's been
Quite a while since you managed to take down spirit hasn't been since the Austin major that we've seen that feet happen
What is it that's so difficult about facing spirit?
I mean, I think Spirit as a team, like, I mean, now they have a little bit different team, like, with the Magic Sige and stuff like this, but still, like, of course, they have the best rifle in the world, and if you just don't play a good game, he will punish it, like, don't punish you, and also, Shira, and they have just a lot of good individuals, but also as a team, of course, like, they are a good team, like, nothing to take away from them, and if you're not capable of, like, being ready for their aggression, and just being sharp in the moment, then, you know, you're not going to be able to do that.
it will be gone really fast you know and I think that has been like the problem
I would say that you have not just been ready and yeah I see I hope that today
VR already I feel really ready like individually speaking so yeah I'm
excited for the game. That's really good to hear just in terms of a spirit
trajectory at the moment VRS put them at number 10, HLTV had them at rank number
nine. Do you think that's accurate about spirit? I mean it's a little bit
hard to say I would say like they had a I mean of course they're a good team still
but they of course I don't think they're also in the best form right now like
they have some it's like some there's some maps in the group stage versus some
things maybe they shouldn't lose to but in data I'm not really care about that
like it's not important in the moment I just want to play and I think just
period as a team if I look at them I think they're still like top team so I
think that's what most important for me just one final question I spoke to
yesterday he cited communication and lack of proactivity as something you guys
are struggling with is that accurate from your perspective is that something you
feel hasn't been top-notch with the team yeah I mean I think definitely yesterday
it was the case or two days ago when we played versus Fourier like we we
couldn't like show up as team and it definitely showed like Fourier played
really good and then we played like really bad so yeah it was the problem
team but we also showed like Ernest Haruhrad that we are really good we
can do like otherwise like we can bring all of the productivity and stuff like
this communication it was really good level so that's what I hope and that's
what I want to also bring for the team today in the players for the spirit and
yeah I'm excited to see how it will go. Excited to see you both entering the server.
Thank you so much for your time Jimmy. Good luck. Yeah let's talk a little
about that performance right there. Of course for Team Spirit dominating
mouths they're not the only ones sometimes it's either you do the
doming or you get the dome and in this instance it was miles that were
dumpster fire versus furia yeah i think those results in the screen speaks a clear picture in
terms of this being a rough matchup for mouse as jim had also said maybe that can change a little
bit you know new ingame leader and matrix coming in and spirit themselves also look to to be struggling
a little bit in in 2026 but it goes without saying that historically speaking mouse have had a
a problem beating team spirit as of recently before they lost these five games in a row
they actually won three in a row so it's not they haven't done it before it's just as of
recently, it's been a struggle to match up for them. Yeah, and the one that stands out is that
Cologne Grand Final obviously, because that was the first time last year that Maus took down Vitality.
Even the favorites in that one. In the semi-final, they're going into the Grand Final. Finally,
they got over the hump. It's going to be, it's Maus's time, German organization in Cologne.
No, they just got 3-0ed, right? And actually it ended up being even worse
from that point on for them, and that's the issue, right? Like, a lot of these games are
on stage in the playoffs where spirit doesn't fall off in their level whatsoever and Mao sometimes struggles.
Which is a scary concept. I mean you think about the Mao's that was promised about a year ago,
a little less than a year ago. Does it seem like some of that volatility, some of that firepower,
is dispersing, is it dissipating even? What's happened here?
It's a good question and I think they're asking themselves the same question. What exactly
is it they can't figure out at the moment and why have they dropped, you know, 5-10%
I think there's no clear cut player or no clear cut reason that you can point out and say it's this guy or it's because of this reason
But I have a feeling whenever I watch mouse play that it comes from all of them almost that every single player within this lineup
Struggling a little bit, you know, maybe lacking a couple of percentages
And when you add that up against a very competitive field of team
It just feels like they lost a bit of that oomph one of the players that I've been looking towards and and something for you
Also and mention in the interview is Toshi on the AWP the lack of productivity the lack of impact coming from him with the
He used to be a player that you'd watch and then he would have moments in the game where he would explode
He would take over statistically speaking not always putting up, you know, the greatest of performances
But so far this year he's off to his worst start to a year as a professional player and he's lacking having a presence with the AWP
In today's day and age of Counter-Strike. Well, a lot of teams seems to be struggling with him and Maus is one of them
Yeah, complete 180 right went from talking about him as maybe one of their best players in arena settings and playoffs
or being the heart and soul of the team to being somewhat of a liability, right?
And we know that for AWPers it can be tricky, sometimes you do a lot of supporting, you do this and you do that,
but on the city side there's not much hiding away in that regard,
and you need to find ways to be impactful and for Torgy that has been a struggle as of recently.
You know, getting throttled in that Fury a game, 15-26 in a Jimmy across the series,
Mouse did not have fun in that game, and it's pretty obvious, isn't it, Ray?
Yeah, I think we'll, you know, and we'll point out Jimmy a little bit later on some of the specific maps
But I think it's been like that across the board. Obviously Jimmy has suffered a little bit with the addition of spings
He's taking some of the space from him him in terms of the lurking and and whatnot
But I think a lot of these individual issues and and the worst performances come from just
No changes in the lineup really in a way as well. They've just hit their
ceiling as a lineup I feel like right and that's why you know people were
expecting a roster change during this last break it didn't happen so how can you
expect better results and better performances you didn't do anything I
know they're working constantly and practicing but we even heard from
Torgy he feels like they're over analyzing now like they're over doing
it because you're running out of things to fix and to focus on you've been
together for so long like it just has to change. Jacob put yourself in
cyclone shoes are here right you've got to like really grab the wheel here behind
the driver's seat so how do you navigate that sort of post shuffle maybe
maybe not sort of breakup idea I think that's the first step right he has to
come to terms with the fact that a roster change most likely is needed he's
been asked that question a couple of tournaments in a row now and he's been
open to the fact that maybe maybe they will make a roster change he's
considering it so I think first and foremost that's what him and
Sipnix who recently resigned a contract with Mars have to figure out to me
as well just to add on what Janko was saying right there it's the lack of
development right if you think of this roster and you think of the five players
can you hand on your heart say that any of those five players as of recently has
progressed or playing better counter strike or have developed as an
individual I'm looking at exertion I think a year ago he was better than he is
today I'm looking at Torsey I think a year ago he's better than he was today
Brolan has declined as well Spinks is doing a decent job being stable but
he's not getting any better so it's just a liner right now when no one is
really developing no one is really getting better despite being relatively
young still. So whether that's Cyclone, whether that's mouse, a change of fresh
or breath air, I don't know what it is, but something needs to change for the mouse.
Wait, just a second. How ridiculous is that quote from Cyclone?
It's up there.
Remember that no one does second place better than us? Was he saying that in a
joking manner? Like I don't know, because no one's in this to get second
place, man. And that's why people have wanted mouse to make changes. And
that's why they won't be getting any first places until they change the
roster, but that's just crazy.
It is a little short of what you want to hear, what you want to feel,
rather know, I want to go back to the idea that the mouse roster itself had
Roland come in at the helm at some point to be the IGL, you know, like what,
what has that done to history vectory and what can he do to come back from that?
Where do they slot somebody in?
You know, we're theory crafting here a little bit.
I think he did a good job in the beginning.
You know, he was thrown into the role of, you know, with no expectations
whatsoever. I think a lot of people, including myself, were questioning,
is he going to be fit for it?
Him and Cyclo worked it out in the beginning and, as they said, the one trophy they have was the very first tournament with Brolin as an in-game leader.
Now, is he the in-game leader that can take them to the next level? Is he the in-game leader that can change the course of the team?
I'm willing to say no, and that's what I spoke about before. There's no development. I don't see a new style of play.
I don't see him getting more and more comfortable in the role.
I just see a team who for a long, long time stagnated and now even declining.
Well, decline as you might. For Malz, it is kind of easy for us to focus on their shortcomings.
So we'll do it right now in full screen. Let's do it, Janko.
Yeah, I think also what they struggle with is when rounds break down a little bit.
They have openings, good protocols and everything, but situational counter strike is where they start to struggle, especially when the pressure is high.
So this is against a half-buy, really, on the side of Fiora in their game here at Rio.
You can see the initial double smoke, actually, so that this break can't really happen from the side of Torji and Amoloto.
There's limited utility on the side of Fiora.
Now the double smokes come in, Torgy fires off a shot, so they have this info that the opposite mid.
Spinks comes down from B to help him, he's gonna smoke off doors, right, Torgy is gonna start rotating back.
But because Torgy is down there, exertion with the rifle has to stay on A, right, he has to cover if they just decide to run out cat.
So mid to be a little bit vulnerable right now, they're not playing together.
Spinks does a good job of getting two kills, right, but they know he's the B guy, so they know it's just Jimmy left towards B.
He has some utility to block them, but now he's on his own, Yuri is lurking.
Yurii does a great job here, waiting for his teammate, putting pressure on Jimmy,
and then a bit of a whiff here from Jimmy, right, exertion now,
tries to make something happen, but dies to Yuri, and the round completely falls apart here for the side of Mao.
It ends up being a 2v2 post plant, but Furia does a great job in the clutch with Yurii and Molodoy to close it out.
This is where it's like, yeah, Spinks gets two kills, but even with that when he died
It's because exertion isn't in CT can't be there to help him towards you with an op if he's there
He can't do all that much. So sometimes this tunnel vision of not understanding the macro and seeing where your teammates are as well
and and
Zoning in on just yourself and your own crosshair comes to hurt
Fury playing that big picture counter strike in that right Jacob
Yeah, that's what you you got to do right and then sometimes if you get caught off guard in a
uncomfortable scenario like when the round became a 3v3 like normally you'd say Jimmy
he's gonna get a kill in that position and he's gonna play that situation a little bit better we
replace him to be one of the the better anchors in the game we highlighted him as being maybe the
only one who could compete against bit and rubs for that matter as well in in the role but he's
far from that level where he's guaranteed a kill as it used to be and it also feels like
sometimes they're just a little bit lazy you know like they're not communicating at the
start of rounds we have another example from the same game right it's going to be the
The B bomb site again, we're also focusing on it because it's most likely going to be the pick of spirit
coming into this one. So you could see after that, half-buy, Furia is going on a little bit of a roll here
in terms of rounds, a smoke for a B rush. Jimmy and Spinks, and this was probably seen in prep,
take a little bit of time to cross so they don't get tagged, but Jimmy with this closer spawn is going straight to window,
not using any utility, right? He's gonna get caught by every single flash, and even though Spinks
Does use something, Hughes is an inset here in an HE, the HE is too deep considering the timing, so it doesn't do as much as it's supposed to.
And he also just gets blinded by the entry flashes.
Like this is the easiest B rush that you see executed, right?
And this is such a sort of lazy way to lose a round, such an easy call for Furia to steal one away.
I think that's a great way of forcing it a bit laziness, you know?
maybe a bit of lack of focus as well where you're like in this zone, you're
laser focused, you do all the things correct and I think when it comes to
Dust2 as a general, you know that as well from a coach, it's not maybe the most, I
guess, hardest map to play but you just got to do all the basics right, you
know, you got to make sure that you always have the protocols to stop a
B rush, you got to make sure you always have the protocols to take
short control, etc, etc, and they seem to fail in that. When you target this
in prep, like there's teams who just don't do this on high enough of a
level or don't consider it as big of a threat, and also I mean even
in that situation, you can drop the defensive smoke, you can drop the incendiary, do something
to buy time, you're just standing at the hole, getting caught by every flash and dying, it's
just a really, really poor way to open around on B.
Flipping our attention over to the other side of this versus battle would be the Spirit
side. This is a team that went through and got smashed on by the Falcons. Falcon punch
even if you're a Super Smash Brothers player. And in this notion though, they didn't
get that first time coming into playoffs, but they are definitely here. Where do their
start. Where do we start with Spirit? I think it's been it's been a tough transition for them to
integrate Son Tix and Magix in as an in-game leader as well. I think a lot of people including myself
expected that team to be freed up a little bit more, maybe give them a new look you know with
Chopper being out of it. He's been an in-game leader for Spirit for quite some time but it
hasn't really worked out and I know this time around maybe there's the caveat that Donka's
been a little bit sick during the group stage. He's still the third highest rated player by
the event and so you know kudos to that for being sick but it just doesn't feel like
Spirit have come to a new level. It doesn't feel like they have developed. It doesn't feel
I feel like I'm seeing a new trend or a new way of playing or approaching Counter-Strike to me.
I don't know how you see Jankovic. It's more the same. Obviously you rely a lot on Donk.
It goes without saying that when you have the best rifle in the world, you got to rely a bit on him.
But I don't see another layer added to this team with Magix as an in-game leader.
And personally, I thought, you know, yeah, sure, we'll give them some time.
But by now I would see, you know, tendencies. I would see signs of life.
I would see something getting better in spirit, but I'm having a tough time spotting it.
I want to see what Donk means with Get-A-Lotus.
Yeah, I'm googling it right now. What is he talking about?
Absolutely, for Spirit, this is the poorest start to a season ever since they added Donk to the starting lineup.
It goes without saying and they made changes to improve on last year and last season.
If anything, they've regressed, deciding to skip Cluj, gave them five weeks to just practice and iron things out.
Going into Pro League, well, they get too old by Astralis there, not making the playoffs of Rotterdam.
I mean that's unheard of for team spirit really in a way
So here they do a good job of bouncing back to get into the playoffs
There was that you know convincing loss to Falcons that's not going to feel good by
Any stretch of the imagination, but I think this is a must win for team spirit
I know that sounds a bit weird considering their coaches in here and you know, they're playing mouse
They're not playing some plumbers and whatnot
But looking at the trajectories of these teams like mouse is mouse is making a change after the cologne major if they're not
ban them from you in the circuit. Live on air if they don't. I will not eat a
shoot. But Spirit you know that they have to get something going here they
made these changes okay magnets need some time to get used to in-game leading
all that's fine but you need to show some results you have don't you have
shiro like the pieces are there you have skilled players you need to
figure it out right to get some results now so that there's some
confidence for the players some confidence moving forward and if they
lose to a you know dead team walking almost in mouse I mean that would
be catastrophic leading up to the major.
So the internet has told me here on my Helios Neo 16 AI, the Lotus symbolizes purity, spiritual
enlightenment, rebirth, resilience, and the ability to rise above challenges.
Where do we get it though?
I don't know.
I haven't seen anything around here.
We might need some of those if you've got any spare big man doc.
Hey let's talk about map pool comparison, it is about that time to play the game.
So let's do that.
Where do we find ourselves?
Yeah I think as we pointed out for Spirit Dust 2 it's going to be definitely, I
their pick without a doubt considering how proficient they've been on the map lately and it's been a
struggle for Maus, right? The promo bands are going to get out of the way, Inferno and Lubis.
For the side of Maus, I'm not sure where they can take it. Overpass has been good for them lately
but they aren't as prone to picking it and even Spiritus picked it a couple of times themselves,
so Mirage. Yeah, I was just about to say, I feel like it's either Overpass or Mirage
going into this one that's probably the one map mouse have still had a decent
amount of success but it still feel comfortable despite having a couple of
losses so it makes sense in that regard even themselves were moving all
past in the second phase right here forcing it into Nuke and don't know
what it is about this tournament but I feel like every single matchup we're
having between two top teams right now everyone seems to shake hands on Nuke.
I love it you know I think this is an exciting map pool obviously every time
you have dunk the opportunity for fireworks we've seen some issues on
in their mirage, lately teams trying to punish it with varying success, but I think considering
that Dust2 is a sure-fire win for Spirit, I feel like they are going to take this series.
Jacob, do you agree or disagree?
Is this the mouse the cutter could?
I mean, I have seen nothing for mouse as of late, you know,
there gives me any confidence in them getting any better,
but I haven't seen too much from Spirit either, so to me it's a bit of an open game right here,
where I agree with Janko, it almost feels like a must win for both teams heading into Kono.
Yeah well we're gonna have to get this one underway, it is time for the playoffs to begin
at the Intel Extreme Masters Rio 2026.
Winning the first Grand Slam in Melbourne and just around a month after going straight to Dallas
and starting that step to the next Grand Slam as well, it's a great way to instantly
start the next run to the Grand Slam.
Right after that we took some time, EPL and then...
I think for me the best one is obviously Crackrider.
It's the newest one and a very special one.
Everyone is looking to stop by telling it from winning tournaments.
We understand as a team, if we want to leave this trophy or any trophy, it would be good to include winning by a penalty.
We also have a fair share of history and vitality, so it would be nice to stop them for at least one of it.
We could make history and stop their Grand Slam in the final.
Stopping Vitality on another Grandsland would be great. I think they have
conquered way too much already. If you can do that on the same as the
B Special as well, because they are an activity that everyone wants to beat at the moment.
This time, I'm really tired of seeing them, I cannot watch them win so many events,
leave so many trophies, it's very annoying. I really want to make sure that they stop
winning.
We are going to win in Russia for eight months, and like everyone wants.
The best team right now. Only one team has beat us this year.
You'll be the first to win slams.
When you think for the King, you better not miss.
Powerful
Oh my god!
Okay, Spirit taking a bit of a page out of the vitality warm-up playbook,
and Duke, Xontix, still not a fan of headers.
He's fucking dying.
I know you're so sad that Jamie didn't come to the review, but don't worry, we've got the full review.
And they're your favorites.
With the force
That you come out by now
I am Rio, 2,026!
This is the fourth time that Brazil sedia the world championship of Counter-Strike.
And this is thanks to you, the most insane and passionate community on the planet Earth.
I, Sonia Vistaia, will be honored to be here with you, too, for the fourth time.
We had a week full of competitions, 10 teams were on their way.
Unfortunately, two of our Brazilian teams were too.
And now the story continues here on this stage, in front of this wonderful platform that is prepared to see the story taking place!
How beautiful! How beautiful!
So I hope you have enjoyed it with a lot of soul.
The Russian terror, the ones that bring the greatest athletes of authority, with you, the Spirit Team!
They're going to receive a lot of bullets to team up!
Let's go!
It's a difficult battle, huh?
I want to know who's here to help the Spirit Team!
And now, make some noise for the only one who's here to help the Team!
I think I've tested my favorite!
So, open the doors, because it's time for the showdown!
The Season Fighter under the light and the flame, running again, said it was crazy before but now everybody's insane, eating the fight, must be a reason that they want to change, even when it keeps us under control.
You're going to see what happens, you're going to see what happens, you're going to see what happens.
I might even figure out the problem with them having to have Brolin be an IGL.
But it doesn't matter now.
Can we get an answer for that Jacob in Hungary at Budapest?
When it was Ney's mouse and Toji still was the underdog in that one.
But it is just crazy.
I think maybe it has something, they beat like Fury last year or two years ago.
Like ten years ago.
You know, so that's why they still remember.
The Brazilians never forget.
And absolutely shouldn't.
Because...
a lower hanging fruit in esports than in a Brazilian jersey in front of a crowd
like always someone always does it this time it's teneer somebody had to do it
it might have worked we have to go to dust first and I do mean dust to not
dusty moretti so let's talk about the confines of dust here speaking of teneer
I think it's great to put a bit of focus on him to be completely honest
because if you ask me for the reason as to why having spirit figured it
out sure there's still some I guess some some tendencies to need to figure
out with magics as an in-game leader but not being able to enable
We saw him in Heroic, we saw what kind of individual he is, what kind of individual level he displays from time to time.
He himself said in an interview to HLTV that he feels super, super inconsistent and he doesn't know why.
I think one of the most important things Magics can do for this spirit lineup is figure out a way to enable Tenir a little bit more consistently.
Because we know what we get from Donk, we know what we get from Shiro, but we never know what we get from Tenir.
I think the problem is some of their inconsistencies as a team, right?
And tactically just not a ton of opportunities for him in some of those lurk positions to find the impact, right?
It's hard to find consistency that way, but that's an excuse for the CT side and it's been a mixed bag
There as well, right?
I don't know how much the dynamic has changed with the coming back of Zontecs, Magix obviously in the in-game leader role
but you know we're coming this is the second season Taneer has been on the line up so you need to start showing some improvement fast
Yeah, you absolutely are guys. I think we're ready to do the damn thing
We're gonna find out if mouths can have some gym packed or if it's gonna be Taneer turning it up today in the server
Because a quarter-final is about to get underway dust
Mirage and nuke should we need it spirit versus mouths on the other side of that a semi-final tomorrow
featuring the Falcons who are eager and waiting to grab themselves a trophy as
well but don't hear from us let's hear from the commentators sponge and
machine your story tellers Friday in the Farmassy Arena and it's filling up
Friday afternoon here a Rio de Janeiro got four big names taken to the stage
today and up first a reformatted team spirit taking on a mouse with wavering
confidence. It's going to be Dust 2 to start. Spirit's map pick up first.
Doesn't matter where they go, hard job.
Yeah, it's a common occurrence from ours. I think they're over it now, but
they're downplaying their expectations. This side of the bracket is all about
that word. The expectations of Spirit reconfigured is much higher than the
season they've had.
It's not been so sure in Rainbows for Spirit either, turning it around, running the gauntlet
of that lower bracket.
Now this couldn't be Furia for the semi-final pie.
It was Falcons that sent Spirit down to a quarter-final, about to take place.
Spirits turf to start.
Now speaking of the CT side on Spirits turf,
Spirits turf for a reason this year,
20-26, they have played the map 10 times,
they've won it 9-9-1,
the only loss to Astras at EPL.
Romans by the desk,
Ticket on down, and we'll get this one underway in a moment.
For Malz, this is a weakness.
Played 15 times this year, one at five, lost at 10.
So constantly, point of contention,
but that's a lot of reps and officials
that they've been getting in.
You go back to the head to head this year, back at Krakow.
That was a third place to Cider.
Completely different stakes to today.
Elimination on the line.
Straight up the guts of middle.
Spinks is looking for a fight.
They swing all through, and he doesn't get a chance,
because Donk immediately starts as he means to continue.
Nice attempt from Brawland.
Swings on down and denies Donk a third.
It's a clumsy block smoke, but it might serve its purpose.
Tough to play an in-play counter strike on the pistol rounds.
Things are a whole lot more varied.
He's the exertion aerotating rifle on the pistol, entrenched in the tunnels.
It's going to be tough to get past with these dual Berettas.
It's V-Spoke ripped out from Zontik's.
Jimmy and Brolin over to Wattay.
Oh, and they confirm exertion has pushed
so that now the B player occupies the tunnels.
It's Magic surging forward on the long side.
Jimmy to bring him down.
So equalizing, Fragger.
Looks like Zontik's wanted to go,
but it's actually this cross of the bomb.
Trying to get across his...
It comes down, Dix.
Zontik's late long.
Still taps the head of Jimmy.
Nice from him.
Shiro pannes up.
Long-ranked, blocked to the spine.
And the site has fallen.
They knew exactly where exertion was,
but hey, he's got legs.
is he gonna give this one a look?
Ashred have played it for mouse so far this tournament
and he might just be calling this one off.
Double dual brettas,
got the Kevlar and gets himself a kills on.
This goes down.
Might want to hang around.
Don't want to go too deep, lose everything.
But if you can get these last two kills,
sure you don't win,
but it could turn into an M4 into the following.
It can be difficult with the positions
that have been opted for in the post-plant.
Spirit that's been the best pistol round team.
Long range clock head shot,
and he's going to try and get away here. Exertion. So he's lost those
jewelies, but he's still got that Kevlar spirit. Confirm it. I said they're the
best pistol. Hold up to me up. He's running in. Can you take away this Kevlar?
Yes. Okay. Saved by the bell there. Now's are in the top three, right? So
they've both been pretty good in that department. Now there's obviously a
whiff of this. You're not throwing a shallow molly like that unless you
spotted something.
Reson'tix them through it.
Gets necessary kill heat on that backstab long.
Feel like you really need the pistol to kick things off for momentum's sake on this map, not in the series in general for Maus.
I think they're gonna be able to bring it once we get to Mirage.
Their map choice if you look at their maps in recent history, you think maybe they could pick into overpass,
but the problem there, go from dust to where you might get ragdolled,
then have to have a T side start on overpass to try and push it to a third.
nobody wants that. So Scout from Torgie rattles off, finds nothing through the mid smokers,
run through the motions, our spirit. Short space is theirs.
Lovely read from Dothi, gets the communication that Torgie was spotted, he throws a nice deep
HE, softens up. Just an unarmored Scout, very susceptible to that HE, now dunk on
on the warpath middle, uncrouch at your own risk.
Tag is hit, and so are the headshots.
They're going into the stack still.
The Ry, Jimmy, and Spinks both reside on the site,
locked in the doors of Brawl, and necessary headshot.
Messy from Spinks, doesn't connect a single bullet
on the farmhouse, and Jimmy rips out of the server too.
It's as long as it's double.
There was moments, but that could have gone wrong.
Look at the health of Tineir and Donk to exemplify it.
Definitely so.
And the tests they're discussing with Svir, right?
We're always talking about Donk,
And of course, Shira, but he's the AWPer.
You need the second string rifle.
And I think a lot of people were hoping
that was gonna be Tanea.
Zontics a safe pair of hands.
I know he plays some of these more pivotal roles,
say, sure, on Mirage once we get there.
But Tanea, when he was in Heroic,
the flashes of brilliance is what excited everybody.
There have been some position changes for Spirit
on a few of the maps.
We haven't seen them all just yet,
but Dust2 is one on the CT side,
where Magix has now adopted the A rotating rifle.
We'll see that once he gets onto the CT side.
to be able to get into the
next round. Yeah, we've heard
actually flamesy talk about it
in interviews about the value of
playing different roles. You
further your understanding of
what your teammates are doing in
every position. You are B. That
is the Y o B. I think for me.
If you're the in game leader
and you're going to be the
player rotating between the
mid to be helping the long
player and stalling at the
short getting its role to
extra nades. Unless you're
an eco or position like
Magic's residing in that role and just let Taneer anchor down long, right?
That's the swap. Taneer was doing that before. I think Magic's having a much better read of the situation
He's got so much more experience if you compare it to Taneer. Yeah, it's not even close. It's like being such a young man
That's the thing Boris has been on our screens for an awfully long time
There's a we do settle into round number three
So the two zero start likely to be this three zero conversion with mouse coming in just some upgraded pistols
It's one of my favorite parts about
Magics on dust to on the T side especially you are going to see so many grenades thrown by one man
You think he's only got the four on his belt, but no it'll be dropped the additionals
That he she looks like it's destined for damage shiro with that Mac 10 jump up
So Bronon will evade that by retreating in the meantime shiro on Xbox has gone down to the Jimmy D
Okay, so this is gonna get tough
They know that they were short presence
Do they want to risk it as a group and try and get that space because they should be able to find
himself in a position to execute.
Swings be flushed out into the fight, goes down to Nier.
Well done.
So now they can group up and look for this finish,
all the stack over towards A.
But again, the level of investments,
you shouldn't be too worried if you spirit.
You just have to hit the best eagle headshot you can,
if you're brawling.
The others are committing to the flank.
It's just going to be, you need to get one
and slow them down.
Can you do it?
No, you can't.
Even a block smoke, perfectly timed by Nier.
Good understanding of the potential.
We'll go to the AK on the hands of Duncan, the next most likely.
It'd be nice to see what he's delivering out.
A couple of kills in the pistol, nice shot just there.
But this tournament, fortunately for the man,
he ends up having his career worst performance versus Falcon.
Still third highest rate of play out here in Rio.
So that goes to show that, sure, there's a bit of a blip on the radar.
Hasn't been feeling the best, but still delivering that world-class form.
The phenom, the freak.
It kind of is like the Black Lotus.
Arirati.
Good form from Zontik's early as well.
I understand it's just the eco bash, but
had a couple of important kills.
For nows, I think everybody's been hoping they turn this corner.
I think that's why, uh...
it's just tough to see them constantly flailing this season.
If you take a look, it's definitely not living up to their own expectations.
There's only one real blip on the radar though, I'd say.
It's the loss to 9z.
Otherwise, the losses are to only have a good team and I guess that's the problem. You so were
Good for so long but not able to shine in Vitality's era
It's gonna wear down on anybody when we're back underway. Don't does get that ak dropped across shiro into the awp
2-1 to start
Torgy's all middoors into lower tunnels. I like the aggression as a flavor of this early from mouse. You want to be disruptive?
You will get a chance. They're coming his way. There's a smoke on the doors for his retreat.
He just has to hit this shot. Easiest set to dumb though. Turns tail. Will evacuate
safely. So safety first from spirit. A good sign. Not taking any unnecessary risks
in the early stages of this. About a minute ten left on the clock and still need to
take this short control before they can really start deciding the push-pull of this T-side.
Sings in Jimmy, the B defenders in place.
Torgie would be all pervert towards A, joined by Xershin, the A rotating rifler in Goose,
and Brolin, the in-game leader, will anchor down long.
Very standard setup after their early gambit to find that fight.
Xershin would love a flash, so Torgie holds this at the ready.
40 seconds now. No friction.
The difficulty I see as well is there's a lot of galils in the mix
and there's a lot of absent helmets.
Exertion doesn't choose to fight.
To A for Magix.
Yeah, straight through CT.
Beautiful.
Exertion caught in rotation and now the pressure amplified.
Torchy's missed his shot. How many more does he get?
Spinks. Long range onto Magix.
Gets the belated trade.
It's to near that's tagged up and unable to finish the job.
And everyone on Spirit floods into that A site
finding the necessary fight.
Magic's making magic happen.
That's one of the best rounds I've seen from spirit this tournament.
It started very well.
A liquid game.
I was like, okay, the team works there.
They're flashing for each other.
This is what we want to see.
Falcon's game left a lot to be desired.
And then the long bracket got there.
They dropped him out to the canids.
Yeah, that was bizarre.
It was.
It's good that they picked themselves off and dusted themselves up.
I love that, right?
Very late.
Zershin gets pushed off, needs to be smoked to play with the crisscross.
Open avenue for magics to come through are rups.
The man on a mission and the man on the screen standing coach in the academy has some history with a few of the players in the spirit jersey today.
Halley out.
Temporary health issues. He'll be back after a start-up at Saltvic with an opportunity to help the team.
A couple of his players taking interviews, him himself talking about issues that they need to fix.
It's near pointing out a little bit more freedom, but communication being one highlighted by all.
This is where everything goes up a notch though, isn't it, in the arena?
Magix has been here before, Pshiro as well.
He lost to Maus, back at the Rio Major in the Cloud 9 jersey.
Magix goes so quick up mid here.
He knows he doesn't have to worry about an AWP, a scout, sure.
But this is great in terms of changing the tone from the previous, the rifle round.
Very slow, very methodical.
This one is about to erupt into A. There's a stack again, Spinks.
Tadim Goose, the other three dealing with Long.
This could get a bit sketchy.
Yeah, there's a wold, especially if Torgy's D-Golf does that.
But Stonk in the dirt.
Spinks on the Goose position wants to swing on out.
Catches them looking the wrong way, but he can't finish it off.
Run it back out.
Yeah, they're trying to pull the evacuation shoot.
Look at the health as well.
They're so susceptible to the pistols.
It's probably an exertion combined to their very late arrival to the party spirit.
They walk into the stack and they leave with mouths finding their first
unless they can go one before.
Got a decent chance of this.
There's Kevlar and guns picked up.
It's near without so much time.
Flashes did connect, but it goes both ways.
Exertion didn't have the vision to go swinging off of it.
Got that multiple elevations.
It's going to be so difficult for them to be able to find that individual fight.
they're playing that high low set up. Ensuring that this goes their way the
hard work they think he's done. Jimi up close as well that range good for the
5-7. Xershin, who's it down nicely, pair of
Franks for Brolin and Xershin and they leave with a couple of AK-47s for free.
Very well played from Maas there in the late stages as you mentioned the
elevations being used not giving over the 1v1s once it came to the 1v3.
And a fantastic shopping towards you to open the account.
You can see how sketchy it gets, Spinks gets to play in.
And there wasn't a full commitment with as many numbers as required,
so that's a great fire starter for Maus on this CT side.
Shiro, Booster's been fumbled.
Not have gotten the information he was hoping for, but regardless,
no B into lower tunnels this time.
No aggressive start from Maus towards short.
This is just standard, going through the motions for the defence.
Danko pointed out in the desk that this B defence
has been exploited before with some faster plays.
So they've got to make sure their protocols are on point.
This is what I'm talking about. Magic's gonna be doing all the juggling.
Oh, my early occupation of short.
Torgy peeking mid would be a death sentence, but Shira's still on that line.
Flash off, falls back.
And he needs to get away.
If it is gonna be an A, execute the orb.
Really would like to find itself a bit of what's car ramp a position that it can put a dent to any of those CTs
Excuse me T scaling to the site
Looks to be an a split again to near middoors recongregated around short. Yeah, it's on takes late long lurk
Finish on the mid smoke and a crisscross established for Tanea to kind of puff up his chest and act bigger than he is
It's. Flash looks like it's going to be turned. Wow, and a great head shot from to near, but
they start to apply pressure a simultaneously to nears cleared out B. Can they pivot? Gets
weird now. They seconds, bomb spotted, don't covers and it's closed to near high impact
round. Crazy. They are simultaneously hitting both bombsites. B is clear and they still
finish on a. I just love it from the macro perspective. First rifle round, crisscross
smokes into an A split. Second rifle round. Chris Cross smokes. We'll sell it as a B split.
Right, that's going to keep everybody on edge. The CT setup was adjusted for this. Exertion
wasn't playing close short. He wasn't playing the ramp towards CT. He was deep towards the A site.
And the level of output from Taneer, that's exactly what you need. And he has not lived
up to the standard we expect from this player or at least we'd hoped for.
This is a B pot. It's the perfect time to do it. Spinks is starting doors.
Jimmy spotted the tip of his cap, back of the site, running in, no support whatsoever.
Good hold. Best onto dunk. Now the rotation comes in and they will retreat.
Zontics goes forward though. Zontics goes forward though, eats the flash and goes down.
Look at the rotation that's been drawn. So many boots. Nobody over towards that.
It's just Brolin trying to cheat back over now. So all of that pressure.
Clumsy from spirit. It's completely shuffled this defense,
but nobody was able to capitalize on the space.
So I'm in it and 10.
Money.
Not going to be a conversation just yet for spirit.
So I don't expect them to go for a save.
They can give this one a look in.
That's that anchor work from Jimmy.
I feel that they think that's a fake, because what just happened was a fake.
So they're playing outside B.
There's so much room right now.
Looks like it's destined from ours to post number two here.
Oh, Jimmy's absolutely with that molly there.
Right in the door. He blocked himself.
Of course, a sliver of the Magik's takes heavy damage with the flames from Taneer.
I'm sweating now. An equalizing frag.
Speng's got a choice to make. As he pushed through, he chooses two. Only one and done.
Well, we can get planted. This advantage for Mal's now slipping out of their cross, breaching the B bomb site.
Magik's actually retrieving that AWP, enables him to have more of an impact on that eight points of health.
He's got Taneer, he's got a hot hand at the moment.
Oh, he's got a kit.
Torji.
Not able to help Rollin' out as he pokes his nose out the doors.
Taneer stands and backs, wins it out.
Torji.
You really want to have a look at this.
Dusto picks up the M4, announces that he's giving it a look.
How much of a commitment?
He's fully committed to this.
Time ticking away, they're both low HP.
The M4's the right weapon, and that's the right frag,
but simply no time.
I get away with his AWP. Magic's the same.
Spirit's kind of sick there.
And Maus' advantage despite Jimmy's handiwork
and that initial defense on the Excursion B
does not translate into a second round.
I'm not sure if we'll catch the game in the replay,
but some whiffed utility.
Jimmy threw this, whiffs it,
then he threw a smoke, missed it.
Look at this smoke. Look at this CT smoke.
The top of your screen.
Yeah.
What's going on, boys?
You had two key pieces of utility
to block the upper tunnels.
Spirit didn't play contact, they threw a molly, they announced the presence, and that's the basics, missing nades, and there's not even set nades.
These are just ones you have to throw in directly in front of. You're not obscured, you weren't even under pressure in that moment.
So some speed wobble to a mouse, they'll leave the nerves showing, and second time out, a Sikron gets on the mic.
They still have money for another bite, just that Torgy saved AWP is going to be the mantlepiece of this.
But, Spirit might want to keep up the flow of changes. They have some good long spawns.
Could be pacey right now.
You've been exploited through mid. You're lost around to some missed utility on a B site after some nice early frags.
And now it could be a pace change from Spirit to punish your long defense.
They're starting 4-1. WBP.
Oh yeah, we got a big firehead. Doc's going to be flashed out.
Spotted easy. Headshot. See you later, Brawling.
No trade available because Magik's has vision.
He can't just spanks keeps him with empty hands towards you arrives, but the damage is done and they have evacuated
They've seized the advantage
Magix gets away with a scrap of health and he's quickly pivoting into something I'm more eyes on exertion right now
He knows he needs to keep pushing he needs to make a move. Oh, he's shall what an audacious
Audacious rather push. He's gonna have two backs turned here. She arose a free frag
He's practicing some trigger discipline going for that double lining up smokes. It's clean
three kills from exertion Jimmy activating towards be as well that's a
big play from exertion that's what he needs to make it matches like this this
will sketchy the Jimmy the B site will fall if he doesn't get away it's back
it does very well not the second beat of light those on ticks in the clutch
already with the utal down the ship a place to a plant oh my through this
room you're not expecting that exertion certainly surely not he is
jiggling it. Oh, the toss is right there in the smoke. It's smoke pushes on smoke pushes.
Only his third frag, but it's Malz's second round. Thanks to it converts upon exertion's proactive
CT maneuver. Okay, some big plays from multiple players in that round. I'm liking what I'm seeing.
The patient from spirit out long to take the fight. The four man start from Malz,
doesn't go in their favor, but exertion, just a thing of beauty, right? This is the
type of plays that you don't see him getting away with once we get to stage matches or maybe it's
not even stage matches the games against vitality yeah so nice to see him doing it here still can
buy spirit six to two four round gap oh we got early first blood there that was long yeah brawlin
had a glance didn't anticipate the orb to be starting on that line and understandably so rather
That's rare.
Unprofitable.
Smoke break.
Perfect setup for Spinks.
Catches Donk.
Sat on the X-Box.
A second one.
This time with less vulnerabilities.
Very important.
Clawback kill there from Spinks.
And now the round essentially resets.
A man advantage no more.
And a gamble from Mouse.
The AWP over towards B.
just exertion on the A site so they are essentially selling short they don't
think that Spirit will just walk out A unannounced. Lock from Sping is gonna give
an angle over the top of the smoke if there was to be a split. They're fighting
this. At least they were. Cap behind this for Magix to steer through. CT
smokes is gonna fade, there's the orb noted. Yeah that's the B low, tunnels clear.
CT smokes fading. CT spots them, confirms they're on their way in,
torsion from the distraction, hits to near through the bridge, looking set up
to succeed here. Couple back though, Shiro into there not going down. They know where
torching is. Flash in. The unknown is exertion. Lightly long. Up and over. Torching. Bars!
No bullets on to the left to finish! It's an American plan. Oh, it is an ugly one for
exertion. Feels so disconnected from the plate. Both have ults right now. It's
and it's going to work. Shiro catches him on the gap.
It was set up so well for Maus.
The frags were flowing until they weren't near.
How's it going to start to this quarter final?
11 and three. We've been waiting for it.
We've been wanting it.
And right now we're getting it.
The five straight for spirit of a Maus.
You look at that and you go, this is...
I thought the knife was coming out for sure in that moment.
But confidence on display.
And down to the pistols, Maus.
You're getting owned. Oh, and they are really in the dirt now. He's tagged the second cross again. I dare you
Well, well, not even a moment to catch your breath through.
You can see the comfort. Here it is the opener on the replay
Casual for shiro talking about the last five
series going in the favor of spirit over mouse. That's great. I think the last one really needs the
of it was third place decider so different stakes. This one is a chance to have a crack at Falcons in the semi.
I think Falcons would like to take on Maus because they're the ones who eliminated them in Krakow.
Spirit played Falcons a little bit early in the tournament. Here's the farm.
Best Magic Peers in. Gets all the information.
Chirope unloads and Zonsik to be there to put the cherry on top.
Eight to two. A massive lead.
He described it in interviews as the worst six months of his life.
in the jazzy and a new role looking good on dust too yeah it's like a simultaneous
strength the spirit weakness for mouths makes it makes it hard for me to
understand if this is gonna paint the picture of the whole quarterfinal tough
search here elevated angle predicted but doesn't matter Jimmy still be shiro to
the punch triple from Jimmy such a great player in those anchor positions able
to find those masterful multi-kills. Is this 2v4?
Still a conversation.
Yeah, they're dealing with the rotation.
Tuneer is dead.
Dealing with the rotation.
Oh, he adjusts.
He's got two on his screen. He goes hunting for Torji.
So now, A, a vulnerability.
Jimmy wants to lend a hand, but it was so valuable.
Drops him onto Torji.
Tuneer with impact.
Miles' advantage disintegrates before our very eyes.
And Jimmy, again, finding multi-kill on B
and still gonna have a round loss.
They might do it. It will. The
ball. It's finding fast. What a
turn around. Here's the thing.
Right. He does a great job. He
locks down B. He doesn't swap the
bomb, but the team started
rotating because magic's able to
get out of those middoors
caused the recourse and then
at that point they're not even
worried about Jimmy. They're
just worried about how skittish
Mauser right there. They're
just going to deal with you
in rotation. You're getting
over there. Jimmy screaming
Not at all. I can't get over the fact that it's in here. Not only just throws the money, but immediately jumps down.
It completely subverts Torchy's expectation.
He's in the flow state right now, Tanez. You could see he's playing his game.
And what was key? That is crisscross with him selling the mid to B fake.
That's a play for him. Yes.
And he's making it work right now.
We might be ending this half with a 10 to 2 score line.
Well, this is someone playing their own game as well.
It's Donk just walking contact out middle.
They started heavy B. A third man cheats over in exertion.
He's tucked. He has to find impact in. Oh, and he's just found a bullet between his eyes.
Quick one back with the flood of frags continues to flow.
B site brought to its conclusion. Rollin started long, won't have an opportunity to have much
impact in this. Does look like that. 10 to 2 half. That's far and away, not the path of the course.
No, and not that many competitive rounds, either for Maus and this one.
They win a light buy situation early on in the piece with a nice diggle shot there from Toys.
You can clamp down the stack, but otherwise it has been fine form for Spira on their map choice.
This is their 11th outing with this roster on Dust2 this year.
Currently 9-1, looking to make it 10-1.
It's home turf for a reason, and Brolin, the Swede, the in-game leader,
is going to give it a crack, but Shiro says no.
That's 10-2 on the half. Spirit of come to play on the playoffs of Rio.
It's a comfort pig, 14 spirit dust to their turf and it shows 10 already.
Just the first half of play in our opening quarterfinal line from Rio de Janeiro.
We've got the crowd in, the Farmacia arena is starting to fill on up.
We've got Mike's Auntie Navi later on in the day, but already this one is amusing
us all.
more comfortable for Maus and it does look like we might be there quicker than anticipated.
This one's been tough for Maus, there was on Dust2 continue.
The 2v4s, illustrating exactly that, some very very rough moments to Starmac, but if you're a spirit fan
you'll remember remembering the last trophy they lifted, that's over seven months ago.
You're hoping they can just return to some form to be back in that conversation and this is a
positive sign in that direction.
pivot back towards B on this pistol as Tenea spots out mid sees nothing so long is the
concern but Donk hasn't moved a muscle.
Juleper Redders lined up ready to go.
Zontick's on the jiggle.
It really is a rarity to see Donk with nothing on a pistol so saddle up.
This is perfect.
Now Zontick spades to the man and he's asked to unload his juggler off.
Zontick spades to the man and he's asked to unload his juggler off.
Zontick spades!
Get's nothing!
Bumble's made from Magicks.
Doesn't get the vision on the Jimmy Cross.
Bumble's made from Magicks.
I'm not sure they're going to be
giving this one a go. Might just
be getting this kill. There's
really no conversation to be had.
So. Now's. Simple approach with
that long space. Drop back to be
executed in. Understand the
logic there from Donk. You feel
that you want to catch them
coming out of the gray screen
right so that way they're
seeing nothing and you're
getting the glimpse of them
first and unable to earn it.
You are able to get through
seeing nothing and you're getting the glimpse of them first and unable to unload. Excuse me.
But see that him swinging and couldn't connect the dots. So the B-Defense of Donk and Zontics,
which didn't over-rotate, which didn't bite down. There are a few players, you know, that
make the Gilberettes truly look like they aren't a coin toss. Sorry, we wanted them.
Typically Donk, but here's look to malfunction a little there on the attempt.
Yeah, so that's come down to the micro and this look there's nothing wrong with the way that this round was structured from spirit
They didn't over rotate
There it is right couldn't connect on the first and then
In the b-side strips
So is there more to come force by the follow-through
Now's able to get some guns in their hands like a rarity in the first half of play
Maybe when they did, only getting one rifle round of a CT side. There are that coming from
a light investment. The T side is going to be an uphill battle. Long pop into it's near
and shero. The banningster headshot with the flashes are going to be coming through,
tanked up actually, that softened up to the Desert Eagle, just stabilize, body shot conversion,
would love another but they both will go down to the Galils.
Allmau's choose to immediately commit on this, they've thrown a blocked cross smoke
and swing it through was done. He wanted answers, he wanted bloodshed but instead
Jimmy a comfortable frag for him to receive. He's probably hoping behind that he didn't
accidentally blocked that smoke.
They didn't just longer parving, and they just want to be mopped up, so well done for a mouse.
Simple stuff, they pop in, there's a bit of a threat, the scout and the dig, they deal with it, and then
the consistent spirit players continue, they just swatted away one by one.
So 10-2, goes 10-4,
likely 10-5, because it will have to be the eco coming into the next.
I don't know about Zontics' whereabouts, but I wouldn't be too concerned with this as soon as he...
Oh, yep, that's fine.
He's cleared exertion.
Deals with that.
Alright, now it's a 6 round gap.
It should become a 5 round gap.
And that becomes manageable.
It's in here with a 5700 flash.
for Donk, USP with a smoke at a
HG for Magix, Sontics with a
Diggle of his own and Shiro wants
that orb, so he's just got the USP
with an A, well placed, good damage.
Does it count for anything?
Magix bowls that one, and the
legs of Jimmy.
Yeah, Jimmy didn't play scared
either, you know, I think Magix
throwing that Nade is hoping that
they won't just disrespect Long.
So that flash that's somewhat exciting
because if this is the Long
Finish, it doesn't need to be
We saw the minute 25. They catch a good timing and everybody comes streaming through that smoke
They could cause some chaos, but all in all
When you take a look at the weapon and the utility advantage you have a tough time seeing this one fall apart for mouse
If you spinks you don't want to go too far you don't want to give away a gun for free
So you need to be on high alert of all the possibilities
He's hearing some steps
Towards be hill
Now the sudden the pressure short
It's like Donk's been tasked with trying to keep a lid on Spinkton, his mid-luck.
And now the cross smoke and that flash pellet play you were discussing.
Let's see if the chaos does come through.
Needs to be now.
Possessions ahead of it.
He's going to have full vision, they back up into him, backs a turn and the Galil unloads.
Just the one from the eagle.
Donk brought down combination of bullets and that H.E. grenade and now just here
as your speed to be dealt with.
Now as we'll make it a five round game.
Alright, we'll get serious immediately in my opinion
because if you don't win this first rifle round,
your spirit, the board gets wiped.
At that point, you're down to just another partial.
You saw the tumble dryer that mouses in the first half.
Things can get out of control quickly.
And we also know that spirit,
they're not immune to a little bit of tilt creeping in.
So you did have a dominant first half, sure.
Losing the pistol, OK, first rifle round.
You would love to at least make it competitive at a bare minimum.
Sounded start, looking likely out of spirit.
Tini being set up by Shiro to lock long.
Magics over to watch short to harass the default.
He sees she's going to jump spot for lower.
The Grenadier, logs it in, and it's an awful lot of damage.
Exertion brought down to 69.
Sontics has a kit, so if the bomb does go down on either of these sites,
to have an opportunity to give
the retake a look with the five
second defuse.
There's trickery in the first
gun round from spirit.
There's crisscross smokes
finding this up into an A split.
What amounts have in store is,
Spinks has released that one on
the jump.
A bit of a sky ball there.
With a bomb on the back of
Torji outside of the tunnels,
the mid to B smoke lined up.
It does look very likely
It does look very likely to be a B split, so it'd be into the likes of Zontics and Donk.
Magics, the new position for him, the A rotating rifle, is going to do his best to support this.
Small extend here, he's going to get caught with it in his hands. Doesn't go down though, draws them into Donk.
He's elevated the angle, backs up on the B ramp and connects onto Brawland.
Zontics as well, chips in, catches, spanks, trying to advance through the tunnel's position,
and just piece by piece, it falls into place.
I think from spirit.
I think perfect is a key word. The fact that not only is Zontick's able to deliver his frag on the entry into B
Tonk also stalls out the mid to B. That's exactly what you need
But if one of the two falters a big gap
Is created into me up once the board toys you down
And the first CT side round for spirit
So that worry doesn't need to creep in whatsoever spirit can close the game right here right now you win this gun rounds
Unfortunately for Malz they're only working with the 1900 loss going into the next and that'll be a final round that will see Tech 9s.
Let's try and close what is going to be a massive gap.
Bit of a change this time, just swings towards the upper tunnels, doesn't have his buddy in crime.
Or partner.
Maybe that buddy is.
That's what I say, always commit crimes with your buddies.
still the same goes you can see with the setup over to what's be there playing for
a B-pop Sonic sitting and waiting with a H here the ready but that smoke is
faded they rejig his biggest concern is if anybody's on the right side he does
have that incendiary if he wanted to force that fight doesn't feel the need
to. It hasn't been any pressure whatsoever applied to spirit so far within the first 55
seconds of the rounds. There's still more U2 when that came from.
It's got more when that came from and it's a very solid connection of the Nade. Exertion
was ahead of it, but Brawlin stomachs half of his damage.
Two good Nades in a row for Magix. He's got another one where that came from as
while picks it up and is just holding it for the potential A commit.
Wow, they're mid to being again.
Xontix with the incendiary to slow things down in the upper tunnels.
Donk totaled up this time.
We'll see if they have another rough go of things like the pistol
or if they can just shut this down and secure 12 to test for them.
And ooh, he's clean with the clothesline sprawling on the smoke push.
Paul's Xontix away and now...
Ooh, Xontix just gets his AK out for one.
Jimmy threw mid, looking for Donk, got support as well.
He's having a round here. Triple make it a corp.
It doesn't matter if he's feeling under the weather.
Still finds his form in this quarter final and looking to make this a quick trip to dust
two.
Yeah, this is live work.
This casual stuff, the spirit.
There's been some nice moments.
I know Tom to the top of the scoreboard.
It's great to see him in fine form and it's only been really one map that was
the blip on the radar.
But to me is the one that I've been impressed with, especially in the first half.
it was involved in some of these two-to-four situations, some really pivotal moments making plays.
It feels like I'm already putting a bow on things, but as I mentioned, you lose that
consecutive rifle round, you're down to tech dines, and that's what the buy is looking like.
They mid to beat on the pistol, they went for a mid to be on the first rifle, a mid to be on
the second rifle, and they've been shut down, at least as far as the guns are concerned.
It helps when Donku's doing this. This is what we expect from the kid.
It's unfortunate when you set the bar so high.
Just take a look at Vitality. They lose a series well through the world's ending.
Well, this is the form that you want to see from Spirit. You have to ask yourself,
does it say more about them or more about Maus? Well, the heads ahead, regardless ringing
true, even if it was just that third place decider back in Krakow with Magicks.
And have a good read, a good understanding of how to play against the international squad.
And newer variation of the hinge smoke thrown by Jimmy.
It's unlimited right now, our mouse.
Weaponry's show of it, new tilt.
Bunch of smokes, a couple of flashes, that's it.
Session wants to go because of the gap, and it costs him.
Chiro clicks him through the corner, and already does look like he can.
Put the bow on this one, Birchop.
It's just going to be a question of if they can draw Shirou's attention from the shore side.
These two smokes are going to be thrown to near.
I'll be calling for backup.
Get some extra HE.
Hold on.
Is he dropping?
Yeah, he is going to try and change the elevation, despite the flash.
It's comfortable with it.
Long.
A missed shot from the Sniper.
The spray in support.
Oh no.
Teamkill, Jimmy has put Spinks down.
From bad to worse.
Yeah.
Sour note for it to end on 13-5.
Storming start from Team Spirit.
This one's just getting the crowd warmed up.
If this is the form that we can expect from Spirit,
the game against Falcons tomorrow
could be a completely different Kedler fish.
But first, Mirage, and that's coming up next.
A piece of myself
I don't want you
in my head
You're a mess
I'm a party
Nightingale
I'm a
I'm a party
Conquer
You're a
You're a party
Conquer
Well, for a quarter-final, that is what a mouse can expect to have happen in a playoff
seemingly more often than not, but falling a little bit flat here versus spirit on the
first map of play.
That'd be Dust2.
We've got Morage in front of us, so he's got still some runway to go if mouse want
to wake up, but for the time being, spirit are all gas, no brakes.
That was a great performance from Team Spirit.
Though it's more like it, you know, that's kind of the spirit that we want
to see more of the spirit that is interesting and the spirit that is playing at a level that
potentially could be an issue for other teams in the playoff as well. But you're right in saying,
Trace, that for Maus, I don't know if the expectations are that low at the moment. I think
this was a lackluster performance. Again, not really getting anything done whatsoever.
I think Tjerd and Alex said it in the cast as well. One gun round run in this match,
that makes it now three maps in a row where they combine for five gun rounds,
one in total over the course of 55 rounds played against Furia and Spirit if you minus
the pistol rounds by the way we don't take them into account so basically they're getting
nothing done at the moment that's not good and it's lower than I expected.
Honestly it's not
characteristical for Maus right like they used to be a really good team when it comes to gun rounds
yes they're a good team in pistols as well and a smart team that maximizes their chances
you know a lot of saving on the CT side not going for unnecessary retakes playing the percentages
But that doesn't matter if you're not able to win any rounds whatsoever.
And I think it shows that this is not the same mouse that we saw throughout last year,
even though the same players are on the roster.
Which is, it's rough to watch around the edge, especially when you think about this first map,
this first half of play. Two rounds is not giving you enough runway,
not giving you enough leeway to even put yourself back in this game in the second half.
Let's say you grab that second pistol then what?
Yeah, I think the problem is also they lost rounds in so many different ways, right?
Like they were outplayed from our calling slash tactical perspective.
They lost the 2v4 somewhere in there.
They managed to win even a half-pipe, right?
Yeah, exactly.
And it didn't matter, right?
So everything, nothing was really working for Maus.
And it didn't seem like there was a lot of fighting them on this map.
No, that's what I sense as well when I'm watching them.
One thing is a team that is maybe not hitting their strides individually speaking,
we can dive into that.
Torsi having another game where he doesn't get anything done with the AWP whatsoever,
but it does feel like, you know, body language, the way they conduct themselves on the server,
that they're not really believing in it any more themselves, you know?
I know for a long, long time we stopped believing that Maus would ever go into finals and win anything,
but it at least felt when you spoke to them in interviews that they still had some sort of
belief in themselves. That seems to be gone now as well, so it's very hard to find anything
positive about this. They would say that though. You have to put on a brave face,
You can't say, oh, we're here to just play, you know, you have to say the the things that you're saying
But we're seeing on the server actually, you know what the real state of affairs is
Yeah, let's go ahead and just jump in around six early on in the game
You know some of the troubles are already there for the side of mouths
You know that they've lost his first pistol first four rounds knock on their way
Yeah
So some things when you do prep for a game and build a game plan
You always have a couple of rounds up your sleeve right for reset rounds and this is what this round is
4-0 for Spirit, Miles won that half-buy we were talking about. So in the reset round what they do
is basically a default opening, don't go underpass, smoke mid, they're spread out around the map,
nothing too crazy, Molly for short, so this is default signaled to the side of Team Spirit.
We see the smoke at 1-16 for mid, Torgy he's going to get flashed of the angle
as well by Shiro and also during this time towards the B bomb site Taneer is using some
of his utility right so at this point you're just doing it to bait out some of the utility
from the side of the CTs they don't expect the hit to come at this point in time but
what they what this does signal is you're trying to bait out the utility from the
B defender so this is signaling maybe a B finish and now we can see this criss-cross
smokes, come in as Tenir pushes forward, I want you to pay attention to where the
rest of the players are, so they're grouped up, this is just a fake B split
they're going cat and Tenir is the long lurk right, so by sending him out first
you're sort of showing hey it's the long player this has to be a B split and
they even have one things who's the B player as the long lurk in this one
just as a safety net really, so Tenir does a great job here managing to
find even this one kill really helps selling the fake, gets another one on
on Jimmy too, and look at the eight defenders.
They're caught in the middle of nowhere, right?
They're caught rotating towards B.
This is easy pickings from Spirit,
and a super clean round is what's one of the most important
rounds that you'll have in a game.
You only get a couple of these per game.
That's when you whip out your best strats,
your best call for the game,
and we saw it work beautifully here for Team Spirit.
But also a way of activating Tineir
that we spoke about coming into the game,
the fact that he's walking out dry
into what's middle before the criss-cross smokes.
He's playing with a bit of confidence.
He's executing towards the two players on the B bomb side.
One would argue even if it just gets one kill, he's done his job enough.
You know, he's causing the rotation, he's making sure the A players are not ready for what's coming for him.
So a way of enabling Tynir and a way of for him, you know, to delivering
and actually living up to the responsibility that he was given in this round,
which I think is a massive win condition for Team Spirit.
To me, as I said, we know what we get from Donk, we know what we get from Shiro.
But if you can add this guy into the mix as well,
finding a bit more impact in the game, setting him up like they did right here,
that's when you go a long, long wave.
And you need to do that, right, a guest. Donk is the superstar, right, but you need to find rounds for other players too.
You know, they have abilities as well. You know, when I was coaching MBR, we had Stewie on the team.
He was so good at running with utility, playing around smokes, playing in chaos that we had a few rounds where, you know, we called them Stewie Suicide Round.
just send him in a similar way with a lot of utility for him to create some chaos.
And he was very good at finding openings, drawing attention to himself.
The rest of the team could explode on the other side of the map, right?
So maybe it's finding more tailor-made rounds.
You know, this this is not around for Taneer, right?
Like he's just the bait here.
He's the fake.
But if he enjoys doing that, like that's a win win because he can do it
well and then it opens up more space for the rest of the team.
I mean, he just put a thorn in their side by the execution.
we just saw him getting out middle, working through the smokes. The first kill is enough.
The second one is, you know, you've already overachieved at that point, right? So I guess
for Taneer, this was a fantastic map. The stats will back that up. For the side of Spirit,
this was a fantastic map. And the stats also back that up. I mean, it's a very one-sided
scoreline. So I think we sort of take this one at face value. We say,
mouse, now's your time to try to come back into this series, but it wasn't Dust2.
It wasn't Dust2. And it was realistic. They're never going to beat us to neither. I think
mouse have struggled a lot on that map, kind of got hurt by the fact that train was removed from
the map pool. They had to integrate Dust2 into it again, but that's also what I spoke about
coming into the game, the lack of progression. You say, okay, sure, the first couple of tournaments,
maybe they need a bit of time to integrate the map into the map pool again, but I'm not
seeing a mouse that is getting better and better and better on Dust2, if anything,
it's getting worse and worse and worse. So yeah, moving into the second map, Mirage,
they know how to play that. We've seen them play somewhat consistently on the map despite
them being struggling some periods. So I expect a much, much better fight coming out.
I will say one thing though, for this mouse lineup, they feel a bit incapable of coming back into games.
You know, I don't think they have the mental fortitude and the unity that it takes to grind games out.
So even though they're probably a slight favorite on this map, just because it hasn't been great for Spirit lately,
it has to come, the win has to come from playing from ahead, right?
If they fall behind, I don't think they have it in them to have a comeback win.
It's just a different mentality that is within Maus, because we've seen Falcons at this tournament.
We know the rumors would kick in and care again, perhaps switching roles.
And we all agree that, okay, that's probably a good thing for Falcons to come in with no pressure whatsoever.
There's also rumors circulating that maybe Maggie's or someone else will be joining Maus after this tournament or after the Major.
I don't think Maus is the team that thrives in that energy.
They need stability. They need to know that they're working together as a unit towards a project.
So if the case is that someone is going to get caught after this tournament or before the Major, maybe even after.
I don't think that's a mouse that is relieved of playing a little bit more freed up as you can see on the server of anything
They just seem depressed in the way they progress I think the problem is actually it's unknown for them
Right like if they knew someone was on the way out for Magiskor for whoever well
They could have the buff that Falcos have the problem is I think at the back of their heads
They know this roster it's done like I don't think there's anything
realistically that could happen for them to stick together with the same five right and
And knowing that it's really tough to sort of keep playing because you don't necessarily even know who's going to be replaced
It's hard to tell from the outside. So all this uncertainty
Right at the moment makes it difficult to play the end of the day. They're not robots, right?
The human beings you go you put in the hours you do your best, but so counter strike
There's so much of the mental aspect that goes into it
And if you're trying to lift trophies and that uncertainty can be enough
to put you far away from that number one spot.
It feels like a guitar that's sort of ran its entire,
hold on one second, hold on one second there buddy.
It feels like a guitar string that's kind of hit its note.
You know, it's like out of tune.
You just keep hitting it over and over and over.
I mean, it eventually, yeah,
that's gonna keep getting looser and looser.
And it's unfortunate that we're watching maybe
that unfold within the mouse camp itself,
but Mirage, a bounce back.
Tell me there's a way.
Tell me there's a chance.
I think there's a way on Mirage, as I said,
And that's one of the maps that has stayed consistent for miles.
So at least one of the maps is still played to a high level.
I think we've seen this tournament as well.
We saw it against Aurora, a great performance.
We've seen it against some of the other teams they played in tournaments
where the results didn't really showcase it.
I also think it's one of the maps where Brolan feels very comfortable as an in-game leader.
He's very much in the center of attention in terms of taking map control towards middle
and uses the tools that is exertion, who's also thriving on this map.
So I think in terms of downplaying the crisis that is within miles right now,
there's no better map to play for them right now than Mirage.
I want to see them also play a bit more YOLO, right?
Play with more pace.
Gusto, yeah.
Yeah, try to take some more risks.
You know, like we saw exertion in that one round on the CT side, right?
Like, just send it a bit more.
If it is true what we're thinking about the roster, you know, then go out swinging.
Yeah, let's do that.
Let's go at least to a break.
Then we can come back and swing a little bit more in the server.
Either way, is it going to be mouse or spear going to close it out right here?
We're going to find out on the other side of this break.
You're watching the Intel Extreme Masters.
We're gonna hear right now from Psychron, it is.
I'm here with Psychron, obviously.
What is happening?
What is the biggest issue right now?
The biggest issue, if we're playing a little bit
off each other, we're out of sync.
And that's, there's a lot of situations
where we have a decent setup and we don't play properly.
We don't manage to play off each other's contact.
We're over committing a bit on fights.
And also in the moment, we see some pressure.
We're over rotating and we're getting caught quite a lot.
I noticed the gun round issue.
I feel like you won only one gun round
whole map, right? Yeah, it is for sure. And we need to show a better face on the next map.
I want to say one more thing. Thorzy and Jimmy both mentioned that they lacked initiative in that
relation to FURIA game, right? Do you think like this is a little bit better right now or is this
reoccurring issue in mouse right now? They both said that we lacked initiative. I mean in
the game of Counter Strike you always need some initiative, right? You need people to step up
and take charge, also put the pressure a bit on. I think this one right now is a smaller
That's the teamplay that I was missing.
Thank you, and good luck in map 2.
Placent matches set your starting point.
Facet rating measures your impact as you climb.
The soft elo reset narrows the gap
between the highest elo players
and the rest of level tech.
Your starting point will be based
on your recent elo inactivity.
We're introducing facet rating
so you can see exactly how much you stack up
against others at your level.
Facet rating measures how much your actions
have increased your team's chances of winning the match.
Picking into account the full situation.
Season eight launches April 22nd.
Good luck and have fun.
The pounding of Hallowdy's force keeps taking the heat from the inside.
That double beat is getting you shot down!
Unbelievable!
Something special keeps up against D-Gall and that's also what's going to happen.
Gotta get some!
We are back!
Please ensure your phone is muted during the session.
I already knew the after-break.
Of course. Floor M policy.
This wireless checkup has been scheduled after you declined a department move to finance and fraudulence earlier this year.
Distraction's acknowledged. Your records do show you've been underperforming in your aura-dispotal duties.
Exceeding the aura cap imposed by Floor M must be proving stressful for you.
Aura disposal denied.
Your aura levels are concerningly high for your station.
Luckily, your colleagues' work is ensuring that your team's aura will return to net zero by the end of the cycle.
Or a disposal. Successful.
The board is thrilled.
We are to partner with you in such presence.
They hope you'll be around.
We're a long time.
Before we end the session, we've produced a photo of your Altis family for you to enjoy at your workstation.
Thank you so much, Jimmy.
Oh, and Jimmy, please refrain from locking the break room door whilst inside.
It is a communal area.
I haven't been locking it.
The room is monitored 24 hours a day.
If you drink vodka bro, it's another blow.
Next day, last thing, you don't have anything.
They've cooked liver, pate, you know, canoska, yeah.
You can drink it, I don't know, 10 hours.
I don't know what to do with this gun, it's not a game, I don't want it.
I have no idea what to do with it.
What the fuck?
The
falcons waiting the victor of this one in the semi-final spirit
final spirit up a map.
Cycro, citing synchronization issues on Dust2,
team play missing for Maus.
Head into Mirage, though.
Has to be a different story if they want to buck the trend.
Teneur reminds us all of his potential on that first map.
He'll be a focal point of spirit, hope to pick this up
into the Mirage, a different story.
That's been a notable weakness here in Rio.
A career worst for Donk in the tournament on this very map
and a lost map to the Canis.
Local hometown heroes, Red Canis,
pushing Team Spirit and a loss on Mirage,
could be pointing to a third of Decider.
Houses on the other hand, they've played this three times.
Oh, you're in Brazil.
They've won it twice, they've lost it at once.
That was the Fury, that was a seeding match
and now this is for their survival.
I feel like they were connected to the server in map number one.
Just one gun round.
But one pistol.
Let's see if they can make it two.
Set up with an execute early.
Shiro, Antonia, donk.
Smokes out towards Palace while timed.
They could wait this or they could breach through.
and Jimmy they're equipped with a utilt looks like they will wait shiro comes and borrows into the smoke in case
Magic's playing forward on B. That'll liberate the rotation zontics getting a move on
Shirou now paths back smokes half-life almost gone and they'll have four strong is another smoke into powers
This is two smokes in the pistol like an anti doesn't it even got a flash of the ramp player
Torchy's lost the ball and confirms their suspicions a second from Shiro.
The Jorberetta's ripping the ramp apart.
Teneir holding on to the Sping's palace push and this could be flawless.
Roryujih rough.
Jimmy in a 1v5 and this one has fallen apart at the scenes.
He didn't even get going and that's a little bit like Dust2, Teneir.
I can't quite, but that's the
thing. As soon as Magix gets
info on the apps, he was playing
forward at this point. I have a
very good idea. Hey, likely to be
a so very well timed to get that
in. To really stall this out,
but it's beautiful. This is the
opposite of what mouse is getting
up to. They're not connecting.
They're not in sync. The team
works not there where spirit.
This is what we saw when they
took on liquid to kick off the
campaign. It was a thing of
beauty. It was that well old
machine. It's going to be
Eco now for Maus, it's all started against Spiritback in Cologne.
That loss, sorry, well, Spirit, it was a win against Maus in that grand final.
I guess if we frame it from the Maus perspective, either or as we just get this eco bash,
they're going to mow this one down with ease as the Glocks just steering themselves out top mid to be far.
They're not wasting any time, but wins consecutive now for Spirit.
Cologne to Molta, to Budapest to crack out.
Now, Brio, it's the world two up.
And we've seen this with Maus before, especially versus Vitality, but that felt like a different story.
Vitality, Maus and Spirit, they were the top three teams as far as HLTV were concerned of last year now.
Vitality well ahead above the rest of the pack. It was Maus's sheer consistency and Spirit's high peaks of last year
that put those two alongside of Vitality in 2025.
Yeah, 30 top four placements since the last trophy from ours without a single trophy.
And it's been spotless for a lot of teams, hasn't it?
The spirit it was eight months ago for theirs.
It was the win at Bounty before that with the win at Cologne since then.
It's been up Struggle Street without a paddle.
We do get into the first rifle round. It's a bonus to MP9.
There's a Shiro Orp searching. He's feeling himself as Shiro.
He's just left that pixel so as he sweeps through brawling could be a dead man should be a dead man
She wrote throwing aggression into the mix first gun normally they don't go in the same sentence
So this is nice to see she wrote taking some of these moves and chances is now be will be blocked spinces moves cancelled
This must feel like everywhere. He goes. There's a perfectly timed smoke
Magic's is housekeeping it as well making sure that if you can't spinks if he does try and flirt with a smoke push
push. Little boost as well to establish that corner silently.
This is where we'll be back to an A finish. There's Spinks, Millie on the lurk. Maybe
he'll try and sell this. We might just have to head back through the underpass. 40 seconds
is another smoke now, lands at his doorstep. He will have to try and connect with the
rest of his team. It's Jimmy through Palace, exertion and torgy up the A ramp and then
Spinks open to catch something on the lurk. Here they come.
to the left. Oh, it's actually
headshot double ding to
exertions. Don't Jimmy down
caught crouching. Smoke spray
from Donk flawless. Just a
continuation of what we saw on
map number one spirit
dominating in the opening
killed apartment 13 to five.
We'll call that third for spirit. This is casual. This is a great way to kick off a playoff campaign
It's a warm-up get a climatized with the stage
Think a less than as vitality if you skip that
Quarter-final it doesn't always work out the best so we'll see if Falcons are able to hit the ground running tomorrow
I'm sure we're still a ways away from this. I am still hoping or at least banking on getting something a little bit more competitive
How do the mouse cam before this series comes to a close but so far, early stages of Mirage,
it's more of the same.
Sarkren, I appreciate getting in early.
This is, for me, would be alright boys, we're either going to start playing the way we
know we can, or it's going to be more of the same.
So those saved guns come through.
They also want to return to the fact that Shiro did just push up mid solo with
an AWP fast gun round.
So this is where the saves being complimented by lighter investments because of the lost
burners.
Hope either is more direct so the AWP can't pick you apart and then your round is lost
from that point.
Or they pick up the pace.
The Tech9s make some space and the AKs are spancing towards you trying to trade.
Topcat window smoke standard opened up.
It doesn't look like Pace is the name of the game, barely mid control.
Shira is going to be breaking that smoke to have a peek.
to report smoke span not going to connect very heavy investment of bodies top
middle so nothing on the extremities exertion into the underpass everybody
connecting in middle now they're looking to brawl that's enough from Zontek see
catches version on the bench pulls out the utile of donkey and send the
every throne that's caused a pivot so something either they were banking on
just applying that basic pressure is this where they've seen something in the
prep to do with the rotation she rose all peas in rotation right now
Now my main question is will mouse find a frag now for
Didn't even notice that it was spotless to this point. That is wild
Well, my eyes are really on to know I know we had a great map number one
But being the a anchor there's a lot asked of you
Right now he's not in position for that if there is an a execute spirit of course
Yeah, they've read this situation completely wrong. So the bomb should go down
There should be, unless Don continues to find these frags through the smoke and flashes.
They're out, into the sire, smoke break, will expose Torji, a lot of bodies spotted, full
commitment, roll on the live though, will enable the plant, starts to punch it in, gets it
down on default.
Shiro trying to maintain that CT space, but he is on his own and very susceptible to
the swing, tech 9 looking for the frag here.
Reaction speed test for Shiro. Jimmy dares to go further.
Shiro peeking into this.
Oh, he's tagged him up, softened up for Sontikz on the swing back.
Coming in through CT-centric retake.
Too easy for Sontikz.
Pressure reply from Connorswell.
Magic support low, but now the distraction.
Your back's a-turned!
They get a single frag.
That is all Maus get a plant and a frag to celebrate
because that's spirit for Mausnil.
And the rarity, it's a blue moon.
Sontikz just smiled.
He is still smiling and that shows you how well things are going in the spirit camp right now.
I love this though, they're playing a heavy mid and connector setup, the execute comes in.
You're playing retake, right? You understand that if it is the execute on that site, you're giving it over, right?
You've conceded that fact.
But then as the smokes fade, mouths are looking for fights towards con, towards stairs, towards jungle.
Nobody's home, they've all rotated through CT.
Absolute marauders on that retake and they forced behind those saves.
Now they're hedging with a half investment, but they are getting absolutely blanked right now.
This is a mess.
H.E. Stack actually does significant damage to Zomtix. He's still hanging on though at 30.
Feels like Shiro's destined to collect if exertion does choose to try and swing across the tapis.
Parthing differently though, it's gonna be a fight with Donk.
Shiro... aw he nails it.
I can't believe how easy this is coming to the map. It's very nice to see Shiro taking a lot of aggressive stances.
I know it's something that people can be critical of him all, but I think, you know, T side's a different story, CT side though, you get to pick your shots, and if Shiro's in the flow set right now, keep it up.
Maybe Mal should have watched some more Red Canid's demos.
What the palace re-smokes are really just stuffing that choke point round after round. This is the partial.
This is a big test. You've got to get past magics, though. Clean, clean from magics. Spotless
defense at the short side. Jimmy jumps out of the apartment. A constellation frag on the
Desert Eagle, but the fifth round of certainty. This is flying by blink of an eye. It's 5-0.
At this level of two teams at this caliber, I can't remember the last time I saw a game
where one team only had two frags five rounds deep.
I think this is exemplifiedly just the mental.
It was the interview in the lobby where exertion was talking to Hugo.
I thought it was a bit.
I thought it was like trying a kind of psychological warfare
himself into a better frame of mind.
Change your own expectations.
Absolutely. Instead, it just seems like
he's kind of manifested his reality here.
They said they're not playing well and that's true, but...
I was talking to Taco in the
green room and he completely
agreed that you know,
confidence and the mental
side of chemistry is one of the
biggest parts of professional
counter strike. They've been
in so many playoffs. They've
been in so many finals. I think
when you go that time and time
again, I'm sure you lose to
likes of it. I'll do that's
one thing, but some of these
losses they start to hemorrhage.
It's not just been against
vitality, and that's I guess
where the doubt starts to
creep in. So this is a gun
So this is a gun round, at least a full, and there's an aid.
Just chips away at exertion, over towards underpass, but he does get the space.
Molly won't contain him.
And bomb now, heads back over towards B.
That just is on the jump spot with the smoke at the ready.
I think the key for me is everybody on Spirit has been shooting very hard.
Yes.
Honey, make no mistake, there are two kills from Al's.
He's still haven't seen another surely now a trade. Yes. Now bees open. This is their best bet. She's got the rotation.
Surely got she wrote here. Yeah, boxed him.
Donks out.
He's going to nail the headshot necessary trade, but hang on to this in top form. And he's got a clutch versus Jimmy, a battle of wits between the two.
It doesn't have a kid. I'm just gonna have to find one here.
There's one scooped up and Jimmy's playing from the side.
the apartments. Sure, you've got the kid, but Jimmy, if you place this reserve, he plays
this passively. No, he takes the fight instead. Now is finally bucked the trend on the sixth
time of asking.
You see the plan there if you're tearing it thinking, okay, it's very unlikely he's
played market side. So at least had a rough idea, but still so many positions have to
worry about. No orderables have to assist him there. So they get the opener playing
ahead of the flames with Zontik's. Magic's also locks down B, but the sweep comes
through and the key is exertion. He was also the man on Dust2 who made that long
doors push, the one that really caused the issues and got them that first rifle round.
I think his play here has also helped cement them with at least one. Sometimes the first
one's the hardest. Great information, a flash with no follow-through shows where the orcs
started here for Maus. Jimmy might walk into this, how diligent is he?
I guess that warning to do somehow alive and chicken as well. Here's that sport sound off
and Jimmy's get hunted down does well on the click through and run up by the USB. They
can call palace clear.
Jeremy maintains that space don't cheating over towards this mid window. Cognizant of
the vulnerability in mid. Does he really want to drypeak this? Yes, he does. Perfect
timing is exertion avert his gaze dongle strike to maintain the lead for team spirit
Rollins heard zon'tix there
Still the three of them now pinned in middle zon'tix aware of the boost possibility
We can fall back he's even got a block smoke forwarding the apartments and able to focus fully
A boost established if zon'tix over steps here he could be caught off by sphinx's angle
Reaim
So brilliant on display
he's got the bomb on his back.
If one is not looking the right
way, he's been hurt. He's throwing
nades. He's looking the wrong
way. All too easy. Spirit
straight back to that winning
trend.
I didn't even mind the response
there from ours. Okay, also
with pass as well. We'll take
the midspace of them, but just
how don't he's not afraid. He
just peers in on a timing of
his own design and then
Zontick shows us how
masterful he is in a position
like short. It looks like
our screen that he's going
to overstep the market. He
understands his angles
perfectly.
perfectly peers in, deletes another and that's six to one.
See, don't think they,
maybe if they let go of the shift key now,
they might be able to deal with toys, but they have to start moving.
Oh my God, he's getting pushed by Zontecs.
Not in the next time he's got it.
Something, I mean, what's going to be brought around it?
That's the thing, at least you've got a decent chunk of lost bonus,
but it's not enough to justify a full shove.
You'd want to partial, see if Torji can get you an opener.
Get a kill on this stage.
I still, again, it is baffling to me just how light on that column is.
It is only exertion in Jimmy to find frags for now so far.
Eight between the two of them.
Everybody else is still at the starting blocks.
You had to pass go, you had to collect $200.
a great player from something.
Wasn't it? I mean, this is this
is a short player. You know, he
is a by definition a short
player. He's got the aim and he's
definitely had the reps. Okay
well, there are some investments
the galil for Jimmy couple of
tech nine short spattering a
But
This is tough to watch this
Not if you're a spirit fan you love it. It just feels like it's watching a like a car crash in slow motion. I
Hope that we get at least
Something that resembles this level of spirits tomorrow because if not does that say more about mouse?
We probably weren't yeah, maybe more about falcons. I don't know
No.
Okay, look at this from Spinks.
I mean, Donks are where?
But Spinks has got the aim.
He's on the board.
That's his first.
And down goes Zontics.
Clear by the Torgy.
All smoke facilitates.
Now Spinks catches Magics in rotation.
It's all shaped up nicely for number two.
Just got to get past him here.
Easier said than done.
Two on A.
He knows Torgy was near mid.
Doesn't want to overextend.
The great restraint there.
He would have been a dead man had he swung.
Letting Spinks play in.
Try and take away this space.
Wow, he did peek into Torgy, now he's got a trapped exertion.
Not providing the help Torgy needs.
He'll trade for sure.
Yeah, trade, sure.
Sweet!
Oh, my God, that got close.
Oh, damn!
And they're still worried about Shiro.
He's going to much lay into this short position.
Shiro gets the bomb safe, though.
Yeah, and he's aware of this possibility,
so he can plant default or reverse side.
It doesn't matter.
Shiro...
He's up the rifle, has the kit.
He's going to give this a look.
Alright, Sheero, 7-1, you're in good form.
I think that's all what it takes.
She only got the nades.
They go for a sandwich, Tetris set up.
They can't let him cross sight.
They'll be ready to take this together.
Flash could make life a bit difficult for them.
Swings on in and solved.
Spin to the high impact round. Those are its first three flags.
They're translating to Maus' second.
I don't know, she's brawling her needs to get off the starting blocks now and everyone's contributing for mouse the in-game lead up
Plenty of cash been accrued
I'm starting to wait, but both rounds won for mouse had had an element of dealing with the rotation in window
Yes, one came after the initial trades on B. This one was the opening exchange
So we'll see how that continues to play in as mouse can still salvage the half with six six
I mean that was just around the off-saves
It's a big one to win.
Surtian's quick towards Con.
He is, and he's got to get past Donk.
And he's coming.
He's just jumping into the jaws of Maus.
Still gets his.
Off of Sontex's flash.
Nid, flying that Maus flag.
Jimmy towards the ramp.
Draw attention, draw rotations, and take the head off of to Nid.
Lovely spray control from the young Finn.
It's open, essentially.
Again, Spinks, he's starting to catch these timings through the middle,
like boosted up into the window and thriving.
All too easy for Torgy, long range shot,
favoring the scope weapon.
Zontek's getting backstabbed by Spinks.
That's two in a row now, where Spinks' name has found impact
through middle, Torgy's AWP as well.
But with the best round,
Mauser played so far in this quarterfinal.
does sure start with exertion going down but the trades immediate and then they
just work off of each other nicely so better late than never as the old adage
goes money for spirit mentioned starting to wane you will see some
emissions whether that's utility or firepower as magics make sure that he
gets all the needs to anchor down on beat mouse they're in it now win this is
2400 is the loss and you as mentioned can still tie up the half before the
break. Finally it starts to feel like we're getting a level of resistance required for
a quarter final.
And I think a bit of Jimmy Disrespect there as well. Hey, take the 1v1 against Tania.
We know that they're playing for a mid control so that fight should be isolated for you.
Do absolute best and he's won it out so an important kill there for Jimmy.
an A execute right now, Maus, loose piece of sphinx just making his look like a default top middle.
He's going to come quickly.
And Teneur's forward.
There's a spot's exertion jiggling.
Thomp and Teneur going to be calling for Shirose.
Nice support from Domp.
Just ahead of the smoke, Bloom catches exertion trying to make space.
The M4 is connected.
Teneur swings out now for another. Damage onto Jimmy.
Tink's going to make it so hard.
He's going to be limping through the rest of this one.
and it looks like Torgy's evacuating Jimmy to a full reset.
This moment, if the CT is identifying right because of Magix position, hey,
there's the backed off one of the standard responses you see is a player
pushing through middle underpass to cut them off, right?
But it is just Shirou is going to take his AWP over towards B.
Some things will focus on middle and this full reset,
it doesn't have to just go with the side hit.
Don't need to just continue into the B side.
If they want to go through underpass, see if they can get your timing on the reroute.
It does seem to be apartments. Yeah. And so shiro on this line, there's nothing to pull him away.
They know that it can't be short. So shiro just has to focus fire.
It's Jimmy that's been given the AWP. He'll be peeking in first.
So that's an easy one for shiro. And now Torji thrust into the 1v3.
Molotov standing in the open from shiro. He just backs his aim there.
He knows he's not going to miss. And doesn't.
Everyone playing well on spirit. 9 and 5 foot to near.
10 and 5 for Donk, 9 and 3 for Zontics, 9 and 3 for Shiro,
Magix, he's the Bianca, hasn't had to do an awful lot so far.
And Donk finds himself another opener here.
Very well done from him.
Sure, this one does actually get resulted in the round.
In the previous, they lost it this time, they converted,
but they are flying with these openers.
We're talking eight.
Ready, and this is looking like another drubbing.
Just as it looked like they were getting back underway,
you get a relatively clean defense.
Quick, Nick. Really quick. Look at exertion as well.
Gonna catch Donk.
Oh, Donk still prevails.
Oh, and also equalizing frag onto Zonsik's short side.
Still, Teneir on the staircase, up and over onto Torji.
Spirit maintain.
One spotted.
Back and forth. Donk again.
Only into place for an A.
Oh, he can't even get his boots on the ground.
Shiro takes his head off.
Donkers got the opening kill and exertion in three consecutive rounds now.
So, uh, tough one for exertion.
Trying to take away whatever you can from this matchup being so one-sided.
But for me, it's to near looking confident and comfortable.
Yeah, he knows where the fights are coming from.
He's taking them and delivering.
He was phenomenal on Dust2. Last round, first half, second map, first quarter final here at Rio.
And this has been a speedrun.
Another opening death-free session. Just running through the deep smoke.
Zero and five.
And he is in the opening department. Typically, both kills and deaths. This time just the deaths.
Well, A's open essentially.
It's an air catcher's wind of it.
And Speng's catching Donk with empty hands.
Nice from Taneir.
Force into the fight by Janimie Jimmy's Molotov
at a long range.
Tech 9-8, the fight for Brawland.
Each four sounds a whole lot better than 9-3.
So much Utah for the retake right now, Spirit.
Oh yeah, and that default box position from Brawland.
So easy and susceptible to the incendiary.
Magic still has the Molotov.
Default plants the problem.
That's the problem.
That's the Molotov.
Holland's going to be forced into the fight here.
They nail him.
Okay, weird now.
Nice from Torchy.
Actually finding Xontix.
At that time, it's very sensitive.
Look at Ana.
Looks like it should be Miles' forte,
unless they couldn't just hold the defuse.
People are playing.
The smoke, they're going to fight it with the tech.
No!
God damn it!
Ryan, Riles with a spirit.
They want to make this a 2-0.
They won that semi-final tomorrow.
Miles need a miracle.
I
It's not just vitality that mouse can't seem to beat,
Dust 2 was quick and it feels like Mirage might be going a similar way.
The individuals of Spirit all hitting.
Tineir no-worthy performance as well across both maps now joining Donk and Shiro at the top of the tables.
That's been a masterclass, hasn't it? From Spirit, this is Rapid.
This is a very, very quick quarterfinal.
This isn't normally where Maus gets slowed down, but this is a Maus who continued to deteriorate.
It's hard to watch and I'm sure hard to play.
We're one for one in pistols on map number one. Let's see if we can do it again. Maus, you need something
It's gonna be an early fight quick from exertion tested on the ramp side
Double kill from exertion on the Jorba retas to near losing his head
Well and finding magics jumping mantling up through the connector as well
So you talked about the necessity for this pistol
It's come rather leisurely. I just think the problem at the moment is it's same as map number one
It feels like a matter of time. Oh
That's a horrible headshot for spigots. You can't get covering times on to just chases him down
That'll draw the rotation because that was the bomb
Something that they were struggling with in the first map right out of sync over rotating the team play wasn't there
I don't know how you can lose this to v5. I mean it's shiro exertion standoff
He's just been caught on the ladder there gets the info and he doesn't know about exertion is all about him
I mean, he gets that info safely and Rollin's still choosing to take that five, fortunately, the Nade combined with Exersion's head shot through the boards.
Who's made this a 1v4 for Zontics?
Now, close, finally finishes off Rollin, but at what cost?
You'd love to get the plant, but I don't think they'll allow that. They are giving you the cross to short, and Jimmy playing safe, so...
This is likely the next point of contact.
So she's playing safe sandwich toji in jungle. They're just gonna let zontics finish the rounds
That's your news while one bullet all he needs
Step one
Complete and this is it right you're likely to get an eco for spirit in this situation
They bring the rifles out into the next so
You should get this one for free to make it a
five-score line
The same discussion we were having on Dust2.
It's all about stringing these consecutive rounds and rifle rounds. I think that Maus have really struggled with.
Sontics has invested in Deagle and he's got a friend. I wonder why.
I'm going around to see if he gets to recycle that from...
But he did just reload after one bullet as well, so...
He doesn't want the dunk to have the chance, I see, all right.
I'm staunch defense right now, this full mid control, they're not afraid.
Knowing that bomb didn't go down, so the likelihood of the force.
I'm not on the cards right now.
This dunk decoy.
Be one hell of a decoy.
The exertion would be nice to be able to pat the stats if they do come flooding out of middle. It's just Taneir and Magix
Say that. Zontics is bringing his Deagle over there too
Georgie Spinks all finding it. There's the Zontics headshot. That's what he's been waiting for
Singer of a second
And there's dog's turn
See if you can match the output. Already decent damage. He gets one more. Yes, right eco. Seriously
The amount spent
Oh, and he's gone and done it.
Okay, why not?
He takes off with Spinks' heads.
Why not?
Because they have guns, Kevlar, and won the pistol.
That's why not, but they have to pay a very heavy price.
Yeah, that's a lot of casualties to stomach there against what was essentially just a $700 investment.
And that decoy.
Can't forget about that.
Never forget.
Spinks, a bit of an unnecessary extension from him gets immediately punished.
so they're teetering already. It's just it's going to be worse this time than Dust2.
Missing nades. At least Dust2 you got two rounds in a row where you had the guns. This time you're only
going to get the one and then it'll be the fourth. So straight into what is likely an A execute here.
Standard mid openers, exertion towards you, Spinks all kept busy by that trying to identify.
Is it middle? Are they pathing behind that island box? And in the interim the set up. Now they're an execute.
Roland is trying to block this jungle slow trying to disrupt. Doc will go down to the spray
to their core flag to
As exposed actually son takes the one that profits from the smoke break mouse lose out Zershin
She was taking space. He dropped the ball. He wants to keep moving throw the deep CT smoke Jimmy's gonna try to play ahead of that
She wrote he's there perfectly poised to collect
But I'm from the staircase toji lingers looking to catch the timing on the smoke push spanks flanking
Oh lovely forward maneuver forward momentum spinks
feasts on the double kill default plan to make out with this
He's still giving his best shots.
And the head on to one.
Double swing.
Roman ensures the round.
That was a test on his side and he's past it.
Kills between Spinks and Prolac.
Smile starting to creep onto their faces.
Sontics must be in the lab.
I feel we're seeing more headshots out of this guy than normal are we?
Here he comes through the smoke.
Dang, while flashed in a smoke.
And now, just a three round gap.
Cyclo and happy with that, starting to see more of what he expects from the boys as the
mid-smokes locked out.
Partial bite.
on-plant helping them quit a little bit more another round where you want to make
sure if you spear you're getting a couple of kills continue to apply the
pressure of a mouse it's the opposite how many can we keep alive and we start
to make this look clean can we make it look competitive that we're here to
play today magic selling this over towards mid but zontics has already
gone down towards a I'll stop something sorry don't try to find through
Magic's confirmed Spinks in ladder.
Shiro is out in a bow, but was counting on Ron and going down to the Don't Deague.
Now spotted on the jump peak.
Still something from Taneir, more than something.
Could be everything.
He pulled them back into a three on two, not a five and three fumble against the Tecnoite.
The defensive might let Shiro plant.
He might get towards Con and be able to pick up one of these guns.
God has fallen into a post plant.
This could go horribly wrong for Malz.
No speaks was ladder. That's what's in his playing for
Couching can't hit the shot
Was aiming for that head and then look at the wrong way is shiro
So many ways that could have got a whole lot worse, but still you get the bomb plan to get a couple of kills
Sit in there, and you turn it into a two-round game
So this is a mouse finally finding some form
We were expecting a better showing on Mirage dust to as mentioned this year so far
They played it 15 times well 16 now. They're 5 and 11. It's not their fourth a mirage a little bit more their bread and butter
It's their map it you can understand. So
It's either gonna be this or overpass, but just the idea of starting to decide overpass against spirit. I
Thank you. Okay second gun round second half
And they really make a map of this
Starting to feel that way now
Go straight up mid
Donk and Shiro waiting for him.
Flash connects onto both of them.
Important trade.
Shiro gets vision just in time to ensure it stays level.
You're opening stages around 17.
And not letting Donk be comfortable in all these moments.
Not that he's a non-issue, but they aren't getting a couple of openings against him.
Najik's had a chance on Brolin.
Whistles one past Brolin's here.
Not that advantageant.
Maybe a little bit disconnected in some of these plays of spirit.
Trade potential not there
Session talks on the window. What's she gonna be trying to lend her hand?
That's a deal. What gets to in quick succession on the spray? It lined up
That's the aid offense. They were just in a massive line still exertion pulls the trigger while in the smoke grenade to ensure
It's a one versus two advantage
to get to cross, but they're
quick on this. Ginny and
exertion could just walk on
that plant sound partner up and
ensure the trade. She wrote.
Light up again. It was nearly
the one bow combo. Okay, another
tense moment that these rounds
for mouse. Yeah, you add them
to the tally. You're starting
to brew a bit of confidence
because they're even having
that finding some of these
moments. This is the double
Lob that over and then they're peeking in mid to combine but to near it the output. We're getting from him today
I don't know how many times we've seen it in the spirit jersey
Another clutch attempt for shiro another difficult one short
Nine to eight some fix
How to be coached standing in for Halley throughout his absence finally has some work ahead of him
No rounds posted so far in the first five
The second half of your Mirage, but they're close.
The bomb's going down.
It's tough situations regardless of investment.
That does mean that the money isn't comfortable for Maus.
They have a little bit of extra on three out of the five.
It does mean this house of cards can get blown over damn quick.
So it's the big, big bad dragon ready to blow it all over.
Now he's about to tie things up.
the bomb, but it was the B apartment, Sphinx spamming Jimmy playing forward. And the bomb
not dropping back if anything is picked up now so this in different stages likely to turn into
a bunch of different moves to get short control. CTs with a defensive conspoke. Jimmy forward
should be such a strong position that even if he has one the early info also will bottleneck them
and allow Spinksy to also contribute. The jump spot bait feels like it's setting up the success.
Right, Spinks is acting like Jimmy.
I don't think they start running him down after he's spotted.
Then Molly, this will help Magix now with the short control.
Try and pincer in, Spinks' attention drawn, so no longer baiting.
Jimmy, however, hiding out in his position, they'll clear him.
Donk, oh, lazy clear from Donk!
Jimmy's alive though.
Spinks tucks in, exertion's already arrived on the site, so things shape it up.
Still caught on the smoke spam.
Oh, he's gone away for a moment!
Let's do that, they can flip us too!
The Exhaustion and Spinks both on that kill.
The bombs still be apps. They're trying to sell A.
They're trying to force a rotation. They still want to finish over towards B.
There's only 20 seconds. They have to finish B with the bomb.
It's ambitious. They're hoping to near and sheerro can sell the A finish.
They're both still B. There's 14 seconds. How's Zontik's meant to get this done?
Oh, that's the kill. Zontik's killed Spinks. It's just Exhaustion here, but they have to plant.
Eight seconds. Zontik's just has to get that bomb in or they'll go from the kill.
Chaos.
The Spirits, fast T-side round here on Mirage.
You think, okay, just pull the plug, we have the info,
but they're thinking a layer ahead.
If the rotation comes in from short,
how are we meant to get up con?
That's not an easy fight for us, but then it's still tense.
It's a tough choice either way.
The fact that that's a buzzer beater right there,
that how close these rounds have been.
Spirit, they pull one off,
they finally get on the board on this T-side,
they get to double digits first.
And remember, mounds have been walking funny.
These rounds haven't been easy to get by.
You can see on your screen right now,
There's an all-for-tall she's sure couple of m4s in the mix is Brolin
Gonna have to defend a with an MP9
And Jimmy just down to a 5-7 utils lacking. There's no diffuse kid
And five seconds the final frag comes in
to near
Such impact everywhere in that round another showstopper from him 18 and 12
Donks being hemorrhaging opening kills in his second half
This one's worth two for Spirit.
And those two could be all they need is one of those situations for Maus.
You lose this, you either force by out of the game or you take an eco.
Son takes, he's just got to try and find one here, they're pushing for him.
In his blind spot, Mp9 at range combines Wintly and four of exertion.
Or he will find himself an upgrade and the opening kill for Maus.
You want to sweep back through up to Spirit.
They're quick to this and they're bringing an awful lot of bodies.
Jimmy's going to stay pretty passive over towards B
because of the aggressive plate on the other side of the map.
Spicks the exertion rotating over.
Spirit essentially calling their bluff in this.
You were forward. We think you're going to re-jig and...
Shiro clears out Brolin.
That's one big threat removed.
Nice damage from Brolin. Has the advantage on the angle.
Torchies up close on the default box. He's been spotted though.
It's not comfortable now. Brolin's gone down as well.
Well, yeah, overwhelmed to near up and over from the Tetris side, A site lost, Jimmy closest
on jungle exertion advancing behind that smoke wall, but they have got control of CT and it's
a default plant from Magix.
But no kit, not possible to invest right now.
Doesn't feel good for Maus whatsoever, does it?
They're hoping for an overplay here, Jimmy tucked into the corner, he's actually
been cleared.
Again, the awareness from Tineir point is 20th contribution here.
It's your favourite four letter word, Alex, they're saving, they know the options
ahead of them. Now's with 1900 going into the next, the late stages and they aren't
just going to have to retain these M4s and they have next to nothing to defend
their honor, to defend against 12 Spirit. They call the bluff on the palace push.
She wrote, deals with Brolin, they are rubbed on to A and they make this one look
simple. And the handful of rounds away now from making it six consecutive
series. Spirit have a Mouses number, another one of these head-to-heads
that's no longer a rivalry. It's domination on display.
This is that 1v1 we saw off-screen.
Chiro did manage to best fall on display. That a damage equalizer.
Again, it's an easy flow state. Every choice he's making is the right decision.
And he's considering everything right now.
Every corner he clears.
They're not forcing behind the M4s, so it's not an eco, but it's, wow,
It is an eco, but it's not a full one. Two to the saves.
They hedge their bets, they gamble B.
Just spirit you know. What happens we carry through. So you're going to take your time with this.
You want to make sure you don't die to any early aggressive moves, whether that's
palace of ramp push, up the guts of middle, jumping out the window, under pass, harassing
your B default up. All of those considerations you put out a wide net. You play slow,
and then once you're sure there
hasn't been that aggressive move,
you start to piece this together
and they appear to be picking perfectly.
Take a look at the radar.
There is absolutely nobody at home.
The B stack from Maus starts to play forward
for some info, but it feels like it's going
to be way too little, way too late.
12 looks like a certainty.
of utility thrown out the
diligence. Spinks an exertion
can play back trying chip away
see if they can get right
was the torch you brought in
Jimmy. It's not even damaged
being the name of the game. Now
it's too late.
The potential palace aggressive
well even confirms now
presence Jimmy finds off a
bullet of his new recipe
trying to make space for the
for the M4 and now that's audible. So you get one, springs another, opportunity for
springs to go swing in here and don't have an absolutely none of that and don't
go as down to Torgy with distraction from the palace position enables the
USP to find that frag. So they came into this round with two M4s and they'll
leave with one. It's 12 already, okay. It really did look like Maus had
managed to put up the wall. Yeah, I just think with those five
can pull them were broken. Yeah. Take nine rounds.
It's getting done because they're lining up.
It's all in those ways.
Everything feels like it's going wrong if you're now as a spirit.
It's oh, so right.
This is the form of a team you'd expect that has
donkers the crown jewel.
And today was brought in to bring this level of firepower.
So it's great to see him delivering today.
I mean, the scoreboard reads fantastically for team spirit.
I was this it's on par with Donk as well. Everyone's hitting their shots
Exit A again Alex. This is they are bludgeoning this side. It's Brolin who's about to get a complete onslaught
They've gambled B. They're playing it for info sure, but when's the goal on the execute the rotation?
I don't know for to be there in time Jimmy's
Oh, Brolin. He's gonna have his work cut out for him trying to find a safe haven on site. Here they come
Anti-flash of still blind screen buys time for John to close the gap and down goes Brawler and he gets another one!
Starrl!
To pull those up!
Slarton's miles and sends them packing out of Rio!
Yeah, packed their bags, sent them to the lobby. This one's done.
Now you punch your ticket by taking down Legacy and Aurora.
You couldn't deal with Buria and Spira are too much to ask for.
That lower bracket goal, let no problem, 13-8.
A casual day at the August for Spirit.
Eight months since their last final.
Eight months since their last trophy lift.
Only three days since their last head-to-head versus the Falcons.
And that's what comes next.
Blown out in the group stage.
Dong's worst career performance.
A chance for revenge on the stage.
Didn't see that form though.
The individuals that played today, I think they can hang with the Falcons.
Very entertaining semi-final, but for the other side, I mean from ours. Yeah, you said it. That is no longer a rivalry
It's all nation six straight now for spirit
This is one that have got in their pocket and take to the stage get the handshakes in a good game for some
But mouse the questions continue to be asked. They continue to put up the front
It's the opposite of the form you want to have ahead of the major
Yeah, well they're saying look this one might not be the priority, but they are looking to find that form
I've got a couple more months to find themselves a bit of soul-searching required
Because the Maus that was the second most consistent team of 2025
Look like they are eons away from now, but we're heading down to the stage
First of all
First of all congratulations what a consistent victory. I know you were not
feeling well over the past few days and you're playing without your coach but
even so you're performing incredibly well. For you how's the tournament going so far?
It's fun you know I was sick sometimes and like I was feeling like I'm dying
inside the game so it's sad but right now I'm feeling myself like good and
everything good fine but now you're on priming right you're priming no no it's
not you want more yes well you have chance because tomorrow you're gonna
face Falcons how are you gonna prepare for that as always I think we will try a
little bit better than in group stage but I think we will do better amazing
We have the best of luck, thank you, congratulations.
Thank you, guys!
Look, an important message for you.
A little before our second quarter of the day,
we will have a very important announcement here on this stage.
So, come back here at least 15 minutes before starting, okay?
Don't leave yet, we'll be back in a little while.
You won't regret being here.
Thank you very much.
I'm feeling myself like...
Absolute domination and I do not mean by mouse.
I'm talking about the spirit that could came through here and reminded mouse that this is the way the airport fell us so
go ahead and get at it.
Yeah I mean listen we need to just...
depends on in which...
for which lands do you look at mouse, right? If you see this result
but you think mouse is still supposed to be a contender team then you'll be greatly disappointed and
You know, you will be shocked by the result, but I don't think that's who Maus is at the moment
But if you look at Maus as a team who you know will be the teams below them
But he's no longer a top five or contender team then this loss is way less painful and I think
Moving forward going into the major
In their camp, I feel like they need to change their approach and how they play the game, right?
Like what I don't think they should try to play
a default Counter-Strike, you know, try to play by the book at all times.
I think they should maybe up the pace, be more aggressive, figure out the way to change your
style so you can get something more out of these players.
Because it feels like everyone is done with the roster, like everyone knows that the changes
are coming, their heart isn't in it anymore and when you try to play that way, it's
not going to go well for you.
Yeah, I very much agree, you know, it is a better result from ours I guess compared
to the last tournament, they played where they finished that last
and they did have a couple of good showings here as well.
The game against Aurora was one that gave themselves,
and I guess also a little bit of hope that maybe they're finding out
and maybe they're figuring out a way to play slightly better,
but it's the fashion they lose into Spirit here as well.
It's not a competitive game.
It's not a close game of Counter-Strike.
It's not a game where you at any point are like,
oh, maybe they're coming back now.
Maybe we're heading to a third.
Maybe they can kick-start themselves.
It's the fashion they currently play Counter-Strike in
that makes me agree very much of what you're saying.
You know at this point it does feel like there's nothing to lose if your mouse sure heading to the cologne
Maybe if you're sticking with the same lineup and you're not making a roster change heading into cologne
Then just freed up, you know player a little bit more loose and a jankos saying trying to see if you can get more out of the
Individuals instead of trying more of the same and the same and the same so at the end of the day
The way I want to summarize this game for me is that I didn't learn anything new about mouse
And that's a great disappointment because I've been asking for that for a long long time to see signs of life
But as we would say trace the lights are on there's nobody home in the camp of March right now
Yeah, I do hate that is right, but he's right cannot always be the day right can't always be the day
I times you gotta be ready for the night
I did like though from spirit, you know some of the stuff on their tea side
I mean it did get to nine eight in this map right and spirit had to win four rounds in a row or didn't have to
But they won four rounds in a row to close out the game and had some cool rounds on T side again, right?
that had some tactical depth, we saw it on Dust2, we saw it on Mirage, right?
And that's a good sign with all the question marks around Magix and his leadership right
near. Having a good series is also a great sign for Team Spirit, hopefully gives us some added
confidence going into the Falcons game tomorrow. It was beautiful to watch Tineir play Counter-Strike
today. He did a great job on Dust2 as we highlighted with a couple of rounds on Mirage as well
when it was looking the worst, I guess, for Team Spirit. He was the one player trying to
to drag them back into rounds up until they got the Indian running on the T side.
And that's kind of what we wanted from Teneir.
Again, on a map like Mirage T side, he was involved in a lot of stuff in the mid-portion of the map,
center of the universe, instead of being out on a flank, not really involved.
So I want more of that Teneir, you know, in your face Teneir, the one that takes duel against
arguably, you know, great players, which he can win.
So it's a good sign for him, a good sign for Team Spirit,
and a game where you win without breaking a sweat.
You know, if that doesn't give you a bit of confidence heading into the semifinal, nothing will.
Well, you said it. I mean, if you want more tier, this is how you do it. It's our DHL MVP vote.
Who will be the DHL MVP? You decide. You can participate in the DHL MVP vote as it happens.
Make sure to be tuned into the Twitch stream and be ready to have your say.
Yes, it is time for that DHL MVP vote that way that we can likely catch up with them at the
the conclusion of the grand finals. But of course, you want a more tear. So we
delivered just for you, Jacob, an awesome series, really cool stuff we showed, or
he showed rather there on Dust2 and really put his proud ass all over mouse.
It's great to see, you know, he's reminding us what a what capabilities he has as an
individual player. He's struggling with consistency, so has Team Spirit, but
through good maps in a row and hopefully something he can build on
towards heading into the semifinal.
Actually, the next one in terms of candidates, nominees, you should say.
a dark surprise surprise crazy he wasn't the first name on the list right that
also happens sometimes sort of working his way up in this tournament heard
plenty of time about his condition so I think he'll be in good shape going into
tomorrow and yeah his team is going to absolutely need him last time he had his
worst map in team spirit against Falcons on that mirage oh man what a sweet
juicy game it's going to be. Also, Shiro. Where's he at? Where's he in the server?
I think he's quietly doing a really good job, you know? Again, Shiro sure has games and moments
where he's popping up even more, but I think he's been somewhat consistent in a period where
Team Spirit haven't functioned too well. This game, let alone again getting the job done,
I think he's a player that makes very few mistakes as well. If you want to get
technical about it, a player that you could rely on and a player that the teammates can
always rely on as well. So good to see him play well and also much, much needed in a semi-final.
He's not flashy. He's a safe pair of hands and you know, the only time you'll see highlights from him most likely his clutches
That's where he's incredibly strong and does his best work. Yeah, so again, that's the DHL MVP
Go ahead and get get your vote in it should be up there on the top of the screen somewhere
We just showed you how to do it so it shouldn't be super complex super complicated
I'm the trishet by the way, right? Yeah, well, I mean, yeah, okay fair. That's that's right
Yeah, anything you want to tell them Jacob nothing at all nothing at all all right
Well, for us at least like yeah putting putting a ribbon in bow on mouths
It's almost as if we're ready to put them in the box and wrap it with the present and put it out for Christmas
I thought I think that type of box. Yeah, and that's a tough one
I think the one interesting, you know angle you can look at Moses that is that change gonna happen now
Or is it gonna happen after cologne because I think we're at a point now where you kind of describe it as well
There's almost nothing to lose in the mouse game
So if you are planning to change after the cologne major, why not pull it off now?
I would have made it last
Right, so I would do it as soon as possible
I think they would be far better off with it because this roster isn't going to achieve anything in the next two months
So if you have the opportunity just pull the trigger on it already right give yourself
And you cannot underestimate honeymoon periods, right the extra motivation from a new start a new beginning
So we'll see what they have in store for us. Yeah
I mean, I guess are there any names that kind of come to your guys at the top of your head
Like who would be a good fit who would slot into this mouse lineup that could make it make sense
I think I think the question for them and then the question
I'm still left with is is it just gonna be one roster change because if it's just a one for one
Let's say that they want to try something new instead of Berlin then I say do it right now
You know, you're looking at a guy like magic being rumored to the lineup
You're looking at kicks and maybe potentially free in the market even though he's probably gonna cost a bit of money
Do you want to re-rent the lineup and maybe remove more than one player then I think it gets a bit more complicated
So I think that's one of the only reasons I can come up with as to why they would wait until afterklown to make sure that they get the two players they actually want.
But for now, I think Kixson would be fun to see in mouse.
I think Mattix is a bit more of a wildcat.
I'm not sure if he's caught for you.
Yeah, I think they need someone who's a bit of a fiery personality, who's not just an IGL, but even more so a leader, a leader of men, right?
I think that's what they have.
I'm not even sure I decided to put kickstand into that particular category,
maybe Magisk a bit more so because he's a proven champion and a veteran presence,
but yeah, it's not easy, right? As you said, those guys are for a reason they're a few and far between.
And he's Danish, Jacob, another great reason not to sign him.
I wonder why Zippex extended his contract.
I wonder why he's still satisfied being an assistant coach.
I think he thrives in that environment.
I think he thrives on vitality.
Well, in a sense, but also not having the full responsibility on him.
Because we often talk about coaches not doing the job well enough
when the teams are not doing well enough.
And I think he's had a long time in Australia
where he was being singled out as being the issue.
And I think that's a different kind of pressure to work on.
I've also spoken to him a bit about, you know,
making the transition into becoming head coach.
And I think he wants to do that at some point,
but for now he fives well, you know,
working in the background,
not having to put his name to things,
but still having an influence within the lineup.
But a certain point, Miles have to show something, right?
Like at a certain point, the Miles camp has to show.
I mean, they, they resigned both Cyclone and Cypnix
and as much as it may sound fun to say,
I think that was a great thing to do.
I think that could be the cornerstone
of rebuilding the project.
I think they've done a great enough job, you know,
previously as a duo in order to make sure
the mouse got to a point where we labeled them
the second best team in the world and one of the most consistent teams in the world.
Question is if they are good enough at scouting new talent and then making that change.
And honestly I don't think Maus hasn't won tournaments or went to number one because of
coaching or anything like that. I think it's ultimately with the players but it is a different
challenge to get young players and get them to play on a high level and then get a team
to be from the top 30 to a top 10 or something along those lines and get from that point to actually
winning tournaments, right? That's a different sort of a challenge. You need different qualities to
be able to accomplish that. So we'll see. A roster change is absolutely necessary. And then after
that, we can see if Maus maybe is back into that contender status. Well, it does sometimes
come down to what you talked about, Jacob, with regard to ways better to change. One player
Is it better to get two out and then get two new guys in?
An interesting perspective considering, you know,
the coaching situation over there, how that would all unfold.
But for, yeah, for now, for miles, they're done here in Rio.
That's the end of that. For Spirit tomorrow,
they're going to go on and take on those Falcons.
That's how the bracket lays out.
You can probably see that for yourselves.
Anything you want to add, Jacob?
I think it's going to be a fun matchup, you know.
Spirit is definitely playing better today
than they've done, you know, so far in this tournament.
Donk seems to be getting a little bit more will
and not so will anymore.
It's a near having a great showing.
It kind of lines up for a fiery matchup, whereas for Falcons so far, what we've seen is a team that has relieved the depression,
a monocy that is firing on all cylinders. So, I can't see a reason as to why it shouldn't be a fun game, George.
You'd hope so, and I see a lot of teams that are high on Falcons now, with how they've been playing in groups and the fact that they beat Vitality.
But we saw all of that before. What we haven't seen is them string good performances in the playoffs,
when it actually matters the most, and Spirit who they beat countless times in Falcons and Niko and Monos even dating back to G2,
the one time they lose to them is when it matters the most, at the major in that quarter final, right, when everything is laid out for you, in a way.
So it's not until that game tomorrow and potentially Falcons winning it before I could even consider them potentially going all the way as a stoner.
Crazy stat line, the whole, you know, Niko monosy versus Xero and Dong, I think is it 11 to 1 or 12 to 1 at the moment in favor of Niko and monosy?
So yeah, it's gonna be an interesting matchup, but one that Spirit and Dong in particular have struggled with.
Yeah, and it's exciting stuff. That'll be tomorrow in case you are just joining us. Gentlemen, I think we go to a quick break.
We can come back. We've got a lot of cool stuff going on here at the Intellect Stream Master, so make sure you don't go anywhere.
Because when we return, if you can't imagine it, vitality, you're gonna jump back on the server.
But this time they're not starting the Cinnies, they're going to find themselves in the quarters
and they're going to be playing Navi when we come back after this.
Placent matches set your starting point, face-it rating measures your impact as you climb.
The soft ELO reset narrows the gap between the highest ELO players and the rest of level
10.
Your starting point will be based on your recent ELO inactivity.
We're introducing face-it rating so you can see exactly how much you stack up against
others at your level.
Face-it rating measures how much your actions have increased your team's chances of winning
the match.
kicking into a comfy full situation.
Season eight launches April 22nd.
Good luck and have fun.
Magic's big news. Have you heard the news? No cries to BC game at Atlanta. Thoughts?
I think he's a fraud and he's washed and he's just farming in a plumber's and...
Washed with no HLTV profile? How do you get washed that quick?
I mean I've seen he's raining throughout like the first rumors and the first years, you
no social media presence and out of that it is not farming that way not farming
okay well keep our eyes on Atlanta you guys are gonna be in the sauna after this
but Rio right now first game mouse 5-0 you haven't played them since Austin you
feeling good what does it mean 5-0 you've won the last five games against
him I did not is that not true fake news personally no okay who won the
Oh, it was Donk, it was Shiro, and sometimes it was Chaper, Nier, Zwei, and so on ticks.
Personally, I won them only one time, and last time I faced them, I lost, and the last time, yeah, as you said.
So, I don't know.
Okay, well, I'm still feeling confident for you guys.
Taneer is looking quite good, or at least he's had a couple of good games here.
What's it been like trying to integrate him and make him comfortable?
I think he had his second highest rated game in spirit against G2 the other day.
So you played 2 BO3s in one day, you managed your energy well.
What have you got to say about Taneer right now?
It's about...
It basically works with everyone.
You need to have a space
and have a comfortable zone for everyone to perform and you know it's not like
we're trying to give him the most resources or whatever he's just doing slightly better in some
similar situations which he had in the past and I feel like it's about
you're facing a situation and you're losing and you're sucking and after this
you're going through it and the next time you just play better and if that works
this way it's good. Well it's going good so far. I wanted to ask about Sotfic, you
talked to Stiko about him after one of your matches saying you have to do a
lot more work as a guy leading leading up to games maybe in prep you know how
are you balancing that right now after a couple more matches with Halle, Sotfic
you and Halley not here? Well, Halley has been doing the game plan
completely and we're doing this in the rule kind of. I'm deciding like what
are we willing to do and Sotfic is supporting me and I'm asking him
sometimes if that's good or is this gonna work or is it bad and we're trying to
figure out something. Is Donk feeling better? I saw his telegram post yesterday.
Hmm. I have to wait and see. What do you have to do outside the game to keep Donk happy?
I see you guys have a special bond. How do you keep him so happy in this team?
So, the daily routine is ordering a big McDonald's combo featuring 20 nuggets, a double cheeseburger,
diet coke, definitely.
Also, TikTok Rind, Grant, like, two hours daily, and this is like the basic, that's the minimum.
Can I see your algorithm? Do you have your phone? Can we scroll some TikToks?
No.
No?
It's private. It's very personal.
You don't want to see it.
Why don't I want to see your magic?
Just don't do it.
Instagram or TikTok Reels?
Instagram Reels? Instagram Reels or TikTok?
Well, I'm missing them usually. Sometimes it's the TikTok grind, sometimes it's Instagram Reels.
And you know, when things get rough, we're going to YouTube shorts.
YouTube shorts? Surely the algorithm sucks.
Yeah, but you know, when everything is falling apart, you just get to this point.
Are things going to fall apart at IAM Rio?
I hope that we will not have to open YouTube shorts again.
Wow, that's inspiring.
Thank you for your time.
Best of luck.
I wanted to ask you about body shotting, right?
It's something you talked about in the past.
You're still doing it.
You're still lowest head shot percentage
from pretty much any rifle here.
What's your theory behind this?
I've explained it many times, and I believe I'm not the player with the lowest percentage anymore.
I think Alexei has less, I'm not sure.
So I think I'm just able to kill more, especially with the M4 if I aim like that.
You know, what about time to kill, though?
Like what's... I just want to hear you explain the logic of the time to kill, right?
Obviously, quick, you're going for the headshot, but you still have a lot of success doing it.
So what's the... can you explain the theory?
I believe it's pretty simple.
If you aim only at the head, there's just more of a margin of error.
Because if you look at like, beats or other robs, you only kind of looking at the way they kill,
but not the way they're not killing people just because they're missing at the head.
So I know there's just a less of error available because you aim for the body.
When it comes to being a supportive player, how do you view that role on your team, right?
What would you say you provide the most to your teammates in your role?
just trying to fill the holes that him have with the different aspects, especially I would say.
It comes to a lot of different things and I'm just trying to adapt for every new problem the
team encounters. It's not something specific every other match, it's just very different
from match to match. But I would say I'm just trying to do something that others are not really
willing to do. Kind of help them. Can you get more specific in certain positions there?
What do you mean? Like can you give me some examples?
Yeah, I would say I'm trying to, for example, talk more if I'm not talking enough. And
and a lot of stuff like that, but it just depends, to be honest, on a specific situation.
Can you tell me about Sothic being back in the team?
Obviously you and Donk played under him in Spirit Academy.
What's it like having him here behind you and, you know, outside of the game?
I would say he was like three or four years ago when I was playing with him with Zidane.
But he has a little bit different approach to the game.
And I think we are kind of using it to our advantage.
And I would say he gives a lot more freedom, because I think that's his goal here.
Because we had a problem with trying to play a very different Counter-Strike, just everyone
wants to play different, and right now we're trying to collect everything together
before we're playing the game, you know?
So even the game plan, it's more of just opinions from different players and then there's
like a game plan of what everyone wants to see inside the game.
And because of more freedom, I would say we're able to play more of a counter-strike.
We would want to play probably, but in defense.
I wanted to ask about the group stage.
You guys played Falcons again.
It's been a typically hard matchup for you guys.
Why do you think you struggle so much against?
at least the Niko monosy core two players even in G2, you guys have trouble there.
So can you isolate that?
Can you figure out why that is or what are your thoughts?
Firstly, when they played our first three matches against G2, they were all close.
Then we kind of choked, I would say, on M-Colon, 2024.
We played that against everyone.
And then I think it was like 0-2 or 0-3 against G2 in our matches against them.
And then just psychological problems.
Even though, you know, we had, I would say, good game plans,
but we were never able to play the way we wanted against them.
And it's not like they ever did something we didn't understand,
but we just couldn't play the way we wanted against them.
And then, I would say, with every new loss, it's just more of a psychological problem.
But right now, I would say they're just in a better individual shape than we are.
But even if you look at G2, I would say we played way better against G2 than we played against Falcons.
So, we're already better.
Okay, nice. And finally, moving away from CS, if you want to talk about it,
I think you're a bit of a closed guy.
We don't know a lot about you.
Would you be willing to talk about your routine, your interests?
I see you at the gym all the time.
Is this something that's important to you, staying in shape, staying active?
Do you care about this?
Yes, I wouldn't be doing that if that wouldn't be the case.
And do you think it helps your performance?
Yeah, but the problem is here,
not that it helps my performance.
If I'm not doing it, it really harms my performance.
So the problem here is changing your routine always bad for your stability.
So even though I'm not a very consistent player right now, but I would say
changing stuff like that.
If you're going to the gym all the time, then you're not doing it for a week.
You will already feel worse than you usually do.
And what about hobbies?
I know you're a reader.
What are you reading right now?
I'm not reading anything right now.
You used to or no, am I making that up?
Yeah, I used to. I was reading a lot, but I'm not reading that much for books right now.
I'm reading topics and some scientific posts and all that, but not books.
So you're not getting sucked into the TikTok grind as Magic schools it?
Not that much probably, but that's for some extent.
It's hard to get away from.
Probably. There's no problem unless you're doing it for six hours a day.
Alright, thanks for your time. Best of luck.
Defending champions as well, but obviously you guys are drawing Vitality in that quarter-final.
How are you feeling about that game? It's been a rough head-to-head recently.
Yeah, it's been rough, but I think Falco showed that they're beatable now.
And maybe it's better for us to face them earlier than later.
You know, I think they have a pretty deep map pool so best of three. Maybe it favors us
But at the same time they they're gonna be they're gonna fuel their you know
energy to
You know bring bring back the vitality that we know, but we just need to be one step ahead now like
We can't let this chance slip and if we want to lift the trophy we need to beat them
So
Well, you've had a recent experience against them at least right you're coming off the back-to-back finals
I know we always talk about Blade and the master plan and you guys peeking at the right time
But did you expect to come into this year as well as you have with these back-to-back finals with another playoff appearance?
Is that the expectation for Navi or did it happen sooner than maybe already?
No, it was the expectation like we knew that we're capable of
Like the amount of time we've spent together and just like being building the project and understanding that Macaasigot
All the experience that he needed after we saw how he started the year
I think we had a couple of discussions that we can really make it far and we just need to keep believing in us
But at the end of the day, I just think that it all comes down to us and
Yeah, but I think it has like a sick form and not nothing that we've seen before but
As a team we need to understand that if we do everything we can do
which need to have that
That one game where everyone peaks and we can beat them
And if we manage to beat them, we know that we can manage to, you know, lift any trophy.
That seems like another way, right? We always talk about you guys not having like traditional
superstars but still being great players in your role and still being able to win events, right?
So how do you find that consistency? How do you force yourselves to peak?
Because Counter-Strike is so day in, day out, like if you're having a bad day,
it's really hard to lift a trophy. How do you find that consistency? Or rather,
how do you find a peak?
I think that's just the overall way how we work.
I think we're putting in the hours as a team,
and I think everyone is hungry to show what they're capable of individually.
And we're building confidence like the EPL win brought us one level higher.
We ended up losing the next tournament Grand Final 3-0 against Vitality,
but we knew that we did some things correct.
We really could fight them and we really got into favorable positions,
but they just ended up showing why they were in the number one team.
But I think the level of individual skill that the team is showing now in Rio
is also something that we were looking for,
like all these tournaments and all this time.
I think MacAusse is playing tournament after tournament, very solid CS,
but everyone is catching up now.
I think the whole team played very good at this event.
and we still have two tournaments after this, and then the major.
So we just need to keep up this level,
and I think we can make deep runs,
but eventually everything is gonna come down to the major.
We're gonna have a bootcamp prior,
and I just hope we can pick there.
Awesome, thank you.
Final question about Mikazi,
because he's blossomed really well.
His first event in Cologne was incredible,
but then he had a bit of a,
maybe adjustment period, you could say,
but then still Navi have come into this year,
he's been without a doubt a standout player like what's it like playing with a young inexperienced
cocky guy? I just love it like I think that this guy is bringing the mood in every one of us
he's always positive always laughing and you know you can just see the way he moves on the server
with the confidence he's piled up with and I just think it's a great thing to see because
that's usually something like when you take a chance on a player like that you know he came
from Naby Academy. They were building him up to be in the main team eventually and we saw the glimpses
then as you said he took a bit of a step down but we all knew the potential he had
but some individuals can't show it but he's really showing up and I'm really proud of him and I
think he's proud of himself as well and yeah he's going to be a player to watch in the future
for sure. Awesome well thanks for your time best of luck. I'm here with Tess as the head
head of the playoffs here at IEM Rio, Tess, I wanted to start by asking for some
Deagle tips. I feel like your Deagle has been pretty nasty this event.
This event? Yeah, that's true. I had a small clip on Mirage. I don't know
actually, I play DM with it sometimes, just for fun, because it's just
satisfying feeling to one deep people. But that's all I do.
Okay, well, I'll start doing that, I guess. You know, you've had a
great event here, obviously taking that Vitality yesterday. That was quite a
show of resilience, Vitality clawed it all the way back. Were you getting a little nervous in that
second half of Nuke? I got flashbacks to IEM Melbourne. It always has to be close against
Vitality somehow and props to them for coming back but luckily we got it over the finish line
at the end so have you had that? Well you know it always gets close but at the same time you
have a great track record against Vitality right that's what four out of the last five
five times you managed to beat them.
Why do you think you have such a strong head-to-head
when you consider the number one team right now,
no one else can beat them,
but you're the only one to do it this year
and you've done it twice?
I don't know, we just feel really comfortable
going up against them.
And it feels like we have good answers
to what they do in general, at least.
So right now we have the kind of front seat
of them having to find a solution to beat us.
And right now we just kind of keep trying
or kind of outplay them or at least be one step ahead all the time.
And for example, yesterday on the CT Nuke, I think Nico, for example,
he has had a good read many several rounds and that was what made us get this big lead
in the first place, but also close it out in the overtime.
And I want to ask about I'm in style as well.
Is he here with the team right now?
Yes, he's here.
And obviously he was a coach back at the start of the year,
but he's been working with you as an assistant coach behind the scenes.
What does he bring to the table?
Is he helping you with the prep in a game like that, in a high impact game?
Yeah well he's kind of working as assistant coach and analyst so he's doing all the preparation
that we watch and coming with pistols so big props to him for actually making us win a
lot more pistols than in the past and last year but yeah he's doing a lot of prep and
prepping every individual on their bomb sites or their lurks or whatever it's good to
do against certain people so big props to him.
You know, we've been joking about the FacetBand, of course, which is entertaining.
Maybe, I don't know if you're the biggest pugger compared to maybe some of the others.
Were you, were you?
Yeah, I was kind of playing sometimes even more than the other guys.
So yeah, I used to play a lot of FacetBand, also in this year and past year.
I played a lot, but yeah, I actually think that the FacetBand kind of helped me to
chill out a bit and not overwork or stuff like this.
And I can feel on myself that I have a lot more energy when we're practicing or coming
to a tournament.
And I feel like this energy makes me having a lot better focus when we're playing.
Do you still spend that time in the server doing other things DM, like going over sites
or do you spend it off the game or talking to your teammates, how do you, where's that
time gone?
Well, face it, it's definitely the biggest time-spender you can do in CS.
And a lot of it is also time wasted, actually.
So my time is going a lot more to off-time, but of course there's also time for other
things like watching the practice through, talking with your teammates about your sights
if something has gone wrong in practice and stuff like this.
So we go a lot more into details with things that we have made mistakes on in practice,
other than that just using time on deathmatch and reviewing stuff for myself and other
teams of course.
Awesome, well thanks very much and best of luck.
Thank you.
I am Rio Pleyos, I'm here with Monosy.
Monosy, that's CT side of Nuke against Vitality, kind of crazy.
It was nice to watch you and Niko completely disrupt outside.
Was that kind of the game plan in the first half of Nuke?
Because everything they tried to do, they started 3v5.
What's the game plan? No, it wasn't a game plan.
Niko mastermind.
Was he calling that just in the moment?
Yes.
Had the read?
I think we always have some good reads, to be honest, on the city side on Nuke, so we just thrash each other, I would say.
We often say it's like the Orpah's paradise city side on Nuke, is that your favourite half?
No, like, favourite half. I mean, Nuke is one of my favourite maps, I would say maybe favourite after Anubis,
and I think, yeah, Orpah on the city side is too strong, so yeah.
AWP is strong, that's a controversial take right now, I think people are struggling with the AWP now.
On CT side, on Nuke?
Or just in general, AWP?
No, AWP is still strong and on CT side, on Nuke, it's the strongest map for AWP I think,
in my opinion, maybe after the storm.
And you haven't noticed the ammo change affecting the AWP?
It feels like it only affects the USP right now.
It affects USP, it maybe also affects some random spams on Nuke as well through the smokes,
so you cannot shoot like five bullets in a log, you know, you need to shoot all the ammo,
so you have to commit to shoot all down or you can shoot like five and three
lows but oh my god have you seen my sunglasses monocie no sorry man
oh this yeah chat man he's lost today crazy guy um yeah i wanted to ask about uh well
firstly the group stage was really clean but also you guys played spirit again and you
dominated them too oh why do you feel like that matchup is so favorable for you
It's so favorite for me and for us. I mean, I have no, like, the answer to be honest.
We just, every time we play against them, we just play our game. We know how to, how to say it,
how to play the rounds against them properly on CT side and on T side as well. So I think we
always have, like, some good preparation before them, sorry, before the game against them.
And yeah, we just trust our instincts.
How much of that prep specifically goes into playing against Donk, right?
like you try and isolate them more than you would have started playing on another team?
No, no, we don't care. We don't focus on Bunk. We just focus on the team. We focus on
ourselves more as well, and we just do our things. And we, how to say it, we come up with things
during the round as well, you know, like on T-set, for example, we are not finishing the round
immediately. I'm from Freestyle. We are finishing it during the round. Are you feeling less
less pressure at this event than usual?
Less pressure. No, I'm just, I'm just vibing around. Maybe, like, I wouldn't say so, but
maybe we have less pressure on this event than on previous ones, maybe. But...
Is that, is that helping?
I'm just vibing, I don't know. I just vibing in Rio, I vibing in this country, I vibing
on this tournament, and I think I'm just enjoying and staying in the present.
Have you been outside much, have you been exploring Rio, going to the beaches, going on
any sightseeing?
After this media day, we will have time, we will go to see the big, big statue as well.
We will see Rio, we will come to Jesus Christ to see the biggest statue.
And yeah, because like two years ago, we lost in two days and we came as a tourist
and we had a lot of time.
So now we don't have that much time because we need to play.
And final question, just out of nowhere,
who is to you the greatest in-game leader of all time?
Greatest in-game leader of all time.
Now I have only two options, like two captains that come in my mind.
It's Apex or Kerrigan.
Maybe it's going to be Apex just because of the trophies
because of the history he's, for me, I think he's the greatest captain of all time.
Okay, thank you, Marcy. Good luck.
Thank you.
The World No. 1s are officially in the building.
Zairu, welcome back to the arena.
Can you tell me what the routine is for the guys when you're playing the second game of the day?
Classic routine for us to run is like having a teamwork, preparation of the game,
thinking about bringing good energy into this arena.
And that's it, now we are ready to fight again.
Feel like all over Vitality socials, you guys have been enjoying Brazil a little bit.
You've got the Rio experience.
What's been your favourite thing that you've done in Rio so far?
So far I think, I mean the first day we came was the media day with Vitality when we could
meet the UFC fighter and we went to the beach with him, like having a great day to
be honest with him.
So we enjoyed really much and yeah, it's been a great day.
Did you learn any moves off of the UFC fighter?
I have a big belly, I cannot do any move for him, so no, no, no, he kicked me in my legs
just to know the feeling, but that's it.
Okay, obviously it's not often that we see you guys playing in the quarterfinals with
this IM format, right, playing on a Friday.
What does it feel like to, if you want to get your hands on those gold bars, have
to do it the longer way this time around?
Actually for us, I mean, it's also a good thing, we play more game on stage, that's
something, also something we like to do, and I think it's also something we want
to improve we didn't play good against G2F Alcant.
That's something we're going to improve now
and we are looking forward to play good as Vatati does
for more than one year now and just bring back
the confidence and the trust into the team
and that's going to be the goal.
So excited to see you guys on stage once again.
Thank you so much, Lamy. Good luck.
Hey, wonderful.
Hello.
What's up? How are you feeling?
Very good.
I mean, I wanted to ask because there's been
obviously a break between the group stage and the playoff.
How are you using these kind of breaks? Are you chilling? Are you hardcore practising?
A bit of both?
A bit of chilling, a bit of practising.
I want to go back down the memory lane a little bit because two years ago you actually won this event
and you're now coming here as a defending champion.
Do you have any memories of this place? What does this revolve around you, Rio de Janeiro?
I just remember it was an amazing feeling to play here on the stage.
and we won the tournament two years ago and we are just confident to play here today.
But it's just an amazing crowd, amazing people over there, so.
Ready to repeat the history, taking down Vitality first?
I hope.
Good luck, see you on the stage.
Thank you.
That's it.
Thank you.
The Intel Extreme Masters Rio 2026 is brought to you by ESL and partnership with Intel.
Acer Predator.
Checks.
And DHL.
Intel Extreme Masters Rio 2026 and the playoffs are already underway.
We're here with Colex Gigi.
They're in the building, Harry.
I've seen them. We've had players signing colex cards, getting those fresh reprints coming out soon. But first, we're here to talk about fantasy. As always, we built our dream teams, but the economy is hit, Harry. It's a bit of a budget. What's the team right now?
Okay, so I've lent heavy into one side of the bracket. That's how I think I wonder which side
Yes, I'm on the furia vitality side of the bracket Hugo. I got fallen the professor the old boy, right?
He's he's tried. He's tested. He's not gonna crumble
Molotoy or star can't live without him and Yuri. I thought was a bargain
He's actually been playing fantastically out here in Rio and he was cheap as hell
So I was like, yeah, I'm putting him in the team that I went for two guys from vitality
Apex again kind of lent into the IGL the experience and Mezzi just for some
British representation. Can't go a minute without mentioning Britain. Of course he
can't. And Brazil in the same sentence. We're in similar situations but I'm
kind of hedging my bets Harry. I've gone for Fallen and Uri as well. Same
situation Uri top four player at the event after the group stages but then
I've spread out to try and maximize damage. I've gone for Apex as well
He's a bargain, but two Falcons players Nico and Tess as Tess has had a great group stage
I know he struggled and playoffs before but things are feeling better for the Falcons
And I think it's looking likely they'll make it to the final with NBA spirit already that heads-to-heads quite nice
I don't believe in your scattergun approach. No, I think I think I've got this one
I think we're one-on-one on these
Back to heads. I think I took crackouts to start the year you got EPL, but Rio that belongs to me
It's a BO3. A BO3 of fantasy. Play your own way on colex.gg.
Yeah, that's Harry and Hugo looking trim as ever all the way over there in Rio de Janeiro. Welcome
back. It is the Intel Extreme Masters. As if you've gone anywhere this entire time. Yes, we have
sent Miles home. They are on their way. Spirit helped us to do it and in doing so they are
eliminated from the playoffs. Pushing Spirit forward to play against those Falcons that
you just heard all about there from Harry and Hugo. Falcons. Falcons. Now on my left,
I've got Pimp in the middle. I've got Y and K down on the end. In front of us,
We've got another quarter-final vitality versus Navi or Furia waiting away
Yeah, it's a stacked side of the bracket to be completely honest
I guess the big surprise obviously is the vitality find themselves in a quarter-final and not straight into the semi-final at the hands of Falcons in that
I guess qualification game or a scene game on the other hand
It's good to see you know for your playing worlds good to see Falcons playing well
And I'm curious to see if this Navi can put up a fight or better fight against vitality
Considering that they are gradually getting better and better. Yeah, I think the story of 2026 so far has been
Everyone's regressed, everyone's worse outside of Vitality, right?
Fury wasn't playing on the same level, Spirit with the roster changes hasn't been great,
Falcons played so bad they are about to make a roster change,
Maus nowhere to be seen, Navi sort of rose through the ranks in that atmosphere, right?
Playing that final against Vitality just a couple of weeks ago at Rotterdam, so I think
we're seeing in this particular game an opportunity for Navi in the best of three like Alexi pointed
out earlier on in the tournament potentially to cause an upset win. Let's start the conversation
around the vitality that always does, not the vitality that could, because it would
appear as you know having that target on your back everyone wants to mimic or use what you're
doing so well and then use it to their own advantage. How come vitality has been able to
run the board like that? I think Jango said something interesting two days ago,
You know where you said they didn't invent something new in Counter-Strike
It's not like they came in and approached Counter-Strike in a different way all of a sudden
Redefined the way the game is being played which I think works in the advantage in terms of how do you beat them?
Because it's not like they're doing something extraordinary or something someone can copy
They just do the basics and they play Counter-Strike at a higher level than anyone else
You know whether that being the fundamentals whether that being communication whether that being preparation all these you know classes at classic aspects
Sorry of Counter-Strike. That's where they thrive and where they do a good job
It's not like a heroic who came in and became the procrastinators of playing proactive Counter-Strike all of a sudden or the envious back in the days
We're just doing four four one stacks at all times
It's a way of approaching counter-strike where you take the basics and you just master the basics
Which I think works in their favor when you then had a team that is over time building consistency
Because it's not something you can necessarily counter unless you do it at the same level which nobody has been able to
On top of that they have great players, right?
Who step up when it matters, but you know, that's not every team has to have that
Every team that was the best in the world at some point in time had that, but that's the luxury that you get, right?
You obviously play Kanshek on a very high level, tactically they're incredibly sound, they have
overqualified support players, but they also do have, as I would in raps, right?
And the last time these two teams played, those guys carried the load.
Yeah, and speaking of the brunt of that would have to be this ESL Grand Slime.
I think and it goes without saying that the prestige the sort of symbolism that it has but for a team like vitality
What's another way? It's it's nice and what's another one? I think it's important for them
You know we're talking about the bugs just a little box, you know, we're talking about them
Maybe maybe not being the best team of all time
I think that's a team, you know where they said the bus so so high that winning an ESL Grand Slam will definitely matter a lot
You can argue, you know, whenever they go to some of the lesser tournaments where there's not an ESL Grand Slam at
So when it's not a major that maybe it's a bit difficult for them to show about a hundred percent or be a hundred percent motivated
But make no mistake if there's a million dollars on the line and another I guess accolade to put to your name
That can make the case that you're the best team of all time then they should be motivated and they are yeah, absolutely
and they do a great job of just
Setting goals and finding new things to motivate them and apex
I think is a big part of that right like so the other guys on the team feel more
quiet just as personalities but I think he brings a fire for everyone you know
and a chip on his shoulder in the sense of you know he was there when Astralis
was the best team in the world or fanatic or some of these other guys and
he was on the other side of it and he's been very vocal and aware of now
I'm the one who has the best team now I have the best players and you know
wants to make everyone else pay and sort of feel how he felt back back
in those days and I think obviously they've done a tremendous job.
I think it goes without saying that Apex is the engine within Vitality, he is the
motivator, he is the guy that keeps everyone at bay, the guy that after the one
the Austin made you as well. Yes he was happy but he already said it you know
the winners interview straight after winning that major that oh now what
do I do in order to motivate my team? He's always thinking one step
ahead and someone like a nice guy you know you have a good solid engine
inside the car but it is never really the engine that is the flashy
looking one, it's never the engine that gets all the credit, it's the
the outside and the cover of the book, so to speak.
I think without Apex Invitality,
that's a team that naturally wouldn't perform
consistently as they are.
Robson, no, I think we're too about that.
He definitely would.
Robson seemingly knows everything,
and that's every bind, every little nook and cranny
in this game that we have.
I think in this moment, though,
before we jump into some of these rounds
and some of the stuff we saw back in Rotterdam,
let's think about what Zonic said here.
Check out this quote.
And at least for Zonic and us putting emphasis
on what's going on today.
Well, I think, you know, he was talking about because Falcons are a team that's had actually success more than others against vitality.
And, you know, he was just talking about answering the question, what it is that makes you guys be able to beat them still.
And you can see that he's talking about that you can't play scared, right?
And you have to disrespect him to some extent.
But the most important thing is you have to play to win.
You can't be playing not to lose and you can't be scared to make moves.
and we do have a couple of examples from some games that illustrate,
I think that Navi failed to do really exactly that the last time these two teams failed,
because we talk about preparation for these teams, right?
You go to Inferno, you can see it's a hero AK for Zywoo,
Navi has banana control, they're searching,
trying to find some sort of an opening, it's a 4A setup,
you can see Alexei, the B player, he's on a flash,
it's very defensive from Navi, they understand this,
They don't want to give this opening to Zywoo and to vitality apex calls them back. They understand. It's a one guy
Be set up. They want to try to rush him down
Before support can come in swarm the site cuz it does a great job counter utility
Everything's there in San Diego from Alexi is there. They're here
But the two flashes that they have the only two flashes are perfect from apex as I would as a great job of sort of
baiting his teammates a little bit, and then getting two really quick kills.
Rops with the third one, and all of a sudden,
Xywu and Rops in a 2v2 post-plant with Rops on an aggressive move,
finding the last two kills, right?
And these are rounds where you can do everything right,
but Xywu and Rops still exist, and their players can still deliver,
and you can see what they did to the economy, too.
Vitality went on a little bit of a roll, and both halves, they had strong starts.
Especially Robs with the tech 9. I mean the post plan right there, you know that that's that symbiosis that we see within vitality that makes them so
Legal it's it's hard to fight, you know, and that's why I think this matchup in particular stylistically speaking is a tough one for now
Because it's a team that does everything by the book
It's a team that does everything
The way blade wants them to play you know
She said as well you you make sure that you use your utility correct
You make sure that you have good communication that you rotate properly
But in order to beat vitality, maybe sometimes what you need is what Sonic is is a learning to write
Yeah, a little bit of randomness, a little bit of throwing the playbook out of the way and do something unexpected,
because if anything, we also must give credit to Vitality and their whole support staff for being one of the most well-prepared teams heading into pretty much any given match-ups.
So yeah, yeah, just like stylistic speaking, I feel Na'Vi is a tough match-up for them, because they want to play proper Counter-Strike by the book Counter-Strike, and that's where Vitality are thriving the most.
But you have to be on point individually, right?
You can do all the prep, you can do all the setting up, find how you're going to try and
exploit some of the things in Vitality's game, but it's not going to matter.
Games like this on stage in playoffs come down to clutches and not making too many mistakes.
We have another example from Alubis, which was where Navi probably had the best chance.
That was their pick.
They only got one pick in that best of five.
The other two were Vitality's maps.
Then after losing pistol, Navi does a good job of sort of reasserting some control of the economy, some control of the half, right?
But as we're going to see from that point on, it's one more time on a half-buy, right?
Like you can see pistols and utility, they're going to come together for this sort of a B split.
There's going to be three defenders on B. So Navi is set up for this. They're ready for this, right?
Flash is come in, play comes in, Makaze full blind, Eiping is gonna hit a dirty shot on him to get the kill last second,
Alexi gets the trade, but what was happening this time, one miss from Wanderful.
Another miss from Wanderful, right? And you can't afford those, because if he gets the first guide, then Alexi doesn't get traded immediately.
That by its time for Rimaq, who was jumping through the smoke and Zybu was holding him, Zybu isn't that deep to hold him and he can come in time to help.
So that's the problem. And again, if you look at the round timeline from that game, you can see that Na'Vi wins,
you know, for example, pistol in the second half gets reset.
Like they were losing these rounds to pistols, to force buys far too much.
If you expect to win the game by only winning gun rounds against Vitality, you're going to have a tough time beating them.
Yeah, and if you are joining us just now, you might have seen the little timer down there on the bottom of the screen.
It says special announcement in 19 minutes. You don't want to miss that.
In the meantime, I want to swiftly kind of move over to the Na'vi camp.
I want to talk about Mikaze.
This guy has been a force to reckon with since they called him out and said,
it's not going to be six months, but and you're gone.
Now, he's he's damn sure done the thing.
Mikaze is playing his role.
He's playing fantastically well, especially as recently.
He's really found his thriving mechanisms within the Na'vi lineup.
And yes, you're right.
It took a bit of time before we we got to see the first signs of potential
within Mikaze.
We knew that individually speaking, coming from the academy team,
the Na'vi junior team,
he definitely had something to offer but you know going from an academy team and
slotting into a team that is playing tier one counter strike week after week
month after month it's gonna take a bit of transition period unless you call
Dong Saibu or simple for that matter as well so in that regard it was only fair
that we gave him a bit of time and I think what's what's astonishing about
this story is that Blade has been very defensive of him even in the
periods where it didn't work out where he was clearly a liability Inferno
was a great example on the CT side on towards banana he struggled a lot to
fighting impact and slotting in, but it was always saying,
well, I'm seeing things in practice
and I'm seeing developments and he's listening
and he's getting better.
Just give him a bit of time
and that time is paying off now.
We had three tremendous rookies last year, right?
We've had Molotoy, obviously.
We've had Makaze and we had Kyosuke.
And it feels like looking at this point in time,
Makaze is the one who's improved the most
and shown the most progress, right?
Like understanding the game on a better level,
getting better on some of the maps
that were a big spot for him.
I mean, he won MVP at ESL Pro League when Navi lifted the trophy, right?
So, he's been absolutely instrumental in this rise of Navi,
this resurgence into that number two spot.
And he solves the biggest issue that Navi have had for quite some time,
which has been lack of firepower. You spoke about the individuals, right?
If you want to beat Vitality, if you want to beat the likes of Falcons consistently, etc.,
you need to have a certain amount of individual skill on the server
in order to match those players.
I'd say when Mikasi wasn't playing at his best,
It was clear and evident that Blade even set himself in a couple of issues that sometimes he feel would just lack a bit of firepower.
It's not preparation, it's not tactical understanding.
We just need someone to kill the opposition basically.
Mikasa is solving that by playing the way he is right now.
Which is exactly the job of this next gentleman.
To go ahead and figure out his ops in any given day.
This one being a Friday with a quarter-final, it's Alexi B.
I'm joined here by Alexi B. Also fans know you here.
SB Scala, welcome to quarter-final.
Thank you, thank you.
I wanted to ask, tell me from your IGL's perspective so far, the journey of Navi in this tournament,
because some maps that you've been guys playing, absolutely ridiculously great, right?
And some maps I would rather call they're poor or not even disaster, but rather poor, right?
If you averaged out, are you happy as an IGL with your performing here?
I think I'm happy in terms of when we managed to lose a series,
and the way we lost it was a huge comeback by Foria.
We still managed to, you know, bring ourselves back.
and on the final day they win two best of threes, which can be very tough considering that there is no preparation for the other match.
Overall, I'm happy that we started a lot of the games strong, usually losing the second map, no matter if it's our pick or the opponent's,
because sometimes we go into a series feeling very slow and we start the series 0-1,
so now I feel like we've been on the upper foot but somehow couldn't manage to keep up the form throughout the whole game,
But you know now it's playoffs everything is going to be completely different
Talking about playoffs obviously you're coming here as a defending champion back two years ago
It was jail actually who took the MVP right now. We have MacCase another MVP like performance
But what are you feeding this guy this guy's insane this tournament?
Yeah, I just think that MacCase has been performing like super well and he's
He feels in the in his comfort zone right now and we can see the confidence
coming out of him and that's a great thing to see as an IGL and overall as a team
because you know he's the rookie and he's putting up the numbers so everybody's
following him and it's amazing. Right now you're playing against Vitality
obviously a big fall to slay right but they are showing their weaknesses do
you feel that this weakness in terms of individuals but also leadership because
Apex said that he's calling some poor T sides this event do you feel like
this could give you an upper hand here.
So I think that for all of the teams, seeing that they managed to lose a match, no matter
if it was in the group stage or whatever, that's a good thing, because everybody understands
that they can bleed and it's your time to strike, and that's what we hope for as well.
I know the record versus vitality isn't looking great for us, but we just need to
keep believing because as soon as you lose that hope, there is no chance.
Thank you very much.
See you on the server.
Thank you.
you. Thank you so much. Thank
you. Masi Welcome back to the
stage. I wouldn't be doing my
job if I didn't talk about the
elephant in the room. The
assault Grand Slam. How much
is it on your minds when you
enter the stage today? Of
course it's on our mind. I
think it's, uh, one of our
main goals come into this
tournament. So of course we
want to we want to win it,
but the steps to do before
it. We want to make sure
that we're focused on the
job at hand today, which is
and then we can look at the grand slam later on.
Getting into a little bit more game specific.
I hope you can hear me with all the drums going on right now.
And I don't know whether you saw the zonet quote about you guys.
I basically said Vitaliy won a lot of games
because people are already scared and thinking they can't win.
You have to disrespect them.
Take chances, take risks and go for fights.
A, do you agree with that sentiment?
And B, is that kind of what happened in the game versus Falcons?
Of course, I think when as a team you're winning so much,
of course, there's some fear factor there that plays into the other team's minds, and I think it's
happened with a lot of teams in the past, even like Sonic might know when with his fries. I think
maybe they won a lot of their games before they even got onto the server because a lot of teams
are scared, but I mean, I don't think it's just there's only one way that they think they can
beat us is just disrespect us. Of course, you have to have that confidence in CS. Of course,
if you go into a game thinking you've already lost or you're playing not to lose, and of
of course, it's going to be tough for you. But I think when you go in up against us, you
have to be confident because we're of course going to be there, make sure we play our CS,
play confident and do our thing. So you have to be able to match that. And of course, Falcons
did that. Of course, there are other aspects where we don't play as good CS. We're not
on our A game and that also helps the other team. But yeah, I think there's always different
aspects to a CS game. But we just know that if we play our A game, there's not
going to be another team that can match that.
I just want to ask quickly about Mirage. I'm imagining that's probably going to
the top 10 elite teams. Unfortunately
the T side for you guys. It's
been one of the worst, right?
Even apex tweeted about it. Can
you give me some words as to
why maybe you feel like that is
one of the few areas that perhaps
is a little bit struggle some
right now. I think it's I think
it's a map that we put a lot of
work into and, um, in practice
has been a strong map as well
for us. I think we have shown
some good stuff in previous
games like, uh, where we've
shown improvements, but I think
it's just about trust in our
game. I think it's just about
to play on the prep and what
the opponent can do, but also
trust what we can do and trust
and trust. It's good what we
what we shown in practice and
what we've worked on. So yeah,
we're still confident. I'm
Raj. I think it's, uh, it'll
be stupid of us to kind of
think think less of it. I
think we've shown some good
stuff and we just need to
show today as all very
excited to see you guys
taking on the stage once
again. Thank you so much for
your time. Good luck. Yeah,
you know, messy. I like
that guy. It seems like
he's just like, you know,
I like that guy. It seems like he's good good ahead on his shoulders. Also in a pretty great team to do so with as well
And a guy that found form in a place a role there specific in their championship runs as Yanko said over-qualified for his role
You know being the supportive element of this lineup
I think Messi have shown that he's an absolute class player in that specific role and I think I pay attention to a anchor
And I actually want to pick your brain a bit on that
You know when you vitality, you're the best team in the world
You're the favorite in pretty much any game you're playing he speaks a bit about over preparation and maybe relying a bit too much on
watching the other team instead of focusing on the self from a coaching perspective.
How hard is that, you know, to manage that balance for the players?
Because I feel that could ruin a lot of good potential teams.
Honestly, it's really hard. It was really hard for me as well, because it's easy to get lost in the preparation
and analyzing your opponents. And sometimes there would be games where you're going through preparation
and you're setting things up. It's like, well, they like to play this way or that way.
Yeah, but also if we just played kind of default and by the book, we would see this as the round progresses and would have these answers, right?
You don't want to tunnel vision or they're going to play a certain way because if that doesn't happen,
well then you can get kind of stuck and also it changes the mental image for the players, right?
Like all of a sudden, if you're telling them a certain things are probable to happen and then they don't,
well, maybe they start getting a little bit nervous because now they don't know what to expect.
what to expect. I think the coaches round table was great, which had, there was X-Tas,
Blade, Zonic there, and they're talking about this as well, how everyone is doing so much
prep nowadays, using Skybox and all these things where I also realized you need to look a little
bit more at yourself, right? And that's what teams do, even as individual players say,
hey, last two tournaments, you played this spot maybe a bit too much, you need to
switch it up a bit, because that's what people do. They look at tendencies,
Any tendency that you can find can be exploited, whether it's a position that a player plays,
whether it's a sequence of grenades in your default, right, like this Moli comes, then this flash,
then he peeks. Well, if it's the same thing every single time, put the op there, having turned
flash pops, turn around, kill the guy, right? So these are all the things that you need to
pay attention to when you're sort of building up your game and when you're doing the game plans.
Yeah, and you know, for a team like Vitality, yes, we praise them to be world-beating.
We praise them to be dominant this Saturday. But they have shown mortality.
Yes, there was a streak of runs that they did there where they had wins up on the board.
That came to a halt here. Let's not forget that they can be beaten.
They can be beaten, sure. It's just very tough to do it. And I think the meaningful,
you know, nests of that game against Falcons, perhaps, maybe also played into it.
I'm not saying that Falcons couldn't beat them had it been a semi-final or quarter-final.
But I think if you're vitality, it's one of the games you can sort of allow yourself to lose to some degree whether you start in the quarterfinal
Or in the semi-final shouldn't necessarily be what defines vitality's tournament
But it's more so the outlook they had against G2 as well when you take in both the performance versus G2 and Falcons
It's clear to see that maybe haven't been firing on all cylinders on the other hand
Then you can also argue that you know, you're the best team in the world and you're still in the quarterfinal
You're still the favorite to make it into the semi-final and if you were in the semi-final
You're still the favorite to go into the final so as long as you get the job done
I don't think they're breaking a sweat over it, but as you said at least it shows that they can't be beaten at this specific
I think also what's important to note, you know the struggle against G2 and the loss to Falcons
Those are two teams that have a stand-in basically
I mean G2 literally had a stand-in and Falcons are playing their last tournament with kicks and about to be replaced by
Karrigan, so obviously both those teams having some pressure alleviated, right?
Maybe taking some more risks in game catching vitality of guard in some of those moments
So we'll see now when they're going up against a team like Navi, who doesn't have that going for them,
does that affect the way Navi approaches the game? Does it make it a little bit easier for Vitality to play,
especially on those T sides, which have been somewhat of a struggle in that falcon's game?
If anything, it's like Xonix said with regard to the fact that Vitality has that in their pocket,
they join a server, it's like they're already the favourites, they kind of play with that one a little bit here.
But it's always like that, and you have to put that into account.
Like there's a fear factor like when we played against the strollers back in the day
Even though you have like really good players who beaten them before and everything still knowing that you're going up against
Not just the best team in the world, but the most dominant team, you know ever since the NIP initially, right?
Like it affects you it affects the players. They don't take maybe as much initiative
They're more cautious about they think your opponents know everything like that
They know exactly what you're doing at all times. That's not the case
They're just playing with confidence. So that's always a little bit of an edge that a team like vitality will have on their side
Especially Jacob when you have a vitality that is well up in the head to head between these two teams between Navi and vitality
This is one where you have definitely probably instilled some fear at some point
You pushed a little bit you got punished if you're on the side of Navi and this would be one of those times you're reminded like hey
They'll fix us real quick. Yes, as you said like we saw it in a grand final not so long ago
It wasn't really a match
But if anything the context of that I'd say is that Navi seemingly is getting slightly better
You know, I think Navi is progressing from tournament to tournament. They're building up a bit of confidence themselves winning a trophy at pro league as well
It's gonna help, you know them understanding that hey, we can do this
We can play against the best teams in the world
Maybe even win tournaments if we perform to our a game just like LXB said a couple of moments ago
So I think that the difference now between vitality and Navi is that Navi are in a better spot
They probably believe a little bit more than is possible doesn't really change the fact that I tell you heavy favorites
But it should give us a more even game I'd say
Yeah, this is the best Na'Vi we've seen in a very, very long time.
I mean, better than any point last year.
So, I think they are in a position to put a bigger challenge, a better fight,
to vitality and also, again, a small caveat to that blast game,
as they played the second semi into the grand final, which was early.
So, not a lot of time to prepare for the game, right?
And we know how reliant they are on that.
Well, now they had a full day off, they're playing the later semi,
the later quarter-final as well, so there's been time for Blade to cook something up and
he's been vocal about in MR12, it makes it easier to build a game plan, you know, just for a certain
matchup, just for a certain game. Will that be enough for Navi to cause an upstep here?
Let's talk about it then, our digital playground today. Which maps we're going to be getting in
this series? Now, we could say comparatively speaking, or I think we just jump straight
into Vito's themselves. I think it is a cool matchup, because I think Navi have also built
their map pool obviously removing train from from the map pool was initially a big hit I think
ever since they've been able to gradually get better and better and have a deeper map pool which
gives them a few options now overpass is not going to be part of it no big surprise in that regard
I'd be very surprised if we see an ancient coming in for vitality I'll know but in terms of the
pick if you're an avi you can go different directions mirage yeah that makes sense it's
the one map vitality of struggle a little bit on and it's the one safehold for navi but I think
they have more depth to the map pool now than I've had in quite some time which should make it
interesting. And we see the Dust 2 pick coming from Vitality and T side from Navi
last time around they picked CT and yeah in the best of five Navi had the
second pick of the five maps and they went through the Lubis over Mirage there
and didn't pan out they had their chances but this time they're going for
old fateful Mirage is the first pick. New York again huh? New York decider one more time.
Yeah it's been like that pretty much all tournament long shaking hands on the
map of Nuke, interesting right? Because we did see Navi playing Nuke against Furia where
up until the point where they were leading 9-3 it was looking real solid and then they
collapsed. So Navi haven't lost faith in their own Nuke to say it at least but I don't think
the last time they played it was too impressive.
So we're guaranteed us to and I kind of want to dive into that just for a little bit
here in the idea of starting T side if you're Navi. Is that because you want to
have the game in your hands in the beginning to try to dictate that pace?
Yeah absolutely. They want to be the ones who dictate where the fights are going
happen and take the initiative and bring the fight to vitality very early on.
So I like that.
They've been getting better on Dust2, but you know, there's being good on Dust2 and
then there's playing against vitality on Dust2.
Yeah, it's a complete different beast.
Last season they had, was it 32 games and won, sorry, 36 games and won 32 of them this
year, you know, almost unbeatable, unbeaten on the map.
So if you're an avi, you're not hoping per se that you're winning Dust2.
You have a belief that you can make the game competitive, but for me, take it into this
matchup.
For Navi to win this series, it almost has to be done in a 2-1 fashion, and by then
you have to win your opening map pick of Mirage.
The big problem for Navi as well has been a lot of their series lately, even going
back to Pro League, are three mappers.
They just can't string in this tournament.
They won the first map 13-0 against Beta, I believe, and then they lose the second
map in a dominant fashion.
So a map pick.
And it's been about stringing these good games together.
I think Mirage obviously is going to be crucial.
Last time these two teams played EMAX,
crossed three maps when he had 28 kills, right?
But Mirage is where he does his best work.
So hopefully he can get started strong
and translate some of that to the rest of the series,
because the team is gonna need them
if they're going to take down with Talos.
Speaking of that inconsistency,
we paid attention to it.
When EMAX was playing in the group stage as well,
he had, I think, four maps in a row
where he was either top fragging
then bottom fragging, top fragging, then bottom fragging.
He continued that trend against Furio as well.
He's had six maps where he either top fragged
or bottom fragged in this tournament
and that's not really consistency in a good way.
They're seeing how it's the best of three.
If he starts by top fragging, it should be good.
But if he starts by bottom fragging, then it's no bueno.
Yeah, this is a massive one to come out
and try to grab right out of the gate
if you are the side of Navi.
You wanna grab this first map
and try to seize control of this
while you might have the element of surprise.
And you know something that we talked about,
Vitality doesn't necessarily revolutionize the game, but they are really, really good with utility.
Especially the Achees and damage with the Achees, and I think they were one of the first teams
to sort of introduce just harass Achees, right?
Like knowing that a player even against Na'Vi, for example, on Inferno, they know Alexi plays a lot of CT,
just jiggling and having like just one Achees thrown there to just do chunk damage, right?
Chip away, make it more uncomfortable for him to take fights later on in the round.
I think that's something Vitality does really well and we've done a lot of talking about Blade and his preparation.
I mean, Vitality are no slouches at game planning, right?
And preparing Apex is great at it.
Xtas obviously with Maddy, the assistant coach, who gets always a lot of praise from the rest of the players and the staff.
So don't look at it. It's going to be a two-way street when it comes to the anti-shredding.
I mean, we even saw Vitality bring in Boost out on Overpass in this tournament, right?
So somehow, some way, they're still evolving the game, even though they're running the board.
Yeah, they are. And that's also part of why they've been able to establish themselves as the best team in the world
for such a prolonged time, that they constantly try to innovate, they never stop progressing,
they never stop working on themselves, and maybe never stop looking at themselves in order to get better.
One thing I do want to say in relation to Mirage as well, and speaking of a bit of an X-Factor,
I think Mikasa, the way he's playing the CT side on Catwalk, is super, super interesting.
Because again, it's pretty much anyone else I've seen Na'Vi play.
He's not afraid of poking, he's not afraid of fighting,
he's not afraid of being aggressive in your face,
and he will face a Flamesie, he will face a Saivoo in a game like this,
and if you can come out on top on a map like Mirage on the CT side,
being annoying on Catwalk, then there's a good chance
that at least the CT side for Na'Vi will be secure.
Yeah, well, the pharmacy arena is definitely filling up.
Everybody trying to get...
There's good seats for this high-pressure matchup,
this quarter-final vitality, and Na'Vi.
But before we do that, it is time
for a very, very special announcement.
God, he tries again, he's still got a little bit of health.
He jumps around, fall, and he gets that shot, and now he's seized.
He's holding on, and he's got, he's got all three kills.
Water let.
Maybe he'll get the pump planting.
One, two, back, four things can fit in from the same side,
and he has correct and high-sumption.
He's gonna get his stuff.
He's falling!
Oh, my God, what a play!
He's got two, goes to the shot, and smart, just gets to do it.
Jump shot, still a bit of time, but this is gonna be a 10 second fuse, he's gonna hit the shot!
AHHHHH!
OH MY GOD!
Fallen!
Oh, he gets the spray shot anyway.
What was that?!
Farmasi Arena!
Look, you will now receive a very special surprise.
For this, I think you will be sitting on the lanterns of your phones.
Lights on the car to receive the most beloved Brazilian of the 10th World Cup.
Team Major Champion, a living legend of the electronic sport in Brazil and the world.
Our teacher is here with you, the true Polen!
Power! Power! Power! Power!
Power! Power! Power!
Hello, hello everybody!
How are you?
Thank you, thank you.
Thank you all, guys.
Today is 247, guys.
This number may not make much sense yet, but it will be done soon.
And I'll tell you that nothing prepares anyone to be here as I am today, to say what I have to say here today.
I thought a lot of nights and a lot of mornings, like...
What to say exactly is hard to find words, right?
I play Counter-Strike for 8,508 days.
It's been 23 years that I've decided to challenge myself, my older brothers,
Marcelo, Tiago, took me to the house for the first time.
And the first time I saw the message on the screen,
you helped your team to achieve the goal.
I said, my God, if I get good at this business here,
I will be able to do a lot of cool things for those of you who have helped me.
And this feeling, this goal,
this goal of improving myself,
improving my performance, of working on my game, of working on myself as a person
made me realize that it was also very important to help the other people around me.
I played with countless players, teams, organizations,
for 23 years that made all the difference in my life.
It is unbelievable to a 13-year-old boy
that just wanted to be better than their brothers,
that just wanted to be accepted in the team of their brothers.
It is today here in front of all of you, 23 years later,
you are so loved by everyone, you receive so much love, so much love from you.
Ah, yeah.
It's really beautiful, man.
I think that even in my biggest dreams, I imagined that I would live this one day.
You know what I've been saying about...
At some point, I left the stadium.
I've been talking about living other things in my life for a long time.
After all, I've been living this life for 23 years.
I have more time to play CS than I have to do other things.
I'm 23 years old against 13, and that's where I didn't play.
Tomorrow we'll have a big game together.
and I'm very happy to be playing here.
And playing CS, I took many lessons about life, about my experience here.
And of course, if I could win tomorrow with you here, and eventually win Sunday, it would be a dream for me.
I know it's possible, but life taught me that
regardless of whether we win or lose,
there is a moment of life that we look back at,
and it's not just about the victory, it's about the journey.
And getting here for me was amazing,
and just being here with you tomorrow will be even more amazing.
And I believe we can win this together,
but just being here and having a tournament in Brazil
so many years later, with so many people here,
is a great victory for us.
I'm sure of it.
And...
That's it, guys. It's been more than 247 days.
I've decided that at the end of the year, I'll do other things inside the CS with you.
So, I'm here to invite you to follow this journey with me for more than 247 days.
We still have a lot to do together, and then I'll have the opportunity to do a lot of other things with you outside of the servers, but with a counter-strike in the heart.
I think we'll be able to do a lot of other things to help other players to also change their lives through the game, as mine was changed.
I would like to thank my family, who are here today, my wife Leticia, for the unconditional support of these 23 years.
I want to thank my Chilean friends a lot.
I will miss you all a lot.
That's it, guys. Thank you, my team, for the understanding in this phase of my life that there is no easy phase for those who want to compete at another level.
People ask me a lot of questions about playing with me.
I've been playing more this year because of this wonderful team that I have playing with me this year.
I'm very happy to be playing at FURY and making plans for the future with the organization.
And I'm very happy to have a chance to play in front of you tomorrow.
I really hope that you know that I will give my all to win this.
So, we'll see each other tomorrow and I hope we get out of here victorious.
But we'll see each other tomorrow.
In English, a little bit in English now because I know a lot of people watching from home from other countries.
This talk is basically, I decided to step away from competitive Counter-Strike at the end of the year.
I have 20, 407 more days to play Counter-Strike professionally.
And I'm going to move on to another great step for the Counter-Strike ecosystem.
And for everyone around the world that didn't really follow my job that much,
but learned to watch all my games and learned to respect Brazil over Counter-Strike.
I appreciate your support over the years. Thank you so much.
Thank you so much.
On behalf of the people of the United States,
I would like to thank you for being here.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
of ESL, the community, the fans, all of them were so delightful about seeing you playing.
You are a living legend. Thanks ever so much.
I really appreciate it.
Thank you!
No!
Navi are a team that are showing a lot of improvement.
I think they're gaining a lot of confidence as individuals and as a team,
but I think as the history shows and as the match-up shows,
I think we have always had the upper hand.
I think we've kind of been pretty dominant in a lot of the past match-ups,
so we're confident doing up against them,
But we also know they can be a dangerous team with the preparation they do and also, like I said, individuals improving each game.
They've shown dominance but eventually things need to come to an end and eventually you
You are building yourself up to be there and to embrace that moment, and to make a win.
I'm looking forward to having the extra day in the arena, and like we said to the guys just doing it a hard way.
If we have started the quarterfinals now, we'll do the quarterfinals and go all the way.
It helps us to embrace ourselves and continue in this wonderful climate
because there's a lot to happen on this stage.
It's time for us to define another finalist of the competition
who will join Fúria, Falcons and Spirit tomorrow.
Well, we're very lucky at the end of the round, right?
We even have the end of the year to be able to join Fallen
and we have this whole weekend full of competitions here.
It's just starting.
So, for us to continue our show, I'll ask you to make a lot of noise
to receive them, who are the best team in the world.
And once again, look for Grand La and at all costs.
With you, the Vitality Team!
the
Who will win the game tomorrow?
Is it the Vitality team?
No?
It won't be?
Who will win the game tomorrow?
No, let me check it once more.
Go for it!
Who will win the game tomorrow?
Now only those who are here for the game
Now, only those who are here to support the team of Vitality!
Well, let's find out what's going to happen.
Let's kick off the show!
Well, here we go. Another quarterfinal, one that's going to determine our next semi-finalist
jumping into the server, R the world class, world dominating Vitality, taking on a Navi
with a claim to fame of their own nonetheless. Jacob Pimp-Penneke, break it down for me.
Yeah, bit on a, bit on a bombshell to go into this game on. I'm not going to lie here.
However, I think I want to refresh what Alexi B said coming into this game. He's
We're well aware, everyone in the world is well aware that unless Navi plays the absolute A-gamer, unless they come in racially and continue to show the progress that we see the last couple of months, there's no way they win this series.
However, if they do that, I have faith that Navi have now ascended to a level where they can most definitely put up against a fight versus Vitality, who right now are obviously under the pressure of winning another ESL Grand Slam.
only has Vitality already lost in this tournament.
The last time they played, I mean,
Na'Vi just lost so many rounds with pistols,
they lost so many clutches, right?
So they'll be telling themselves,
guys, if we just clean up these quote unquote
easy rounds a little bit,
if you're just a bit better in the post plans,
like we can take these guys,
but in reality it's all gonna depend on this first map,
right?
Mirage is an absolute must win for Na'Vi in the series
if they're going to have a chance
of taking down Vitality.
Yeah, especially no matter what we get that dust to,
We get that T-sided start for Navi that we just saw just a few minutes ago,
and it would be Apex and Lexi B to try to direct the traffic.
100% Dust2 is a guarantee, but if anything they need to focus on Mirage,
because that is as Enko said, that's the ticket into this matchup if you're Navi.
You have to win Mirage, you cannot bang on the fact that Dust2 is going to go your way.
And in order to do that, I think by casting for me is the player to look out for.
He is the rough diamond, so to speak, within the Navi camp.
He's the cat-knife, he's the catalyst behind what has been steady progress for Navi as of recently.
We can continue that MVP level form that we saw from ESL Pro League.
If you can be annoying to Vitality, if you can especially on the CT side, dominate the short area,
that's definitely a chance that probably makes this game a bit...
Yeah, there definitely is, but it's that time.
The time that we all enjoy, the time that we all came here to watch for for Vitality,
to take on Nautis Vincere in a quarter-final.
Someone is trying to go in and semis tomorrow, and I bet Vitality
want to jump into that ESL Grand Slam.
Let's do it with Harry Hugo. It's time.
Today was supposed to be all about the quarterfinals, but leave it to the professor to steal the show
Gabriel Fallon Toledo with a 20-year career two CSGO majors and more trophies than I can speak of
Furia waiting for tomorrow
waiting for an opponent
Final time for Fallon to play on a Brazilian stage
And his matchup awaits.
Nervi vs Vitality.
That's the undisputed king to the world
versus kind of the guys vying for the challenge.
Nervi in number two, Furia in number three,
waiting in the wings in that semi-final.
But you know the whole world, the whole CS world,
we're all looking at Vitality.
It's these guys that stand about to make history,
looking for back-to-back Intel grand slams.
With all that attention though, all those eyeballs looking at you, all these teams, praying on your downfall,
and you've got one hell of a Rhodes Gallery to get through on your part of this final.
If they do want to make history, if they do want to cement their legacy, boy, the vitality,
have to earn it here in Rio.
It's not going to be easy.
seeing them show that they are mortal after all, after falling to the Falcons.
The idea that there might be vulnerability still to exploit Zonic,
even trying to throw some chaos out into the world, talking about teams need to stop fearing,
stop respecting this vitality so much.
It's been picked up, right? Even Alexi just said it on the stage in that pre-game interview,
talking about how, you know, Na'Vi know, even though their track record is poor,
they've had a bunch of close games against Vitality.
They've seen that they're beatable, and right now, Na'Vi stay believing.
anything is possible, especially on a map, the vitality have been pressured on Mirage.
Right now they're going into Zywoo's bombsite very quick on these Dolverettes.
Not the guy you want to face, Zywoo! It's that look way too comfortable.
That's one player in the B site, that's vitality, stacking three on A and it's still not enough
for Naveed to break in. One guy is all vitality need when that guy is Zywoo.
The lovely opening gambit here
for Vitality just balling on
ramp with a flash, forcing plays.
This is a team that never sits static, right?
They always have another move. They always have another idea.
They bring in the pace in this pistol.
They take it off of Navi.
I mean, when we're looking at Navi in this one,
I think the thing that's landing a lot of intrigue
of a lot of intrigues, both the kind of hot streak
Navi have been on in good form, having a runner success
heading into this tournament, but you also have to note
just the individual efforts of Mikazi.
It's come across in the comms, whenever you see him
on the camera, he's exuding confidence right now
that's rubbing off of the rest of Navi.
The numbers are there to back it up in a big way as well.
Often one of the guys who goes pretty quiet in this
head-to-head whenever it creeps up, but he has been
the amount behind the Nabi's success across this tournament.
So, Ima, laugh off the fact that Messi got boosted on that old box.
The levels of vitality go to, to get any advantage, any little detail.
Something we've seen in space with vitality, not afraid to bring out
boosts and little tricks that you've never seen
against teams you've never heard of.
of. Pistols are ramping up and
I'll be just trying to put the
site but with no Kevlar no utility
it is a shooting gallery for
vitality.
Wonderful is hoping to make it
expensive.
With only 20 seconds left his
death has to be a part of this
round so swing out for a second
does his part vitality
conversions found in its back
of the team. We're going to
get out of Zai Wu after so long
of not seeing vitality. Looser
I am sort of we're all getting
involved in this idea that, Hey,
there's susceptible. They can
bleed. Maybe a team can take them
away. But let me put it in
perspective right when we think
about Navi's best year with this
call back in 2024 where they
were team of the year when
Mirage was their go to they
were 27 and 13 on Mirage.
That's an incredible track record.
Let me just remind you last year
alone, vitality talked that they
So even though this whole map, historically, is just another walk in the park for vitality.
It's the recent form that's under question.
But the fact that we're building up one BO3 loss that came down to the margins of overtime
speaks volumes about the expectations of vitality.
Every little advantage boosts up in the window.
I think it's interesting, right? You're really seeing the market of vitality are leaving on the CS landscape
even down to the kind of map pools that are creeping up in these important games in the playoffs
They're all kind of mirror matchups of what you would expect to get versus vitality
Even this quarter final map pool mirroring the last
You know you're trying to perfect your Mirage right now, you're trying to perfect your Nuke after
after seeing Vitality taken down there.
They're not being tested on it all too much this year.
Everything's kind of made in their image right now.
So you've got this B-Play to contend with,
but two players here for Vitality.
Mezi and Zywu in tandem,
and it's quick work made over the B here.
Bit can't do a thing.
And Zywu hasn't got a round without a multi-kill yet,
since this game started,
eight and zero to start things off.
Terrifying factor, isn't it?
especially when the desk we're talking about how a couple of you know,
Vietton Navi for example, a slow start could be devastating.
He's in the top performer or bottom performer in these recent games.
I think we could say the same about Ema to a degree on these T sides, right?
He's a good start.
He's to feel like he's reading the game early
and they're just going into stacks right now.
Team Vitality 3-0.
Pistols for Navi and Vitality just very comfortable right now.
I mean, I think if you're Na'Vi, you really wanted, as I would have some struggles early
on, by no means been a poor tournament or anything of the sort, but I had some flood
shots and games where you've looked towards other guys in the Vitality jersey to provide.
You don't want Zaheel having his best games on the arrival into these playoffs.
One of those two players where, you know, his standards are so high and our expectations
are so high.
You've got a couple of poor games and you look at the rating after and you go, he's still
low at 1.2, same thing can be said for Donk throughout the groups, well he came into the
playoffs today smashing so Zywoo looking to do the same.
9 and 0.
Surely not another multi-kill round out of Zywoo, it's just these pistols and scurrying,
you've got a little record that you're building upon right now, why not try and
keep it in check, spam for Flames and Zywoo playing it forward.
Oh, he's not flawless anymore.
His wonderful brings him down.
But it's still multi-kills every round of the game
to open things up for Zaiwu.
Head-on-one.
I don't think anyone's complaining here for vitality.
The question is, are there enough kills to go around?
Apex 1 and 0 in the sidecar.
And vitality, I'm more than happy with that.
Here's the first 4x with you, or 4-Navi on the T side.
Whatever the game plan was today, there must have been some expectation of going down to
this first round.
You know you prep your first pistol and your first buy, so let's see what Navi have got
in store.
Now that AWP instantly makes its presence known, it's going to find the Navi captain
on the push out in the middle.
Lexi now leading from beyond the grave.
Now the 5v4 and outside of that vitality don't give anything away.
Apex just waiting in the window seeing if they attempt this boost.
In position to try and cut that down.
A bit of light aggression out towards A taking away both the ramp and the palace position.
He's a good sportsman vitality even if they're a little strung out. You've got a lot of info
Himaluk is the best bet here for Navi to get some value right with his deep a position
He could get into jungle apex is still floating in the window
And I would slip areas ever back at B with the orb. It's messy who wants to get involved
aggressive this late in the round and with no support
40 seconds and Navi are still frozen
his will be an attempt to the B-split but they're gonna get through mezzy first
just not suspecting him out here on this aggressive line on the short side
there's also the bomb dropped over on catwalks but if a problem here for Nabi
they've got to get a move on. Zai Wu literally hasn't set a foot wrong from
the starting gun. This one's feeling like a 1v5 and Zai Wu is winning. No
resistance in the return to rifles for Navi. Zai Wu might even be able to finish
the job. Yeah, you don't repeat that. And so it's all fine for Ima to save that
gun but it's still Vitality 5-0 running amok and I love how aggressive
is he still is that late in the round?
Navier doing nothing, they are playing for nothing.
Still holding for a repeat, and it's the last position they expect.
That's the bomb drop that really wins the round,
because it ruins the timing of the split.
No one picks that bomb back up.
Ema goes in with the trade,
and McCarthy loses his life desire as well,
who never rotated after that opening kill on the B site.
Everyone where they should be here for vitality.
And this is just an unthinkable beginning, like, mentality, you know, it's a team of
stars, but Zywoo's just outshining everyone right now.
This is the wildest possible start to this game, he's outfragging his entire team, still
yet to go around without a multi-kill.
has been in the right place every round.
You know, it's a team that historically
relied a lot on the one-man army approach,
but that's not been the story for Vitality for a long time now.
Turns out the one-man army is more than enough.
Kazi is back in the server.
So a quick reset and we go live again,
at Na'Vi to sit in silence in his tech pause while they think over these last five rounds
of domination.
There's a couple of big early red flags, Zahu obviously one of them just the form he's
in, my goodness, but yeah, you know even looking into kind of things Na'Vi can try
and control, they've struggled at turning it around on the back of slow starts.
Even in a series, you know, you saw them open up their Tottenham around with that
13-0, then they went on to lose the second map after kind of getting off to a really
rocky beginning that they couldn't recover. I think a couple of players really falling
into that category of needing the hot hands, the good start to find success. EMA very much
been one to kind of steal the line right there.
Yeah, while we joke about Na'Vi often losing their map pick and still reversing the series
and still coming out with wins, something they've done a lot as of late. Well, this
is not the series for you to lose your map pick, Mirages, but a necessity in order
So to have any chance of threatening vitality, we know Dust2 is their home ground to a degree
never see.
So Navi, it's not too late at 5-0 down, but they better get going soon.
This is the way these rounds are feeling right now.
In the silence, Navi regrouping back on that A site.
Zai Wu, you'll notice shuffling through the connector.
you will not be far away on this hit.
We need an opening.
Ema, guy with the hero gun.
You'd love him to provide, but it's not going to happen.
Flames with the mow down.
Apex even playing it forward here,
running support out from the spawn.
So a big triple from the captain
and a damn near flawless round for Vitality.
Finally, those I will without a multi-kill
in one of these rounds.
Oh, yay, he's only 13-1.
Solid hold for Apex and Flamesy.
And here's the first time I've played getting involved.
And this is even one of the things you have to contend with when you play in Vitality is,
they have really one map that everyone looks to to try and claw on back on them.
And it is this Mirage, but with that comes the territory that they're always getting a lot of reps on the map.
It's one that they're putting a lot of attention to in practice, in the theory, they know almost with certainty that no matter who they play, it's the one that is going to be played against them.
Yeah, you know, it's kind of the fear setting in there as well, because if we think about other maps like a Nubis, a map that we don't really see Vitality play all too much, no one's even picking it against them either.
They are flawless on the map.
Nardi, credit to them, did pick it against Vitality in that Rotterdam final.
But they lost 13-10. Not wanting to go back to it.
Not enough data.
And so Vitality just gets a rack-up more experience.
6-0 start, Rops drops under, and even that Molotov doesn't burn it.
I'll catch a break, can you?
on a good line early with this orb. Oh, bye. You almost don't want that smoke. I feel like
Robs' position would have been more valuable without it. You're going to walk right through.
Oh, he doesn't check this, and so free kill for Robs. They stayed. Wonderful, given
a chance on that AWP. He's been waiting there all round. There's the reaction.
and Rob's trying to come through with aggression into the tunnel smoke.
And so finally an advantage for Navi, not a position they've been in.
So, and Rob's dead.
No less that opener in towards the A site goes a long way.
And so finally on the board takes them seven rounds, but they get through and they get through pretty cleanly at that.
It's nice to see them, you know, assuredly win that round, right?
Not coming down to any messy 1v1 or 2v2.
They'll be regrouped fully on A, but all four players and just go for the execute together.
Some well-play shots from wonderful, found the pick on the side wall.
That was much needed to get Na'Vi in the game.
Wonderful has been reliable as well.
He's been a player that's been, has had a great start to the year.
Obviously, all eyes on Mikazi for Na'Vi for obvious reasons,
but wonderful.
A player that, even in last year, was extremely unreliable.
I think you could say for Na'Vi when they needed him.
The floor has certainly risen for Na'Vi.
Today the question is the ceiling.
With how clean these early slate of rounds were for Vitaliy,
you were a long way off of breaking them.
So it's going to be a real grind here for Navi.
Back to the mid control.
Vitaliki down to play for it as well.
Three players ready to try and stop the spillover, even this boost to mop up anyone in the tunnels.
Not the regroup, the early posturing out towards mid.
Just to throw the Vitality early set up through a bit of a loop and it certainly has there's still a lot of attention on middle for Vitality.
A site only has one man protecting it. But that man is Zywoo.
It's not a man, it's a machine. Greenpink is good but escaping, not allowed.
Wide out of Paris, bit's going to get that crucial trade and not be having to move here.
You'll take a one for one of the Zai Wu, but the job is not done. Vitality bashing back in the sport. Nice play for Alexi to wait. He sets a teammate up for trade.
Bit with another. Miss shot from Wunderball, but it does impress them with bit standing tool. Three kills from Bit, pushes Nabi forward, and thanks to question of Vitality, do they want to risk it?
Oh, that Nade. Oh, no. Oh, the Mollyhouse bit not fallen. Still alive here. If he goes
down, you better believe Vitality given this ago. That kill comes in very, very late. And
so Robs decides against it. So does Mezzi. Bit stays alive. It's just long enough on
a nice edge, that one. Yeah, if that Nade connects and takes down Bit, he moves back
Ram, it's a default plant. My towns can rush it down. They might have a good shot of going for that one
Not today
Na'Vi converting back to back on the T side huge chance to recover on this half now for Na'Vi
Still have to seize it rare mistake as I would not realizing the whole team were ready to swing out
Maybe expecting heavier on the ramp and a bit of a baiting palace
But Na'Vi with a crucial trade and it goes on for multi kill
If it's Vitality who called the timeout.
Navier must feel like a big opportunity right now to put Vitality on eco winning this gun
round would do exactly that.
Suddenly you're looking at a four round half and you are well and truly back in the
game.
Yeah, it's the T sides that have been really struggling for vitality on this map, especially so here in Rio.
And so, you know, you don't have to set the bar crazy high, you know, if you recover this hop, like you say,
gets that kind of fable four-round T side, you're already in a really good position, very much still in the conversation.
So this one matters that's why you see it punctuated with the time out for vitality
This could be messy on round but I tell you not wanting to push too far into a default
But how they start to as mccasey turns his back
He goes back to check his teammates and in this gap flames is pushed in because he can't believe his
Unluck as flames he takes that five before
the slither
The smallest gap available by Talbot found it.
Look at what it's done to Navi, it's completely changed the plan for the round. They were grouping up over towards that A side of the map. They lose Mikazi to the aggression.
And they concede, they give it all away. They're still hanging around here, holding for the re-aggression.
That's at least to get a late trade there onto Flames.
It opens up the chance for an A-split again, bit back in Palace, in 30 seconds to get this
bomb through middle.
Vitality have been blinded mid for most of the round, they played triple A off the rip,
they don't know what's going on.
Yeah, Hanavi have been decisive in their moves here right, even though they get that kind
of spanner in the works of the push down through ramp, then they're quick to adjust this
one on the fly, and now eyeing up this A-split, Zairu nine a position to go down
after one this time and with attention drawn away from this double setup between robs
and apex over towards the ramp it's a clean finish out of vitality.
Nami just think how do they know we sneak away around the entire map we go through an empty
mid vitality have zero information and they still breed it perfectly three players position
around that A site. Na'Vi walk into the trap and the lion feasts in its den. Everybody
doing their job. Apex coming out with a double. And Vitality, that was them on the edge of
eco. Now they get to keep it going. It's Na'Vi who's got to pay the bill.
I think one of the words that always kind of slips into the conversation when you're
Talking about Vitality, it's confidence.
And with that comes the tendency to go
to these aggressive moves where some teams
maybe look to do it as more of a reaction.
Vitality are always down to kind of set the precedent.
We're gonna be the guys pushing you.
We're gonna be the guys testing your default, your setup.
And so you're always on guard
when you're playing against Vitality.
And you'll see timings that you won't frequently get to see
in other matches.
when you're watching this vitality play as a result.
A lot of audacious investment here for Na'Vi.
Going for something quicker.
Fast out of palace with three.
There's a pace change here.
Mike C1 is something a little bit faster, but it's not planned out.
They're getting molded.
High velocity right in to the buffer stop.
Apex will get found, but his teammates arrive.
And this is a bloodbath.
make it look despicably easy don't they close under balcony position here's all
the footsteps it's three AK's running out of palace and apex still gets his
HE in flames of him combined for three kills for the price of one
simply done 17 and 3 on Zai Wu cannot be ignored another multi-kill from him
in that round and Naveed they put money in knowing what it would do this
This is what it's left them with, an AWP with no Kevlar and a pistol on Ema.
They had their chance in this T side, but they're evading them and alluding them.
This is all they're left with.
Okay, that's a big kill.
It's been the best way to find these rounds for Na'Vi, trying to get wonderful involved
on the AWP early.
That's it.
Another head-to-head in his favor over Zywoo.
Been the one guy, really, who can go blow for blow with him right now.
So that holds a bit of promise here for Na'Vi, the big threat, the guy that's gone full steam
ahead from the word go out of the round.
So Vitality looked to make moves, they found the gap, three players over towards his b-side,
two of them getting aggressive out on short, missed the opportunity to deal with that
Wonderful or but they have found the Kazi in the downtime spot. They're on bit back in palace
But he still gets the opening right now that a side of the map is wide open
Just gonna get past this connect to fight and with Rob slow on health the rotate of apex considered
This one that falls
Finally into Nabi's grasp very scary even with the man advantage for Nabi the fact of my talent here crunching them
Well, they just boosting up even felt like he would have been left out of the play
But huge triple kill from wonderful on the AWP to keep Navi in contention for this half forward be fine
You'll take it considering no pistol no eco shenanigans, and your one chance to reset vitality was stopped
It's good a lot worse can't not be fine that fabled fourth
Spotting time who goes for the shot one connect. No snarby are going for a pacey round in middle
What's the reaction?
Oh, Ema putting a tricky spot here.
Okay, Epa playing in amidst all the chaos.
Charges him down on the ring with that smooth move for Ema.
What?
What a precious Zywoo.
No business getting that one, but a smoke spam on the orb gets rid of the danger man.
Flames has been spotted on this aggressive turn out towards ramp and will need a bit
of help.
Zywoo's rotating through CT.
And in all this downtime, Messi's taking away the apartment, so the route into that
B site feels well and truly closed. The bomb is going in this direction and that kill from
Alexi has just alleviated a lot of pressure. What felt like an impossible task. The four
rounds on this T side. Well now you've just got to get past the two top performers for
vitality.
He's moving quick, but he doesn't know they're out, but they're not out yet right now.
Still a parlance player, hasn't even crossed, so Zairu's paranoid, checking his flank.
RV just have to get this bomb into the site, and they have so much UTIL to do so.
Putting it in a post-bomb makes this extremely difficult for Team Vitality.
That bomb down is the way to win right now for RV.
They're firmly locked out of B by the Utile.
How much does the fear creep him for Navi?
Oh, that one's giving away for free, and you don't want to go giving Zai Wu reasons to want to win this.
There are joints in market side, they're going to deal with him, so you're left looking on.
It's Zai Wu, he has a 20 kills deep.
One versus two in front of him.
Navi, they can't mess this up, they can't fool him. Zailu down into the clutch, just Alexi and he knows where he is, chasing him, can't find him.
The captain stands tall and has delivered Navi a lifeline on Mirage.
to this quarterfinal with a point to prove
hitting the ground running 20 and five
on the star orb of Vitality.
But thanks to the helping hand of wonderful
on his AWP in that first half,
Alexi sealing it out with a clutch as well.
Navi have given themselves a fighting chance.
T-side woes have played Vitality on this map.
It's a four round difference.
Will that be enough for Navi to blaze a trail on Mirage?
and really add some intrigue to this quarterfinal.
It's no surprise to Nabi how quick these games can close up,
but without a pistol they might just be in the dust.
In fact, nobody at B.
Vitality have been running this pistol all tournament.
They look to do it again in the face of Nabi,
just a quick B execute,
hop skip and a jump out of the apartments
and nobody is home.
Frustrating there for Mikazi, right?
Had a phenomenal tournament in a great position
just to thin the herd on this beat here,
but not only that, he's been dinked.
It leaves you in a very tricky spot ahead of this retake.
Three on three, Zai Wu ripping heads off in the pistol.
It's been all him thus far.
It's all him to close.
Zai Wu electric in both pistol rounds.
I mean, this is one of the best performances
we've ever seen from him on a stage
on an individual level.
24 and five.
That's right, read it twice.
really weep, Navi, because he's life-gaming at the worst possible time on your must-wit mirage.
Unbelievable performance from Zywoo.
And, you know, I think that's one of the things that's so threatening about this Vitality,
the idea that they're able to beat teams when they're just playing good, you know?
Like, when everyone's just playing fine, I think they're good enough to still take down the best.
Whenever you factor in that, you know, they can have these life-games as well.
It's not just down to other players, their opponents hoping, you know,
for big McCarthy show up in this head-to-head.
No, Zai Wu still has those games where he plays, you know, 10%, 15% better.
And it's a terrifying sight when he does.
I mean, on chess psychology, but my title, he looked bored at half time.
And we saw them on the cameras, barely even blinking,
staring at that stage, staring at that silverware.
And the promise of what comes with it, Grand Slam, the first team back to back to claim it twice.
And I love that it's not an easy run either.
When I see it, they have to take down Aljus Nabi, a team they recently have faced in a final,
final but a furia a team that have beat them in a bo5 and even started this year by getting a map off them in Krakow
but also Falcons or spirits and if it's the former given that Falcon spirit head to head it's the only team that has
beat them this year.
Gotta earn it.
Oh, this fall, Selexi.
Double's left wonderful.
In a tantalizing position, Tag brings him low, the wonderful still hitting heads, and now Zairu closing the distance, closing in, shuts it down.
just so forced by win vitality
get to storm the board early in this second half
is fearless absolutely fearless in the 2v1
they know where the scout is they're both just swinging wide going for it
so chasing down wonderful vitality want to get this game done
and they want to do it quickly they're not here to mess about
they are sending a message to navi and maybe even to furia as well
we are back in our final form i think it's interesting because when you
you look at this vitality score with all the success they've been on, you know, I think
one of the challenges is like finding the way to keep motivating yourselves and you've
heard guys like Apex you really buy into the legacy, the big picture of Counter-Strike,
you know, wanting to be the most accomplished player, the most accomplished team, doesn't
want there to be, you know, any discussion when you compare this vitality to the Astralis
of old, he wants it to be a statement that vitality were and are the best.
But then I think you look at some of the other individuals, oh hold on, I have a mind, you
look at someone like Zywu who initially had this impression as like a humble guy, but
actually has been very much spurred on by competition, it's one of the things that
they finally got through to him and I think that's when you saw a whole new level out
of Zywu, whether that was having his worst HLTV placing, you know when he lost out
to monocy and dong or you look at someone like robs who sure you know what
we're talking about vitality making history with back-to-back grand slams
never been done before robs would have three you'd be the most accomplished in
that department and so you know you find all these individual reasons and then
you look at what falcons went and did and I think if anything that's
probably lit a bit of a fire under vitality because they're no longer
having to look at these external factors a team of challenged them in
server a team have been able to beat them that's one hell of a reason to try
and last thing you need is more fire underneath you you mentioned being
villains something apex is very familiar with all across the world well
nothing would make you more of a villain and beating fallen on the stage
tomorrow this gun round is the entire map for Navi and it's off to a
a horrible star Apex and Zai Wu. The French contingent find that five on three. Wonderful,
does what he can on the orb. And a Hail Mary play out towards mid. Zai Wu's got past him
and now on to his weapon of choice. This was the rightful round that you were staking the
whole game upon and Zai Wu is tearing away from you.
6 of 5 KB could end just like this.
Alexi's going to try and hold on.
One more kill before all is said and done,
but we know the outcome of this round.
It's a save of the orp,
and it's a 12-4 lead for team vitality.
Navi took a swing,
but this one never got close.
And you really feel the pain of those,
That one round that if Navi picked up after finding a couple in a row, if they took that third in a row,
they would have broke Vitality, they could have closed up the heart.
It would have been a very different game.
Like, entirely different. We would be talking right now about Navi still in this.
You know, you have a lot more breathing room. You could stomach an early rifle round loss, but there's none of that.
It had to be perfect. That is always what's demanded of you when you play Vitality is perfection. Anything less.
And it's just not enough.
Yeah, you get a pistol, you get a rifle round, and then you potentially get a humiliation ritual on Dust2.
And you know, you want to look at other struggles here for Nardi.
Throughout this entire tournament, Mikazi's been a real force to be reckoned with.
He was kind of the guy the spotlight was on heading into this quarterfinal.
He is struggling, and there's no room left really to turn it around on this map.
Mikazi 3-15, he's been the fire starter.
He's the top-rated performer, he's the guy who's given a lot more freedom,
injects a lot more energy, and none of that is rising to the top.
This quarterfinal was all about vitality,
trying to walk down that kind of historic road,
looking for the back-to-back grand slams.
And it was down to Nabi whether or not it wouldn't be about that,
and they've not been able to bring much of a challenge.
A key opener for Apex out towards this B site.
He's secure in the foothold that's meant to win you the map.
We've seen the frag, and we also see the calling.
Apex perfectly reading that top mid post.
We have multiple anti-flash players,
and Na'Vi just run into a stack of vitality.
Apex is running to B.
Bomb is joining him.
Zywu is wherever he wants to be,
cutting off mid rotations.
But right now, Na'Vi two through the market.
They're in no hurry.
Vitality wait for these players to walk into their crosshairs,
and you know what? They just might.
Apex's third kill in the round looks to send Narky out of this map,
kill in-game leader, and Bid is too far away to make a difference.
And you know it doesn't get more poetic than that, you're so worried about these big names,
you're so worried about the star potential in Vitality, you forget even what their old
boy is capable of. Apex, he cares very much about where he finds himself in the history
of Counter-Strike. And so the guy maybe thinking about that grand slam more than anyone
is him wanted to close it with the ace he's still done his part and it's business as usual apex
barely even entertained at the end of map one it is domination for vitality they've got a point
to prove here in Rio de Janeiro
What's he looking at?
Inspired by our French comrades.
I've decided to shuffle things up.
We are swapping the rules!
A catastrophe!
Wait, does that mean...
Yeah, it does!
NISTOBIC TIME!
Alex, the machine!
Tell me, how is the software?
Even though it says it's going to be deleted!
Uh, you're too...
You must have confidence in the shuffle.
Who ordered all of this?
Uh, uh, now hold on a second!
Let me...
You have your own presentation!
One job! That's all you have to do with a print!
You're a jerk!
What the hell is going on here?!
Take that, Alex!
Mercy Boku!
What the hell is going on here?!
Take that, Alex!
Mercy Boku!
So eloquently put here.
Yeah, says Apex.
Of course, Vitality doing exactly that,
a little bit of a master class, chef's kiss,
all the things that you need to illustrate the point
that 13 to four, being the final score line
on the first map of the sport,
Final does beg for Vitality to be in the driver's seat
firmly.
When does Navi play?
Well, I don't know.
Have we checked?
Are they here yet, Jacob?
No, not at all, to be completely honest.
That was a tough one for them.
I think it's more so Vitality,
just playing some beautiful counters like that.
It's Navi not showing up.
things they could have done better, more efficiency on the T side,
get something done in the second half as well.
But overall, I just want to tip my hat to Vitality.
We kind of labeled them coming into this game as maybe a team not hitting their stride,
struggling a bit against G2, losing them to Falcons.
Ooh, are they afraid of winning the ESL Grand Slam?
Then they come in, first map here, opponent's map pick, absolute domination.
Saivou showing why he's considered the best player in the world as of right now.
It's just beautiful.
I know it was Apex who flipped off the entire crowd in Austin during the walkout, right?
But Zaybu does it on the server. Yeah, he really does. He really did give it to Navi just say
Yeah, you are not going to win today whatsoever. No hope in this series
I mean he was a 30 kills 15 rounds in what the hell. Yeah, what the hell he indeed
What the hell he aren't they Jacob happen in round eight nine
We're around eight was the one positive that I was able to find from Navi on the T side
They didn't get off to a good start first and foremost
But then they got into the gun rounds and they showcased that they can definitely play counter strike at a decent level
It's 6-1 right here, they need some rounds on the scoreboard.
They're doing a simple A-execute early into the round.
Saibou gets the first kill, instantly gets traded.
Again, you can see the spacing with the utility, the players coming in.
It's good for Navi. Good spacing right here as well.
Vitality are doing the right thing by flashing a player in towards CT spawn.
Again, great trade coming in for Bid.
And then you see the utility used by the Navi players as well
to gain that position, they're taking the fights and now find themselves in a 2B2.
So another traded scenario.
They end up winning this round.
You know, Vitality have no time to go for the bump.
Defusal right here and to me that was okay. Maybe this is the beginning of the Navi
We know simple execution in towards the bomb site good utility good spacing good trading
That's a way to isolate
I guess I would make sure it only gets one kill but he said hell no but the problem is when you start six zero down
Right and you have a slow start from that point on you have to be near flawless to recover
right and now we want back to back rounds still wasn't enough to break the
economy of vitality, right? And if we go into the following round, and Xtas was
forced to take a timeout here, right? So he takes a timeout, next round comes in,
they're in reset territory now, like their money is almost spent. They go for info,
right? They go for aggression, they're playing further back, they start off
close to ramp, then in the mid-round they decide to push for information here
with Apex and Flamesy, they're going to find one kill later on, Bit is going
to be able to get the trade, and we'll have a 4v4 scenario with this double push, right?
They're not going to expect it well, but it's still there.
Now he finds the gap in mid, they're walking up, Connector is thinking,
oh, we have a great situation here, they have to be at least 2B,
but Rops is still hidden there as the Joker, Zywoo with the AWP is in jungle,
and Apex still alive in the ramp, secures the round.
So nice little adjustment from Vitality out of the timeout to play with more information,
Right, they were susceptible to some of those splits in the first round.
They lost the execute that you showed, so this was a nice way to switch that up.
It definitely was.
I mean, for such a dominating performance here from Vitality,
is there anything else you could possibly ask if you're Vitality?
If you're Vitality, no, that's the perfect game of Counter-Strike.
You know, you have Saaru, you know, getting it done more or less by himself.
You have Apix finishing the game by tapping away with the AK-47,
almost like it's too easy for him, you know?
You don't see that often.
So, realistically, there's not a thing that's a point towards Vitality.
They play a more or less perfect game of Counter-Strike.
They get the job done in a way where the game was never doubted.
Something that's also interesting to me that people don't talk about is like,
when you talk about Zaibu and Khaogudi and blah blah blah, it's like,
also, things are so easy for them.
It's like, how much is there for him to do, you know,
when they have a tournament like Cluj,
where they're playing like Mongols, Aurora into Paravision, right?
Like, he doesn't need to go Super Saiyan for them to win those games.
They just need to play standard and they'll beat those teams with ease, right?
And it's now when they lose a game and things are maybe just a tad shaky and they go into the playoffs
and they're playing a team that's been really horny to play them for a while now and things that they can take them down.
Now he starts to have some fire. Now it's like, oh, you guys think all that?
Well, let me show you. Let me just remind you, you know, who's on this vitality line-up?
Who's the best player in the world? Just so you don't forget who the best is.
And it's funny, because there was something Sonic said in an interview on ATL TV that he maybe lacked a bit from Sairu,
a bit more passion and a bit more willingness to go that extra mile as a personality.
But I've sensed that the last couple of years he's gotten a bit more of that, whether that's Apex telling him to be a bit more egotistical,
whether he's just developing as a person.
I see more and more of this Sairu who wants to prove a point to the rest of the world,
probably also helped by the fact that Dong is applying pressure in terms of who's the best player in the world.
play in the world. So it's just a finer version of Sairu almost aging like fine wine, sorry,
and I'm not sure if we're even seeing the full version of him.
Almost aging like, yeah, and I was going to say like five guys leapt down the fridge for a while,
but no, that's definitely not the case. However, what might smell a little bit like that would
have to be a little bit of a Mikaze's performance here. It didn't really go his way.
No, it didn't. You know, it's not a great performance obviously for Mikaze,
but I don't think I want to pinpoint it towards him and be like he didn't do enough.
Obviously with 23 ADR, you're out of the game, you're not really getting anything done,
but it was more so the entirety of Navi who couldn't really get it done.
Now naturally, had he played better, had he found more openings, found more impact early on,
maybe the game would have been a tad harder for Vitality. I don't think that would have been the difference.
Yeah, they were just in trouble early on because Vitality was, you know, finding opening kills,
breaking their defaults, whether early on or in the mid-round. They're trying to sort of
of execute that B-split in the first gun round.
And then, you know, if you're Maccazian,
you're playing a little bit on the extremity,
well, now all the focus is on that side
that you're coming from.
There really isn't much space for you to get things done.
Yeah, speaking of getting things done,
you know, there's still an eye on the price here.
If you are vitality, you're not out.
You are going to go and start on that T side
in the next map.
But you didn't really start in the first map.
So like, what is the approach now, Jacob?
I mean, you can still come in
and try to dictate the pace
and the best thing to do, obviously,
and Njiko would probably attest to that as a coach,
Just forget everything about Mirastas.
Nothing you can use from that game that is any good for you.
So almost pretend that it didn't happen.
The problem for us is that we're standing from the outside.
We know Dust2 is a map where Vitaly have shown incredible consistency.
So I'm almost at a point now where it requires Navi to play there.
You know, the best brand of Counter-Strike coming on that T-Site,
set the tone, win a pistol, get off to a good start.
As you said, Janko, you cannot afford to go down 6-1 if you're Navi.
At that point, you have to play flawless Counter-Strike against
maybe the best team able to play Dust2 in history of Counter-Strike.
We're on Ema watch watch, right but I'm finding him. No, well Maca's had three kills, but Ema was second worst
Okay, so now according to you know his run in this tournament. He's supposed to have a good map, right?
Yeah, theory. Maybe that can help now. He you know, it could be a case of them
Being a bit slow to get into the series, but you can't afford that against fatality, right?
Like when your map pick is the first one and now you're going into dust to no matter how warmed up you are
You know you better be dripping sweat all over that all over that stage right because that's what's going to take
For them to stay alive in this series. Yeah, because currently it's not dripping sweat
It's just dripping tears, you know like it's not where you're not having a good time up there
You're wondering how the hell can we get back into this game and turn this whole boat around because it's going in the wrong
Direction if you are cyclone you got to go back there and not even be in this game
That's what I did there. I mean you know, I don't know if you can turn the boat around right and I know
It's a French blockade, right at the moment.
Saibou not letting anyone through, but good luck moving him.
Yeah, the straighter Saibou.
No, I'm talking about for the side of Navi to recollect this in the right direction, Jacob.
What do you do, man?
The problem is the vitality of finding different ways of winning Counter-Strike games.
Whether it's Saibou popping off like he did right here by himself,
whether it's them playing as a team,
whether it's on the CT side, which they're going to start on now,
they have the double-op setup in their hand,
and the back pocket, if needed, be with rubs defending towards the B-bomb side
with the secondary op.
It's a very complete team, you know, so I'm sure Blade and LXP have thought a lot about you, okay?
How do we approach this too? They knew it was gonna come in the video. What could be a potential game plan right here starting on the T side?
For me, it's about pacing. I don't think you can afford to play a slow-paced game of Counter-Strike, where you allow Saeru, where you allow Robs to kind of read you, kind of reposition, kind of get a feel for it.
If you start up in high pace and you're successful with it, maybe that's a way to rattle out by telling it a little bit.
Yeah, and I think we'll see for Navi right starting on the T side
Yes, you get to dictate the pace of the game and all of that
But didn't really work out work out great on the first map, right?
So now you're in a position where you have to step up and if anything I expect these players and teams now
They're all aware that how quickly things can get out of hand in MR 12
And you know that whatever happened on the first map good or bad isn't necessarily going to translate
translate into the second map. Now he was on the opposite side of this, where they would dominate on the first map and then sort of fall short on the second map.
So this is all that they'll be saying to themselves, right, and try to just reset mentally and then coming fresh on Dust2.
So if they can get off to a good start and get some confidence, we at least might have a game on their hands.
Statistically, we saw it wonderful. Have some impact there of any that Naughty had throughout the duration of the map one of the series.
So I'm wondering if Dust2 is going to get a little bit more versatility out of him.
I mean, he has a better case to do that.
I think it's all just paradise by many occasions.
I think you're free to do whatever you want on the CT side.
Now, naturally, you're going to find a lot of utility.
A lot of the time, you're going to be behind flashes, behind smokes,
and you set yourself coming into the game by utility.
No slouches when it comes to using the utility.
So, work conditions are tough, are wonderful,
but there's no excuse not to pull out the all-bottom map like Dust2
and see if you can get it done.
Whether that's by being a little bit proactive,
maybe be a bit aggressive on catwalk with it on the CT side,
or try to take a bit of risk, you know, is a good question.
But I think he needs to find impact together with the rest of the team naturally.
To even make it a game, it's not about whether or not they're going to win this too,
but even to make it a game, they need to play good counts right.
Yeah, let's make it a game. Let's try that one. I love that idea.
We're also going to go to a quick break so that we can roll the dice and we come back.
You did say risk it, and that is exactly what we have in front of us.
The risk being that Navi get absolutely pummeled here by Vitality
and by Vitality join period tomorrow in the semifinal.
But first, we'll be right back after this.
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Your starting point will be based
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We're introducing facet rating
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Good luck and have fun.
The pounding of all of these dogs eats down the hero coming into it.
The double peeking gets you shot!
It's not even possible!
Something special to tell you is to be called.
And that's exactly what happens.
Got a mixer!
We are back!
Just wanted to ask what is happening right now, obviously not the playing great game.
Vitality is playing best CS right now?
Yeah.
Okay, what needs to happen with us too?
They played it for six months, they lost once, what navi needs to bring right now
to bring it back?
We need to hypnotize them.
Okay, how are you gonna do that?
I hope so.
How are you gonna do that?
We need, as a crowd, somebody like to do something.
I'm loving the vibe right now.
So please, get it on the server as well, I'll see you how it goes, okay?
We present distress and treason, three bots, unhoused on your own!
That bot is fucked.
That bot is on time for speaking. You should concern the fight.
Don't spoil my nephew's shenanigans.
Have you ever had a dream about your first joke?
Be simple.
Be direct.
Nothing fancy.
Do not have the capacity to chop some bags for control.
Alexi.
An uncomfortable retake.
An impossible retake.
It's unbelievable!
How is this reality?
I can't believe the scenes that we are witnessing right now.
Alexi.
He's got time!
I'm not sure!
Oh my god!
Help me!
Don't see there what you're about to call an accident.
Abomination.
In the quest for the ESL Grand Slam, Vitality approving down the final boss.
a foot in the door and Zaewoo's third best arena map of all time. The other two were in grand finals.
This one was a walk in the park and now we go to their home ground, Dust 2,
where Vitality are all but unstoppable.
Nabi went quiet, Mikazi missing, wonderful, the only bright spark.
It feels like a foregone conclusion. Team Vitality in final form in this quarterfinal.
Yeah, the challenge in front of you now is so deep. Best Dust 2 team. A consistent map. Vitality showing up.
Working to make history in Rio.
And we were saying all these formidable foes were starting with Navi, they just faced it
a final the other week.
This quarter might be a failure to launch for Navi right as Vitality kicking up a gear.
It might just be close but no cigar for Navi, so many times over right.
We've seen this head to head three times since Robs joins the roster and never
a single map for Navi.
so many close 13-11s 13-10s right there for Narvi just not enough.
Longest set up and so Bit and Alexi are fed to the wolves in this pistol.
Fast reaction out through the catwalk and they really get a follow through with this!
Oh dear! Just an all together shutdown of Narvi!
This takes me back to Mirage because it feels like Vitality are, they're not just one step ahead.
They know what you're going to do before you do it.
Look at that pistol.
We had the triple A set up with a flash on ramp.
They pushed Navi to get two open kills.
What happens here?
Same thing along.
Four players.
Flash bang goes over.
Navi get massacred.
Vitality.
Calling Navi's shots.
I think it's so scary right now is it just feels like vitality are beyond pressure. You know that the idea that are they stand to make history back to back grand slams hell they could even start doing the early prep for a third.
They could even start doing the early prep for a third. Why not with the form that they're in?
I mean, it's just this idea that I think for a lot of teams
There's always this fear of you know, what what if we kind of fumble a couple of times
What if it takes you a while to get at your remember when when phase we're trying to get theirs and
That was like one of the prevailing feelings was you know, what if it gets away from them?
It's just not really been on the brain of this vitality squad at all
They've been going tournament to tournament win-to-win looking better and better
It feels if anything more like key motivation to this vitality
So I was gonna have that third round all it looks like
It wasn't hard enough get ready and RV I
Mean I think the blade
a mid-match interview was telling what the hell can you say about Mirage, what are you
supposed to do? You stay up late, you prep your game plan, you see what Vitality have
been up to and they just do it all the same. They run the same pistol of Mirage, they
run all tournament and Vitality and Nobby rather don't even play for it. They think
there's no way. Truly an unstoppable force right now. Oh, whoa, okay. Still gonna kill
from it though. It's a beast opened up.
Yeah, Vitality are out of position in this one. Robs was alone on the beast side of the
map so as he gets pincid he did big results. The rest of Vitality are out of position
So this is a Na'vi round far earlier than what they got to do back on Mirage.
That's nice for the money to keep five alive, don't need to hunt these kills either.
They can always presume Zairu's got the AWP in.
They don't know for sure.
I think one of the things you've seen for Na'vi across this tournament is the idea that
maybe turning around it in the map and going on to recover.
That's been a bit of a hard thing for Na'vi to lock into, but
you know you're gonna give some credit kind of to the support staff around this
navi because when it comes to going away between maps they they have a
fantastic track record it's true I've been so many times we joke about them
losing their map picking they still come back and win the series 2-1 so yeah
resetting between games is excellent
but at the same time I can't help but think about the track record
to be able to get into the
game. 11 and 0 12 and zero. This
year, 20 vitality. 43 and four.
That's the part that's so crazy,
isn't it? Because I it's really
tempted when you're talking
about their run on Dusty. You
want to look recent. You want
to think recency plays into
their form. It also just kind
of feels nicer to say
four times for crying out loud. Played it close to 50. It's an unthinkable level of success
on Dust2. And this time around, Robs not going to go down quietly. They might have been able
to get past him last time. Well, that's fired him up and now he's got support. Robs with
the shutdown. B is closed. I actually really respect the call for Navi there. It seems
slap-dash. It seems haphazard to just go for a B pop at the door and around, but
You just come off the back of, you know, winning out on B,
seeing the Vitality on stacking it, your early game,
you're trying to push momentum.
You can't just play default every round in this game,
you're going to have to get a bit crazy.
So that's a decent enough round to do it on,
but Robs on his own, by the way,
with zero support is able to get three kills
as they come out tunnels.
Not great spacing for Na'Vi,
but otherwise the ideal is right.
He saw the gun swap, so he knows what's up,
But he picks Alexi out of the round.
And so sometimes even the call is not enough.
It's all about the execution.
Don't you dare.
that's a little frustrating even if you were just kind of posturing there on bit shuts down
that avenue for Navi forces them to link up with Mikazi over here on shore big burn down
there in middle as I will keep the advantage firmly belonging to vitality
what happened there for Nezzy just full burn that's what this short play really
your main option bits trying to open up a backdoor still is a smoke for CT
so Zywoo might get left out of the action here the line on a smoke shot
Zywoo finds a way!
Oh, it even gives Chase just...
Unrelenting aggression out of Zywoo!
Pushing through the smoke finds his fourth kill,
his first four kills of the game in that round.
Zywoo, playing with that ego, playing with that bravado,
and playing with none of his hearts right now.
I was about to say, we're gonna see pressure on...
Oh, he switched off, he didn't get it out in time.
I think one of the reasons why you see him by Taliyah looks so calm, they know it as well as we all do.
If this is how Zywu is going to play, the win is right there, you know, like this is the type of form that wins your tournaments.
Usually these type of games are reserved for Zywu till he's in those finals, where you talk about how out of his kind of top arena games, two of them in Grand Finals.
this is top shelf as I will
performance and it just lessens
the burden on everyone else when
this is the type of game he's
giving you.
That's just one of those maps.
We really have to wait for those
smokes to bloom.
We just saw the punish as it
goes with me to be a second
before the smoke pops and what
does that do?
It gives I will info three
players.
on the first, gonna see the same thing on these B hits right, waiting for that door smoke
to fully come out. Otherwise, you will get killed by the mid to B player. Something that
Mal struggled with the other day in there, match v. Furia, constantly getting killed
by the B ramp guide. Here we go, Navi, 40 seconds, Deagle's jumping around the corner.
Zaiwu might have seen Mikazi make it down in the CT, but unable to deal with him.
Flames of range on the MP9, maybe not the gun for the job,
in comes the captain to play clean up.
So no issues there, even when you get past Zaiwu, there's layers to this defence.
gonna have to, you know, get a new dictionary to figure out words we can use to talk about vitality.
We are simply running out in a league of their own, 5-1 starts.
Another buy from Navi, wonderfuls, or could be the answer that Navi had been looking for, right?
He was able to find a couple of favorable head-to-head against Zairou back on Mirage.
It's a good sign.
Can he keep that going here on Dust2?
He's not going to spawn for the boost.
Even though he did have a pretty good track record there,
when you look at Nabi's rounds, a lot of them came from that wonderful
finding openers on his IWU.
It's still a...
If that's kind of your best route to the round win,
those are rough odds, right?
Maybe the one guy you're trying most to avoid.
The fight that matters most is one between
Wonderful and his AWP and Zai Wu.
That's a missed a trick across the series.
See if once again, Wonderful is willing to match him.
I see how I like to push him to be Smoke.
Smoke comes down behind Robs, in fact, he goes all the way deep.
They should free up Mezzi, he's still scared of the mid to be right now,
but meanwhile, Navi are going for this early hit.
I want to already hear inside of him with a blinder.
You think you're going to get out long for free?
Or Flames is meant to have the drop on bit there.
Here's the Robs aggression spotted earlier on in the round.
Won't get anything done, and suddenly a route has opened for Navi.
But no bomb, it got lost on the catwalk.
this is a recovery mission so having to go into the stack and you've got no say
in the matter
on its own on catwalk and a trip around the world for Navi is they lean heavy
into this long control what a weird round
comes down there was that head-to-head between wonderful and Zai Wu I mean
this is hell of a way to force it to happen. Wonderful. Can't find his ground out here from
the pit. You've got 20 seconds left. Ema. Looking like they're writing it off. Conceding
this one, giving away another two vitality. And this one is just on that bomb getting
away from you in the cat here. That really hurts because they found the kills on the
flanking players. They got the extravity of flames along winning that fight able
to slow down even if they wanted to recommit A and then they kill Robs Flanking.
So it's a perfect storm for Navi to actually win that round with Vitality fully rotated.
But what can you do about that?
Zywu's first or second kill-up shorts drop that bomb.
And the round just gets lost as a result. A painful lesson here for Navi.
So I've always been going for this wall bang in middle.
I saw, I think it was Sanzin from Legacy, use it against him one round and then the next
round he went in, oh my goodness, went and shot him through the doors on T side.
Now trying to use it against Nabi while not risking taking that mid fight against
Wandaful so.
So we're still trying to be active while not risk the man advantage instead this
time he takes it
look at ahead of this with the utile primed in the side of Mikazi this is
that timing this is that window I wonder if again they're gonna be looking
for this mid to be been something that not be have been keen to explore b-side to players
responsible for it is messy and rops in the vitality jerseys this time they won't have
as much support from CTE this so need a solid hold and that's exactly what messy gives
you can you do what on earth can you do multi kill mode out from messy 3k spray and rops
is right there to support. Simply done here.
And I think you know one of the reasons why you see an RV
feel and look so dejected is you know we know this is a team
that like to prep like to study their opponent. You stay up
all night and on the day off heading into this quarter
final trying to come up with ways to beat the best.
You know you're supposed to be number two in the world
right now going off the ranking. You're meant to be the guys right behind them. This shows
why Vitality is so threatening, why they're so scary. This is the gap. Current world number
two. And they're struggling to even get double digits in the series. They're not even close
yet.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Far from either grazing.
The Spitality CT side, Narvi,
a man down again up Catz,
going for an ace play here, two at long.
You would love Flames in this position again,
if you're Narvi, you've already beaten him before,
but inside, this time, blinded and stuck in the open.
That's a huge pick up here for Narvi,
nice flash to set it.
Oh, weird timing here.
They trade places on the short smoke
With a kill on a Zywoo already and getting past Apex you've got guys in the A site
You're flanking in from long as well as he might be able to get the spot
But he's getting pincen here no where left to run that mess. He's a dead man
low health on everyone for Nabi a
Lot of money for vitality as well
But on position alone he hesitant that this is a 2v4 they attempt
We don't want to see them at least peek into it, because we've got 12K, 13K, 9K, 10K.
We can't really have a lot to lose, and even bruising Navi's money would be nice at this point in the game.
Selecting them from building a streak.
Peek in from Flames, should be death.
That's a wonderful connects.
And Navi looked to take a clean second round, a reassuring look.
All good for Flames, I guess he would expect that Navi knew he came through the smoke as Apex is flashing him through.
It actually didn't turn until he fired. I'm not sure if they knew for certain.
So, could have been a little bit more of a vitality, but slightly caught out of position there
in a nice retake flash on Long.
They rented Taiwu dead.
Little things like that for Narvi, getting them back in this game.
Crustrating round for vitality, but no cause for concern.
It's just always pressure.
There's always somewhere new on the map getting secured by Vitality in this round.
It's the long doors and it's the tunnels, right?
You have aggression on both ends of it right now.
Mid is the only kind of open bit of real estate, but even then Apex has been floating
around in these middoors, making sure that mid to B is closed.
And also here the players up on the catwalk.
And so just here, serving is a bit of a sentry, his apex.
Now you make the adjustments in the mid-round with the 5B4 to boot.
We know Robs in general is an extremely passive player, especially on those T sides, but I
I feel like that's less and less the case these days and also in this game
He is just forcing so many advantages not even just off kills
But the amount of details pushes we've seen he's done that three times in the first ten rounds of this game
He's got another opening kill the team by talent
He really lightens the burden on this CT side. They can fall back in their setup
They're for the need to play a beast stack
It's a few for Bits.
Great timing, but it's considered Robs with eyes on.
Sairu will falter.
They've secured a bit of a foothold out here towards A.
It's Vitaliyon for a retake.
It's getting crazy.
Already making his move.
Robs as well.
Up through Shaw, flashed to try and bring him in.
Wonderful will hit the shot, but in comes Apex.
That's Bomb Plant denied in very little time left.
Now it becomes a bit of a mad scramble.
has to provide the cover. Nails the shot and left to a clutch.
Mezzi can't set his feet right to begin that one.
Alexi, a wonderful combine.
Very clutch round for Narvi.
They just dealt numerous problems.
That is a 4-5 with a loose email in upper.
Bit gets caught on the lug through the CT sport smoke.
That looks like a dead round for Narvi, but two men down
and they make it work.
Trading off the bomb part, this kill for Wonderful saves the day.
As if not, that bomb's never going down.
And they stop Messi in a clutch, iced out, Navi onto three.
So much of this game plan in the early stages
has been playing these kind of anti-long rush setups with Vitality.
They haven't had to worry about a long pop out of Navi.
But they finally get dealt one here with the smoke
and everything to accompany it.
So long control taken.
Navi get this foothold.
They left wondering, what do they want to do with it?
Fall stuck long, Na'Vi.
Common to just re-execute, but you'll notice only one smoke on his T side, so they haven't
got the depth to wait it out.
They've got to throw that one smoke and make it work.
All of vitality here.
players. Robson Lone, as Iwo needs to know that they're crossing. He hits the steps last second.
Flick back in time. The Nami have numbers through the smoke goes through. Great trades for Nami.
They kept this round in their favor but Apex is still committed. He can't go about the kill.
Mikazi trades back. 1v2 for Robs.
I'm health and wonderful. Ah but it's a wide swing. Mikazi playing with a bit of
afraid and bit of gumption there. Takes that fight straight up. I'm shot and I'll be winning these
rounds. They keep getting caught off guard. They put in disadvantages. They're still clutching out.
Streak of three right now and so pressure on for Vitality.
So most rounds now he's been able to find consecutively in the series.
That's a holding promise that Dust2 could have some twist and turns in it after all.
Vitality clearly feeling the pressure and it's these clutch players been
getting denied. Now running out of runway for another one of these dominant
halves. This is not what you expected the most resistance for NARV.
It's very force here for Navi, which is nice to see, right?
We hear about Azoni talking about disrespecting, vitality, how it has to be done, you've got
to be confident.
Of course, these are standard in CS, but it's easy to say.
It's a different thing to do when you're up against the best team in the world.
Navier certainly taking it in their stride and playing confident T-side here we go
He push in
Drops
I'm sorry great job to get out with a double
How much more can he do trapped in at the car?
Still you'd like to think he's done enough three on three and apex actually plays offensively through this smoke
Backstab not denied by Alexi. It's a wonderful trapped in a clutch here
Two players in the tunnels, they'll swing wonderful.
Howard the first, now he's looking for Zai Wu, chasing posts in from behind.
It's Zai Wu finally stealing back one of these clutches.
Navi have given themselves something resembling a fighting chance,
but in this second half you've got to remind yourself this is Vitality's bread and butter.
This is their home map and they're looking for semi-finals.
The big question here in Rio is can anyone challenge Vitality?
Can anyone stop them from the historic feet of back to back Grand Slams?
Na'Vi thought they would come into this with a fighting chance and fighting talk
about building up for Vitality only to get torn down. It's a Na'Vi that have been
on the rise getting better and better each event across the year.
It's still yet to leave that impression in this quarterfinal. It's been a very
one-sided affair. And now on to the CT side of Dust2. The home ground of
Vitality, full task ahead. A pistol would be a massive step in the right direction.
It's a 5v4 from the captain. Wonderful is going to sweeten the deal.
Layers of resistance here, ready to stop this A-Player. Looking on its flames,
it's Apex side by side, trying to respond in a two on three.
Smoke break is crazy, they want to fight and Alexi catches another right drill and
putting his team in his back. Three kills from the captain, well sealed out here for NARV.
that was pistol of the series coming in right when they need it.
And portal round for Narvi, but you can never get too comfortable.
It helps him that there's no part of hip vitality.
Even if they do buy it, it will be weak.
Surprising little streak of rounds down the stretch of the T-side for Narvi.
That was often in a disadvantageous position.
It's still converting on a four-round half. It's going to take some depth.
Vitality take a breather. Scout is sold back.
As you know, Navi are taking that fight in middle. I don't want to leave this up to chance.
He was at a really rough series.
Kazi might have been bottom performer map 1, but still some hope for his recovery.
Ema would love a stat pad round here over towards mid.
So both him and Mikazi double up against the pistols.
That was your free round.
One knows you don't get many versus Vitality.
That was the first free round of series.
Just a team that, you know, more often than not,
are down to put money in, and they've got a terrifying track record in those four spies,
but it's Vitality wanting to bring out guns fast as possible.
Tech 9's only go so far on Dust2, right?
They get the bump on a different story, but maximizing the bias here, Vitality.
Getting led by Apex at the moment, 14 and 6,
maybe wanting more from his team now in the second half.
And this is where Vitality can do their best work on Dust2.
So make no mistake about it, Navi.
Not out of the woods yet.
And all these playing groups though, this is really nice.
Reagress Catwalk, three players, if they can get here in time,
they might be able to catch Vitality on this corner.
Oh! And then Zywu happens!
Lee at least slows the roll buys you a couple more seconds still Alexi
feeling a great deal of pressure while this is going on Robs is killing the
backline of Navi and that need just might do enough brings him down low
Alexi knows the safe spots of you and Farber tween a kill from bit that suddenly
makes this round very achievable spot on the cross it's apex out in no man's
and Alexi is trying to give chase will get found out and the pincer here on to CT a team ace for vitality
Into that first gun round around so you love to watch for vitality see side because they just react immediately
They see what Navi are doing. It's a heavy cat set up. They know there's a third apex storms
How long knife out throwing nades onto default and vitality keep keep so much pressure on Alexi
They smoke that Molotov and they keep fighting from catwalk not over committing to the point where they'll die
But enough to keep Alexi boxed in a very difficult round for Navi to recover
They do an admirable job finding rocks in the middle
Vitality put them on pistol
Got three rifles in this round money hangs in the balance and
editing your feeling
After your pistol win is going to shrivel up and die if you lose this round
of the full spread of this round, individuals have to perform their excuses. There's no
flashes or utility to assist your teammate, offer supports. Alexey's just going to fall
back from Long, he can't contain this with a 5-7 and he's just given a smoke over as well so
all right a bit of a missed smoke but no problem here for Vitality, it's not going to be punished,
Narvi go back into the bomb site all those B players going to remain stagnant, if they do
they might be left out of this round entirely as Vitality are getting closer and closer to the
goal. Some missed U-Tel here, you know that's to go and clear the car manually,
They've taken it on these long fights now V try and meet them there three players fighting against the full tide of team vitality out the long doors
Twenty seconds this bombs still has to make it over so smoke is very important
Bit of spam, but not going to be able to stop it that bomb making it it might just seal the deal
And it's another round that you feel like not be lose
But you've got to give them some credit because they did all they could fighting with all three players on the long side in the
They do catch vitality off guard. They get that opening kill that using their pieces of as best they can considering
There is almost no utility is not a single flash on that a side to come through the long cross smoke
What else are they meant to do?
But of course vitality more players that
Able to fight their way through I know that that's on a interview after the Falcons
When has been talked about a hell of a lot and I think even in around like this
You kind of see what he's talking about the idea that just playing versus vitality is such a mind game in and of itself
You you could see that vitality knew they're getting a lot of respect
Just by the way that they sit back they go over the game plan of that round for a solid like 30 seconds
They've given up all their control
Robson actually started floating away from the tunnels even even though he recommits to it later in the round
They know that
Now they aren't really in any state to go and explore to go and find the gaps
They're playing from behind and money's in a precarious spot
You're forcing a lot of respect out of your opponent and that's the the last thing you want to give vitality
So
And so Emma has to bail
Because he with the only rifle saved from the previous round and now they look to get aggressive
They're gonna push together through the tunnels with a flash primed.
Robs is just going back and it falls behind the box, so no thrashing for Robs.
They're even over-commit with this fight, he's just gonna use utility.
You get a jiggle, Robs is mechanics, matched by almost none.
Fine to go back in with his teammate, they both go for it, they get numbers.
That's all Vitality won there, but enough numbers spotted to know where this is going.
Sai Wu with the bomb comes back to pick one
and they're just having fun now, Vitality
washing out these pistol players
making it easy.
They don't even run away from the fight anymore.
But this primes the playoffs so well, because while this is a warm-up for Team Vitality,
real threats still do remain in this tournament, so you'd like to think, if you're here with
renewed form, potential rematch against the Falcons in the final if they can continue
to beat spirit and if not well don't has other ideas so dare I say this is the
easiest it was ever gonna be it's still uphill from here yeah I think you know
in the eyes of the Brazilian crowd there was a bit of like almost quiet
hopefulness that Navi could pull this one off or a bare minimum you know push
the right buttons get under Vitality's skin a little bit and then the gives you a good chunk of concern is just how
one-sided this has been. You wanted to believe that Navi would some time to prep a prep heavy squad, recent
positives to go off of in that Falcons win tape to study. Also in terms of looking at opposition that have been
unable to get Vitality a run for their money. Hell, even Navi, the track record isn't good
in the head-dead by Vitality taking it every time, but they were always a fairly competitive
affair.
Yeah, but Navi spoke pretty positively about this matchup, right? Like realistic, they
know what they're up against, but also they believed in themselves based on those conversations
talking to Alexey in the lobby yesterday.
Knowing that Vitality can bleed.
Well, they've been patched up.
Let's see if Dust2 gives us something worth talking about.
This is Narvi's final chance.
Now we'll at least get to see one more of these wonderful AWPs in this quarter final.
Then far and away the most consistent point of output for Narvi.
I've got to be methodical at clearing everything with flashbangs, but one minute on the clock,
only now establishing mid-control, yet to even take the cat stairs, yet to even take
the long doors.
A note for later, as Navi still hold one final smoke.
And if you're any of the other teams here in the playoffs, there's kind of a set of steps
you have to do to make sure you're applying enough pressure across the map.
If you're Vitality, you do that just by joining the server.
So yeah, they're getting all this extra time to sit back, really figure out how they want
these rounds to play.
It's a search out towards Long for Mezzi, but kill given over.
So now just looking at this B here.
Flames goes searching for Short, looking at Rops now.
They nearly line up for him but nearly won't cut it to full blind drive by out of apex that turns the tide
Him and Zai Wu the two Frenchmen at four by Tala eat side by side to try and see this one through
They win it. It's a back breaking round. Now V out of the conversation
Money would be broken and the quarterfinal with it and apex alongside Zai Wu
Was this one home?
20 and six on apex as well. He
has really shown up on the
second map. I didn't even feel
like he was required. And you
can just see it from my
talent. Either they're really
not feeling a great deal of
stress. Just so easy run and
gun for blind apex thing to
himself. Is this really the
second best team? It is
really the guys were meant to
be worrying about answers. No,
He's dragging his way through map 2 and into those semis.
That's around where things go pretty wrong, you know, the B hit,
losing that first fight, losing Mezzi along, essentially a 3 on 5 vitality.
Trains are hot.
The Navi go ice cold.
Someone called the mortician.
12-6. Famous is all Norvegan muster, a single M4 on bit.
Yeah, meanwhile Vitality have borderline infinite money. They've come through with the double
warp. They feel like they have all the time in the world to close this game out.
and again it's just apex you know having all the time he needs sit back in spawn
come up with the ideas nothing active for Navi just a gamble over towards this
say bombsite four players here solo be hold for bit
the
slow and steady vitality seems
like they've uncovered the empty
It's only bit in position.
Yeah, they're going to the side of the map with just one guy defending it.
Bit needed a multi-kill.
Instead, gone after one and that's simply not enough.
Rest of Na'Vi trying to scramble these rotates.
Bit Roy's left looking over your shoulder.
Zai Wu on for the backstab.
And now has them pinned in down here in middle.
You are in the kill box, Na'Vi.
Either side of them.
Vitality.
chomping at the bit to move into those semis and it is no contest.
Vitality destroyed Narvi and Apex seems unbothered.
Came here expecting a quarter-final, it ends up just being a formality for Vitality.
Shrugging off the stage, shrugging off the crowd, asking,
were you even watching because that was a masterclass from team Vitality,
from Mirage to Dust2, even when Narvi comes through a round.
They just couldn't break this team.
They got one pistol in the series. They got one anti-eco as well.
Vitality suffering from success in this quarter-final.
Who do they face? It's Viria up tomorrow, fallen fresh off his announcement of retirement at the end of the year.
Team Vitality wants to send a harrowing message to the Brazilian crowd
and want to chase down those gold bars in the Grand Slam.
Yeah, that's what they're eyeing up, Brian. That's what they're playing for.
That's why a win like this doesn't do a lot to get Vitality excited.
They've got their eyes on bigger things. They've got greater ambitions than just this quarterfinal.
This is a step on the road. Next up is Furia in the hometown of the squad.
The arena is going to be backing them up. It sets a very, very different tone.
But for now, we'll go down to the stage. Let's hear from Vitality.
This was absurd. You didn't give them any chance.
Let me start with the boring question. How are you feeling after this solid victory?
Turning red to minus, obviously we want to prove that Falcon and G2 we didn't play the best
and we want to also enjoy the stage, so obviously it was great to show a great game for the TITs.
So we did great today.
Amazing, now we're going to face Feria and in front of them
and now you are so close to achieving the grand slam.
Are you confident with the next matches?
I won't say that, but obviously it will be a great match to play for you and for just the music fans.
We know they're going to be against us, so obviously we're going to enjoy that.
So looking forward to play for you, it's going to be amazing mostly against Marlon and what he said before.
So it's going to be amazing to play maybe in the last time.
Thanks ever so much. Best of luck.
Well, there you have it. The conclusion of the series that was in fact promised it was a quarterfinal
and it did not deliver at all.
Yeah, was it?
Was it?
Yeah, it was.
This one was promised.
We're saying the one in the world, what's that?
Hell, that self was promised, okay?
But the game itself wasn't true.
No, it wasn't.
It was not.
And does Robbie play?
Yeah, this is it.
You asked that question off the first map,
and maybe it turned out a little bit more here for us too,
but at the end of the day, you and everyone doubted
that Vitality were going to win this 1-2-0.
Got to give it to the man in the picture right here,
as well, Apex.
Now, we praised the side move,
having a great, great show on Mirage,
dropping 30 kills and 15 rounds of APICs, you know, on Dust2, not only from a tactical perspective,
they're leading the troops, but flanking out, you know, like, was it the old APICs back of 2015?
Yeah, definitely. And, you know, he has these games every now and then.
I always remember their final last year from Katowice, right?
And Hemann Nug being sort of the driving force.
But, yeah, it just seemed like Vitality was on a mission today, right?
For anyone who was second guessing who still is the main favorite to lift the trophy here
I think they removed any doubts with this performance just that that was definitely a
Performance to say the least right there and it doesn't feel like they had even had to go deep into their arsenal
Unfortunately for the side of Navi not bringing that heat in the reverse direction
That's the scary part because I think it takes a great performance to make Navi look that lackluster
I think Navi is which broke about hitting into the game have been showing
You know better and better counter strike as of late
I think the players individually speaking in Makase and wonderful for that matters well
I've been showing great signs of improved form as of late
So in order to shut them down and make them look a little bit teethless
Takes a great performance coming off in vitality now
How much is that where Navi not playing well and not showing up today?
And how much is that vitality just being so much better than everyone else?
It's hard to put a percentage on but it did feel like now
We were nowhere near the level of vitality and let alone the second best team in the world
just couldn't get any momentum in these games, they didn't have good stars, they lost most of the
pistols and then as soon as they win a round on their T side they get reset. It's always hard to
play from behind when your opponents have a lot of economy behind them where they have everything
available to them even more so against Vitality. Just a bit of a slow start on Mirage really
set them back, right? We were talking about it in the pregame. It was always going to have to be
Mirage plus Nuke for that. On Dust2 it's just too tall of a task for them, it feels like at the moment
and we saw why. Yeah, we absolutely did and that's scary for everyone ahead of in the
bracket with Vitality. For us, let's start to talk about those DHL MVP's.
Will be the DHL MVP? You decide. You can participate in the DHL MVP vote as it happens. Make sure
to be tuned into the Twitch stream and be ready to have your say.
This is the part of the show where I ask you to go ahead and participate and get your
vote in because Matthew Haleveff, also known as Ai Wu, what that was on French no,
What the heck with you guys anyway? Yes, I will obviously a candidate for DHL MEP as is usual with most of the matches that we find him in
Impact here
We had an impact with the dual elites in the pistol round the first round of the entire game match itself
I will great candidate for DHL MEP falling short of a 3kd. He could have done a little bit
Yeah, man near a 2.0 HLT rating winning. Yeah, whatever. Yo, but this guy. Oh damn other this car
Matt. Yeah. Yeah, there's your finally
Yeah, finally good. So Apex, this guy, he's got a lot of on his plate, right?
A lot of responsibilities, as we'll say, in the world of the Rugrats.
But for Apex, he has to move his Rugrats around the map, and he does so,
and he's also getting kills in Mirage. What happened there, Jacob?
I mean, we don't see it often for Apex. This round in particular, you know,
is classic old Counter-Strike pro for Apex,
entry-fhracking, running around, doing whatever he wants to do.
Good to see him play at this level.
Yeah, he's had the good one today, really sharp with his aim,
and someone who's had an uptick of performance this year.
Flamesey. I was gonna see if Jacob wanted to try his first and last name. I'm good.
Oh, okay, because I thought maybe. Tell me about Flamesey. Here you go.
Yeah, I mean, I was joking at the HLTV Awards with him saying because he was the one player from
Vitality that didn't win an award. Like, listen, bro, while Donk is still around,
you have a better chance of winning IGL of the year than opener. I guess he was offended
by that because he is playing on an incredibly high level to pick off 2026. Definitely in
contention for that award as of right now. I think he's the most improved player,
You know, maybe at least in the conversation for that so for him to play at this little venture and maybe we just have to invent
A new award for him to have a chance of winning anything. Yeah, we're out of all the trophies
Yeah, do we get to that point like hey
We've got to make a special order for a zai room company because these guys just keep winning like it's unfortunate
That's the sad part about being with cyber. You know, you're not gonna get a lot of MVPs to your name
It's just gonna be cyborg cyborg cyborg
You are getting a lot of dubs to your name and that's that works to yes speaking about zai rule without the
Yeah, that one. Yes. Also, in this moment, go ahead and remember to use those Twitch channels that you got over there.
Go ahead and get your vote in for the DHL MVP, and of course, we'll try to catch up with him towards the end of the conclusion of the grand finals.
So, Zaewoo, Apex, Flames. And for us, a good bye to Navi. And now it seems like the world is right and the vitality is back on track to hold this time.
Yeah, it's gonna be a fun game tomorrow versus Furia, in terms of the level of gameplay, by telling the other favorites.
But maybe the crowd can play a factor. I'm not sure that's a good thing for Furia, and it could be a bad thing, but we'll have to wait and see tomorrow.
What I do know though is it's gonna be exciting.
Yeah, it's gonna get crazy in there, but people talk about the pressure for Vitality with the Grand Slam.
It's a pretty crazy atmosphere for Furia to be playing in, like Fallen's last tournament in Brazil,
last chance to lift the trophy on home soil.
I mean, that's a ton of pressure for Furia as well.
And it's going to come down a lot to, will they be able to harness that?
How do they sort of approach the game if they can use it in a good way?
Then hopefully we can get at least a competitive game, because today was pretty one-sided.
Because the last dance was already taken, right? So it's been the last five dances fallen
It feels like well dances in there
But he can't go back from this announcement
I don't think there's any coming back from what he was doing up there on the stage in full Portuguese shout out to fallen
The two time well before the disrespectful doctor came into the picture
Let's talk a little about this bracket as it's played out here for the playoffs Jacob. You can see that what to say
Barony to be completely honest
Falcons taking on Team Spirit, I'm excited for that game.
I'm excited to see Falcons, you know, see if they can replicate the performance we saw in the group stage.
The level of gameplay was high, but as we spoke about a couple of times, Janko, already,
one thing is doing it in the group stage for Falcons.
We've seen that before, but stringing it together in the playoff has been a different story.
I feel like they would have preferred that they could have just kept playing each day, right?
Like, this break probably doesn't feel great to them, but we'll see, you know.
Historically, they've had a great run against Spirit.
We'll see if they can repeat that tomorrow.
And hopefully, we've paid the price today in the storms.
So we get some close games, exciting games tomorrow.
Can't get any Worstries.
Well, maybe can't.
Oh, yeah?
Well, I'd love to hear about how maybe it could, honestly.
So, Jacob, if you could just humor us for just a second
and that, that would be great.
We'd appreciate that.
All right.
So I'm actually told that we are waiting on interviews, so there's a little bit.
Oh, there's more interviews.
There are more interviews.
Yeah.
Again, like I look at this bracket that was already stacked and, you know,
kind of seeing Navi go off and, of course, you have to send teams away.
You have to send a mouse away.
It does check out like that's how a tournament works.
I wait to hear from Navi, you know.
Can you imagine what they're going to say?
Didn't show up today, shots came off slow.
You know, Zyba was on a tear.
They came better prepared to play, ready to play.
We can't. Hold on. We didn't have a chance today.
Guys, let's do that then. Let's hear from Alexi himself.
Alexi, I don't want to agree with you too much.
Obviously, I've been a player, I know how these kind of games go.
What really happened in the European Union?
Why is such a big difference on what happened on the server?
I mean, they're showing why they are the...
probably the best team that we've ever seen in the history of Counter-Strike.
And, you know, it's not easy.
You go into your first map pick, and I was 30 kills, five deaths probably.
And it just felt like they were playing with us, it was not even serious.
We started every game slow.
Won the CT pistol on Dust2.
Maybe if we get the first CT gun round, we can make the map competitive,
but it just didn't feel like that today.
I felt like even the maps didn't matter.
They showed up as better individuals and better as a team,
and it felt like we played a worse game than we even played in Rotterdam and even that game was 0-3, so.
Can you tell me a little bit of a positive of Na'Vi in this tournament?
What are you taking home that you're really proud of what you did here?
I just think that whenever we play any other team, it seems right now that we can always fight
and we can fully believe that we can win against any other team.
But the problem is, you're not going to be happy if you come in second.
And as I told everyone, we're not happy even if we made it to the finals and would lose against Vitality.
This time we met them on the quarterfinals, we lost against them.
If you're not able to beat them, you're not to be serving that trophy up there.
So I just think that I'm happy that we managed to play against them, but after getting moved like that, it's hard to put into words yet.
Obviously, this is the end for you in the tournament, but I want to take this opportunity
away from you. If you want to address the fans, there are a lot of Navi-chairs as well
in the arena, so anything you want to say to them?
Yeah, I'm super glad that everybody is... or at least it felt like the arena was supporting
us. We didn't win plenty of runs, so we couldn't feel the vibration, feel the
vibes that well, but yeah, I'm glad that we have a lot of fans cheering for us
even though we didn't show up today and we couldn't even put them on the test, I felt like so.
Thanks to you guys and hopefully we'll do better next time.
Thank you for this candid interview and good luck in the future.
Yeah, GG Navi, you're gone. Jacob, how are you?
Yeah, I think it's just another reality check in a sense, right, because we're trying to
build the storyline that maybe Navi is the second best team in the world now. Tomorrow
We get to see Furia, who's another contender to maybe be the next in line to challenge them.
And I think the level between Vitaly right now and the rest of the world,
that gap is just getting bigger and bigger and bigger.
You'd like it to be smaller, you'd like it to be a little bit more competitive heading into
IM Cologne, but nothing should just, that's the way it's going at the moment.
Yeah, we'll see. The only team that's had any sort of success against them has been
the Falcons, right? But only against them.
Falcons struggle against everyone else.
Navi seems to be the opposite of that.
Having a good time against the rest of the field,
but no answer for vitality. They're the mouse of Tenzin.
Damn. Ash put fire.
Yeah, that's what they say about Yankee with the ruler.
Let's go ahead and hear from Zywoo in this moment.
Zywoo, I'm so happy that I managed to grab you for a few questions
because I have to ask about that first map.
You were firing on cylinders that are just looking inhuman.
Can you tell me about that map and why you found so much comfort
on that first map in Mirage?
It's hard to say to one hand, the confidence doesn't come like this.
As a team and as a player, we cannot fuck up against the 12 Falcons.
We didn't show a great face against them, so we didn't want to just play like this
again.
We wanted to show Evan Boniface today, and I think me and Indigene and so on just
two as a team, we showed great vatati, so we wanted not to do the same thing
as the Falcons.
100%. I mean, it's hard to put into words the change in pace that we saw from the group stage coming onto the stage today.
Is there anything that you would attribute that change to that we see by Taliyah returning to the peak form right here?
I mean, it's always tough to say like between group stage and stage, it's always a big difference.
We really enjoyed the plant stage, like we're playing maybe against the current tomorrow, so we love that.
We love that, we love that, we enjoy so much being like Unreal, playing on stage that we play really different, we are more motivated, we are more like confident and we trust each other, so we feel pretty confident for tomorrow.
I have to ask about that prospect facing up against Feria, I'm sure you saw the news with Fulin as well, potentially the last time he will ever play in front of a Brazilian crowd.
Does that put more pressure and more emotions on the line for you?
Now, to be honest, we have already the pressure with the Grand Slam, so obviously, playing against
Wraith won't matter much for us. Obviously, playing against the Crown is going to be tough
tomorrow because I guess everyone will be against us, but we're just going to enjoy. We have
apex with us, so they're going to scream at them, so we are not scared, we are not
worried about that. We know we are ready for that.
It feels like you guys just relish in being the villain. Thank you so much for the time,
so congratulations. See you tomorrow.
Now, I've heard, Mr. Matt, how do you say Mattis Claire? Mattis Claire?
Mattis Claire?
Yeah, that one. I've heard that guy scream a couple times, but I still think he's going to have a harder time trying to make noise in that place.
Janko, you and I were both sharing a desk when we were down there for the major, and I have to say that is easily the loudest environment I have ever had a broadcast mic or headset attached to ever, like, unbelievably loud.
Definitely. I mean, the only thing I can compare it to is basketball games in Serbia.
Yeah. Yeah.
Those get pretty wild too.
Yeah, tell me about basketball games in Serbia.
They seem super cool a lot of pyro I think indoors it's like a handball in
Denmark pyro indoors no handball like in Denmark we just like clap clap you guys
are firing fireworks in those I don't get it I love that you should see what we do
at our games it's pretty nuts anyway so you get a games that does it for us here
today we're done with this quarterfinal day tomorrow we're set up for a
semi-final and boy we're gonna have all the fixings so there's no where
you'd rather be than watching the Intellect Stream Masters right here in
year 2026. It's Rio. We'll be back tomorrow. Good night.
Master's Rio 2026 is brought to you by ESL and partnership with Intel, Acer Predator,
checks, and DHL.
chances of winning the match taking into account the full situation season 8
launches April 22nd good luck and have fun
I got a good shot!
We are back!
It's okay, let's f***ing enjoy this moment. I'm about to have fun, okay?
I get on ahead. I'm just thinking that should be 1,000 squads here unless they can just
hold the perfume.
The smoke, gotta fight it with the Tecna!
No!
Time to run for the shoulder train.
Shiro?
Oh!
He's up again!
Oh, still blind screen.
It's time for Dr. Blake to get up and down.
He goes, run!
He gets to the top stop!
Where's the bulldozer?
Floating his mouth and sends the blacking area!
Not the guy you want to face, it's Zairu!
Makes that look way too comfortable.
3 on 3, Zairu, ripping heads off in the pistol.
It's all him thus far.
It's all him to clone Zairu Electric in both pistol rounds.
I would like to thank my family, who are not here today, my wife Leticia, for the unconditional support of these 23 years.
We will always be there for you.
They're not going to control this place!
Unbelievable road with a four-share victory over classes!
And they did it again!
It's a wrap-up!
It's all me!
Give it up for your can't-tell, extreme master!
Yeah!
Stop it!
Oh, oh, yeah, it's too late
I said a thing or two, I've been reading
Oh, oh, keep it moving
It's time to fill my body up
Oh, oh, give to me, I'll just sit back and see it
Oh, oh, give me more, and it's like I'm a fire
Music
I
Oh, oh, yeah, do that