We're here with Game of Legion now ahead of the lobby.
I'm going to just go down the line I guess.
We've got PR first, hey, how are you doing this morning?
I mean, pretty good, but I was waiting for an elevator like 80 minutes today, so that caught me off guard.
Dude, it was crazy, wasn't it? I remember I was standing there and it was like 10 minutes,
and then I get in the one and I realize, oh, this isn't even the right floor.
Like, it's crazy, it's going up. I feel like those elevators are crazy,
so we're going to be having to keep an eye on that. Some players might miss some games, it's wild out there at the moment.
But obviously, you guys coming into this event, I've, game release,
really, really performed at the last tournament.
Full worth was incredible for you guys going into that event.
So, I mean, that's got a feel-you-full of confidence
coming into this tournament.
I mean, it did.
It feels good to hit playoffs again
after such a long time and playing from the crowd.
It was a really nice feeling.
So, I think we gained a little bit of confidence
and we're gonna do our best.
And if we play good and have maybe some little bit of luck,
we can hit the playoffs here as well.
Well, we got a young player here in PR, but you now have Snacks leading the team right now.
How is that B? I'm sure, do you watch Snacks as a young kid when you were watching him play?
Do you remember his big moments when he was a star player and kind of strike at the top?
To be honest, I wasn't watching Counter-Strike back then, so I think he's pretty good, yeah?
But he was showing me some clips when he was young, how he was playing.
I remember some A's on Mirage and B-Apps with USP, so it was pretty good back then.
Yeah, it was pretty good. Snacks was pretty good, but now I'm obviously happy to take more of a leading role.
He was playing incredibly well, it's not the last event though. Snacks was having some masterclasses going on there, so how's that been,
sort of coming into the team? Have you learned anything from Snacks? He's staring at you right now, by the way.
I learned a lot of things. He's the best.
Everything you know.
Everything I know is going back to the guy.
Yeah, I'm definitely scared of him.
And he's the best, guys.
Yeah, Snacks is the best.
Well, let's go talk to Snacks, shall we?
He has invited us basically with the stereotype.
I mean, you've just been so funny enough to say that's what it is.
I mean, obviously, rolling back to years,
Snacks at the last event, you were popping off,
playing really well back and forth worth.
So, you know, individually,
We had some great maps coming into it.
Into Gamer Legion again, how was Snacks developed
as an in-game leader from the last time
you played in Gamer Legion to now coming back
for another time?
I developed very good with the help of my coach
and second coach and an analyst.
I don't know how we called Dennis in our team.
He's a part of a family membership here,
so I think they're helping me a lot,
especially with the individual form as well.
I did some upgrades, let's say.
It was good last time, but I wasn't sick and now I feel a little bit sick.
So I don't know how it's going to be, you know, last time when I was sick,
I got the worst rating in my life.
Oh, so we'll keep an eye on that then.
But, you know, you're a student here in America a couple of years ago
in Dallas, I remember a big performance and you guys won the final.
So that was insane.
You feel like you've got some good form when you come to the USA.
It feels like you're getting to the finals all the time at this point.
I know back in the days, I always loved to come here.
They have a lot of good barbecues and food and I'm enjoying myself here.
But last, let's say, eight months I was trying to a little bit fix my health issues, let's say,
and a little bit get rid of my fat, you know.
And after two weeks here already, I'm like, I think two weeks is too much to be in America, you know.
I'm going to become big as, I don't know, two years ago.
It's real hard, you know, and you guys were here, obviously we've been forwarding now,
you've had like a week off, so what did you guys get up to?
Did you have some good barbecue?
Did you have some good meals?
I mean, I had focused on Korean barbecue and the cheesecake
factory, like usually the three of you I'm always coming to.
And I had the terrorist back in my wife as well.
I'm probably going to visit some as well still.
Yeah.
I mean, we're here in Atlanta.
You've just got to get some peaches.
You got to get some peach cobbler.
That's all I picked up yesterday.
It was pretty damn good, so you got to try that.
I should try it?
Yeah.
All right.
I mean, I'm looking for it then.
Yeah, it's real good.
You know the Cheesecake Factory menu, it's kind of ridiculous, isn't it?
Bro, it's like, I feel like, did you show the calories there?
I feel like it's a, I don't know, I think it's a cup, like really, I don't know.
Yeah, the calories are like 2,000 calories for one pasta dish.
But the menu is like this thick, dude, it's crazy.
Yeah, it is. I mean, whatever you want to eat there, you can eat everything,
but do you not gonna have a space for the Cheesecake after?
I always find some space for the Cheesecake.
What should go to Cheesecake, Cheesecake Factory?
I mean, usually, I mean, I don't know actually, it's random, you know?
I like that I always take the Cesar Salad, you know, and they're asking the big one or
small one.
I'm taking the small one, it's a big as fuck, you know.
Yeah, no, dude, you never have to order anything big here in America, that's for sure.
But okay, so coming into this event, a question about the Counter-Strike, obviously some great
form coming out of Fort Worth.
I think Vitality obviously kind of humbled during the first map, but coming back to that
second, some really cool performances from you guys in that final.
We were proud of the team to not completely disappear when you got banged out by Vitality there.
I think, yeah. I mean, the Mirage was tough, obviously, and they crushed us.
But then on Overpass we bounced back, so I can tell there is a resonance in the team that we want to fight still even there is something not going in our way.
So, yeah, I'm really happy that we could have fight it on Overpass and probably with one maybe pistol because we lost both of them.
We should have taken them up and go to the Ferdinand, so yeah, it was nice.
Alright, coming into Atlanta, what's your expectations of this event?
Like, we're going to Game Legion, have you had a conversation about what you expect to get here?
Last time in Atlanta, I don't know what was last time mine in Atlanta.
I remember 2017. It was tough in the final, you know.
I hope it's going to be final again, yeah, but maybe not in the first place.
We all remember that one. Has PR even watched that game? I don't even know if he's seen that game.
No, I'd probably play more Counter-Strike than he is on this planet, you know?
Yeah, that's...
How old are you?
13?
I'm 18, 18.
18?
18 years old.
Okay.
Starting in 2000, so...
Oh, wow.
That's your house, boy.
So, thank you very much.
I'll see you later, Stacks.
Thank you very much.
But let's go talk to some of the other players on Zee.
We've got Talus in here.
I've got a charity.
Oh, yeah.
How are you doing coming into Atlanta?
I'm doing good coming in.
We had like a week off.
I mean, we played CS, but we had some time off, so it was nice.
What'd you do?
Went to the pool, ate some good food, got sick as well.
Yeah.
That's not good.
What kind of sickness are we talking?
Like fever, or are we hiding in bed?
I mean, not fever.
It's like sore throat and a blocked nose and headache as well.
All right.
Passed?
Not good.
Oh, shh.
It goes away.
Um, yeah, it's okay.
I'll pick it up as the event goes on.
I'm sure.
But okay, so classic land flu symptoms.
I mean, obviously, for Game of Legion, massive result coming in in Fort Worth, do you feel
like the sickness is going to affect you guys coming into this week or are we going to keep
an eye on that?
No, we're pretty used to this one.
I think PR has sickness every when we play almost.
We're used to it.
What are we going to do to boost his immune system?
Get some more barbeque in?
We're going to kick him out of the team.
Okay, that's fair enough.
He can't be around people.
All right.
No, this is coming.
You need to get rid of it, you know?
Yeah, yeah.
The weak link.
I can't tell the weakness, but okay, well, I look forward to seeing you guys, you know,
what's your biggest enjoyment so far this year, Pete and Telsen, because I think last
year we got to see some great performances from you individually.
Game Religion had a lot, I think it was positive things towards the start of last year, then
obviously fizzled out, and we didn't get to see you guys for a long time.
So what's been the best thing about this year for you, inside of this Game Religion squad?
I think the best thing for us this year is probably winning on the big stage against
I think that was like the biggest highlight so far of 2026 and then yeah
Let's see if we can continue with that performance in the zone. No, I look forward to it
Well, thank you very much this game religion ahead of Atlanta excited to see hopefully they all feel better
I mean it does the block getting better and hopefully PR can you know get their music system boost a little bit against some vitamins or something?
Yeah, all right. Well, thank you very much. I'll see you guys later
Right anything you really wanted to say on the microphone is there anything in particular you want really want to get out there into the world?
I mean, I mean, I think I have a good like
history here in America.
That's true.
We're not in Oakland.
Particular event, right?
All those many, many, many centuries ago back then.
But coming into
feel like you're still riding a high from Oakland.
How does that really feel when coming into Atlanta?
Of course, it always feels good
when I'm here.
I don't think I'm riding that high anymore.
But still,
this place has a special place
in my heart always.
That's why I really enjoyed playing here.
So yeah, hopefully I can bring another trophy back from this place and that would be sick.
That would be sick.
I mean, you guys, like, I would say from the outside perspective, we probably wouldn't have considered
a game-religion team that could do a lot of damage if it wasn't for Fort Worth,
but that has kind of changed everybody's perspective now on your team.
And I think coming into a tournament like this, where the field is not necessarily the strongest,
I think we do feel very confident about game-religion and what you guys can do.
Do you feel that same sentiment?
Yeah, of course. I think even when we went to the Fort Worth event, we went really far,
like much farther than we probably expected. I think after that event, we kind of realized
like, then we can actually, we can win against these teams and we can actually win an event
here. And I think going into this event is definitely like the same thing. And I would
say the teams here are in a similar caliber as the previous events. So definitely think
we have a good shot here. That's what we want to do.
Well, there's one big team here that's the same, it's obviously Vitality, so when you guys played them,
what do you kind of take away from that game when you look back on it?
I mean, whatever you say, you can feel that they're humans, they're not robots and they are beatable.
And they haven't been practicing, they've been out in Yosemite and having a good time.
Yeah, that's what Rob said, if anyone can beat them, it should be around this time, right?
Maybe this event who knows.
And if they do win, even it don't really end this scenario.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, the next one, I don't know.
But yeah, I mean, this is an event where I do,
I know a person I'm feeling very confident.
I'm excited to see Gamer Legion play,
but you mentioned something happened a long time ago,
which is the Oakland performance,
but another player was around and out
and I was over these snacks, you know,
but he's back and you've got to play with him for a while now.
How's that feeling being playing with snacks?
I mean, it's definitely a cool experience
because you can really feel his experience,
that he's been around for a long time and I guess a really good view on the game.
And I think he thinks very similar to me and how we view Counter-Strike.
I mean, we're not from the exact same era of Counter-Strike, but kind of similar maybe,
that we developed in the same era as Astralis and all those teams that
had this technique, all these metas. And I think that's why we think so alike right now.
And I think that's nice. And I'm very comfortable around me.
Yeah, so PR hasn't even watched him man, he wouldn't even watch the Counter-Strike back when Snacks was at the top of the world, so it's pretty crazy.
Is that crazy for you to realize you're playing with a team like that, that young?
Yeah, I still like the time, flies by so quick when you see these kids, you know, and it's fun as well to like be in their, what can you say, like, development, like their progress, you know, and it's really fun to see, and to see these kids develop.
Because you were obviously one of those players and you know very young player coming into a team of experienced players
So do you have anything you've learned from your your experience in your career that you can be passed on to them?
Maybe we can help PR stop getting sick every event. Yeah, and that's one of the main goals right now
I think like he's actually sick every round, but you know
As long as you stick in the server, too, you know, sorry as long as you stick in the servers
Yeah, that is fine. That's okay. I mean, yeah, I don't do my I do my absolute best to like bring my experience to them
You know, all these things.
Well, one of the big problems for game relations has been Alper.
Over the recent months, he's been hard to find a consistent Alper to fit into the team.
Hypex was popping off at the last event. He had some crazy moments.
I'm sure that gives you a lot of confidence as a team when you can look down at your Alper
and see him capable of pulling off big highlight plays.
Of course. I mean, I felt it as soon as he joined the team.
Like I said, when this guy gets comfortable with us, gets the experience he needs,
It's going to perform really well.
I'm starting to see now that he gets more and more comfortable.
And you can see in the server that he has this,
he's starting to get these highlights that he had in Betflicking,
like those teams that he played in.
Like he's a flashy upper and he can do these insane highlights.
And he's going to be comfortable.
I can see that he's happening now.
Yeah, he gives us one of the moments to get excited about.
When everything kind of flat in the arena,
back when you're playing in forward,
with that overpass clip on the A bomb side.
That was the big highlight one.
So I guess I should go talk to him about it, right?
For sure, go to him.
All right, thank you very much, Rose.
Appreciate it.
All right, we'll move over and talk to you.
Hi, Bex, real quick.
Hi, Bex, we just wanted to see you real quick.
Obviously, you've given us a lot to shout about
and get excited about from the last event,
so flashy alt plays.
I was just talking to Rose about how we're starting to see...
You hit those clips and those plays
that you were hitting in your other teams.
So have you just started to feel a lot more comfortable
finally inside of this game, religion team?
Yeah, I mean, I think it's a growing system.
Like I came with a lot of pressure on me, I think,
as I said before, I felt stressed every event.
I think now it's just getting better and better,
getting more comfortable.
And yeah, I mean, I think there's a lot of potential
in this lineup, so yeah, I'm happy to show what I can do.
So obviously you see all the Alpers
who's just getting caught over and over again
in game of Legion before you.
So did that add like a certain level of pressure
coming into it, like knowing that,
or if I don't perform, I'm just next on the long list
of game of Legion Alpers that didn't work out?
Yeah, I mean, I knew it straight away.
I was like, I knew what happened here before.
So yeah, I had a lot of pressure coming in, a lot of eyes on me, a lot of HBTV guys saying shit.
But I just tried to not read it at some point and then just carry on.
I mean, they believed in me after the New Year's when they didn't swap me out.
So that gave me a lot of confidence as well.
Yeah, some belief in your teammates to back you and obviously you've seen some results from it now.
So Fort Worth, you stepped up.
You had my favorite highlight of the event in terms of the AWP department on the A bomb side.
So I've overpassed.
So for you, at an event like that, I mean, you just get going again at Lantern,
trying to continue that form.
Yeah, I mean, hopefully the event's going to be better now, personally.
I don't think I had some bad two games in the middle of the event,
but I'm glad that in the last game I got some highlights against Vitality.
We could have pulled out of the past through, who knows what would have happened on Nuke.
I mean, it's Vitality at the end of the day, so yeah, I mean, we're happy that we were able to perform on the second map.
Alright, so what has been one of the things you've done to try and get like mentally,
I guess stronger from when you started in Game of Legends to now, where you feel more confident.
What's some of the methods you've taken to get into a better mentality?
I mean, I just realized that what people say doesn't really matter.
I mean, everyone just hates for the hate and reason.
I mean, Zai was the go and everyone hates on him.
So he basically makes a lot of mistakes and everyone hates it.
I think it doesn't matter. I just don't read anymore.
And if I do see something, I just laugh. I think that's the most important thing.
You can shout him up with some good players in the server and that's the main thing.
So, well, looking forward to seeing you guys play here in Atlanta and hope we get some more highlights.
So, thanks. Appreciate it. Thank you very much. So, yeah, that's game religion here in Atlanta.
We found the tourists, I think we would call them. They come to Counter-Strike events,
they don't practice, they win them, and then they go on mini vacations.
So, right now, we've got a Mezi and we've got a Zywoo. The rest of them, I imagine,
still taking photos, sir. Could be still on holiday, I don't know actually. I don't know what they're doing.
Was it nice to disconnect from the, what would we call them?
The young three, Rops, Flamesy and Zawood, the Rapscallions.
You were away for them for a couple of days.
I was a little worried for them too, I guess.
You never know what could happen.
I think Rops is, I think if it was just Flamesy and Zawood,
I think the bear would have taken them, I think.
But I think with how lucky Zawood...
You've left them like one fancy...
Well, hold up, mate, hold up.
I need you to... Sorry, mate, sorry, sir.
I need you to talk on the microphone.
Okay, we could have done one flamzake, it's 100 beer.
I think he's gonna still win it.
Really? You're back, you're boy that much.
Didn't it seem in the woods he was crazy?
What other flamzake and what beer?
Well, hold up.
Guys, guys!
Where am I going?
What are we doing?
You can't, this is, this is inception vlogging.
This is inception vlogging here.
Film the cameraman, not me.
Oh, film us. Okay, hold up, wait, hold up.
I need to use this hand.
Fuck the lobby mate.
I don't know, sorry.
I'm here to try and do fun stuff.
You know, you guys have been having a lot of fun.
Yes, yes, we had a lot of fun.
Me, Mathieu and Robin in Yosemite, Michelin team on Apex and Messi.
Have they come back like 15 kilos heavier and you guys are looking more rough?
I think they walked a lot.
We prepared, we only had two meals a day so we had the rest on the evening and like a brunch lunch time.
And then we did some paddles, some gym. The goal was not to gain any weight.
I still want to see if it's been, we've been able to do it, but we were very clever with how we did.
want to gain too much weight so okay perfect you know it's not I was gonna
make a UFC reference but I don't know I don't know if anyone would you Rogan
of Connoisseur you did say that to me don't say that on there that's gonna
be his cancer is like a look he's a divisive figure mate people either love
him or hate him okay I don't know I you know it just is just up in the UFC
business yeah he's there a lot in here up in CS business I hope so yeah so I'm
ever in the wrong place no I think you're in the right place why don't you
to go to watch the basketball with the boss man but to be honest I I'm not into
like I'm not a big basketball yeah I'm not a big sports guy not the best I'm
not but Robin trip was a bit sounded a bit more fancy to me he would
recommend the nature hiking I'm all about that life but there was there was
three teams was he a part of Jack were you part of the the messy apex team or
he was on his own team him and him and Matt yeah did not see them on
live television yes I did I did see it I thought to myself you're paying this guy too much
I will no comment on that he was called side mate those tickets can't be cheap
is that coming out of your prize money it looked like you were called side
there were pretty good seats I heard but um I don't know these they have connections
Jack has connections apparently he's got some people inside of the NBA getting him good tickets
Do you want to officially comment on this, sir?
Hold on, let me bring the microphone.
This has been the most chaotic mic session.
The truth is, Mathieu, being the French superstar that he is,
has some connections with both Rudy Gobert and Victor Wembanyama.
So he was able to pull some strings and help us get a good discount on tickets.
But they were not courtside.
We actually tried to sneak courtside at the end of the game because of the blowout
and the security were really unhappy with us.
I could imagine so but I you mentioned two basketball players
Can you maybe give me Australian sporting athletes of all time who they would be compared to because I'm
Ian Thorpe Thorpey, mate. Yeah, he's making a very specific reference there. I see okay
Big hands. Yeah, big hands big feet
I mean big it
Oh, Wemby's just he's a freak mate. There's no one like him. Okay. He's what's up?
What's up? But Zawoo, because he's the king of French Counter Strike, is he up there with those boys?
He going out hanging out with the NBA guys. I think at the moment Zawoo is
ahead of Wemby. Wemby's young. Okay. He's got a lot of potential, but like he doesn't have the
level of dominance, but he could be as dominant as Matsu. Okay. I'd say I'd say that Wemby's at
the level of like maybe Shane Warn, he's really warning really.
Really in reference.
He could, it'll be, it'll be a race between Zaiwu and Wemby as who is the greatest French
performer of all time.
Wow.
Okay.
I don't, that sounds great.
Although Wemby goes to like Tibetan monasteries in his off season.
Shane Warn had different extracurricular activities.
His were a different lifestyle.
Yeah.
Yes, spin bowler spin bowler. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. The Brits know. Yeah. Yeah, that the French not really into the cricket. I don't imagine. Let me go and grow somebody. I want to go. We're going to mix things up. I'm going down the other end.
Sorry. So I'm whacking people and here we go. Mr. Robin call. Were you the planner of the Yosemite trip?
I initiated it. Yeah.
Would you recommend that to other people? You may be going to the States thinking is Yosemite a good place to go? Would you recommend it?
100%.
Okay, so what's the what were the highlights there besides the bear? Oh, we had two days
So, you know, there's a lot of things to do mace mostly, you know, like take the different trails and hike
We didn't have time to do that. So we just got to know the valley the valley itself is really massive
We saw the mountains we draw bikes. I think the bikes were the highlight for us
We just you know, did a whole tour on the in the valley of the bikes
Talk to some locals, you know
Talk to some people who have climbed the mountains there and what what it's what it's like and you know some people just go chill and
They watch their family members hike or sorry to climb the El Capitan for example. That's really cool
Nice, I was I woke up this morning. Obviously as a degenerate like I'm open my phone Instagram
I saw you put up a bunch of pictures and that looks beautiful
It's yeah, it's one of my bucket list destinations. Okay. All right. That's cool. I'll definitely go back and when I can okay
Matt, did you have a good time out there in the Wilders?
Yeah, it was perfect.
Like the view, the valley, all the people there was insane.
We had a good time all together as a team.
Okay, so you're only there for two days, so what are we doing the rest of the time?
Actually, what do you mean the rest of the time?
The first two days we stayed in Dallas, played a bit of CS,
because actually, when I was doing the planning, it was really dependent on the weather.
So we arrived Wednesday, Thursday, Friday in Yosemite, and actually the days before,
so right after Fort Worth, the Monday, Tuesday, it was like less than 10 degrees Celsius. It was
really cold in Yosemite those days, so we chose those three days to be there, and the two days
we spent fully there. And yeah, it's kind of dependent on the weather, and the rest of the
time, but it was a very special season in the forward.
Okay, so yeah, okay, well, North American couch like us on teams about
that, but I guess did you travel straight from Yosemite to here?
So you guys came as like different groups or did you like you did?
Yeah, different groups.
So was it fun to be away from some of the other guys for a while?
Yeah, right.
I would have each other.
So it's been good to, you know, be able to do it.
So yeah, finally we came back, but it was good to be away from the staff,
the leader of this, this new star player and finally, yeah.
Okay, well, great.
All right, so I guess this is the type of tournament
where everyone's thinking it's going to be
another Vitality Trophy lift, another Vitality Navi final.
Is this, look, you guys get these questions all the time.
So I'm sure you're fed up of like, oh, you know,
you hit a win, we know you're not practicing,
we know you've been hanging out,
but you can warm into the tournament.
There's not that many good teams here,
but we got to be fair about that.
We can't be bullshitting anybody that,
wow, we'd be lying, Dan, and we don't want to do that.
We want to be honest, yeah.
So you come here, the expectation,
I've seen it in the interviews, it's when we're here, we want to win.
But lifting another trophy in a row, are you trying to go for 7th straight or last season?
How can we make it better? Matthew, what can we do to make the winning better?
Can we make it? Is it possible to make the winning better?
I mean, winning is winning. It's always good to win. Even though maybe in Dallas,
we didn't show the emotion of it, but because also the way we played,
We were happy with it, but a win is a win, it doesn't matter which tournament is it,
maybe it's a less better team or anything.
What if you win in every game 13-0?
Of course, because it's also meant to play good, and we want to play good, we want to improve our game,
our team, so it doesn't matter against who we face, against who, what tournaments we're going to play,
the way to win the tournament is to play good also.
Yeah, I don't know, I'm saying a bit like, yeah, we want to beat everybody 13-0 and
Pants that made them run around the table, that type of stuff.
Of course, of course, that's the goal of it.
Okay, make other people have a miserable time.
Maybe not, but we like to win, that's the point.
You're the nightmare for everybody else at the moment.
I don't know, we need to ask them. Did you ask them?
I'll ask the next team. It's Sinners, so I'm not sure they're going to have an answer.
Yeah, you need to ask like...
If you say so.
Oh, this is it. Hold on, I have to ask this. You'll agree. So I'll ask you.
I'm going to come this side so I can go to Dan next.
I was just talking with Na'Vi and they said, I said, listen, if you guys, it's
Grand Final again, it's Na'Vi vs Vitality. I said to Mikasa, said, Mikasa, you're the
best ancient player in the world, mate. But Vitality, they ban it. And he said,
all right, let's make, let's do this. They, they don't ban Ancient and we won't ban
Overpass and we run it like that. What do you reckon? Could be finite, I would find it like this.
Imagine we win Ancient. Imagine. I'm imagining. Well then, what do you say?
What are the world's hands?
Well, then you're the best ancient team in the world.
We have 100% to visit now.
Well, you lost one to Fury. You lost to Fury last time.
I look with you boys of all time. I'm looking always of all time.
That's what we're dealing with these days.
Dan, you've been talking about how fun it was to not be with the team.
What was your favorite thing you did?
Just eating and drinking wine.
It sounds pretty French to be honest,
but now we enjoy it. It was a good moment together with my dear Brits. It's not
often that you see a Brit in the French hanging out together. It's new for us as
well. But now it was just fun. A bit too ecstatic in New York to many people, but
yeah, like the experience was nice. Okay, all right. I don't have too many
questions because you guys, you know, you get an ask questions all the time. I was
trying to be more fun, more variety. I asked Matthew a serious question. As soon
that's not asking it I regretted all my life choices so no no no because no it's
not your fault it's my fault mate I'm the dickhead asking the same fucking
questions you've been asked a hundred times that's correct that's bang on mr
mr. personality right here are you looking for a hair clip sponsor is there
any companies that do that the companies that make the hair clip I'd love to be a
a Victoria's Secret model.
Launcher A?
Yeah, hair clips, no?
Launcher A?
No, no, no, just for the hair clips.
I don't know if Victoria's Secret do hair clips, do they?
Well, we can invent it.
We can become the new sandwich of Georges, you know.
We could be the Joe and the Jews of the hair clip world.
Exactly, exactly.
How much money do you need to kick that business off?
I'll invest.
I work in M&U and we just need 20K, 20 each?
No, no, no. Let's mend you.
Okay, alright. Well, yeah, that's pretty easy. We can do that.
We can make it online. And if people order sandwiches, then we...
Wait, why are you talking about sandwiches? I thought we were doing hair clips.
Ah, hair clips. I mean, we can do anything you want.
We can make.
For me, you're a Churchill, mate. You can do anything you want.
You gotta be careful with this guy around, mate.
Actually, I am kind of British as well.
I am, you are?
I got a British passport.
You guys, you as Chellians are just British.
It's crazy.
200 years ago in the country...
the country.
Not that long ago.
Do I like New Zealand?
That's an interesting question.
Why does that sound like a loaded question?
I don't know.
We have different perspectives of it.
I think Sydney is better, right?
Sydney is better.
Wait, wait, wait.
Where are you from again?
Sydney is better than where?
Mate, no one goes to Perth.
No one goes to Perth.
No, it's just, it is great.
It's beautiful.
It's Sydney's iconic.
Sydney's iconic.
Yeah, you're not defending it. Look, there's no point defending it
She's
It is just too far away
It's a bit
Here's what I say after you guys win the Singapore major come down to Perth, right?
And you can, I have a place right on the beach, all right?
You guys can stay there, it's beautiful,
you have a great time, and you'll enjoy it more than Sydney.
Yeah, I think so too, I think so too.
I would enjoy it to come.
Okay, you're invited, you're all invited,
you can all come, I got enough bedrooms,
we should make it work.
All right, boys, I've fucked around, I found out,
I've used enough of your time.
Atlanta, hotland, you can call it whatever you want,
what we've actually come here to do today,
is to keep playing and see what happens.
The Great Peach State, it is Atlanta, Georgia,
but mostly a lot of historical, eh, eh, eh, eh.
F***.
The hunt continues.
Just wondering if you know anything about video games.
Uh-huh.
All right, man, me either.
That's what I was saying.
He played video games.
You play Counter-Strike.
Deep into the depths of the Pond City market.
Hey, man, you play video games?
45, so.
How old do you think I am?
32 okay. Yeah, that's pretty fair about I'm 36. We'll take that my shirt man
What do you think about two teams or players playing against each other in tournaments and video games? I?
Mainly play like rainbow apex is it something where we can kind of mutually agree that there are games that shouldn't be considered respectable
Perhaps me like I don't want to just put words in your mouth, but Valorant. I was gonna say the same thing
Yes, I guess I know anything about video games at all counter strike super private
Age of Empires. My team right now is number one in the state on Marvel. Marvel
Rival? Yeah. My school. What school you go to? Carrollton. Where can we find some
Counter-Strike players? I mean Age of Empires is cool but I'm looking for
Counter-Strikeers. I'd rather go to the hamburger place. Maybe, you know, in the
corner. H&F. Thanks for the guidance. What you want to say something to him? What's
up guys? What's up guys? This is... What is it?
Poverty, P-O-V-E-R-T.
I was about to say, that's the wildest sign off I think I've ever experienced on the show here, is poverty.
Rafa, really making history. Absolutely phenomenal.
And Ace is the champion of the NFL Extreme now.
One final.
Sturdy still got a five-doll.
XZ is gonna take this fight there. Three seconds left.
Left to right.
It's gonna start it from the front and save.
And this is a massive new business.
But he's on contact with just the Nexus kill.
He was gonna die!
She's gonna get it!
And it's all done, I'm calling for it!
Unbelievable road, winning 4-0 victory over Clash.
And they did it again, in the Grand Final!
It's not over!
Give it up for your game, till Extreme Masters!
Run for it!
Jump in the air!
The Intel Extreme Masters Atlanta 2026 is brought to you by ESL in partnership with Intel,
Acer Predator, DHL, Chex, and Zoho.
Welcome back to the Intel Extreme Masters Atlanta 2026.
We are here at the Georgia World Congress Center at DreamHack to see whether teams can
actually continue to fight within our groups.
We of course started our group stage yesterday and whether our winners, there are losers
as well.
And we have currently have five teams within that lower bracket that hold North American
representatives that are trying to see if they can fight within this group to make it
to playoffs.
So we're starting off our day with phase versus NRG.
for having great results over at Blast Fort Worth.
Looked to try to continue their North American campaign,
but really struggled yesterday against a pain gaming,
winning all of their pistol rounds,
but failing to convert on either map.
It accounted for half of their rounds.
They need to be able to find greater consistency
moving forward, whereas NRG,
they're looking for great international results
and really put a test onto a foot gaming
that have been fantastic this season,
but they failed to close their maps.
We're going to have to see whether these teams are able to keep themselves alive in the tournament
and try and do the North American fans some justice.
Sit here with, uh, is it nasty, Nick?
Is that what they call you?
Yeah, that's the word on the street.
Word on the street.
Speaking of the streets yesterday, you guys had them where you wanted them and then you
didn't.
So let's talk a little about that, Nick Nitro Canella.
What happened?
Uh, yeah, they kind of just shot straighter, you know, I'd say, once they had 10-3, they
started shooting the straighter and, uh, uh, yeah, a little scary in that regard.
Yeah, so obviously the game against foot didn't necessarily go the route that it wanted. What'd you take from it?
Would you get would you and the guys get from that loss?
Well compared to last time we played as a team we played a lot better yesterday
so again, it's just like the progress was there and
That was like the main thing that was to go away from it and just the way we did prep and all that stuff
So we just continued today and if we play how we played yesterday, we should win today
There's any pressure on you guys obviously outside of the normal. Hey, we're an NA NA team yada yada yada
Is there a lot of pressure to get to the playoffs and advance further?
Because you've played a lot of counter-strike in this city alone.
Yeah. Obviously, yeah, there's pressure.
But it's not like pressure that we're thinking to ourselves we're going to win the tournament
kind of pressure. It's just like we need to have way better results with this lineup and
actually just get some one win on our bow. And then we just go from there because it's been
pretty rough recently. But I think just like before when we had like okay results, it's like
like we won one game and then that kind of just like carried us the momentum wise.
But I think today would be a massive win for us so we can keep on going
and then potentially make playoffs here.
Plus your friend Russell Van Dalken sitting across the way, huh?
So would it mean extra on top of it to go ahead and beat phase and be Russ?
Yeah, for sure.
I don't think I've played Russ on energy, I think because at the major
Damian played against them and they beat them actually in the B1.
I don't think I've played against them since my last liquid lineup actually say I would be special
You want to tell them anything while I got you here?
Coming for you. I
Like that. That's nitro. That's energy. Thank you very much. Thank you
Well, here we go phase back in the server yesterday not exactly the result they were looking for but I'm standing here with one of the
Newer additions on the block and net you bro. Welcome to Atlanta. Thank you. Thank you
Yeah, yesterday was not the result we expected. I mean we came into the storm
with a bit of issues. We didn't have a backtrace that we like to have.
So it was a bit hard to come into in stuff. It was a bit rusty and also like we
played against Brazilians when you give the momentum it's a bit hard to come
back after the game. So I think the second map was a bit better but not enough.
It's a little scary when they start yelling and stuff across the way. Yes,
know how to perform yesterday. Overall what was it with pain that made it so
frustrating for you guys? I think we just lost the first five rounds after on
the stool and after we won the first baron and then after I think there was
a sharper than us like globally on the game I think there was a sharper than us
individually and we just couldn't like play our game and we also did a lot of
mistakes technically like some flashes missing and important like just utility
to finish the rounds and also economically on the stool was on T side it
was pretty horrible. Let's say we saved two times. It was not the greatest solution, but
yeah.
So you're saying you didn't have a whole lot of fun?
Yeah, not a lot of fun.
But a different day today, right? NRG across the way. What do you know about that NRG team?
Well, they're Americans. I know that there's nitro in front and we have twists in our
teams. So I think it's a bit personal, but I think it's going to be a good game. We'll
be more ready for sure.
Yeah. Wow. Interesting stuff. What did you guys do when you got done with that game yesterday?
back you reviewed some footage kind of fix some problems or was it just like hey let's try again
tomorrow. No of course we came back yesterday with different mentality we wanted to review this game
like in details to know what was wrong and of course like we had a lot of good takeaways
and today is going to be better. Thank you very much for Tom, good luck. Thank you.
Well, welcome back to the Intel Extreme Masters Atlanta.
It's day two and we are here in the lower bracket run.
We've got FaZe and we've got NRG and as Naked was just saying, some real strong North American
presence in this game, Jason, it would be a shame to see them go, but we are going to
say goodbye to one.
We are going to say goodbye to one of them, unfortunately, and you know what?
It's kind of weird up in the air, looking at the names of this obviously with FaZe.
It's kind of, we don't really know who's going to be leaving quite yet.
I don't think this one has a clear sign of who's going to be going.
You can see in the bottom of the screen our results from yesterday.
NRG has kind of alluded to that conversation with Nitro and Trace.
Took that tough loss against foot yesterday, blowing a 9-3 lead on the first map as well.
So that's a tough start to the event.
Same with FaZe, who just got, let's be real, got steamrolled by Tain.
I think it's fair to say FaZe have the better players, but NRG, who have the potential to
be the better team, the better unit across the server?
I don't think either of these teams has shown us like a team level that that you know can clearly
Overcome what the individual on the other side of the server has used. You know see this one is interesting to me because I always felt like
I've always seen him pop off at the the regional domestic events in international
Sometimes I always feel like energy struggles, but it's it's going the other way
He actually performs just just a hair back
International, but you know statistically probably nothing too significant, but still maintaining that level on the international stage
Even though energy's results are much worse is very cool from OC
I think the reason for that, Jason, and why it maybe sticks in your mind a little bit more with the American side of things when he's playing in the regional events is because it's a lot more flashy in the way that he does it, right?
Yeah, he's much more dominant, he's like straight up, isn't he?
Yeah, and I spoke to him, see about it, I was like, what's the difference to, you know, playing in North America versus going to Europe?
He's like, you cannot play any of the predictable angles in Europe, but you can play them in America, you get punished way more when you go over to Europe.
All the players are just going to absolutely wreck you.
So set the changes game up a little bit going into Europe, but still hanging in that but not hanging in there on the server yesterday
Oh, she really struggled as 0.65 rating 20 and 33 across the series
We've got ancient nuke a mirage gonna be the veto here for this one energy picking into ancient phase going for the nuke selection
A mirage left over. Yeah energy starting to make this is ancient a little bit of a home pick for them
It's what they picked yesterday against foot
It's also the map where they blew that 9-3 lead got up 9-3 going into halftime on their t-side and weren't able to convert when they
switched over to the defensive side.
So something to check and something to keep
around for the face side of things
is going to be their offense as well,
which had a tough day in the office.
They really struggled at opening kills.
We heard the conversation from NKJ, the new coach,
from TWIS.
All of it was about focusing,
was about finding confidence, finding energy,
finding teamwork and communication
because they played with absolutely none of that yesterday.
And if you do it again today,
they might just be eliminated sent home early
from Astana at Heartbreaking Fashion
because this team is chasing desperately
to gain some VRS points heading into the second season
of 2026, is NRG, we are live into the pistol.
Yeah, phase finding NRG, well we found them Jason,
here in the lower bracket.
So let's see how it goes down.
I was talking to NRG on media day,
Gaps was saying that they put so much of the effort recently
into improving the T side.
Seemed like they did that,
plus so much on the CT side.
So honestly, oh, hang on here's the fight,
the push down ramp and distance, no kills,
a little bit of damage exchange,
and NRG's gonna take the space towards donut.
Yeah, made you sort of back away
and got Jacob going forward,
headshot on towards bro. A trait comes in from Grimm.
Oh, the nitro's under a lot of pressure.
He's trying to deal with that donut offensive, but he can't do it.
So that plant comes in from Nitro.
Oh, look at the slide through the smoke, though.
Brokey's coming in and waiting for his teammate
to come out the other side now. Good kill from Twizz.
A great kill from Twizz.
Put Grimm and Sonic into a situation where they have to win this one up to E3.
Brokey's on top of the boxes.
Everybody get rid of Grimm leaving it all on Sonic.
Now the bomb is planted, but they can get on that diffusal.
And now they look towards me and they know where he is.
Broke is gonna hold it and plenty of bodyguards so another pissed around for face
Yeah teammates from phase everyone grabs one really well played and a nice win there
I think Nets you he gets away with one a little bit of a misplay kind of taking that fight for main when you can play inside of
It safely with your teammates coming in for a crossfire
But it's an absolute banger shots from everyone from phase everyone got there one tap
You know like everyone everyone's kill is just a really quick headshot in the exchange
And they just whittle down energy in the post plant and a nice victory
Why don't you get a barb hunt?
I mean, they're gonna go bike in an international outtow.
And face me, no going pistols.
Yeah, that's, I mean, they have 100% win-win on pistols so far at the event.
You know, the 104 yesterday, now they've won this fifth one here.
So, NRG with a strong force by them, we'll see a face fall to this.
And you've got to make a leal for Grimm, tech nines and a tigal.
Yeah, the newest addition to the team.
Grimm just joined two months ago.
Still feels like that hasn't kind of settled in fully yet.
Yeah, I got that sentiment absolutely when talking to NRG.
You know it felt like
They're still trying to figure out how to get the most out of Grimm saying that he's starting to find his voice in the team a little bit more but
Big part of that is on the T side and they've lost the opening player here
Yeah, and that's a well done on the opening kill Sonic goes down so Grimm stay in patient
He's the only one over in middle the other three players for energy waiting outside the beat bomb site and
Phases get a little bored so they're gonna go up down. They want to figure out what's coming turns from the flash good swing
Slow, slow swing with that flashbang, easy kill for N2 and now a 5 on 3.
Running in towards the side now is at least NRG has some space to play with.
Utility starts to fade away with the bomb and the bomb is away from the rest of the
squad here for NRG.
Might try to go back and try and help his teammate out but both of those kills go in
favor of Faze and once the bomb doesn't get out of the doors there's no hope.
That's painful, they would have loved to have that bomb plant to help with a little bit
of extra cash.
NK is going to get the boys fired up.
I imagine we're going to be here in him shouting,
I think, after the display yesterday
and the lack of energy within the team.
I think he's going to take it on himself
to be someone who can give some energy between the rounds
and the celebrations.
We bring up Fort Worth last week along
when it comes to fazing their opening game,
because obviously they really impressed that.
They had a playoff, they beat G2.
But a feature of the Furia.
Don't forget that one.
The Furia is all the best.
I mean, when you look at Faze, this is a team
who did start really slow in a lot of those games
and have to sort of switch on and get back into it.
They never found the switch yesterday.
They started slow and they continued to be slow.
So at least they're coming out swinging here on ancient.
Yeah, well, at four worth they had some pop-offs
from guys like Brokey with some big clutches.
Frozen, obviously, was huge.
Twist had his rounds.
Even H.U. and Jacob were chiming in
with some really huge performances,
some important clutches as well.
You had those individual performances
that fired the team up and, yeah, changed the nature,
changed the energy within the team.
They might not need it today.
Nice start, three-zero.
However, they did struggle on a certain stretch yesterday
So pain started gaining control and this is the side that energy was able to rack up nine rounds against foot on so
See what this offense can bring to the table as the first gun round begins a k-47s across the board Grimm and Sonic coming out
Elbow, they're gonna be aggressive
Scrimm already out towards the bottom boxes frozen
Well, that red smoke break it open by his own design trying to get some information
But look at bro, so a little bit pushed up the ramp here trying to catch an over extension from Broke
He gets that peak, but can't take the opportunity
It's going to back off. Decent piece of pressure applied to the B bomb site and Bro's not going to relinquish the angle whatsoever. Once a second crack at it.
Utility down into the double doors. Deep nades. That's great to chunk down Nitro and O.C.
An energy is called. Nitro's brought everyone over to the B bomb site. Nobody really in middle. Nobody establishing presence there towards A.
This is all going to be a hit directly into the B bomb site.
Bro gets away on the corner. Bull is sent towards him, but FaZe will hold three players on the site.
something a little bit uncomfortable about the lack of cave control or information that they have.
And with that utility coming in, prevents the peek forward, and Bro finally getting his kill.
Broke, he tries to get a double, but Nitro swipes away the remaining B defenders and NRG into the site.
Felt like FaZe wanted to be aggressive on B ramp there, but didn't pull the trigger earlier.
And then when the cave play starts coming in and the Molotov towards like the default plant boxes
comes in, they kind of get forced into the play that they kind of were shying away from originally.
I think they kind of got stuck in no man's land and the options take it away
So nicely done from energy slowly surrounding that B bombsite and forcing the defense into an awkward situation
Yeah important for it for nitra to win both of those fights at the ramp as well
It broke he somehow gets the multi-kill it's doable in the retake
There's gonna hang on to the weapons now over in face
So an M4 brought over for frozen and an H you bring enough for masks and some utility here as well
They got plenty of cash, right?
AWP is going to come out, you would imagine, in the next round.
Broke, he's got the money, as you say.
Everyone's got cash to chop it off if they want to.
So no sweat at the moment for Faze.
Still content with the 3-1 lead, and obviously the tons of cash
they've built up in that little bit of a run.
But NRG get a pretty clean victory there to start.
One player goes down, one rebuy forced.
And you can see by the time they're actually executing this,
like, they have to smoke down in double doors,
but there's no flash.
The Nates have been used earlier to chunk them down.
You know, maybe they were trying to get into a position where they could defend K,
but that Molotov kind of ruins the timing. Just that execution with no utility.
I think that forced into a play they didn't really want to make at that moment.
Round five. Again, aggressive out middle. Going to swing along the back wall. Grim can't handle it with the Nades raining in.
So opening kill for FaZe's defense.
Well, frozen.
I was going to be very happy about the start because there's no trade potential either from NRG,
and you've been able to fall back if you're FaZe and get into a really strong position.
So, and I see at least taking some mid control towards the bottom boxes, and we'll see what they can actually do with this
Now Sonic is in this spot
It's two minutes. I'm gonna start tossing out some utility if you can get some jagged control force any players
There might be aggressive from face further back who Sonic's gonna be in trouble
Oh, it's up comes in frozen and broke he ready to pounce on this to punish
Yeah, well there goes utility in that he's out of the open frozen story for a second kill the heaven peek would be a
Advice at this point didn't catch a good timing so energy funnel the final three players into this B bomb side
But this time Jacob is ready and this time he's got support arriving on the rotations
You've got nitro bro, and it's 2v5 try to at least get the ball plant which they will secure
But it's anything else beyond this that just seems impossible right now for energy
Yeah, you need to do in that fight clean so that micro nitro to focus elsewhere, but there's just way too many bodies
Such a strong round from FaZe. All five players survive, so money grows back up, replenishes the coffers they spend on the AWP and all the utility.
And I think that round is the opposite of the previous, where this time it was NRG playing kind of slow, kind of quiet, waiting for utility,
and it gave all the time for FaZe to kind of coordinate and be the ones to take the initiative.
Amidting 10 seconds, Molly them out, you're getting aggressive.
A good setup so that you can defend yourself from the follow-up peeks up at the jump-up spot.
And when NRG eventually decided to pull the trigger they just don't have the players actually win the round
So yeah, you could see a little pound of the table a little bit frustrating
Every time we keep listening to interface yesterday the conversation was always about just all right
There's somehow fired our footing in this game
They start playing our game a little bit at some point
We just never did it right there was there was like a couple rounds here and there and that it would just be a
Lack of success with consecutive round wins. So now face have come out
They are looking locked in, energy seems good, and a full one up, it just could continue here as well.
Some aggression and some confidence down the B ramp, not exactly going the way they would have liked.
Look at how much damage they've taken on board, Jacob and Twist down low.
Feels like self damage, like unnecessary damage pushing through those Molotovs.
No one from NRG was nearby to fire off any shots, so yeah, they give up some HP.
NRG don't have to work for it, but they are going to try and split the A bomb site through Donut.
Frozen, if that smoke fades, the timing on that's going to be critical, and Broki's performance, you're holding the angle.
Comes off the angle, goes back behind the donut, really trying to make something of this AWP.
Frozen goes down, Broki has to somehow win this in the no scope, he can't get it onto Grimm.
But there's Netshu, trying to rotate over, he's in a good spot, he's done very well, isolating these fights, and he'll bring them all down.
Brilliant work out of Netshu, that's some celebration out of his teammates,
because he plays that high pressure situation perfectly.
Yeah, that's a nasty performance.
That's a great sequence from Nathieu.
I mean, impressive the way he's been able to step into this team
as they enter rock bottom, and he's performing very, very well.
Very admirably.
Yeah, that interview with Trace mentioned getting a little bit shaken
by some of the shouting out of the Brazilian players yesterday of Paine.
You can understand that, but NRG is much more timid, much more quiet,
especially when you got your boot on their throat at the moment.
Five to one for FaZe and another dominant round win off Nathieu's triple kill.
Conversation today for FaZe, gonna be vastly different. NKJ is probably loving what he's seeing and hearing right now.
If you couldn't find confidence yesterday because Paine just felt the step ahead and a little bit sharper, having this kind of a run and starting to beat up this NRG squad, yeah, that'll fill you with confidence.
Now individually you can start swinging and being much more comfortable in these fights. Great sequence here.
Run 7 is gonna be, and begin with NRG playing from a full round deficit.
If you're in RC, you're just feeling kind of miserable right now as the T side is where
you did your best work yesterday.
So at this point in a very tough spot, 5-1 down, you don't have a strong bike coming
out in this one either, and then you've just taken a grenade to the mouth of your Sonic.
So everything going against NRG at the moment.
So you're not going to have to look to experience Nitro, trying to keep his team mentally in
it.
You're in the elimination game here.
Yeah, call your team out of this hole.
You're going to need some of those individual step-ups.
The lovely shot from Frozen, surprise Sadex coming through the smoke, but still drills
him.
Yeah, none of the strength that this NRG team is here yet, it's kind of the conversation
with FaZe Astro.
Obviously broken performing in this team, but Grim is someone you're going to look to,
see someone you're going to look to obviously. All of them a little bit quiet in these first
seven rounds of play so far. Grim's going to start stepping out with the Deagle. Smoke
and Molotov left for the rest of the rounds for NRG. We've got Nechu walking in towards
Gota. He'll try and fight Nitro in mid who will start to descend back towards the boxes
instead. Climbing up to join the rest of his teammates looking at this B bomb site. They
a passive setup here from FaZe. They're playing behind the smokes that are going to come in,
which is going to give some space here to NRG to think at least about the bomb plant.
There's only one smoke, so you have to leave Larry open, and who needs a smoke? When you've got a
D. Go headshot, then you've got Bro's rifle following up, and then a push through the smoke from
Grimm. It's worked out so well here for NRG all of a sudden.
Okay, why the hell not? That's a round win, it feels, at the moment. I don't think Frozen in
you have a chance of getting back into the still time in the bomb timer though
haven't made their step yet nature's so far back and I think it's prioritized the
AK-47 time wow what a stunning victory for energy
that's unbelievable how quickly that just all yeah just fell apart with weaker
weapons as well stepping through smokes some exit kills on the card so not a
whole lot that energy is gonna take away in fact nothing as this bomb goes off
certainly will take the AWP out of Bro's hands, so they get out with the AWP, Oc picks it up off the ground,
so at least have that to work with in the round victory. That's crazy, that's really nice to have a few energy, right?
But I think the problem is, not so much problem, but you still haven't established like a, that's not a round you're going to rely on,
that you can go back to and say, we can win that again, this is a 1D, go open things up from Oc, there we go, lovely shot,
shot. Surprising the hell out of Brokey taking the AWP away and then Bro's able to manage the impunch so well.
So they've stolen one away from FaZe. They can build upon it.
Quicker into the B site. That's where they just found some success in the last round.
We're going to try it again here. There's the mid-fight going in favor of FaZe.
Check comes up at Heaven, but that does mean this B bomb site's over him.
The only player that can deal with anything is Twist, and he's not well to grab one and fall away.
So this keeps face in a much better position at 5v3, and they can play retake here.
Alright, Nitro's gonna get the bomb planted.
Post plant positions, looks like everyone from NRG's gonna be playing around the cube.
Nitro's trying to figure out exactly which position he wants to try and hold on to.
Goes to the B ramp flank.
He's gonna have some love heading his direction.
Twist and Frazier are gonna be there. Good first kill.
Yeah, Nitro stays tucked away, looking for a headshot as well.
Next, oh, he's ready for frozen, but winning that engagement proves too difficult, and then Grimm can't do much, so it's gotta be OC.
Can he see away? Can he see them off? He will take two, and then finally dropped by Jacob.
Nice shooting, but too many players eventually coming through here for face to win the retake, get the round victory and up to 6-2.
Your biggest problem right now for the T side is Sonic and Grimm haven't been able to establish any kind of success over in middle coming out of elbow.
Even when there's aggressive pushes in the mid-round, it's tough for them to contain.
They're not finding the opening kills, swinging out of elbow to open up rounds when they call that kind of a tactic.
So FaZe is controlling the middle of the map and is able to have a lot of freedom, is able to rotate and flank with impunity,
even when they do lead the B bomb site, which is part of the reason probably why they're okay with Twist playing and retaking that round.
The strength of it is going to be them wrapping around the B bomb site and coming through cave on the flank.
And NRG unable to string two rounds together.
And Jacob waits, pushed up towards Jag, it's gonna be frozen, who's finding quite a bit
of success in these midfights.
He's got a good amount of teammates with him now too.
I mean, FaZe has done a really good job of having multiple players in middle, fighting
from red room, breaking smokes.
One or two players in donut as well, setting up traps, getting in aggressive in the mid
rounds.
And he's done a very good job containing mid.
Brokey's off-trained on the position now.
Yeah, he's just pissing me waiting.
He got OC, who's moved into Jag, Broke, he's not able to connect, so Glenn moving forward.
He's got some confidence to try and fight with that Tech9 at range, but Twist goes in,
OC and Broke, both dead to his rifle.
Okay, well you're gonna have to try and push through Red Room and wrap around this B bomb
site.
Nitro's alone with the bomb for quite some time.
Look at twist as well taking his way down. That's nice for a with the bomb getting caught
Brokey holding as they try to backtrack in towards the right for AWP and he'll just not repeat not wanting to die
I want to group up and play the percentage is here for face to close it up pulling them into twist
Nature run the backside twist or the other secures himself a 4k and nature just stealing away that ace opportunity
But that's a seven to two lead here for face client doesn't get our G's kind of been put in their place a little bit
We're not seeing really a whole lot of aggressive,
doesn't feel like a whole lot of initiative
being taken to get into fights.
I think Bro's the one who's been the most willing
to just kind of stick his chest out there
and try and find a fight over at the B ramp
when he's looked and peered into the B bomb site.
Outside of that, it feels like no one's making a move,
no one's comfortable with what fight they are envisioning
coming next in the mid-round.
So you see it feels like energy just kind of stall out,
being slow and quiet,
and Faze is taking complete advantage of that.
Ah, Sonic.
He's taking nature down, so at least one of the midfights is going in favor here of NRG.
Can they do anything with it?
But look at the reaction immediately from Frozen, but OCE seems to be aware that this
is a possibility.
But how long can he really stick around?
Because he's the bomb carrier, right?
So he has to go back and join his teammates, and in that time, Frozen moves out, catches
Nitro at Heaven, and now a Spanner thrown into the works immediately for NRG.
frozen continues to push. You've got another kill at red as Grim just steps into the open.
Frozen is so confident right now, just prowling all over the server. Sonic eventually getting
rid of him, but NRG, it's about to be disastrous that they don't win these B ramp fights.
Well, playing the smoke fate is so, so dangerous, huh, Frozen? Trouble, he's got the first look
and there goes 2S. It goes the way of NRG. The coin toss inside the smoke. Good shot
from Broke. He puts himself in a 1v2, but with the smoke up, oh, he's just going through
Okay, here we go. Brokey looking for a high line and he's got it all broke. Can he get it again? Yes, he can!
That's the kind of broke he plays that we've all come to see.
That is what we're waiting for and FaZe have just surely ripped the hearts out of NRG in this first half.
Yeah, it kicks them right in the balls, doesn't it? That's one of those rounds you lose and you're just like, oh my god, how is it even possible?
That's filthy from Brokey.
It's like it's the idea of this almost feeling just like the worst possible decision running through the smoke into a Molotov
That's the bro key play, isn't it?
Yeah, but he was so ready to find bro and then just the slow slide out barely anything of OCE showing
Then that will force the time out of NRG.
Not for NRG, you're wondering is there anything we can do like at this point?
It was a phase of just finding a way to win ridiculous rounds. They can't catch a break now NRG
Dap's going for the timeout here trying to figure out how they can squeeze out a
couple of extra rounds in this first half. Now one of the things they were
telling me on media day was the fact that their main focus on the T side has
been getting the communication flowing but those are the kind of plays and
this is the kind of half that just kills calms. Oh yeah it destroys it that's
that's the timeout and I'll tell you what those are the hardest timeouts as a
coach because what are you supposed to say after a round like that really not a
whole lot you can address strategically had all the advantages in the world
Broke he just rips it away as he's done time and time again.
Good to see a flash of it here in Atlanta.
Deep utility down middle, let's say this as well.
It also negates the fact that's the first time we've seen Sonic get an opening kill over in middle.
I mentioned earlier in the round middle has been completely controlled by Faze.
Finally, NRG have success there and they can't convert the round into a victory.
Broke he going back again, he wants more but he ends up getting led to the head.
So, Brozer's gonna charge up into the site, can Twist make up for it?
Jacob trying to get back over towards cave. Can he pull some distraction? Release twist gets in the kill
He goes back again, and that's more like it again. It's display of dominance right now in this first half
Faze is showing the skill level and Sonic left so far away. Twist has just destroyed them in this half
Another beautiful round from Faze. Dude just look like completely different players when they play with this kind of confidence
NRG's let it build up way way too much
Gonna give a shout out. Twist gets the quad kill. He's gonna get into the highlight reel.
Jacob pushing through the smoke to provide a second force in that engagement as well.
Taking some attention away from Twist, making sure those four players coming up B ramp are split.
Twist just wrecks them all. Sonic's got 40 more seconds to try and piece this together.
1v3 inside the B bomb site. Yeah, that's a post-timeout look when Twist gets 4 kills very quickly on your rush into the B site.
Again, another opening kill provided. That's the third one provided by Bro, and it's gonna go to waste.
25 seconds.
Twins going for the ace. Looking for every single one of them.
20 seconds. Pitch out. Twins will die. So a small victory for NRG preventing the ace, but a 9-2 lead for Faze.
And the final round of the first half. What a stark contrast from yesterday. NRG,
we mentioned up against foot on this map. T side of ancient, they put up nine rounds in that opening half.
would eventually go on to lose that in overtime, which has got to be heartbreaking fashion.
This one is crushing in a different way.
You're never even getting close.
It doesn't even feel like you're having a chance inside the server.
Twist getting hyped up.
Putting his former teammate in the body bag.
Him and Nitro, many years spent together on Team Liquid.
Many trophies lifted together.
now go ahead to head as IGLs as captains of their teams.
Twist and FaZe with a strong upper hand right now.
FaZe is just ready for the fights.
Eventually NRG will provide.
As they move towards middle,
we've got Sonic just waiting at elbow.
Tentative peeks out, and it looks like NRG want to finish on the B-bomb side, they go back for more.
Hasn't necessarily been the most successful, obviously, but let's see if they can get past the defense this time.
A little bit of a different look, both players are in cave, so they can get past that.
Bro is sending some shots through, will connect slightly onto Jacob, but it's just warning shots and he's able to back away.
You wonder how much they want to reposition, so they're gonna stay in cave and just do the vertical boosts.
So it's gonna keep an IMP ramp, but if they sense the cave pressure coming, he can slide back quickly.
Most forces from NRG coming up the ramp, though, so Twist will be forced back into cave this time.
Very little resistance inside the bomb site itself.
Frozen spamming. Grim gonna take the most of the damage.
And then eventually finished off by Twist. You know you're gonna deal with threats inside of cave.
Kade, can Sonic be enough of a playmaker to make this happen? He's got Broke, he froze
and still carving them up inside of the site, Jacob now stepping out as well, and Sonic
has got into a good position to provide further impact. Now, Twist dies, the round's back on,
and Netshu has to clutch up this time. Sonic puts himself in harm's way, but gets away
before Netshu can get that kill. You can't let this one slide if you had RG. You have
to pick up a third round here, Netshu stepping up to the plate, going forward, trying to
to carve them up, but Sonic's got the headshot, the playmaker, and the last star on the half.
It's a measly three rounds on the T side of NRG, a massive comeback required.
You come around, my head is spinning now, Don't want my love to be any different,
I just wanna feel all the dead, yeah
When you come around, my heart is bursting out
I don't wanna be the strangers in these days
Cosmic, life is endless
I swear I saw the light
I pushed the bud in a flying saucer out of space
Only love can bring me face to face with you
I swear I saw your eyes
I felt it coming, you were full that I could taste
Only love can bring me face to face with you
I'm sorry, son, son of you, Alexander
The platforms are all over rising
So I call the doctor, say I need you here
The gasoline came there, I think you might get it
I'm sorry, son, son of you, Alexander
So I call the doctor, say I need you here
The gasoline came there, I think you might get it
The gasoline treated to be my curse
The falling down
The bottom is endless now
Head over heels again, oh, don't wanna be A-E-N-T.
9-3 lead for Faze coming into the second half.
We're looking for Americans on the stage here at IEM Atlanta.
A stage that's going to get a little bit further away from Nature
while at the moment it's just buried at the bottom of the other end of the road.
Canadians do, Jason?
Yeah, Americans is like a North American kind of thing, you know?
It's like a general term of the consonants.
Well, I'm just saying it looks more like we're going to see a Canadian in that kind of position.
That's fair.
Well, you know what? I would love to see...
We like Canadians.
I think fans will get a lot of support. Obviously, we've seen that before.
Let's see if they can get into form and get themselves into that arena of venture.
This is the lower bracket game. They're fighting for survival.
Limitation, yes. One of these teams going home at the moment.
the moment first map is making it feel like energy might be getting those
tickets but surely
will show the big lead like this yes it matters you know they've got a
back
they took the ninth really yesterday so let's see what they do down three nine
maybe it's completely different
that would be a very uh...
cool storyline though
well let's see how much respect phase give this smoke one sonic drop it when
is he actually get it out you know if they're gonna start pushing in the uh...
now at this point
he's got to drop it really shallow into its own and i imagine they're just
going to come right through it's really shallow for him so they can come out the
other side scary situation for sonic way too many glocks way too many bodies
yeah just flooding the site Jacob he's just a pistol god apparently it's just
incredible what he's able to do she's all cool to the killer taking everybody
down and then just getting shot through the smoke but eventually you asked about
respect now I don't think there's no there's enough really respect given
Jacob just charging at them killing everybody so ten to three six for six
on pistol so far for crazy and I am Atlanta if it was a pistol competition
man. This would be the best in the world. I saw someone mention yesterday that Jacob is like a modern day Dennis.
I could just comment on like, you know what? That's fair. Like the OG pistol god from the early days of CSGO of Dennis.
If you guys never watched him on the fanatic teams, absolute freak of nature with pistols. Yeah, it was good.
I think it's my favorite clip of Dennis is the cash. Yeah. Yeah, that's a beauty. Yeah, the USP.
Great little sequence. Yeah, Jacob's got a little bit more time to get to that level, but it's looking good. I'll tell you what.
Dennis, not many people will remember him because I spoke to PR on me today, plays with snacks,
and he told me he didn't even watch snacks play. I mean, it's crazy how much time has passed,
but it feels like it was just yesterday. That's awesome. I hope he went back on,
I'm sure he went back and watched some highlights, because snacks, back in the days of CSGO,
back in the VP lineup, he was a monster. Snacks have been showing in the clips actually.
actually a monster. Yeah, good for snacks.
Oh, she just shoulder peeking trying to block him out of a main.
They will for a big.
Think I mean, you're fine with that of your face.
Force a force in the burn of smoke a little bit early.
Jacob as well is now pushing gains and ground over in red room.
So you've got map control as well in a pretty good place so far.
Frozen playing very passively towards the B bombsite.
Just looking for pushes.
Frozen is like quietly gotten up to 17 kills and five deaths.
It's a very, like, Zihu-esque performance where you don't even really notice it, and then you look at the scoreboard and you're like, oh, there he is.
He was just running around the map.
Yeah, he was just getting, like, one kill in mid every single round, shutting it down.
Flanking, pushing to main, getting around the back.
Yeah, he was having a great time.
So is Osir.
There you go, going out again, but Brokey silences him.
They two-stepping out with the MP7.
Gets damaged, but no kill there.
frozen and Jacob a lot of broken out getting involved and taking the final
frags leaving grim 1v3 a good spacing a timing on that follow-up
rooms gonna go down shortly not now though but you know not at this very
moment just once that galil and he slips in and he grabs it really
not gonna go down eventually eventually maybe in a couple rounds time
Maybe next round, but it's going to be 11-3 regardless of Grimm's life status.
Tell you what, it's just getting away with, we get with the Galil is really scraping
the bottom of the barrel. We're having a tough time if we're NRG. Nothing going right so far in
this game. Nuke's up next. Nuke is up next. And you at the very least get a start on the CT side.
You'd like to, this is that conversation that you know you just, you'd like to see them play
themselves into this a little bit just give us like a couple rounds a couple
glimpses of a few players so it makes you feel like you know the players are
kind of woken up because everyone was been you know on this first map pretty
ineffective outside of bro everyone is pretty ineffective in their in their
positions in that first half I think it's gonna be such a disappointing feeling
obviously Fred Archie who came into this event pretty positive you know about
some of the changes they've been making the steps they've been taking on the
lead up to Atlanta and now you're in a situation where you're getting banged out
Oh, in the lower bracket on FaZe Planet,
it's gonna start being that sinking feeling in your stomach
because Nature wants out with Frozen.
Twish is jumping with a Mactan,
no resistance from NRG's defense,
and it's map point for FaZe.
Well, that happened fast. Very, very fast.
One chance, yeah. I don't know, the NRG thing is hard.
I know a lot of, especially in NA,
we like to get excited about any team that's showing us something at the moment
because we're trying to latch on to any team that can compete internationally.
And it felt like a lot of promise from NRG in the start, like the start of the year.
Again, strong in those regional events.
One fragadelphia Miami back in January, second place at the Flameland.
OC was popping off at both of those.
And then you go to Krakow, they get through stage one.
Not able to really do a whole lot in the stage two itself.
Going out 13th to 16th, there was ESL Pro League.
They go out in stage one 15th to 16th.
Blast rather damn they're going out 9th to 12th
You know so like you get to this point where it's like now that we've gone to the international
They haven't been able to make that leap to be competitive against international teams
Yeah, and you think the move for grim obviously is the one that okay
That's the step in the direction that will increase their competitive nature again
Some of these better teams, but they haven't quite figured out how to get the most out of grim yet
I think that was all that was the move that made everybody more positive about energy
They don't really care right now, charging out middle, destroying them, Jacob gets the
one, gets traded out by Sonic at least.
So 4v4 for the time being.
I'm not frozen.
Spray is a light and gets both kills on the B bomb site.
So it's looking like Faze is going to close it here and now Sonic and Nitro separated,
severed off.
Here comes Twist out through red.
Stark's been waiting for it, still loses the fight and now it's just Nitro left.
Yeah, they've just been knocked out of rhythm so hardcore that even some of these fights they're losing now
It's just like you can you can tell mentally just kind of knocked out on their feet at the moment
So nitro is gonna make his final play his final
Heroic push to try and get this diffuse going jumping around the quarter one for one 13 to three
Faze wreck energy in that first map. Yeah, I mean this is a strong start to the map
Faze never really slowed down great display of dominance from an individual skill on point twist with his 4k broke you with his clutch
nature holding down the A site and frozen is running all over the place with
Jacob in the guard of the pistols everybody had the moments everybody
showing up for a phase and a sigh of relief as they finally find some of the
form we've seen in Fort Worth. Coming up now is gonna be Nuke Viggs
Mapik and Dominant shall continue.
What is that the expected outcome because it wasn't pretty on one side of the equation
was a unit?
Yeah, I mean, phase looked great today.
actually, they shut down every opportunity NRG looked to have. And I think NRG actually
played a similar game to what got them into a good position yesterday against foot. They
just couldn't close around.
You saw how they didn't close it necessarily yesterday. The yesterday seemed to be a little
bit of a tumultuous experience for him. If you think about getting all the way up there
right through where you want to be. And then Zilch,
but you also just had these big shutdown rounds. I mean, Berkey had a one versus three nets
you a three K solo defending the A bomb site. It didn't really feel like there was a lot
of room for NRG to play the whole map. Yeah, not much resistance on the other side from NRG over there,
but for FaZe, I'm looking at guys like Frozen, who have shown up in a big way here statistically,
obviously impact can be felt, it can be seen even. Yeah, I mean, that's part of the conversation around
FaZe is whether or not they can maintain the value of the roster so that Frozen feels comfortable,
because I mean, he's been exceptional all year round. And when you see FaZe disappear,
sometimes Frozen's affected too. Yeah, it's not really the look of the FaZe that you want to see.
However, we do turn our attention a little bit to that nuke side of things
What are you what are you taking from this series now that we've gotten kind of a non-starter of a first map?
I mean they had a great nuke against Furia
When they played in Fort Worth and so for them that was a massive win over a top-level team
And so I actually was surprised they didn't want to lean into that earlier in this tournament
But I imagine it'll be some familiar waters
NRG just don't seem like they can pry bar their way in as easily as they did yesterday
Gotta start somewhere if you're an energy perhaps that'll be in the second map
Of course, that's what we're doing over here on the a stream now on the B stream
We do have a little bit of B8 BC game that guy simple
Mr. Kostaliva think it is
How's that going today at least I mean it seems like a fun ride to watch no matter what the good news is that BC game
Won both their pistols
Bad news is that they lost every other round afterwards
It was a 13-2 on the B stream which is a massive surprise because they tested vitality yesterday
They really press them on Dust2, and then they fold to, you know,
I labeled Bait as one of the worst teams of the tournament.
I've actually been impressed with the change in their game planning coming into this tournament.
So maybe that was enough to throw BC game off as well.
Also, I talked to Taz before the game, right?
And he said the long lines of, yeah, you know, we're going to play our own game.
I said, hey, Yumi says that they're not so hot on their team play over there on the other side of the equation.
And he goes, oh, thanks.
So I'm not inspired by that personally, but like...
Have I given him false information?
False confidence, maybe?
I don't know, it's very possible.
Look, they got a mirage.
I mean, let's talk a little bit about the idea of BC Gamer in the back, the other direction.
Oh, well, I do hope for this BC Gamer.
All right.
I could be cut or...
Okay, I do hope this BC Gamer roster is going to find its foot at some point,
because, you know, you've got some great talent on this team that needs to be able to perform
at a high level.
I mean, we have star players.
We have, you know, you have Apex yesterday saying that he does believe that
Simple can find that form again. He just needs a good team around him as well. So that's the
difficulty that roster's experience. But it's so fun to watch, which is exactly what we're going
to do. We're going to sit back. We're going to watch a little bit more Counter-Strike,
quick break, and we come back. You're watching the Intel Extreme Masters in Atlanta, 2026.
Something special to talk about is G1, it's Lancer, we're gonna have to get a mixup!
We are back!
One flashing you, I'm just hacking, hey?
Yeah, I'm holding A, you can go.
Donut, donut, donut.
Close, right, close.
I'm fine.
Two more mid, in donuts!
Yeah, I was blind.
One more.
Two donuts, one.
Two donuts.
One more.
I got one.
Nice.
Two boys.
Red one.
One more.
That's here.
Two with twisters.
They have contact B soon.
They might go there.
They are not here.
Two banana.
One with two. One with one.
No!
Oh, bro!
I'm in game.
Cave two! Find a box and on the left.
I'm trying to find it.
Careful, he's spamming.
experience
Welcome OC to the Jason Rogan experience
You're the long line of you're the next in a long line of North American operas and marksmen
Coming on to the show
I'm I guess I'm just looking if you look back in the history of North American Counter-Strike
What are your big op influences is there anyone that's really peaked your interest? No, no, no really
Yeah, there hasn't been a whole lot of good offers coming out of the region
Yeah, I mean kind of suck
What is it about you that you think that makes you such an intriguing sniper for the team?
Like what was it about the weapon that first cast you interested in?
Nothing, it was actually just, no one else wanted it and when I first saw my team, or
first open team, they were like, yeah, I don't want to hop, no one else wants to hop, so I
was like, alright, I'll try it out.
Yeah, that's fair.
You know, I'm back in the day, you know, way back in the day, I was somewhat of a marksman
myself.
I quite enjoyed picking up the big green, running around the map.
I had great form.
I have shoulder straight back, you know, perfect posture.
Yeah, perfect.
Can you show me what you look like when you're, oh man, I don't know what you got.
Yeah, like a little bit of a lean to it.
Yeah.
So your shots probably flick to the left a little bit more.
Yeah.
I mean, my back has definitely been feeling the past few years playing.
So yeah, I think that's one of the things most North American
operators saying going over to Europe where they have that perfect posture is
like that, that little lean that you've got going on.
that throws you off quite a bit. If your fundamentals are off, once you get to the big leagues,
it's going to be tough.
Oh, yeah.
What do you think about the problem? What do you think if Valve actually brought a bow
and arrow into the game with Counter-Strike?
Especially for North Americans, I could feel it could be a huge benefit.
Yeah. I mean, it seems like us being on the same playing field or level with the Europeans,
it doesn't help. So we need some sort of advantage over them. So maybe a bow would help us.
Right. We know how to handle a bow.
We got some experience with that.
I think that could actually be the move
that makes North American Counter-Shark
come right back into the map.
Yeah, I mean, it'd be exciting to try out a new gun.
I mean, not even a gun, just a bow and arrow, yeah.
Yeah, pin people to the wall, it'd be great.
Jason Brogan podcast, check it out!
St. Jason, progame, experience.
Counter-Strike by day, Jason Brogan podcast by night.
Constant Brogan, let's begin.
Recite your baseline.
A thin black reticle began to spin.
A sequence of rolls, interlinked within rolls, interlinked within rolls, interlinked within one system.
Rolls.
Have you ever been in a system?
Rolls.
Do they keep you in a roll?
Cells.
Oh, you don't even smile.
Do you long to answer their questions?
Fraggs.
Would they understand if you didn't?
Frank, when you're not performing your duties, can they reduce you to a number?
Stats.
What's it like to hold the drop of someone you loved, interlinked?
What's that mean?
What a day, hmm?
You look lonely.
I can fix that.
The free Basmatiors, the free Superstars.
In 2017, Atlanta became the center of the Counter-Strike world when the E-League major
packed up the Fox Theater with fans from across the globe.
It was the first CSGO major ever held in North America, proving esports could fill iconic
venues just like traditional sports.
And guess what?
Nearly a decade later, we are right back here in Atlanta.
But we're in CS2 now and we're back in Atlanta and it is an IEM.
Yeah, let's keep the show going shall we?
Do y'all know anything about video games?
Any video gamers?
That man's a video gamer.
I can smell it.
I know it.
Hey, man.
I'm curious.
See, if I keep doing this, I'm dodging my camera guy.
Do y'all play video games?
No?
I like your flowers.
Oh!
For some reason, Atlanta seemed a little reluctant to talk to me about video games in
some regards.
Talking to Atlanta's kind of like this.
It's not a whole lot going on here right now.
If you play ten games in one night, how many games out of ten do you win?
Five.
What does Atlanta know about video games?
I go a little farther back, so I like arcades.
Would you play with teammates or do you always play by yourself?
I play by myself.
Have you ever heard of a game called Counter Strike?
Counter Strike, yeah, yeah, I heard of it before I never played it though.
Have you ever considered team sports?
Yes.
What do you think about people getting paid money to play video games?
That's pretty cool.
Is there anything you want to say on your behalf?
Yeah
Well, it's not looking like you're gonna see
Phase get phased out all of this competition. They're looking very good right now and energy
It's all on them all the pressure on their shoulders to perform when you come into an American event as the American team
There's a lot of expectations on your own shoulders and hopes and dreams of the fans to see you play
and unfortunately Fedarchi, they're not putting up a competitive showing here in Elimination Day.
It's also it's also like just the weight of like all the all the effort and time and energy you've put over the past few months.
Remember like they've been you know struggling at some of these events so each one you're working on and that work is not showing right now.
Nitro and Twist the two former teammates go and head-to-head both them captains now this team.
Twist playing a number of years under Nitro's leadership.
Ten trophies won together during their time on liquid including that record setting Grant slam one in just sixty
Well the record for now Jason vitality job
Nobody is breaking that record nobody is winning a grand slam in less than sixty three days ever again
Let's use the tournament or so space out. No, it's just because we've not changed it right like you can't just can't win
Yeah, you can't win those four events and quite the same streak. They did. That's true. All right. Well with vitality probably get close to it
Well two in one year is its own record, you know
Yeah, there we go.
They've had plenty of head and tail for that quest.
Don't take this one away from them.
But Phase 1's NRG going on on Nuke now.
It's gonna be Phases Map Pig.
They dominate NRG on their map pig.
Now it's Nuke.
You highlight the fact that NRG
at least get to start on CT side,
but how much is that really gonna help?
Yeah, whatever consolation prize that is.
I mean, they're not gonna win the Pace Pills.
Apparently, they're not gonna win Pistols
because Phases 6 for 6 at the event so far,
so why the hell not?
I mean, just Nuke in terms of win rates
over the last three months, six new maps played for NRG.
They've won 17% of them, phase stepping up at a 75% clip.
Now some of the lineups in those matches
of ROVC a little bit different, but a huge disparity
in the way that these teams have performed,
the cores of these teams have performed.
So huge task for NRG, but again,
the best is starting on the CT side,
at least they have that.
Right now, boys, we are our own worst enemy, right?
In terms of being overconfident,
I'm thinking that this is already a dump.
So if we come in fully, fully reset after the first map without any expectations, we're going to be fine.
I like that very much. That's a very astute observation from NKJ.
Their own worst enemies based off the confidence built up in the first map. Let's see if it continues in the pistol.
Well, Pistor round goes early in favor of NRG, then frozen gets two, but Sonic's coming in and finally looking like Faze is going to lose a pistol round here in Atlanta.
And they have so and the t-side nuke pistol is so important
So it's a great one to pick up here if you're on g stealing that one away a great performance from sonic
We mentioned a lot of the individuals on energy very very quiet on ancient
He's getting out to a good start two kills in the pistol round to help them secure it an energy on that CT side
They get the hot start
There's the first kill from nitro and grim each getting one traded off eventually
But it's sonic coming through the mini smoke that just wrecks frozen and twists lovely pistol rounds and energy up by one
Yeah, I stopped the bomb plant as well, so it's gonna be a full eco for FaZe in the next round.
Firstly, did the series for energy. Pretty cool?
Yeah. Cool or bad, one of the two, but let's see how much they can build on this.
It's gonna be a second round as well.
You'd think so, right? No utility even invested for FaZe, so taking their time breaking some windows, having a chitchat here in round two.
Should be very simple affair for energy to break this up and take this one with ease. Build up some money themselves for the CT side.
Well, over on the other stream, the B-String, we've got BC game taking on Bait, gonna tell
you the results, so if you don't want that spoiled for some reason, let it, you can,
you have a few seconds.
Okay, here we go.
I like that.
Alright, Bait won that first map, overpassed 13-2, BC game's map pick, they got two rounds
on it.
That's not gonna work out.
Oh, that hurts.
Oh no.
Okay, let's just the first.
Yeah, we're gonna crack down pretty quickly.
Two kills not too bad considering what you bring in force rebies out of Grim and OC and one M4 is actually lost after the fact
So that's quite nice for a phase
Capital a BC game only one two rounds on the map pictures. That's that is a bit rough. I'm not gonna lie
Then again, I don't do just only one three on theirs
Yeah
That's a great point
And but now I get to all their opponents map a so they're on there with their other way
Yeah. The much better game here.
Buyer's gonna come through for FaZe. You got to clear it out for Twisted with the else on the AK-47 and a good amount of utility.
Pretty chill opening thus far.
Some utility being sent outside. Twisted, Jacob ready there. Frozen and Brokey holding on towards the lobby for the T side.
It's nature to supportively chuck out these walls.
Bro starts in secret to be able to look at top silo, track anyone moving behind the wall towards secret.
Twist has seen that trajectory, so those ones playing over in mini.
So quietly walking along these smokes, now stepping into big garage.
Smokers broke and open one for one trade, but Twist doubles up.
Yeah, then steps out, bro. It's gonna be the response.
the response. So Twizz dies, now the final three from FaZe, making the way through the
ramp room, descending down into the B bomb site. There's one player there to meet them.
It is Bro who's rotating as fast as he can, over towards the double doors, but he's been
molotov, so that's going to give him time for FaZe to move into the site and get that
plant. Everything is going to be how long you can take control side here. Flashbang
is out in H1, spots both doors, all bins, one for one, Frozen chimes in, and now it's
just OC. Yeah, OC on his own, marching right back in, and really tough to see a world in
which he gets into this one. He doesn't have a kit on his back. The positions are so strong
for the two-faced players who take big whips and it's not going to happen. Broke, he gets
the headshot. And, okay, Jay happy with Twizz as well, who did get that all-important double
kill early in the round outside. Yeah, double kill is great, obviously, for the two kills
it provides, but also pulls all the defense outside. They never saw the play towards ramp
room coming. They never saw building up, never had that information. So, you know, when these
two kills come out from Twizz, that defense is going to shift. Your ramp room player is
going to rotate away to guard underneath Heaven, so you have that opening towards Ramp Room
and it's a lovely call from Twiiss to have FaZe slide into that opening and fight on
easy avenue to the lower site. First gun round on the board and Energy's money already have
issues. 5-7 on Grim, MP9 on Nitro. And this time FaZe is willing to challenge without
a smoke wall. They're just saying, take the fight if you want it, we're here.
throws in not going to handle the pressure so the lobby crunch has paid off
your friend Archie so far in terms of getting the advantage but can they
hold on to it they think they were going downstairs through secret and
actually this wrap around through heaven if Sonic goes down for free or if they
just bypass him entirely not making any noise all the way here for phase but they
spotted Jacob so they know what's up Sonic goes out and checks towards heaven
spots twist and now you've got Broke left in a 1v4 so it's gonna be tough to even
see him getting close to this so at least they clocked out early they gave a spot
then climbed up towards half it otherwise that could have been pretty
disastrous that's probably the best look we've seen out of energy so far in these
two maps of plays in terms of reading what was coming and handling kind of that
that attack plug in the gap really really quickly ramp player shifts back to
help out sonic grabs the first kill sonic clears the wrap around through heaven
really well done off the back of a lobby crunch as well with low econ instead of
playing it passively phase one of the fight for that lobby control both of
them end up going down to the five seven MP9 so energy or nursing this lead and
they've put phase into an awkward monetary situation in AK-47 a glill and
upgraded pistols for the T side here in round five
and the teams really had money to bring out the AWP yet
That should be coming for OC very, very shortly, especially after a win here that'll wreck the economy of FaZe.
It's gonna be coming out, bro.
He needs to drop. He's got no utility to delay anything, so as soon as contact is made, if that first kill's not clean, he gotta dip.
Well, it ain't clean, and he drops.
and he drops.
Now, Chloe O.C. over bigots, caught by a flash.
Now, that gives Toys some room to move.
He's going to take that space away.
So, more pressure on Bro.
He has no help now from his teammates.
Nitro just dropped down the vent,
so he's going to be watching secret for the moment
because they don't really have the information
if anyone made it across, clearing outside at the moment.
But yeah, this is all on Bro initially,
and then how fast Nitro can react.
Nitro's actually still back up the vent,
so Broly's on his own.
He's handling nothing, in fact.
It looks like he was at least going to get one kill out of that, but absolutely nothing is devastating here for NRG.
Advantage for FaZe. Twist will follow it up. Ghost again, but Nitro's got it this time.
Jacob Stiegel rings his ears, and now you've got Grimadosi who have no other option but to back off and save these weapons and allow FaZe up to two.
Alright, we're getting into a really grimy economic tug of war. Both teams fighting with scraps, missing weapons, missing utility, but making it work.
Great round again from Twist who delivers another critical double kill to break this round open.
Felt like NRG knew, right? With the way Bro dropped, with the way Nitro was invents.
I think once the outside portion was clear, that was kind of the call that was like...
I think they were reading that the fallback from Ramp4re exacted the upper bombsite and just wrong.
Unfortunately...
...terrorists win.
3 to 2.
NRG will invest.
Again, that AWPA feels it's just going to be a little bit of lucid for a while.
Nitro can drop it over with 5300, but he has condemned himself to no armor, so he's going
to go for the M4, so still OC is going to have to play with the FAMAS.
A timeout from FaZe, they want to capitalize on this moment.
Tired of the back and forth, they know the money's got to be in a really rough spot for
NRG's CT side.
They know the economy's tough to manage there, so cranking up and continuing on to apply
the pressure, knowing this is a breaking point for the CT side economy.
And just to highlight it, take a look at OC's money as we have it up on the screen during
the timeout, saving $27.50.
That's money for an AWP down the road that he wants to get out on the CT side.
For Faze, you're loving the fact that you haven't had to encounter it now for six, this
will be the sixth round and you haven't had to deal with it yet.
Make it things as easy as possible as we get live in around six.
Ah, okay, so he's still very vocal in that time out as well, making the most of it.
NRG, I think it's enough fight. Let's see how much resistance they can put up with it.
Throwing out a smoke outside towards right.
Oh, wow, Sonic to get aggressive in behind it, and the aggressive maneuver has not paid off.
It's Brokey, who wins the opening fight for face.
Don't even hate it paired up with a flashbang. Just couldn't clean up their kill
So Brokey's brought low
Backs off just a little bit carrying the bomb as well. Twist has the more advanced position crawling along this wall
Lovely shot from Jacob bro trying to get some information. It got way more than he bargained for
Five on three and incredibly strong control outside with twist in big garage
the only option that energy has is to push this lobby. Nobody's going to be
home from the phase side of things. So Grimnitra and OC are going to have to recover at 3 vs 5.
Around the back. I'm playing a blind two. They've got at least some control of the
lobby, but the problem is they don't control anything else, so I'm not worried about getting
pushed from anywhere. So OC is starting to try and gather some information, so it goes back over
towards hell. And in the meantime, you see FaZe ascending to the heavens. Yeah, and there's no
for O.T. to really defend against this in any significant way, so Grimm probably is going
to end up being a free kill. Like, they know that this option is available? Uh-oh.
Yeah, would have had there been something crazy coming up the ladder for O.T., but that's the
round phase I was looking for. That's what the timeout was taking. Talk through that round with
your full buy, make sure you string two together, and you have gotten that reset of the CT side
economy. So absolutely brutal. Everyone from NRG down around 2000 except for OC4800 as he saved
plenty of cash. That'll be the AWP in the next round. The phase tie things up and the lead of NRG
has disappeared. Yeah, Gremnauts are happy. Whoa, and OC, how old they done that? Okay,
Double dink to a headshot with the USP and then we see the D.E.G.O.L come out, P250 having to go as well.
Twist not having fun?
No, two AKs have been picked up here for NRG. This is doable. All of a sudden, Twist trying to isolate the fights.
He's got pro, taking him off the top of red,
Grim down to 1HP and a full panic swiveling back and forth. Still alive somehow.
Twist is cleaning up the mess though.
And then eventually, I think ILs do come through to round out and face his favor,
but a lot more done than expected in that round for NRG.
Thrust has been doing a lot for his team in these in these first six seven eight rounds of plural seven rounds of completed
I said, you're just erupted the chat multiple multiple double kills
Like this one right here saving the day. I think this is just a little too ambitious
This is a great opening to this like stack outside. I think the follow-up pushes right you get so pumped off those two kills
The recovery of the weapon you feel like you can win those fights, but that over aggression continue to push
I think this is what gave the round back to phase
If you can just back off and play the 5-on-3, grab an AK if possible, if not, just play with the pistols.
But Twist loves that he gets all those players just pushing into his crosshair.
All the smokes outside here for face, they're throwing everything they've got.
They've been doing that a lot right? I mean it's typical on Nuke's initial smoke wall to get some utility follow-up smoke wall as well to really secure
But then no one moves behind it right so it's
Kind of a RU is trying to keep most of their players in there
We've got Grim who's committed towards high he loses to fight against Jacob strong opening kill here for face
We're gonna accelerate trying to get into us the sides
Gotta be bro to hold on and he does well battling two players making three bro gets the dink as well
OC finishes them off. It's got to be frozen, but OC will deny and that is bro with a huge effort on the back of the side
Yeah, even play with a handicapped he broke his ankles on the drop missed the silent drop
So it took 22 damage and just takes the fights anyways. What a sequence
bouncing back both sides of silos
No, all the fights were gonna come even the dink on the fourth is lovely
So big win and a big stand and a pretty important round to win when you because you were you touched on it
Like most of the time we've seen that smoke wall. It's twist getting into big garages
maybe some regression towards secret so trying to build off that success by throwing a little trickery into it this time the upper
Bomb site and you stop that cold even with Grim getting annihilated by Jacob right like the first code goes in paper a phase
You're really weak in that defense. So the only way they won that round is if bro pops off the way he did
I'll see coming in quickly to clean up the rest
So again those smokes go outside this time you're gonna go back to that standard approach of having twist head out there and play in and around them
Dodging the first couple of bullets and getting over towards secret.
Turn it very quietly as well.
And again, the slow creep in towards ramp room. Ocean bro to defend.
Ocean's gonna miss that first shot, but this was the combination to win the last round. Looking to do it again.
With that utility phase, hit the pause button and worry about getting flanked out.
There's no smokes coming in from that RG. They're not blocking them in that way.
And Twist is going to start making his way down secret towards lower bombsite.
Yeah, I wonder what the plan is. I mean, if you haven't come back up, or you're going to have a few stream out the door,
so popping up the vent seems kind of redundant, but...
That's what it's looking like at the moment. It's Twist is clearing things out downstairs. He's control-side.
But if they want to meet up with him, they're going to have to go through ramp room,
and you still have Bro there, and you still have OC ready in ramp as well.
He's looking really really rough for FaZe.
Frozen making some noise so it was hot to keep eyes pinned on him, keep players on that upper ball side
for the final 25 seconds, Twist breaks up in the windows, OC breaks open, Nekshu and Bro again!
Multi-kill hold, spraying away, back to back rounds, back to back triples, Bro keep fighting on,
no time to do anything, and it's the Bro OC combo that have won two rounds in a row here for NRG.
Yeah, and most of that being at the lift in by Bro, what a performance in these last two rounds.
Huge for him to make the stand that's keeping energy in this fight five to four now and he's reversed the fortunes now
It's them flush with cash now. It's phase you have to scrape together a pie here
Lovely sequence and lineup and a good read from Ocean and bro
We were just like yeah, we know you backed off this initial push, but we feel like you're coming back Ocean never left him
Really good defensive stand and it's phase back to pistols
And I mean if you're NRG after those two rounds from bro, you're looking down the line, you're
like 8-4 boys.
Run the rest of these rounds.
Okay.
Here we go.
Get a big ol' boost goin' on.
Here we go.
I'm not finding anything.
Not finding anything yet.
Aw.
There's a lot of resources to maintain that boost.
That's like you brought any resources into the round, you know?
Yeah, you brought them.
I mean resources and players.
The most valuable resource you have in a round of four unarmored glocks and an unarmored
deagle is the players themselves.
Is the deagle.
A big deagle here for Frozen.
See what he can do with it.
Nothing at the moment.
Just hanging out.
OC's AWP is going to be positioned towards ramping and sliding between ramp and outside.
A little bit concerned about the potential for Baro to get pushed and rushed.
Sonic grabbing this angle, OC can shift over to help him if they don't turn right in towards Mini.
Run boost attempts.
Woo!
Made it.
Another 10.
Recently died, Sonic with his second COC.
Now a shot until Frozen's D.Golf hold you up!
Here we go!
Don't give a god to kills now. They do it piece in the hands of bro. Keep it looking bro
Look at a say that we damn it comes off the ladder and broke he somehow gets back into a position where it could get this kill
Frozen fighting on the eagle not able to get it in bro again
Stabilize his try not she has what a big role he's played at the moment 13 and 6
He's big bro right now. Yeah, you could see a little bit scary when that off goes over to broke
You never know what he's gonna be able to bust out with it
And wild 1v3 had on ancients
six four a two-round lead for NRG flush with cash no more financial issues for
them for the last two rounds of this half and phase now bringing a full set of
AK-47s into the party well four of them one glill
Nature in nitro. Damage against one another. Nature came out on top with utility. Jacob
flying to further forward. OC has to back away.
Okay Jacob, how do we want to play this? Grim's going to get aggressive in lobby. Off angle
as nature steps in. Galil versus M4. M4 is going to come out on top. Dink taken by Grim.
That's the equalized into a 4v4.
Grim are on the back.
For us, I'm gonna lose the fight against Bro, an advantage now siding with NRG thanks to
Bro again.
A lot of damage taken though for both Grim and Bro.
Well, now we turn our gaze down to Sonic needs to live after this engagement. He's kind of in a committed position
Oh, this is the shots now. They know exactly where he is. So he falls away trying to just stay alive by some time
And maybe get a second crack in the whip here
You've got broke he down there with the bomb if that bomb spills
And it's gonna be a lot more difficult here for faith because now it's a recovery mission just to get the C4 back
And so it does step out picks it up at Sonic is intelligently dropped back
But here's Jacob making his move. Yeah, it's cool seeing Jacob be the escape valve really good play from Jacob
Twist has the avenue up the vents into the upper bomb site and all of energy is addressing the lower sites 15 seconds
Oh, dude now. They've got an angle is broke out. Yep
But Jacob will he clear it will we check it twist goes across Jacob gets caught in an awkward spot
But he stays alive and that bomb plant is coming in but Jacob can go nowhere
Look at the HP though not an easy retake even in a four on two
Yeah, but the Nade comes in from Twist towards Heaven.
Cause Nade's here available for OC.
Jkip's gonna be spammed down with boards and stands.
So it's gotta be Twist and they're all low! And Twist has got one!
Looking to be flanked though.
OC comes in from Heaven to save the day.
And Faze nearly find a way, but
there will be NRG to recover it, nonetheless.
Yeah, nicely done, Twist.
You can see Reid in the situation.
Knows where the follow-up peek is gonna come.
Nowhere the other one disappeared off to.
Almost piecing it together.
But again, I mean, again, bro.
to Jacob, the information, the spot, knowing that he's kind of trapped him behind the squeak
vent, you can see just the spam. Because Broce, and he's trapped, he can go nowhere. I've
done great damage to him. He's red. Easy kill to activate the retake. And no conversion
for FaZe. NRG on a bit of a run to close out this first half. Now, fuller rounds in a row
on the CT side of Nuke.
I heard a call from FaZe saying, we're good. And I think you will be so happy with full
rounds. Obviously, if you squeeze out a fifth round on the T side, it's going to be a lot
better for FaZe considering for the first time in this event they have lost the
pistol round in the half. Twist charges outside faster this time. He gets stopped
by OC but it's fast into with the upper ball side but it's gonna be a swift end
for FaZe. NRG hold on a much more competitive second map here. We've got
NRG in the building.
I
My head is spinning now, Don't want my life to be in it
I just wanna feel whole again, yeah When you come around
My heart is bursting out, I don't wanna be strangers in these
Cosmic life for cinema is cruel
I swear I saw the light
I pushed the body
Flying saucer out of space
Only enough can bring me face to face with
I swear I saw your eyes
Well, for the first time in this series, NRG showed off a great half of Counter-Strike,
starting out a little bit slow in the middle stretch there from FaZe with a nice run, but
energy bounce right back and they close that half really really strong five
round runs and take an eight to four lead into the second half and energy of a
chance of taking this to that third map decider and it really is bro stepping up
right now this is really impressive from him 15-7 as he goes into the second half
NRG winning the pistol in the first half dishing out faces first pistol loss of
the event so far let's see if they can get another one a T side pistol a nuke
with an eight to four lead would be massive for NRG's chances looks like a
different energy teams so far on this map versus ancient the first one but the
T side on ancient was pretty rough so let's see what this T side's gonna look
like already whittled down brokeie and twist chiming in with taps to the domes
Ocean Sonic hit the deck in a 3v5 looking like FaZe is gonna continue
just having that dominant pistol record
Yeah, there's two clean taps to kick off this pistol, really.
I believe you feel installed out if you're in an RG, you're starting to pick together
the pieces.
What can we actually do in this pistol?
Yeah, you just want your pieces of utility as well to try and flush twist out from behind
Redbox, and he just ends up killing Sonic straight to the head.
So that's a Molotov gone now.
Smoke flash remaining for these three energy players.
No, no good options. You know, I'm just gonna say that right now. There's not a good option on the board
So someone's gonna have to brute force it's been bro called upon time after time on the CT side
I don't know if he's gonna be able to do it grim finds an opening with the p250
There goes bro over towards hot so grim and night you're gonna try and drop down into the lower bomb site
28 seconds on the clock, but even the plant is gonna be contested. Yeah, the plant will be huge though if they're nice to seal it away
They're gonna plant it front double doors. He actually allowed the plant to go through so there's gonna be a force by in the next round
to front on G which gives them a chance to keep this up into the second, but
He's wanting to piss around getting back to winning ways in that department only losing the one player
Yeah, helps when you start out with those two kills and you could see everyone just backs off
And you just wait until energy commits themselves to a bomb site and it's nice and easy from there
No need to give him any 1v1s on the way even despite Grim's lovely shot and ramp room with a p250. It's just too far out of reach
8-5 and here's that second round by coming in.
Mac 10's on the board, Grim Ocean bro feels like an upper bust.
If you're fazed that had to have been the conversation too, watch out for an upper pop
real real quick.
Flash is out. Here comes Quinn. Charge in. Nits are going to die. Jink to the back of
the site. Vimasko is spinning, but can't get anything out of it. Now Broke, you're going
to be Molotov. Go forward, sort of frozen. He actually runs through it all. Utility being
tagged. Frozen going in. Denying the plant. And that's the way they suffocate them. Just
allegiance of players running off the top of heaven.
It's also a ton of courage to run through that Heaven Molotov and take those fights
standing inside the flames, willing to take the damage as well, but NRG never expected
it.
Once that Molotov gets in place and is burning for like half a second, they felt really safe
and comfortable inside the bomb site, just completely caught off guard.
Such great work from Frozen, stops the plant.
OC and Grimkant contain it and then Twist slides in through the smoke as well.
safe from FaZe. That's one way to describe it. It is highly accurate. I chose to go
with courage. BigBalls was a close second choice. Yes. I'm glad we didn't say it because
then NKJ got... Yeah, he gets his time in the sun, doesn't he? I've really enjoyed
NKJ in this FaZe team to be honest. I love the energy he's bringing to the team and
every time we do a listening, he's firing them up. He's a fun dude to talk to. He's
like a geeky counter strike guy. If you could just tell he's got like a certain
just level of joy and just enjoyment and passion for just the competition of
counter strike. And the fact he's got an opportunity to be the coach of FaZe as
well and to have players like twists and frozen on his squad. He's quietly had a
pretty long coaching career as well. Stepping into this one I think FaZe
organization talked to them and Fort Worth they've been very pleased with the
early returns and the early addition of him into this roster and how it fits
into the team.
Well, frozen, that is beautiful work, nice and easy on the first two, and hangs in there,
eventually getting his third kill as well before being overwhelmed, and Burrell pick
up the bomb, but all of his teammates are now gone.
Just a touch on it before we get too far away and as this round lines down, NKJ before joining
FaZe is his coaching career two years in ENCE from 2024-2026, spent about a year in Entropic
Before that, coaching for big, sprouted and alternate attacks also on the resume.
So, turning in coach over the years,
but active in coaching roles since 2018.
This is obviously the most high profile position he's taken behind a squad
inside the phase jersey.
Yeah.
And he comes in at the lowest point as well.
Yeah, true.
And nature also coming in from Ed's as well.
So, you know, at least has that little connection synergy.
But yeah, I was talking to him about coming in at a tough time for phase.
And I'm like, what is your mentality as a coach when you actually come into a team?
Like when it's in this state and you've got experience players, but you know, they've just missed out on the most important tournament of the year and said,
You know, you just kind of go in and you kind of feel it out first. You know, it's like, all right, what's the vibe like a blind man out of an orgy?
That's an image
Okay, bro's got an opening kill. Well done
Brokey missing his initial shot with the off so five on four advantage
But maybe not for long. Brokey's maintaining his aggression.
Oh, Brokey.
Oh, that could have been something.
Well, he's taking Sonic and removed that play away from NRG.
They're gonna accelerate, they're gonna send players down lower and just try and spring towards the double doors here.
Yeah, and actually because they're so quick and because Brokey wasn't able to break that second smoke, missed the nade,
They have no information. They can't drop down vents when they hear those footsteps
So once again, it's on brokeie to defend against this. He wants to get aggressive
There he goes brokeie misses and he's gonna have to fall back behind the spoke because of that
It does give energy a better chance to win this round now. I love those plays from brokeie man
If he hits that shot, what a great advantage it is
Unfortunately, it doesn't go his way four on four in the lower bomb site
There's two kits available on frozen in nature a little bit of utility to activate this retake
Ose's also got some to help the post plan and bro is in a lurk position likely to come down vents shortly
Oh, coming in from the same side here. It's not a fun retake for Faze, but they have to try and get past the first obstacle and they just want Grimm.
Shuts them down, Nitro chases after a little smile on the face of Grimm as he's happy with his work.
Yeah, those are the kind of performances out of Grimm where you're like, God, he's a really valuable, really strong player.
We need to see him more consistently. That's a lovely spray down from Grimm.
Holding off his phase try and turn the corner through the choke point.
Great control on the spray. Great control dodging the flashes as well. Clean triple.
And Nitro finishes it off. 9-7.
Yeah, it was nasty. He knows what he's done.
Grimithy.
Well, you have a- it's kind of a- this is a chance to knock out- oh my.
Lordy, Lordy, Lordy.
All right, well, advantage for NRG, and you were saying, Jason?
I was going to say, this is a chance for a great knockout blow if you're NRG.
You get up to 10 if you win this round.
Money for phase would be gone.
Look at what they've fought into.
Look how much is remaining.
So if you take all these weapons away, you're looking at 10-7, an easy round against likely pistols,
and that feels like the best avenue to a victory is just to hit them hard right here
and make this as easy as possible down the stretch.
Now, I think FaZe, I think their philosophy might just be even at this point already in
the round in a 4v5, who cares about the lower bombsite?
If they go downstairs, if they plant the bomb there, we need to maintain this AWP M4 and
FAMAS, so I think for them this is more about just hoping and praying NRG try to finish
at the upper bombsite, and if not they'll take the loss but bring the weapons forward.
It's a little bit of a fake utility that shows NRG want to wrap outside when it may be turn in towards mini
But phase is already committed to this save
As long as nitro doesn't try and be too cute tactically should be fine
That's Grimm stepping in towards nature. We'll get the kill up, check out where the swift response in the plant is coming in.
So once you got control of that B bomb site and you don't really have the resources to think about a retake here for FaZe,
LNG will be loving the fact that they're going to go up to double figures without having to fight for it right down to the final wire here.
Yeah, three weapons saved though and brought into the next round. AK-47 picked up off Grimm's body. FaZe will be happy about that one.
Ops, still going to be alive for Brokey, so next round is still going to be a test for
NRG.
They don't get that really clean round due to the decision of FaZe to stack the upper
bomb site.
Love the call out of FaZe, gives them another competitive round down the stretch, and this
map starts coming to a close.
18 coming up.
Okay, he's got a little flip side tactic with a touch of zantars. Okay, that sounds like a good
Interesting combination doesn't it? Well flip side for those of you who were not around for the old flip side days
Early team that that simple was on blade
In game leading a lot of it coaching as well
They were a team that popped off at the Majors and then disappeared into the next Major all the rounds.
They were the team that just kind of fight, only appeared at the Major.
Only appeared at the Major to ruin the favourites run.
I feel like there was a lot of CIS teams back then.
Even when Vega Squadron started coming to the Majors too, they were the same Viper.
They were ruining the Major.
Yeah, you had a great time with the Shark Meet.
I loved Vega Squadron.
Shout out to OG Chopper.
QB Fire as well.
as well
Yeah, a lot of those and they got a lot of them spat out like the CIS players who went on to be like really really strong really really good
Boomage came out of the that Quanson Bellator fire team as well
10-7 as this time out comes to a close
Phase don't invest a whole lot around these three saved weapons bro keys off frozen Zem4 Jacob has the AK 47
Not even picking up a whole lot of utility around it either
So I'm gonna trust that these three weapons can do some damage for phase
We're going to talk about having some struggles closing out maps.
That was the story of NRG's day one, a 9-3 lead over foot after the first half of ancient.
End up losing the second half 3-9 and then losing the map in overtime as well.
And again, another chance to retry it, closing out a lead here on Nuke, 10-7.
Tons of control outside for energy, but I think the lack of any resistance and the quiet
as they take these positions makes them a little bit nervous.
Still trying to piece together exactly what they're going to be going up against.
AWP on Brokey is playing downstairs in secret. Other than that, the other four players are stacking the upper bomb site.
That's a crappy sound cue to make in that moment. It's been heard for sure.
Oh, luckily.
30 seconds on the clock.
Your first target is a USP and I should clear that course.
It's what's sad about that, but Frozen has got the rifle and this is Jacob also chiming into the kill feed and NRG.
Oh, it's collapsing. 15 seconds. Jacob's got another and it's just Grim!
Bokey though, stops that from happening. Grim was showing some real skills in that moment.
Heartbreaking. His phase will take it away.
They snatch one out, the classic phase, low by round, they risk a lot by not investing
really a whole lot around the three saved weapons, stack at the upper bomb site, energy
never able to piece it together.
With 30 seconds on the clock, they're just committed to this play at this point and when
they find out the weapons are here that Jacobs, cutting them down so is frozen, there's nothing
else, there's nowhere else they can go.
And look what it means to phase.
Yeah, big celebrations.
to see if this is the opportunity to start breaking away on a G and getting into a position to win this series 2-0
But still a two round lead for the T side here, and they've got a decent buy AK-47s out
I won't go ill here for bro
It lands right on top of Sonic. That's 48 health left. That's a great one from Broke. Nice chuck
Doesn't have any utility on him at the moment to break those smokes on the cross
So Sonic is going to get access to secret, Bro's going to follow up slowly, other three
players are going to try and connect through ramp room, that will be frozen to defend.
Bro keep playing under heaven, can shift quickly, but that requires frozen to stay alive.
And 45 seconds, we got Broke transitioning that ult over towards ramp, not going to take
a deeper angle, his teammate steps forward as well, that frozen going to try and draw
with Grim, you really need to land a shot if you're Broke, you can protect your teammate
in that aggressive position, he misses it but that makes up for it on the second time,
so he'll drop back, Bro in the meantime has moved forward and opened up the double doors,
which is going to put pressure on Swiss to turn, but he will do that with no issue.
And now Brokey waits, another kill from the AWP, carving up NRG.
Brokey turns around and deals a decon as well, and it's just Nitro left.
Brokey stays alive, barely alive, and gets the no scope.
Brokey stepping up at the end of the map here, hoping he can get this two-oh over the line.
A reminder of what Brokey looks like when he hits the flow state.
He just reads every single fight that follows,
grabs the first shot on the jumping player over towards ramp room, secures that kill, drops down.
Lovely work with this angle, but it's the turn. It's the realization as Twist goes for another fight,
deep onto the ramp. It's his responsibility to turn and look behind. What a great shot over towards Deacon.
And NRG can't believe it's stunned.
Here comes Guren, out towards Netu. Grimdap first, broken. Try to drop. Can't get away.
has to fight and he goes back this time not going to connect the no scope bro
overwhelms him with a tech knife and now trying to slip down the vent is so I can
enforce him to him getting caught by jake so a 2v4 here for NRG and nature's
already rotated down to the lower B site yeah energy trying to create a bunch of
chaos on the map and find some gaps to slip into that phase wouldn't be looking
at not working especially up at upper bomb site well done so nitro's got an
up no armor bros got the bomb on his back no one's inside the bomb site to
clear out gonna be tough to even get the plants
well patiently waiting is nitro for any kind of peek out of that decontour just
have to risk it that's the hard part there's no there's no way to cover
control side so bros just gonna have to cross his fingers well luckily no one's
going to hunt down that bomb plant. They feel comfortable to play the retake, so you get
the planted, and Bro and Nitro will have a chance at this. Close that decontour, hearing
the rotations, but as Nitro dies, Bro realizes it's got to be a fight, steps out into the
open, picks up a rifle. Still three targets to find. That defuse has started, it is not
really planted for him any longer, so defuse comes through, kill comes in from Frozen,
and a tie game again. So it looks like Broke is being the difference making to just sort of shift the
tides in favor of FaZe again and the time out here for NRG. I like the play from Nature as well,
playing that super passive just knowing the doors open, having the off angle, staying alive as long
as humanly possible and also with his presence there you just you just don't give any energy
any kind of plant spot that lets them win the round and after the fact. Really good job on positioning.
So DAPS having a conversation, 10-10, it's been tied up.
Great fight from NRG, 2 rounds in a row.
However, 2-3 rounds in a row for FaZe at the moment.
Has regained them control off the back of Brokey. His AWPing has been wild.
Round 21 in energy, full AK-47s. Full sets of utility.
Put that momentum that was with RNG. Now removed. I gotta go and fight for it back.
You're gonna deal with Brokey, who's just not missing now. Bro, he's down and an open kill here for face.
Yeah, Tristan Broke you've actually set up that stack previously the previous round as well didn't come to any fruition
Nobody peeked this round they get the kill off of it
That's a good thing that he didn't get spotted in the last round right so you can actually utilize it again
Eventually paying off
We'll see how NRG now respond to a 4v5
They spotted outside shots up towards Jacob who can no longer
stand and fight at that range. So you're going to see NRG get a couple of players down secret.
Yeah, but at least the information is there for for phase and especially with Twist calling out the
footsteps. So Frozen's already shifted downstairs as well. Hard thing is I don't they don't realize
it quite yet, but you can't go back up secret as long as Twist is in this corner of Big Garage.
He's got everything covered. So Frozen going to play on the railings inside the B-bomb site.
No one else supportively rotating quite yet. Brokey's going to be there very quick from Ramp Room. In fact, he's coming now.
And he wants to fight already.
Well, Brokey's waiting for that smoke stuff so it's frozen out first to get to the one then Brokey drops down into the darkness.
And we'll take away Ose's life. That plant got to be secured, but the round looks so far from possible here for NRG.
Nitro waits, committed to the site, can go no worse.
You've got to play forward if you're Sonic.
You have to try and get some sort of edge in the round
and he just doesn't find any success.
Nitro slips out into the open.
Oh, good double! And then Brokie again, denies.
It really has been the reckoning here, Brokie.
We've seen some good individual performances
from the energy players in these kinds of, like,
really out-of-reach scenarios.
It's just such a testament to how well FaZe is playing them
that there's not a more comfortable position for them to play.
I mean, look at that for Nitro. It's like, what are you supposed to do?
way too many choke points.
And I'm actually kind of, it's going through my head,
I'm kind of struck the interview that Nitro gave with Trace
at the start of the series.
Trace had asked him, you know, what happened against Foot?
What went wrong against that team?
Like, what was the thing that made you kind of fall apart?
And he was like, I don't know, once they got to 10 rounds,
they just started shooting much straighter than we did.
And it feels very much like that's happening now as well.
It feels very much like Faze have gained control of this game
and for NRG, it's like, here we go again.
And now we're not seeing those individual performances,
what it matters the most and the moments in the round where it can have the impact.
Yeah, I mean I'm also keeping an eye on the opening kills here and over the next two rounds.
Can an NRG get any openers? It's obviously great when Broke can just pick off the first
and then you can fall back and play. And then there's another opening kill from Twist.
Not going to be traded. Frozen just shoots through the smoke. Ocey's caught, that frees up Twist.
He walks through the smoke and it's just the call for this now losing out of phase clan.
They're just looking to take this one over the line. This could be series point in a couple
A couple of seconds here, less Sonic and Grim can finally pull off one of these heavy deficit situations and straight through the smoke nature has got another one.
Right now, one of the four goes back up towards Heaven, gets a second kill, but then phase makes sure it's series point.
Yeah, that's crazy from Twist. He said confidence. He realized that's chaos he's thrown into the mix.
He realized with those smokes he's got a play to make. That's the thing of beauty.
Stepping through the least expected thing from NRG.
Five rounds in a straight, five rounds straight now for FaZe,
looking to close this out on quite a run.
One round away from taking this series,
that would knock NRG out of IEM Atlanta.
Painful loss for a team with Americans
who wanted to be playing in front of the crowd for sure.
Painful losses they still have yet to show
significant improvement across the year.
at these bigger events.
Well, FaZe, if they win this, which is looking likely now,
we'll go on to the next, the lower semifinal,
when they will play the loser on Vitality or Betboom.
That'll be coming up next as well.
Yeah.
So still a tough run for FaZe after losing their opening game yesterday,
but staying alive one step at a time.
I think the tough part of their run is the need to get DRS points,
You know, everything is just so critically important as well.
Well, hit towards the upper bomb site.
Jacob wanted to try and be aggressive behind the Molotov. O.C. is ready for it.
Okay, so hoping to kill Fred on G. Haven't had one of those in a while.
Let's see if it's enough to squeeze out an 11th round.
You stick with your plan though?
Because it always felt like it was going to be towards the upper bomb site.
You just re-exec now that you get that kill. It looks like it.
Nachi is going to play inside the bomb site.
Yeah, running in, broad in front.
Connect you, do much hit.
Get a little bit quieter on this map.
I need you to look at a step up, he does wall up bro, turns out to that left side, goes back in, can't get a second kill, but that smoke breaks open, twist dies.
At the hand of Grim this time, they're fased so far away from winning this retake, so they start to back away.
So this will come down to the final round of regulation on Nuke, and then it'll be FaZe moving into the 2-0 win, or energy into overtime yet to be seen, but great to see them finding some life right at the end.
Yeah, good crack into the bomb site.
Kill a piece on Grim Nitro and OC.
Pretty crispy shot from Grim as well, who's kind of woken up towards us in the second half.
Some cool sequences.
12-11, we go the distance.
Trying to maybe keep someone from energy close enough to the bomb.
Trying to scare him with that late retake, that late defuse drop-in.
But everyone's gonna get away and survive the bomb blasts.
I
Flipside tactic called again
But unseen whether at least it's our is not sure if you're adding this on Tara's flair onto it
Maybe they've gone with someone else
Good opening kill Jacob trying to take advantage of the situation
Makes you on his own, does a pretty good job to get one, but
FaZe had just slid elsewhere on the map to align the defense for somewhere else
since the re-execut of the upper bomb site just brutal.
Round 24, overtime or elimination for NRG.
Look how quick this is for Sonic as well, right?
He's really trying to challenge the side of that smoke.
Jake kept dying first in back-to-back rounds.
Advantage, NRG.
Is it going to be enough? Are we going to see overtime?
Well, Twists has shifted downstairs towards Secret. He can even this up.
Three players coming in his direction of fourths just stepping into Secret. Now
that's Sonic. How many times have we seen Twists be able to get a multi-frag from
position where he looked like he was gonna get traded? Well, here's the thing,
he's playing it passively along the wall tucked into the corner, right? So he's
never gonna have an early spot. And like so, the problem with this is gonna be
you're not able to pull a teammate over with any kind of quickness to help you
defend against it. So it's all twists. Oh, but it's a solo step up here from
Sonic waiting on his teammate now. Katois get more than one hit. That was the first
headshot. You better believe he can get two and a lot of damage onto that third
player as well. He's given FaZe a chance to close this one out. Here goes Grimm.
Getting spotted, getting taken down by Natshu, and it's OC Mbro. A two versus
three, and it's by the hand of Twist that looks like NRG are about to be
eliminated. The plant comes through bro at the back of the site. OC goes back he
knows nature's coming. There's a little shoulder peek to bait out the bullets and
get that information quickly passed that over to the other two face plays who
are coming down through the ramp. Bro trying to deal with nature. OC occupied
with Broke but it's gonna be bro he was the savior so many times on this map
here for NRG he's gonna do it one more time out into the open but dead as he
falls. That's NRG out of IEM Atlanta. They will fall in last place as Faze stay going on. It's
going to be a 2-0 win, a 13-11 on Nuke, a lot more competitive, at least something show from NRG,
but overall they're going to be very disappointed with this run. Yeah, they certainly will be.
Lovely performance for Faze to close that out. Six of the last seven rounds on their defensive
side go in their favor. They just kind of locked down on that defense. And yeah, for NRG, you
You mentioned they've said they've been working a lot on the T sides.
I think it's back to the drawing board,
reinforce some of the things you discussed.
Three T rounds across both maps played in this series,
or six T rounds combined across both maps played.
Excuse me.
Not going to be something that you're super pumped for.
So some struggles instituting some of the new ideas,
instituting Grim into this team, getting him comfortable as well.
And NRG, that's a really tough loss and a tough elimination to take.
Yeah, especially here in the USA,
I wanted to give a clear performance to NRG.
last place finish is going to hurt but for face just getting through getting
through the opponent today it was twist that had the heavy impact the most
decorated North American player of all time still inside off the competition
unfortunately setting home one of the North American teams yeah that you know
sometimes it's got to happen he's used to center home North American teams as
well regardless Trace is ready with an interview after the series yeah I'm down
here on the sidelines with NRG I've got dapsed and this is an exit it's
unfortunate. Anything you want to say about the game?
To be honest, even though we came last place, the foot game was well played by us and we
made tremendous improvements from Bucharest because we played terrible. This game, ancient,
we just started really slow, our comms were quiet. I think people were a little tired
and then Nuke, I mean it was competitive, but lost some crucial rounds and went their
way.
Do you think it was with the T sides today in specific, the T sides give you a little
bit of trouble?
I think it's kind of an unfair assessment to like generalize it like that.
Like we lost both T pistols, which makes it more difficult.
Like our T side ancient was amazing versus foot yesterday and we played rounds slow and
patient and played the rounds out really well.
So T side ancient went more poorly today because we lost pistol and kind of started slow.
And I mean T side nuke today. We lost T pistol again, but T side nuke was fine
Like we had a good game plan first gun round worked really well
But again, we just
Still need more practice on certain maps and nuke is one of those maps. So
Well, as hurtful as it is to say goodbye to NRG here in a tournament for you guys
This must have a little harder, right?
Um, to some extent, but it's like at the end of the day, it's like our goal has been to peak at the major because again, we just haven't had great practice.
I mean, we're practicing North America this week after Bucharest and the main goal is to do all the major.
And if we don't do all the major, then that's where, you know, we need to be hard on really hard on ourselves because that's been the whole goal the whole season.
Yeah, I think next for you guys at CAC, what are you going to do up until that point?
I mean, we have two days here, so scrim, review, just try and fix as many mistakes as we can,
do as best we can at CAC, and then we have a little boot camp before the major, and again,
goal is to do as best as we can at the major.
And peak there, like you said, DAPS, anything you want to say on the way out?
Not really. I mean, disappointing loss. We'll do our best to come back stronger.
Thank you, NRG. Thank you, Debs.
Thank you.
Yeah, and the show does just continue to go on.
You and me, yeah, we say goodbye to NRG, not necessarily the most ideal situation for them,
but, yeah, it's the end of the run for them in Atlanta.
Yeah, I think there's things to be optimistic about for NRG,
especially moving into the opening center of rounds on Nuke.
You know, those, I think, reasons to maybe overreact on your rotations
or cheap players to lower, but they actually did a really good job on CT side staying true to
the sort of default setups because they were losing a lot of opening kills outside to start.
And we actually started to see FaZe shift away from that outside game plan and hope that other
areas of the map were more exposed in that overreaction. And that didn't happen. So I mean,
I liked what I got out of NRG by and large. We had some great individual moments, but I just think
the problem they run into is FaZe have had these players that can step up in those moments. I think
Nets you had that great shutdown on ancient, you know, we had frozen and twists that were pulling multi kills out the wazoo
Brokey finding that his crosshair can't miss sometimes and then other times he can but definitely in this matchup
It's felt like he had the impact but that was the thing trace
It was the idea that any a lot of these closer rounds are but winning position rounds for energy
That's when these players stepped into those moments for phase climb
So it is a shame because those are the types of rounds that you're hoping to convert and pull over the line and hope you trade out
But that can be the caliber that phase can offer up sometimes now for phase. They do stay alive here in Atlanta
So you're thinking you get a little more promise out of phase
You got a little more face out of phase here in the second match for them
There was a lethality to them today
I think some of that is the confidence of the difference in rankings
They may be even reflected on some of the games that they wanted for worth as well and thought why can't we we play to that level or confidence?
And we got what we wanted out of them today. Yeah, we definitely did
I mean for a team like FaZe you expect that namesake to be pushing onward and upward even though like right now
Yes, that roster has a little bit of a different look to it. They've got some some learning curves, perhaps
Yeah, I mean there's definitely a lot to learn. I mean shifting in-game leaders. Their map pool is still kind of up in the air
I mean they mainly played Dust2 and Anubis in their first tournament together in Fort Worth
And you know, I actually like that they lent into that nuke because that result they got over Furia
It was a statement and it's something that they probably will rely on further down the line this tournament as well
Yeah, I mean that's just our first game of the day. We had the B8 BCG going on on the other stream
I didn't quite catch how that ended, but I know after the first map it wasn't looking so hot to trot for one side
Yeah, I mean it seemed like BC game were able to rally a little bit
I mean again, it was another nail bite or finish, but we were setting things up over here. So
They're in a weird spot
I don't know how to assess BC game at the moment because this that bait team fire power wise just sort of individually
We shouldn't be able to stack up to the players that BCG have signed.
It's just they are a better team.
I will concede my point.
They are a better team at this event.
Look right down the pipe when you say that, man, you got to mean it.
I'm sorry, bait.
You're a good team now.
There we go.
Thank you, Yumi.
I appreciate that.
I think we get to a quick break.
We've got plenty of counterfeit come on Vitality, Betboom, Painfoot, Navi, Gamer, Legion, Passion
UA centers, and that's just some of them because you're watching the Intel Extreme Masters
in Atlanta 2026.
and we'll be right back after this.
I can't believe I'm gonna flash xbox.
I think I'm dead
Thank you, video
Okay, I think so
I'm gonna work here, I hope
I have to deal with the long
I don't think so
I'm gonna go now
Nice
Watch the rock
I'm low
I'm on your side
Hello?
Two, two, two!
I'm going!
Keep people, keep people!
Yes, I'm leaving.
They're going with me!
Keep, keep, keep, keep!
To the side, one!
On the middle, he's down.
One more to the side!
I'm going down, he's left to the side!
One, two, two, two, two!
Two!
One more to the side!
I'm going to take that one!
Okay.
I'm going to get that one.
Get that one, get that one.
Two minutes left.
I'm going to get back to right.
I'm going back to right.
Here's the bomb.
Go, one go long.
Here you go.
I'm going to be in charge.
I have two rushes.
I'll just keep on.
I'm on the front side.
Nice!
Nice boys!
40 seconds, still be contacting both sides.
I have mid game, so...
Good job, Zed.
I'm on mid.
I'm on Zed.
I'm on mid.
you mean
one more one more one more
speed speed guys
nice
you can tell
nice boys
i don't see smoke
i was in the molly and i was
i hate you here Matisse
it's a fine view problem
i'm not
i'm not in the p
i think i smoke longer
I'm on the other guy, I got this
I don't know
I'm gonna go back to the other guy
I won't use Nade again
I didn't see him
We double feed
I'm feeding
Come on, he jumps short
One short
Give me my snow, you'll be able to hold with it
I'm behind the short
I got my top, I'm clear
Get him! Get him!
Nice shot, nice shot, nice shot!
Ah, he's dead!
Nice!
Nice, can you molly there, or?
Yeah, I will.
Can you do it?
I'll push, I'll push, I'll push, I'll push.
Yes, I'll push, I'll push.
You're low on shot.
I'll just have to be careful about it.
I'll be in, I'll be in.
Flash!
I'll be with you down.
Yes, professional.
They're flanking along.
I'll think I'm molly though.
I'm molly.
They're headlong.
They're flanking along.
I'll be there, I'll be there.
I'll be there.
I'll be in, I'll be there.
I can give you
ok
you need to smoke with them
on the right side, I'm gonna spawn
nice
we can stick longer
let's go let's go
they can stick
leaving, leaving
we need to check
one more
5v2 boys, calm down
you be on the left side
I'm with you
listen, you will flash
and then we go back to our molotov
and you flash again
flash, come with me
I'm going to get him.
Shot, shot, Roman.
Okay, okay, guys.
I'm going to retake.
Leave me alone.
Oh my god.
Okay, Roman.
Fuck the ref.
Counter-Strike combined.
2025, Dallas, Texas.
Some of the best Counter-Strike players in the world.
They're going to be put through their paces, tests,
trials, tribulations.
Who's gonna pass?
Who's gonna come out on top?
We've got one man, Rushly A, Rushlessen,
standing by, official referee,
joining us today to adjudicate.
Nobody does it better than this guy in the business.
Let's get into it.
No, just need to plug in the keyboard, the mouse,
and straight the monitor.
Okay.
Go.
Well, monitor first, interesting.
I know the cables now found the hole,
in the hole now under the table.
This is where it gets tough, he could've hit his head here.
Well, first USB pin, that's clean.
Second USB in, he's up, he's on the chair, dump, stop the clock, 16 seconds.
This thing is on down, I'm sorry.
This thing is on down?
Rush, the official agenda, no, no, it's fine, you're fine.
He's against me.
Monitor first as well, learning from his teammate.
He's struggling with the USB.
Stop the clock, 17 seconds.
Fuck!
All right, are you feeling prepped and ready for this?
This is about reactions.
It's about reactions and I feel ready.
156, I don't know if it's good.
But let's see.
We're taking a breath for 20-inch, God, I like it.
Getting himself poised.
He's gonna be good, he's gonna be good.
Are you gonna take it for a minute?
I can do better than this.
Okay, sorry mate.
Excuse us.
Oh, the consistency!
It's consistent for a couple of years now.
Oh, you got his head, you got his head, you got his head.
Oh, consistency across the board there.
Yeah. 157 average for Zawoo, alright, eight pegs up to bat.
Now look, he is an older gentleman.
Yeah, let's see if all people can have good reaction.
They do say that the reaction time starts going down at 25.
I want you to be comfortable.
Man, I love you.
He's got him on the bus!
For the three years old?
It's about the averages.
No, no, no.
You can't get overconfident.
Not that mistress.
That was so long!
Yeah, this one was very long.
You hold it, you hold it, you hold it, you hold it.
I'm not good at holding it.
I'm not used to be long.
But still, 158.
We can work with that.
Still in it though, still in it though, still in it though.
It's getting worse.
Oh, it's getting worse and worse.
You can redeem it all here.
I know.
It's, it's about now.
He can redeem it all right now.
You can do 1.20.
No.
1.58 average though, 1.57, 1.58.
So it's always get by 1.00.
He's younger.
Nothing.
The best man in the world.
I'm just being consistent.
Okay, so let's set the scene.
the world and I'm just being consistent okay so let's set the scene 12 11 map 5
major on the line 26 is just going one for one on the opener you're in a
44 you've bottled it you missed an old shop again he's dead again okay I'm dead
okay so 3v3v4 mezzie gets a triple kill wins you the series whoa that's when
You've just won the major. You're ready.
1.29.
Were you happy with the length?
It came from deep.
Yeah, that's what he was like.
Okay.
1.29 as well.
They hit the same levels.
Same levels.
We haven't had that before.
Good job.
History made today.
Okay, so here's what's going to happen.
Whistle goes off.
Hands come off the table.
You grab the water.
Okay, lid needs to come off, sip of water, lid back on, back in its place.
Time to try.
Hand it back on the lid.
All the lid!
Six seconds.
Could've shaved the second off there.
I'm under pressure, I'm not good at it.
I need to, sorry, I'm stretching a bit.
Limbering up here.
I haven't seen this thing in a while.
One of these is really key.
Yeah, that's why I wasn't that good.
I didn't warm up before.
Are you thirsty?
I am.
Perfect.
All right.
You ready to go?
Yeah.
You ready?
Oh, oh.
All right.
OK.
It's faster than me, for sure.
Four seconds.
Yeah.
Ah!
Good job.
I mean, you thought we could have showed you.
Sorry.
When you're ready, referee.
46.5 second highest today. Okay. Are you ready? I don't want you to hurt your hand here. No
problem. You gotta be sensible about this. Major's coming up. Here we go. Oh, it was 45.3.
What's close? Very close. Very close, Salman.
He's going to do it.
I knew it. I knew it.
I knew it would say that if I win.
We don't work on this, mate!
This is the strats in this book to win the Major.
Okay.
Now what's going to happen is, I'm going to call out a number.
I will then blow the whistle.
Once the whistle goes, you open the book to the page corresponding with the number I give you,
And you must read the strategy aloud.
Okay.
Wait, sorry.
You got it.
Here we go.
Page 41.
Okay, alright, it's long already.
It's a lot of pages.
Yes, go be.
Nine seconds.
A lot of pages to handle there.
Pages to handle there, it can get tough.
Cumberson, page 52.
Is this okay?
Oh, it got stuck on the pages!
It was worse than in the picture.
I wouldn't call that strat.
It probably won't work.
Okay, 11 seconds.
I struggled, I struggled.
You got lucky because you went straight.
Yeah, I too, but it was hard.
That's the fortress in the pages, okay.
Okay, banana speed eating.
How do you feel about just taking a bite of a banana?
No, you know, I have a really big secret,
but I can't see it.
Whoa.
Speed peel technique there.
Whoa!
Four seconds!
Okay.
I just, can I just go fight?
Well, you don't have to compete if you don't want.
I think you want already.
I mean, I can try if it's...
What's that?
It's not DQ.
It's no time recorded, unless...
Do you want to give it a go?
I'll try, I'll try.
Okay, so you're going to give it a go.
Let's...
Oh, it's fumbled on the...
Oh, quick on the chewing, not bad!
Five and a half.
Not bad though.
I finished a banana nut this time.
Yeah, good job.
You see, but it doesn't...
So right now, you're going to get these basketballs.
you're gonna get three shots.
We wanna see how good your utility is.
So sometimes it's not a set in aid,
sometimes it needs to go on the fly
and you're ready with the distances.
But there's no time.
I can't take my time.
Three shots, take your time.
Take your time.
Oh, it's so heavy.
Look, little surprise if you all,
I can do it with my hand.
Ha ha ha.
Oh!
Oh, again.
No.
Oh!
Zero, three, yeah.
At least I have no pressure.
Yeah.
Okay.
Oh, okay.
He gets up now.
Oh!
That's an extra point.
I tried to dunk and it went down.
Oh no, again.
What do we say about that rush?
The fact that it fell off on the shot.
Are we going again?
No?
He's done?
He's going again?
He's done.
He's called it there.
The referee.
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.
Gentlemen, how do you feel about your performance overall?
I had two shooters and I beat him.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I had two shooters and I beat him, I think he was able to hit the right but it's alright.
Okay, do you guys feel like you're ready to win in Dallas?
Yup, I think we are ready.
And was the last one?
That's it.
Okay, we're here.
Okay, yeah, I hope to be the winner.
Six-scenarmony rule will be made.
Yeah, okay, beautiful.
Thank you very much.
Good luck.
Thank you, thank you very much.
Using six decimal places on a mouse sensitivity console command.
Now, I think there's two types of people that can do something like that.
someone with a special connection with Valve, or dev themselves?
I think it was definitely a high-impact one.
This interrogation scene had some impact on the culture of CS for sure.
It was a really good one, sponge, incredible acting, we liked that.
But I think all the players, they did good as well.
And they had to interrogate me, the developer, I guess.
So it was fun.
How it works is you just kind of do it.
Yeah, if they come to you with an idea, I mean, 99% of the time, it's going to be good.
I don't think it's ever been a bad idea, which I've been approached with.
They've done it for multiple years now.
All the results of the skits, they've been amazing.
The whole community always enjoys them.
I always want to see more, so I'm great too to take part of it.
You get to create some funny memories, some good memories,
because stuff happens in the game, like CS2 release date or whatever,
or we'll deal with the interrogation,
and it kind of puts it in the archives that,
okay, it actually had some sort of impact, people made fun of it,
people made sort of a culture around it,
and I think that's the part of skits that really it does create some history with CS as well.
You've played the beta, I presume?
Of course.
For reasons many have the denied access, my son.
May the Lord save their souls.
Watching the cologne skit, obviously the church's vibe confessing, typical cologne.
When you're doing the skit, you're doing it all by yourself.
The person who is, you're having a conversation with is not actually with you, like you're
doing at different times and the end result, they just edited it together so it seems like
you're in the same place but in reality you're not.
So I guess that's the tough part.
They have props to ESL, I mean they do a really good job in just setting it up and I think
the script they have is always fantastic.
I think that helps really well.
They have really good scripts, I mean they produce it way before and I think that's probably
the biggest part that actually helps create a good skit.
Hold on, Rob's at the back.
Yeah, you're the lurker, right? That's kind of how it would go down.
Yeah, but there's lurkers and then there's lurkers. It makes the most sense that he's at the back.
I was in the room with Talon here for sure. I think I was with him. I can't remember 100%.
In this specific one, it was more like a round table and they just switched the players around.
We were having a conversation, I guess, in the skit, like it looked like in the end result.
This one was really fun. I remember I wasn't sure what we're going to do when they approached us with this.
There's only, maybe this is one of the first times, like we did a skit where like, we're in the actual booth where we play and
I hadn't done that before so it was really interesting what the result was gonna be like
What we as we heard what the idea was and what the script was I think we already knew that whatever
Whatever how we're gonna act or whatever we do is it's gonna turn out really good because the script was that good
And the idea was was perfect
I think all the jokes they're very fitting. I mean, obviously Apex, they're just like clowning
around with our coach Remy. I think it's the perfect encapsulation of how the team environment
really is. You know, Apex is really that kind of guy who can be a clown, he can be a serious
a tough guy like he can be anything and then everyone else I think we're just
we're just a good group of people who really want to win but I think we have
a nice relationship and each side was locked in
obviously I play all school rooms great Zybel is not just a fun fact so people
So if you understand the perspective, so when I heard that they're going to act like I
was playing OSRS as the match going, I found it really funny.
I mean, as an OSRS player, that was close to me as well.
So I tried my best to make sure I was acting well.
And people who pay attention, they would really enjoy that one.
And that's what I enjoyed.
I really enjoyed the small details and like paying attention to that, like doing the acting
for all the small bits and I think everyone really paid attention to that as well and
that's why it turned out so good and that's why I really enjoyed it.
I think it's like every second of it, I think there's some something happening in this
kid that's either funny or like there's like some idea behind it and I yeah.
The Intel Xtreme Masters Atlanta 2026 is brought to you by ESL in partnership with Intel,
Acer Predator, DHL, Chex, and Zoe.
to of the Intel Extreme Master's
Atlanta and already playoffs is
on the line now. It's no shock
that vitality one of the worst
of worst. One of the first, not
one of the worst. They're one of
the best teams in the world.
Sorry for that formal there.
Obviously within striking distance
already looking to continue that
trophy crusade, whereas for bet
boom, it's not often Jacob that
you get an opportunity to swing
at the Kings. And this one's going
to be hard, right? Because it's
not often that vitality lose to
Vitality coming into this tournament as the clear-cut favorite, BedBoom in this instance,
you know, a team that I don't think a lot of people have on their radar right now to be
that interesting. I think the win yesterday was something that piqued my interest and I'm curious
to see how they're going to fare against a team like Vitality here. As you kind of described it
here as well, you know, truly a game where they have nothing to lose. Regardless of how it's going
to turn out, Jumi, regardless of how BedBoom is going to conduct himself, stealing a map of
Vitality, making a map competitive, that in itself will be a surprise to me even at a big win for
Yeah, I know. I think the good news for Betboom is that they didn't get caught off-guard.
You know, I think coming into this tournament, I looked at some of the bait games.
They don't throw a lot of flashes on their execs.
They actually use a lot of their utility like the opening 30 seconds,
but they've clearly been putting some time in and actually shifted their game plan,
and Betboom didn't fall foul to that. You know, some minor difficulties,
but they closed them out and actually adapted their game pretty well.
Let's begin the conversation by talking about the aforementioned vitality,
because time and time again, we're always talking about the accolades,
the number of trophies they have in their cabinet. But something that makes things really exciting,
in my opinion, about Vitality is, yeah, sure, the trophy's going along with it. But the
amount of records that they seem to continue to keep on breaking. I mean, the most recent
one was back at IAM Rio. They had the most consecutive top four playoffs appearances,
which started back in Cadovita 2025. That's mental. And then there's other stuff that's
going along with that as well. Obviously, we had the longest LAN win streak in terms
of those best of threes and best of fives, only really fumbling to legacy back at Austin.
They would have been a nice one to keep them longer. Exactly, yeah, get rid of them.
But just in terms of, I think it was with you, Jacob, back at Austin, we were talking about
what defines an era, and it's not only trophies, it's not only Longjavie,
it's meta changing as well. And I feel like by tally, maybe that's the one thing that we want to
be looking at and going, okay, that's kind of your next challenge. Yeah, maybe that's the one
thing they can't really chase, you know, because if they were to change the meta of other play
Counter Strike, they'd have to change something they're doing right now, and that would be pretty
stupid considering what's going on right now and how successful they are. So I agree with you,
there's different ways you can assess and evaluate what is an error and what is a good team.
There's also teams who've created a different meta within Counter-Strike but haven't had as much
successes as Vitality. Heroic is a great example. The Danish iteration with Cadian, the way they
proactively played their CT sides, the way they kind of inspired everyone in the world to copy
them. Sure thing, that was a nice thing to see but they didn't really have the results to back it
up. So would you rather be Vitality, you know, claiming records left, right and
center without even chasing it or be heroic who sets a new meta but doesn't
really win anything? I think what people sort of underplay with Vitality though is
that, you know, we saw the Astralis era and just how good they were at sort of
coming up with tricks and new ideas and optimizing their utility. Vitality are
currently doing that in an era prior where we actually didn't have a team
that was actually making use of all those tools in the same way. So Vitality
They are hyper reactive, they have all the set pieces, they do their homework and they
also have some of the best players in the world and can win rounds in the chaotic fashion
as well.
They're maybe not changing the meta, but they've redefined what winning Counter Strike
looks in the modern day.
Well, that's the cool thing about that, you know, because there was this statistic popping
up with Apix and how much damage he does with the grenades in the middle of Counter Strike
right now and he is far superior towards everyone else.
Like he's not even close.
He is by far the player in the world that does the most damage with grenades and that
It doesn't come by accident. That's something he's been focusing on. That's something he's been honing in on.
And you know, that goes without saying that when you have a guy like Cyru who's obviously the best player in the world in his specific role,
you have a flame see who came into this year and started to play like a top three rifle.
Maybe, you know, at least in the conversation, rubs the best in his like now a picks all of a sudden is also the best in the world at an aspect.
Can you believe that Jacob is a man who played against him?
Honestly, no, you know, because back when I was playing in Zapix, he wouldn't want to bind it.
He wouldn't want to have an Apex.
We've called him a certain way with his brain back in the day.
Maybe you don't need to repeat that right now, but look at him now.
He was a potato.
He was a potato running around and really being annoying to play against.
Sort of like an angel back in the days of hell races to those who remember him as well.
But that's the fascinating thing about Apex.
Like he's been through it all.
He has so much experience and nowadays he's one of the spark of players in the world of Counter-Strike.
So the development that he's been going through is immaculate.
And I think that's the thing.
Retroactively people are like, oh, this is a super team.
I mean, they got Robs, they got Mezzie, some of the best players in the world in their positions.
But Vitality's journey as an organization actually has been about growth.
And Apex has grown, Zywul has grown his game, Flameseed wasn't always this dynamic anchor,
aggressor as well, that actually picks his right moments.
Mezzie as well. Everybody has undergone some sort of metamorphosis, maybe outside of Robs.
And I think that's a very valid point and a good point, you know, because when Flameseed came in,
instead of Dupree, a lot of people were like, why would you do that?
You know, Dupree just won a major. Why would Flameseed replace him?
people were questioning it. Nowadays people are like, yeah, of course that made sense,
you know, but at the time being it wasn't such a clear cut. I even, you know, we're
sharing desk with people. I don't want to rub any names, you know, but saying that when
rubs came in instead of spinks, it was more a move to the side instead of an upgrade as well. And
now obviously you'd say that was a no player. But at the time being, you know, sure you can
make the case that your rubs wasn't necessarily that much better than spinks, because what he
was doing in phase leading up to him joining Vitality wasn't the best rubs we've seen. So
It all makes sense now, but in retrospect, there were moments in this time where Vitality were
taking gambles and they deserved the credit for that. Also, this era is the most documented era
any era before. There's great content coming out of some of the other teams losing, but also
Vitality in all these winning moments. And I think there's a great interview with Thorne. It's like
a three-hour reflections with Apex. And he talks a lot about his philosophy and how the game has
changed and even how the pundits seem to push this idea of, oh, they're breaking all these records,
But they don't want to think about the records because actually it sort of masses up some of the pressure that is applied to them
We talked about obviously the records that they're continuing to break obviously the utility usage as well as just sublime
They also know how to take a bit of time off as well, which is surprising no yeah a bit
You know calendar management is an underrated aspect of kind of strike
Especially in an era now with this tournament's less violent center
We're gonna head into obviously this year where there's tournaments all the time
but even more so next year, what tournaments are going to overlap.
So being able to construct your calendar, you know, look ahead a bit of time
and see, OK, what makes sense in terms of the build up to Cologne,
what makes sense in terms of making sure that we have the best odds
of winning the ESL Grand Slam, et cetera, et cetera.
It's a long game, and I think that's how the...
Now, obviously, when you're winning everything and you're in this position,
it's a luxury to have.
You know, you can skip certain events.
You don't need the VIS points at some point,
but there's been teams out there before,
take Aurora as an example last year, when they broke through,
They just hammered every single event back to back to back to back and they kind of broke their back
But tell me if they're trying to manage the time and the energy. We saw the pictures there. I mean everybody looks so happy
They're not they're not practicing. They're clearly happy. I will make you happy every other team
It has to be pissed off in the circuit like okay
You can't beat them when they're not practicing they're coming to another event
But it's late less they've spent more time away
And they seem to be getting bigger and bigger smiles on their face
missing photos of mezi with like luxury cuisine food that the tastes are getting expensive
everything is looking good for vitality every other team is i'd say mildly i mean you can
afford it when you win in that many events right absolutely expensive taste and it's funny because
we had blade on the desk after navi's victory yesterday and he was kind of saying the antithesis
right we were asking a little bit about the bootcamp in LA he said what three four days that
they actually spent on the pcs and he said you know i don't want the guys i mean to kind of you
you know summarize it to be having those cheap dopamine fixes right no doom
scrolling for then zonics ban and face it blaze ban and doom scrolling on tiktok
like he seems to have a much more regimented approach to we don't want
to waste time between the events like what do you think yeah i get why as well
you know because they're playing a catch-up game right now if you're navi
trying to catch up to vitality you're trying to make sure that you know team
number three four and five are not going to catch up to you as well so if you're
navi and if you want to win cologne maybe you're looking at this as an
opportunity. You know Vitality are not practicing right now that much. They're
kind of trying to conserve a bit of energy heading into Cologne. So if you
were to try to close the gap that is between the two teams, then Blade has
probably given the team a motivational speed saying if we practice hard now, if
we spend more times on the server, then maybe there's a will be close a bit of
that gap to Vitality, which makes us slightly more competitive heading into
Cologne. Yeah, I think it's also the idea that you can't get these dopamine
rushes when you don't have any accomplishments alongside it. Sure, you
may have been able to win a tournament where Vitality weren't in attendance,
But they they know that they have to work harder than these guys
I mean vitality themselves have pushed themselves a lot and that's probably why they're actually using tournaments to take time off as well
Because if they're anti-strattling what the red canids in a game
They are anti-strattling everybody else to the end degree as well
And I will say just just on a note on that first
Well, you know, it is a dangerous game to play the same thing happened back in Astralis
If you ever were to ask to pre about that as well when you were winning everything, you know
You had the looks we've taken time off you could walk into certain tournaments not practicing
but at some time it's going to catch up. So yes, you can do it occasionally, but you've got to obviously put in the practice.
You've got to conserve a bit of energy, come into Cologne in your best shape.
But if you do this more often than not, for my tell you, at some point, that's going to hit you.
It was funny though, because I think like they're being a little bit more public about it this year.
But whenever we kind of spoke to any of the players last year, they would say, if I'm being honest,
we feel like we're one of the teams where we're actually taking more of the time off, right?
Like maybe they weren't going on, you know, you serve in your troops, going to Michelin star dining.
But it's about having that management, right?
And I feel like obviously Apex said it yesterday,
that it's not him deciding,
it's the upper management deciding.
So I guess being able to structure things in that way,
could we pay an offer them?
Clearly paying off, you know, and I said,
I think it's very important for people at home
to understand that it's a luxury that you're having.
You can only afford to do it if you're already winning
or if you're in a secure position in terms of the VIS
and qualifying for the major and state, et cetera, et cetera.
So there's a lot of teams who would love to do it.
There's a lot of teams who would love to structure
the calendar a little bit better,
conserve a bit more energy and maybe target certain tournaments where that's what we want to peak.
But there's only a few teams in the world who earn that luxury.
Well, I mean, if Vitality or dopamine maxing, it does seem like Blade almost wants them to cortisol max.
They're very stressed in this Na'Vi camp.
They have encountered Vitality a few times and players have gone missing.
I think that's the unfortunate part about Na'Vi is that they are very, very close.
But they're also relying on some of these inexperienced pieces to playing against great teams, winning teams,
So be able to get the same production and the same value out of those players even if they have pop-off games
Sometimes in those critical round moments where rop's is in a clutch and wins six of the miniseries
They that clearly gets in their heads of it 100% was speaking of Italian. Let's check in with mezzy curtsy all trace
Well vitality joins us again in the server today this time I'm with mezzy and they have in front of them bet boom
So mezzy yesterday, let's talk a little about this BC game
experience you had over there. It seemed like they kept it competitive a bit on
that second map. Talk to me about that series and your words. Yeah, I mean, I
think honestly it was one of our better games to start at all. Usually we're
pretty sloppy. I think yesterday's why we had rough starts on both things down
4-0 and both starts of the map. So it can always be tough how to use the first one
and also for us preparations are always key for us, but against them it was tough
when they've got a stand-in, they've got a new player. So it's it was it was tough
at times but we tried to adapt as much as we can and yeah I think simple of
course, especially on the second map was to play against you had a lot of impact. So yeah,
I think it was a better start for at least two years, always, always good. This might
be the most opportune time to ask you about that BC game project. Yeah, they just got
eliminated a couple minutes ago. But what do you think about them? I think I mean, any
team that simple is going to be competitive. I think, of course, they're still a lot of
rebuilding a lot of things they got to work on and improve on. But I think you can see
At least for simple, he's working really hard, I think,
putting a lot of hours into the game.
So I think for someone like him, he's never going to...
He's going to make sure his team's at a higher level than as high as he can make them.
So I think, yeah, I think they're a team that are going to improve with time.
They're trying to make new pieces work and improve.
So, yeah, I think there can be a strong team, especially with simple.
Let's hard pivot right here.
I understand you're on like a Michelin tour.
Is that true? You like to eat?
Yeah, me and Apex, we like to eat.
I mean, especially the Michelin restaurants, it was fun, first time for me in New York as well.
So it was a nice time to just see something new around the city and then enjoy good food.
It's always good. Yeah, so you think, well, we're in Atlanta now. What do you think of Atlanta?
I mean, I'm excited to just be in a new city, a new place. I've never been here before. So
not so much time to explore yet, but hopefully we can get a win, maybe make playoffs quickly and
and have a day or two to enjoy. So look around and see what it's all about.
This could just be another city that Vitaliy checks off the list as champions. And thank
you for your time today. Thank you. It just seems like that list is never ending for Vitaliy.
Mezi obviously speaks about the level that we saw BC game at and where they can find those
improvements just as yesterday. But I want to flip that script to Bet Boom right now.
You mean where do you put Bet Boom in terms of their current level?
I would actually say, I mean, they're in a weird situation right now. I mean, Dilladez has some visa issues that are playing with Flamas. And I actually like this version of the team more than I do with Dilladez.
Okay. So how come they, it's something, it's just the explosiveness that it offers up. The pairing between Magnoges, Flamas, Boomitch as well, going for these hard entries. The pack play for Betboom is really, really explosive. And they actually catch a lot of teams off. And they're one of the few teams as well that don't always run with a lurker.
They actually want to trade down and simplify the game into the late rounds.
So I'd actually put them kind of almost above their current ranking.
That's it. That's it about like 20, 20 odd, but I'd maybe even shy themselves to like a 15 at the moment.
Yeah, it's the potential of maybe unlocking Flemish, right?
I think that's what everyone has been looking to do.
And maybe that's where they feel a little bit, you know, scared,
because there's been other players within that lineup, you know, exile, a great example.
You know, if we can only activate him one more time, if he can rediscover his own level,
then that could be interesting. The same could be the case for Flemish. A lot of different
teams have tried now. Flemish himself have tried as well in OG. So if they can come in
now and activate there's a good old Flemish who's very explosive, who's a player with
the rival who can make the difference together with Magnetius, then I would certainly agree
with you.
Nobody will forgive VP for what happened to Flemish.
I know, I was going to say.
That was, I mean, he was the most exciting prospect we had in that position. And then
all of a sudden he's playing lurking passive. What is happening here?
like Massa could my boy. Yeah. No. I mean, watching him back at Shanghai with game
religion as well. That was like, man, this guy is so exciting. Such a hot prospect. Obviously,
he is going to be in the roster as we move on forward to Cologne. What do you make of that
in your opinion? I think the problem that they'll have maybe is that the game sometimes is too
simple looking. I do think boomage is trying to be dynamic in his calling. They throw eggs.
X they go for burst. They occasionally run siren or boomage resort is lurkers. You know,
They try and swap the name plates around, so it's harder and harder to read, but as you play
more experienced teams, you want someone that's going to be dedicated to a position that knows how
to dodge the right flash or dodge a particular timing, and that becomes more difficult if you're
chopping and changing those spots on T side. I kind of like it. It does seem like Brumance is
going back to the old roots of how he was in-game leading Navi back in the days, was also somewhat
simplified to a point where obviously having simple on the server is going to give the X factor,
but staying together as a pack, you know, not necessarily always playing the lurker,
not necessarily trying to overthink certain scenarios, you just trust in your individual,
you trust in your initial game plan and don't try to overcomplicate it. Maybe there's a case
to be said that that's gonna hinder them or put a ceiling to them, but for Bit Boom, let's be honest,
as you said, the top 20 team right now, if they can punch their way into stage two, stage three
at a major and overperform in that regard by simplifying things, then I'd go for it.
Just when plan A doesn't work, maybe there isn't a plan B.
Yeah, I mean, that's to be expected, right, when you wear the roster that you're not exactly sure
who's going to be stepping into the server, right? You made a good point, which I'm going to be honest,
Apex really shut down yesterday when you were asking about this.
I think you just misheard me. I don't think he understood exactly what you were going for,
but you were totally correct, right? The back-in-the-day Navi roster with Boomage at the helm,
they were a difficult beast for Vitality to tame.
Yeah, and I was focused more on the electronic simple angle and then also pivoting into
electronic trolling around or two. But yeah, I mean, he gave a lot of respect to that roster and
and what they were able to do back in the day. And he, I think, especially simple, he understands
that all he, that guy needs is a good team. Yeah, 100%. I mean, for a boomage on Navi,
that's where he really made a name for himself, right? In terms of getting a major win, getting
a multiple trophy stand under his belt as well. How do you view him now with this new iteration?
Do you think they have the potential to get to those great heights again?
I think it's going to be tough for boomage in this current innovation of Bed Boom to be
a stable within the top eight. You know, I said, I think that the bar has to be said a little bit
or try to establish yourself as a team that we see more and more often at tier one tournaments,
for Boomage specifically as well. Again, if you were to look over the career of his, you know,
Cloud9 wasn't necessarily a great success. One win wasn't necessarily great. What he's done so far
in BitBoom hasn't been great, hasn't been bad. So in terms of how much stock value you put into his
career, there's something to be said about playing together with Electronic and Symbol in their prime,
has probably helped Boomage, you know, to be rated higher as an in-game leader than maybe he would
have been regarded as. This team is a reputation razor for Boomage for sure. I mean, when you're
with when you're with blade, people just assume it's blade that's kind of leading everything. So
for him, this is a project that yes, I do. I agree with you, Jacob. You know, it's the idea that
he's raising his own stock as that in game leader that's fleshing out his own ideas. 100%. It's
always really exciting as well when you get to see these kind of, you know, veteran stars, right,
coming back. And I mean, same happened with apex obviously taken up the mantle of our jail after
being that entry frag for so long and having these new puzzle pieces to work with. So this is one
of the teams I'm way more excited to see entering the major to see if they can maybe make a little
a little bit of an upset.
Yeah, and if anything, you know, just show a glimpse of potential because one thing that
goes underrated when we speak boom and we speak bad boom is just the general strength
of the CIS scene.
There's so many talents coming out left, right and center.
So let's say again that you do a good job here, you do a good job at the major and all
of a sudden you become attractive to some of the higher wanted talents, I guess, what
in the CIS scene.
So I think it's all about setting the proceedings for the future for them and whether or not
they're playing with Flemers or Dillard is for the future or someone else.
Just make sure that you remain competitive so you're an attractive team to join.
especially if Dastan is saying things like,
well, we can't cut anyone before the Major.
So there's always some conversation to be had
about finding the next talent, the next one to call up,
and there's a para-vision that maybe wants to make some moves.
Let's find out what maps we're going to be playing in this best of three.
Do either of you have any inclinations of what we should expect here?
I would love for my tell you to test out the playing field a little bit again.
They've been doing that, you know, a couple of times with the ancient thing,
allowing that to be in the pool.
Why not give it another go right here?
It's a freebie almost against the team like,
boom this time around though, they're playing it safe. I think that we're going to lean into an
anubis. That's what I would do if I were them. That's a map that is the least played for vitality.
That's not their perma ban. And it's also one that they've had to sort of chop and change positions.
I just love for vitality to actually just swing big and go for like an overpass or a
nuke really, because that gives them a lot of that tactical leverage that they know that this
bed boom doesn't really have the extra layers or depth maybe to exploit. So there's also a
a map where Apex has a hell of a lot of nade damage.
Yes, overpass, as you said, picked in by Vitality.
Do you even foresee an opportunity for this go-to-three?
It's not entirely impossible.
I think we've seen from Vitality a couple of times,
actually, recently as well.
Whenever they play teams where they don't necessarily
respect them as much as they should,
whenever they're playing against a team with a stand-in
or something like that, they have been struggling.
They have been losing, as they're struggling,
in the sense of Vitality not winning 2-0 and making clear cut.
They've been losing maps to teams,
and they almost lost to G2 in Rio.
the last amount of food as well recently, so it's not entirely possible that we get to see.
I'm a bit surprised that Nuke made it through the last round of the Vita, though. If I was a
Betboom, I would have banned that immediately and tried to take them to a Broly map like a Dust2
or Mirage, and even though Vitality have maybe figured out Dust2, you have to trust that your
pieces are going to force your way into some of those rounds.
Just going back to that first map in the series, as you said, Yumi, Anubis, what makes Betboom,
you know, a solo team on this map? Well, they do love having Siren on the wings,
but when they want to go for those B executions, expect Flammis and Magnogess to be hand in
hand breaking into bomb sites.
Let's get this show restarted, it's Vitality vs Backboom with Dinkroth and Necess.
Well we've gone to the next level of Vitality dominance when Freya stops asking if they're
going to beat Vitality and just starts asking can they beat them on a single map in the
series?
When we see three maps, is Vitality that good?
That's the question we're all asking these days.
And it's a very fair question.
I would say with Jacob in terms of if there was a shot at seeing that boom when it would be at this tournament right where we
Seen
Vitality at the last event drop a mouth to foot and we know that we have a location, but I don't believe it really
I like that I see it, but I I just feel like vitality should be winning this series 2-0 today
They're gonna be charging straight through middle boom it should be waiting in behind the camera smoke
Here in a lot of steps as they get in towards the temple
I'm going to have to deal with two defenders of this B side, but the utils in so that really limits the positions they can play and also limits the team play
That's available apex lurking, but mind the chest stepping up and taking two headshots away
Yeah, coming right out of this mode, but the bomb is still at temple. It can be recovered still
I don't know if I don't know if it's realized by bedroom quite yet that it's there
And this turns into a slow lurky route and now you got to talk about that communication between players with a stand-in situation
Drops wetting patiently, sees the shoulder, immediate gush, immediate kill, good trade from Siren, but then the next player steps up, you never expected Apex to still be there, and the B bomb site is open.
Vitality, just like life, they always find a way.
They do find a way. Well, let's see if MagnaJazz can find a way. I want B2.
He's got two of the rounds so far.
Needing to double that.
Tap the bomb to see if you're going to force any kind of presence, any kind of sound cue. Apex now going to confidently place the bomb as Mezzi covers him.
he covers him. Yeah, I see the Apex and Mezzie and Goode recently. Let's see if they get
feast on this. He still wins, so Magnetjazz goes on top. And he's looking to step out
into the open. Glock up first, Apex down and swings out towards Mezzie, who just about
was that one. A little bit of relief for Apex, but that run goes to favorite Vitality at
the end. Yeah, small mistake from Apex, not realizing
that Mezzie's tucked along the wall and isn't wide enough to prevent that kind of a peek.
So I'm almost putting together but a great trade from Mezzie, great trades into the bomb
and a good job in Vitality, pausing with strong map control positions, despite losing these two players.
Magda just plays that so well coming out of the smoke.
Does a great job, but clutch goes against him, one and nothing for Vitality.
Yeah, I mean, we've been watching for the past two weeks, it feels, I mean, just the one game here at Atlanta,
but back and forward it feels like Vitality has just been beaten, teams playing like their C-game, you know, for the most part.
So we can have the conversation, I'm not practicing, looking rough around the edges, but every team they've played against recently
Recently it feels like you know even the sea game can't be matched. No one knows PC game yesterday
We've got a rough stepping into what they mean
It was right there man, it was right there was hanging
Small cz going out dying flames you know what to take him away and just any one shot back for the from us so
Okay magnetize making this one interesting
still a long way off getting back in for the total round victory but you're
hoping Flammus can come in a little bit later here and actually taking Apex down
distracted so once again Messi has to clutch up and deliver here for vitality
taking damage he's spamming away and oh Messi coming close but Zortay able to come away
with it here on the FAMAS so it's gonna be one-to-one that that boom actually
getting in the fight early getting in the brawl I think that's one where that's
the one where I'll notice a little bit rougher on the edges that's where I can
point to that a little bit I feel like Apex gone to that like cheesy little
made game, just dropping the, dropping the HG grenade, chucking a flash in,
Nades being exchanged as well, throws a Molotov, but no cares in the world and
that flank is just wide open the whole time. This may be a little bit of slip
vision of a focus or not realizing it was gonna be that dangerous, that early on.
Either way, nice win in a rebuttal in round two for Batboo. I guess this, this is a
conversation you have to kind of have in a way, is like, yeah, Vitality's played
like their C-game for a lot of these, but most of their games, especially once
they get into the playoffs we see them at some point snap into that a game
right like they'll play like a C game for like 15 rounds and then you see them
kind of break in and it all comes together and then it's like oh god
they're here I like there's that ability is just is just too crazy to overcome I
don't see a world in which you're able to you're gonna be able to handle them so
if that boom I guess the what I'm trying to say is I think the best way you win
this is if you grab early lead and momentum and you just have to knock them
out quickly like if you let them linger in too long it's just gonna be a
problem. Yeah, it feels like underdogs always make one crucial mistake on a map and then that's
it. Losing against a low by, you know, losing a four of you, losing a five of you three or
something. BC game is like they were starting to get into the mirage and then electronic just
turned off his brain jumped out window. Yeah, they went around the clocks essentially. Yeah,
it's like those kinds of things and every time there's that like vitality so resilient to them,
those mistakes when they make them and other teams don't have that same resilience built up
across lifting every single trophy in the world over two years. So, you know, one of those situations,
those classic situations. Yeah, well, they've got a decent enough purchase here of vitality.
All things considered, you've got an AK inside those hands, which means there's always a shot
at winning this round. Then around there you've got pistols and a glale for flames. So,
boom, well, just have to respect that they're up against.
I have to figure out what they got on the other side first though.
Slowly moving into position, very quiet across the map.
aggressive openings just utility down in the choke points. Three players of
vitality leaning towards a main that's Robsmezzi and Zairu. Flamesy and Apex
starting to make their playover in middle taking some space. Zairu's AK will
lead the way. There's the peek from the M4 doubled up from Siren and Boomage
gets agressive as well with the FAMAS. Recovery now for Flamesy and Apex.
I think the fun thing too with these vitality matches also, while Wax and Lyrical about
them not playing their best counter strike over the last two weeks, is every time a team
steps in against vitality, they're fully focused, like they're snapped in.
This is a game against the best team in the world, so all the underdogs are coming in
and it's a focus that you don't typically see out of them as well.
Yeah, you have a team like Fat Boom who have just been grinding the tier two strike, you're
looking pretty good down there as well.
They gave themselves into a position where they can once again come back to events of this caliber.
So you get a shot at taking down Vitality would be a massive win for your VRS ranking.
And obviously, you've been hungry for this opportunity to play at events like this for a long time.
So make the most of it.
They've done a great job in the Tier 2 circuit.
Second place at the Stank event, Stake event back in April, early April.
First at the Radio Poplar Roman Imperial Cup.
Third at the BC Game Masters.
Yeah, they've been down there like taking some battles and just grinding at that level
Winning the IEM Atlanta qualifier back in February as well to make it to this event
It's happened to have flamas stand in did like what you were saying, you know
Yeah, she likes this version of the team better with flamas coming in
Hope hope Dillard doesn't watch an English stream
Well, there's the old shutdown of that boom. Can I go up three to one?
making it look easy against Glox as it should be.
So, piece of game, take note of that one,
and then we'll move into round five.
Ba is gonna be coming through here for Vitality.
The AK is coming out, knows I will all be yet.
Not quite yet.
Not really required on T side of Nubus.
No, you don't have to.
We'll see if he eventually picks it up.
Obviously, money gonna be the biggest problem
in the early stages for these first four or five rounds,
especially after not being able to convert the seconds.
Three in a row for Pet Room.
after losing the pistol.
Magnetize and Flannis gonna be playing behind the smoke, break it open, a little bit blind, a little bit of miscues
There's some of that disorganization with the stand-in.
But no punish.
Pimic being very active in the middle, close up to the smoke.
He's actually called the a defender siren and sort say both leave the bomb site entirely to come set here set up a trap and aggressive play
Plainsies in the open and blinded could peak follow up from Zairu
Be tough and so it's a
Commit to the spray for a long time unable to make anything of it
So messy will put vitality in the advantageous position as we had under one minute
Yeah, nice damage done though
You've kind of set Apex and Zairu up to be, you know, a double kill.
Mop those, the damage up at some point when the exec comes in.
Still spread around the map is Vitality.
Zairu with the bomb shifting over towards the B bomb site.
Mezzy creeps a little bit closer to B main while it's still smoked.
So Rops will be a distraction as he lurks.
One kill, sees the other, and now Vitality is going to pick up the pace
and step into the B bomb site.
Flamas has fallen all the way back to its CT spawn.
I only have 25 seconds left of Vitality arrive to the site.
Zywu will be out of commission for just a second as he puts that bomb down.
Flamus not in a position to make a play forward.
He's waiting on his teammate to come on over, but they have to get a move on soon.
They've got no utility and no kit, so they've got to go in loud and they don't really have
anything to block or put pressure on Vitality.
Yeah, this is going to be a huge issue all the time.
The timing as he looks away, Flammus goes down, Magnages 1v3, and everyone from Vitality is playing this so passively.
There's no way for Magnages to win this.
Nobody else peeking, so I guess you just go for an exit kill before the bomb goes off.
Yeah, Mazzie hanging around to make sure there's no last second attempt.
This has gone out as well, and Mazzie makes sure to take everything away.
Still got it.
got off guard but still recovers second round for vitality nice and easy as the
guns come back out
yeah mezzie being a consistent player for this vitality team as usual six and three
at the moment a strong start
mezzie's uh has some success on the new bus and American events
remember his big ace on the B bomb site defense
couple years ago here it was in Dallas
level of comfort for Messi on this particular map.
So it's a break open, it connects the smoke and look down into the water. Not
spotting too much, we'll
drop back to safety.
I like that Bed Boom has played these rounds pretty aggressive to open up. I
like that we saw them test middle and have that flashbang set up and they
followed up with another kind of flash peek as well. We've seen that get
aggressive at A main a number of times. I like that we're not seeing them shy away
from the fight and kind of play on their heels.
It's going to be tough as the half goes on to maintain that. You're going to have to start finding timings.
Look at the passive openings that Vitality's happening.
So you're going to start getting a sense that maybe those aggressive pieces that you want to put into play
are going to have to come into mid rounds.
But to do that, you're going to have to have information about what exactly Vitality's doing on the map.
So a quiet creep towards middle. Four players of Vitality here. Apex with the bomb in support.
Flash up a large flame. So, Mezzi, to step up to the double doors.
They're gonna be walking into boom it's the first obstacle in the way
See how much he can do he's got flambas backing him up here, but they're about to be smoked out
If you want to play in front of it looks like it vitality gonna be aware of this possibility
But they turn just as moves in and he gets a triple flamas right in behind him committed to that defensive middle
And they carved up the entire vitality squad leaving rops alone having to fight on these extremities
There's not enough time for him to get into competitive position
should go for the round win. That planned the whole way from that boomer. That's a great play from
Boomich and Flammeis. I mean you could see they were partnered up that whole time playing at each
other's hip and that was the entire idea when that smoke comes up. Boomich is going to swing
through. If he's alone probably doesn't but with the backup, with the teammate, with the bait coming
through as well. But damn the triple kill makes it not even really all that necessary. Great
performance from Boomich and a fourth round for Betboom as they maintain the lead.
As you mentioned we've seen this a number of times throughout the American
campaign for Vitality back at Fort Worth yesterday as well. A couple slow starts,
a couple games where they kind of look a little shaky. But there's always that
moment we just haven't gotten there yet. As you were saying that in the interview
ahead of the game as well, right? The fact that you're pretty surprised that
horse move things went yesterday in their opening game, said they expected
Maybe we started a little bit slower, but it came out looking pretty strong. Everybody was together in Mirage.
They also like outlasted like 28 kills from Simple as well on Dust2.
Yeah, so...
Maybe a slower game comes here in the second. Oh, I didn't see.
So far, that boom putting up some decent resistance. We've got Zortay who's lost half of his health to kick off the round.
They've right towards Flames to return some of that favor.
Alright, a little bit of pressure being applied from the middle of the map.
That smoke is going to start pulling some defenders, Zortay and Flamas back off and
shift over.
Zortay with that AWP.
A bombsite defense been bolstered by the addition of the AWP.
Full exec.
Vitality's relinquished, map control at all ends here at the A bombsite.
Zortay up at the ready, here they come straight towards his scope, he's getting one, Siren
Spline away, getting two frags, and Sorte kicks out again, putting an end to Vitality before they can even think about getting into the bomb site.
Oh, okay, you can start to see some smiles creeping into the face of Bedboo, and they're coming to that realization that we can handle this.
Now, all of a sudden, up 5-2 with 3-round lead, feeling much more confident in their ability to battle up against Vitality.
Yeah, stopping Vitality from getting me to bomb plants as well, right?
So, it's not likely to be able to get a good buyout in this round, so 6-2, the very likely outcome.
Watches that, but I think the success of some of the plays is going to start making them feel like they're a step ahead of vitality in reading them, right?
Like the double swing through the mid smoke that we saw where Boomage gets the triple kill, the pushes that we've seen in towards A main.
I think like two of them have been successful. One of them went the other direction.
Now you have this one where you read what's coming and you shift Zortay over at the perfect moment to be at the right bomb site.
Not only are you winning individually, but you're starting to feel if you're pet boom like you're winning in the tactical sense of the game, in the team side of the game.
Well, Flammus is going to have a really important job on this CT side once those guns come out
again, playing over towards connector.
It's an important job in this round too, not wanting to put himself at risk to some of
the weaker weapons that could take him down and be the first domino to fall in this B-Bomb
site defense.
So, yes, he starts the round in connector, but he's now dropped back to play from platform,
and that's given the space to Apex to move out, but now the surprise is that, and to
Exactly what's happening. Flamas has got the first headshot. Apex torn away.
The Triumph is a sprint into the site, but enough defenders here to make sure it's going to be difficult,
but Robson Deagle's arrived and starts to unravel them.
Mezzie's got one of his own. Can Mezzie pull off another big play here on the A site,
but he's looking for a better gun. Couldn't find one and ends up going down in all that distraction on Zortage's rotation.
Yeah, they used scramble. Yeah, gun bomb is trying to find everything.
needed to recover an AK to try and win that 1v2, some lovely shots from the Deagle.
Do some economic damage to BedBoom, but that's about it.
So a timeout forced out of Vitality, now down by 4 on the T side of Anubis.
Yeah, that stat is taking this time to really translate some of this thoughts over here.
Here's two critical pieces that BedBoom hasn't had to contend with, that we haven't seen kind of
come online and make their presence inside the server known quite yet. Zai Wu on the screen
right now, obviously, best player in the world, one and seven at the moment, so he's been very quiet,
been a great piece for Vitality, obviously, Flamesy as well, one and eight, and he's kind of the
playmaker, kind of the guy who likes to get things started. He's having a very quiet opening, so not
providing some early advantages for Vitality the way we see him do frequently those pieces.
Two critical ones for Vitality, I need to see them start stepping up to come back into this game.
Round nine is live. We've got AK-47s back in play for vitality down the board.
Full sets of utility to try again, but more aggression from Bedpoom.
Sandwich from both sides, one for one as Messi still stands tall.
Oh, he does, and he's handling all the pressure easily.
A second kill as well, and that B main push has put vitality into a very comfortable position,
because Apex pushes out of connector. Even if there was an extra player there,
he was happy to take the 1-2-1 fight.
Ellen shifted really from Batboom either.
Nobody's even really come over to address the B bombsites.
I would say he's being loud about it.
But he's got to realize this bombsite's been wide open
for some time.
Look at all the positions.
He's got a clear.
He hasn't thought about Apex being deep on that platform.
So we'll play from vitality.
That's going to be a third round one.
And for Batboom, just save the AWP, save the rifle.
Top game, top run for Flames as well.
I mean, you saw him.
They pushed B main.
they pushed from middle as well. He was getting shot from two different angles.
I mean, Messi has been keeping vitality in this game. Like he has kept him in, he won
the piss around for them, he's won the round, he did the damage on the B site, nearly winning
them around there, and now this one as well. So, Messi definitely keeping vitality alive
long enough so that the likes of Flames and Zairou can show up a little bit more.
That's been the conversation around Messi since, I guess in Sphinx lift the team really,
is you're just like, man, this guy, he's like this like role-player that we discuss and
talk about but whenever there's any of the stars go in quiet he fills that gap
so so well and he's British he's British I know apex loves that get all
kind of appreciate it
six to three Mezzie holding off this push after his teammate goes down that's a
lovely shot on the siren and unfortunately for Zortay falls prey to
apex who again that's just the X factor of apex like taking the risk oh they
push B, two players were killed, and as you got both those, okay, we'll see if there's
a third defender there.
And there wasn't.
So for Vitality, it's again all AKs.
The AWP still present.
What does it take?
It'll break open the cost, smoke go down for a peek, but Zaewoo wins it this time.
Answering the kill feed against the AWPer on the other side.
Now Apex has turned to move up through the smoke, slipping in.
Zaewoo's handled the push of Boomich, and there we go.
Ziru has had a round finally, impacts playing on the fate of the smoke, Magnajez ready for that.
Switching out to the AK.
Standing through, attempting to connect onto Ziru.
Two defenders have stepped over into the B bomb site, Flammus still here.
Hop in the bomb site as well, even Siren rotating over to have a third player.
I'm gonna take a big, big risk and shot down by Flames.
Second kill for him.
The opening from Ziru in this round
It's just the second opening kill that Vitality has had in this half so far, but they're taking advantage of it.
Oh well, Magnajo is trying to hunt down Siewoo. Pretty close to that AWP, they're connecting on towards him.
But it's Rops who has moved through A. So he'll start to clear out towards Heaven and Storage and realize no one's home,
so that bomb will safely make its way into the A bomb site for the finish of the round.
You can see how cautious Vitality is being though, with all the aggression that Batboom has thrown at them throughout the half,
things up they're just making sure nobody's hide and lurk them in some kind of a weird corner.
Take the long route all the way through rugs over to the A-bomb site. The raps keeps pushing
towards CT spawn to secure even more safety. This will be a fourth round for vitality as
magmajez and siren don't even budge. And money's fine for for bedroom. I mean that stretch of
rounds they had was so surprisingly clean. They've got plenty of cash built up with the amount of
of weapons they've been able to save, even at losses.
Thankful gun to take away, he's got another.
There we go, Mezzy, more impacts, forcing a lot of revise.
Money is still good, but this is going to cause them to buy up right to the brink.
So here's that comeback.
Here's that slow start from Vitality.
If they win this one and shadow the economy, that feels like the moment where you really
grab control. You can start to feel the T side starting to warm up and starting to come in,
starting to look seamless, flawless the way they're moving around the map.
We're from Bat Boon so far to get six rounds on CT side. A real chance to squeeze out another one
here. They've got a double-op setup being brought to the table. So we'll take going towards A main,
hoping he can catch out Robs. He uses a smoke just to maintain his life. Boonich is going to try
to support with some utility as well. Break open that smoke, give a clear line of vision to Robs,
that ropz has dodged it. Yeah, he does what's common. He knows the sequence of utility just steps away.
What aggressive player in a main that siren then flashed and activated? Is he gonna play the smoke
fade? Risky. Okay, and he gets away. She asked about gets away. But now the pressure might start
coming towards the B site where we mentioned Flemish is gonna have a really important role over
towards connector. Yeah, I'll start putting pressure on it. Well, he's just called out two outside of
B main he saw the one player take some shots he saw a nade come out after the
fact that's going to pull Magnus back on the defense smoke is gonna make a
nervous he's got a tuck back in maintaining his life with 11 HP but
he's got it back off. Maintaining his life is somewhat impressive there he's
dealing with pressure from B main worried about dealing with pressure inside
a connector. Well Bumich and Zortair try to gain back some of the ground loss at
this bomb site taking middle. Magnus is peeking out so it's Mezzi who's had a
a lot of impact from Vitality who's caught, he stopped him at least in his tracks, but
on to the rest of Vitality to see if they can swoop into his B site.
So I was slipped out, bomb in, he's going to be planted, boom, it's on the flank, now
being spotted, and held back.
So it's all about Zortay, who is now coming to join him, he stopped, rocked him, delivering
any impact in the round, Apex has gone down all the flames, and that's a very good retake
from Batboom.
They don't lose a single player in this round, so up to 7 on the CT side.
Yeah, they didn't really give any fights to the B exact, right?
It can be very difficult as a T side stepping into the B bomb site and getting planted if you haven't eliminated any of those players.
Look at, I mean, where they've all died on the mini-map is like in the front of the bomb site, no one able to take over any of the platform,
no one able to push up towards Temple whatsoever.
Most of the engagements from Bedboom came on the flank initially and then forces the hand of the players still inside the bomb site to get aggressive in disadvantaged fights.
Final round of the first half, Bedboom put a stop to the streak, they don't let Vitality gain that stranglehold.
Just doing a row for vitality. Three rounds back into this last round.
There's what I'd say. Nips out. Snatch as Zywoo.
It's beautiful. They're still keeping up the aggression. Got to appreciate the confidence out of the players.
Three and nine half from Zywoo as Zywoo. Really kept him quiet on this T side.
side. Flameless, no problem in stopping Apex and trying to cheeky move through the smoke.
And then you've got a 3v5 to try and turn here. So if I tell you to leave the first
half of a new place, we've only four rounds on the T side. Unless they pull off a 3v5,
now 2v5. It's just great work from Bat Boom.
Yeah, really, really good work from Bat Boom. Deep nape behind the smoke, barely any damage
even taken I'll come through the motions so to what they can hear ross and
messy said what it was flingy said that I'd mention he was surprised the things
that began so soon as he and that messy interview
oh this is more like it for vitality that boom in the lead over the world
Number one, eight to four for back room as they switch to the second half.
You f***ing idiot!
I
Come on, please. Oh, what's wrong?
Well, I always know when production calls us up and says we're gonna do an audio segment on the way back in from the break
i always know it's gonna be spicy
i wanna hear you
at all
so we said that as the column is the number one team
they're so good now they communicate versus
telepathy
i really appreciate that
they're still in the Michelin restaurant, they're just hanging out
three of them are in the mountains, two of them are in some high-rise restaurant in new york
No one cares
4-0 versus uh versus that but let's say if I tell you to pull this back
It's gonna be Zyra with the first kill flammas able to make the most of the trade opportunity
Now we've got apex trying to come back in but boobings denies even that so flames under pressure
It can't do anything and it really does have that that boom winning the new was feeling all over it doesn't it's also what we talked
About earlier is you better win this like quick
You know don't even give them the chance because now is when apex starts yelling at people
that was where Texas like I boys focus up everyone get into it what are we doing
was it or maybe he doesn't I'm not talking to you still not talking silent
treatment okay well they're fine good win though great trade in a main this
split onto the eight bomb site is really effective you handle the flank attempt
to come in from middle I mean look at how aggressive that boom has been when
they get the space put in pitching up to the choke points not giving vitality a
whole lot of room to operate in the retake
That's a bad word in French, I think.
I think so, too.
Well!
Hello!
That'll be a good word in French.
Yeah.
So, taking down Buvich.
Ooh la la.
Magnifique.
Siren.
Flash in.
And we will get main control.
But smoked out, so slowed down.
Magnetize in the long range.
Flight has called his teammate with a better weapon over.
And Apex is finished off.
So if anti says I will picked up immediately trade it out
That would have been really disappointed for bad boom if they weren't able to capitalize on little push out from apex
Kind of cotton no man's land and you could tell the Mac 10 didn't want to take the fight
So for Zortay to swing is beautiful to find equalizing kill flames is forced into an aggressive position playing in front of the pillar for the moment
Naded down to 35 a rough game for flames today
Well, better for Mazi who does some one-shot back at at least keeping vitality ahead in
this situation, but they're coming at the A site here, but Boob and Rops is all alone.
They need to clear this though, and actually they're not really taking any speed, any kind
of like, doesn't seem like they're super motivated to really press into that A bomb site with
the space that Maggages have over towards Temple.
They're trying to figure out where they want to finish.
They can go either way and he's told them to go back to A-Main, I'm going to be splitting.
I have the second front, 27 seconds.
Alright, peace out, 5-7, instant death, looks for the next fight and it's going to be magnetized,
saving the day here for Bat Boom, getting into the site but it's still doable here for
vitality.
Zaiwu coming in from heaven, deagle out, low HP, finishes off Sorte and the follow-up
is there as well.
Zaiwu takes his time, takes the kill and there's the low by round and we mentioned that throughout
the first half that Vitality win one of these at some point during the map and we see a
lot of the underdog teams really collapse in that form. It's yet to be seen whether
that's going to happen to BedBoom, but we're going to find out.
Well, that shot from Zaiwu, this one from Mezi, really knocked them off kilter. Those
two quick kills, I think, really kind of made that a tough experience for BedBoom. You
could see 27 seconds on the clock. You have that Magnetius flank coming in towards A-Main
from middle, and the player A-Main kind of aggresses on his own, dies to ropes, but it's
Like you got a player coming from middle. You have time to be patient here
He's gonna clear that position of rops or he's gonna spot it and let you know he's there
So maybe a little bit early on the a main play
But regardless it's vitalities kills in the low econ round that put them under pressure and bet boo make the mistakes
So you had your first half with them
You have to pistol here in the second let's see if vitality that's the round that snaps them into place escalates their game
Zortay another beautiful kill on Apex to open up the round and a 5 on 4 for the T side.
in middle. For vitality, this defense, they have rops alone at the A bomb site passive.
I think the strength of it is going to be mezzy and flames pushing through canals to go for a
fast flank. Yeah, that smoke from Rob should buy some time for that to happen. If Batboom respect
the smoke, now that's a big if because they're just going to go right through it. Flashes go up,
here they come, straight towards the A site. Robps is backed off towards camera,
I need to clean kill here and he just can't get it as I will with him
But that boom are completely popular to the A bomb site
Yeah, and they've actually forced this defense back into a really ugly position that was in the choke point
They need to kill right now if they want to the safety to push in and go for the retake there's one
It's traded still a man disadvantage. It's really tough to see how vitality we win this
So they understand the same thing and they're gonna back away. They're gonna save these weapons. Yeah, it's a lot of things, right?
It's like backing off into the ball. You're executing the aggression in middle to take out that half of the attack
Unfortunately attack comes from a main, but it's also that flank from flamesee and apex spotted as well
Through canals
So flames realize he's not as effective on that flank so they decide to back off and save these weapons bet boom not let them string
Two rounds together here in the second half to open things up
Lovely kill taking some extra guns away right at the end
Actually a ton of weapons being taken
everything okay this might not be a game that vitality recovers no it doesn't
feel like it also bet put doing a great job right now this is what the grinds
all been about for bet put right all these tier two events the online was
the smaller lands always try to build themselves back up to get into the
invite pool qualifying for IEM Atlanta coming over here and getting a chance to
play team vitality it looks so hard work that they've been putting in and now
10-5 up against Vitality with the stand-in. Perhaps it's the stand-in issue. Maybe that's Vitality's weakness right now.
Oh, yeah, stand-ins and you can't do the research.
They lost the foot with the coach on Dust2.
True.
I just lose this map and before I ask the question, is it possible for Beth Booth to win a map in this series?
Looking very likely. It's gonna be a yes.
Looks like they're just going back to the A-bomb site and they've done a number of rounds toward this where they've kind of found
drops as the solo defender in the late situations so might be something they
think is a tendency they can take advantage of. Still, Betboom spread
around the map, Flameless watching for pushes outside of B-Main, double molotovs
as well to show they want to take a little bit of control and a little bit of
space. No real commitment quite yet, Zahru gets pulled into a fight that
Sorte wins and finally a rebuttal but it's a four on three in the favor of
Bed Boom.
Well they're gonna smoke flames out, not really be in a position to do much about
that. Apex realizing they need to close them and space down so it throws out a
defensive smoke to create some cover as they move on in. Shroud them as they try
Get back into this flames finally erupting with some impact. He's been quiet all map long
But that double kills reopened a small chance that we does not have a kid on his back
He's got a smoke though, and it's up against Flemish
Flames doesn't know where he is though
Flames against flammies on the site flames looking for the diffusel
He's gonna start holding it now flammies to step up. It's the low HP it plays surely
He can't win this, FAMAS gonna spray away an 11th round for Bet Boom picked up one step closer to actually winning this map versus Vitality.
Yeah big time clutch, cool to see Flamesy kind of show up and have a couple very nice kills coming back into that retake
but with red HP with 11 health inside the smoke, 10 second defuse, that was always just gonna have to rely on a miracle occurrence.
Great work from Siren, again just, Bet Boom shooting so hard trading very well coming into these bomb sites and now that they're up 11-5,
I mean, they haven't been showing any fear throughout this.
There's certainly no reason for them to be afraid at the moment.
No one shine away from the fights.
Vitality down by six.
Oh, as he just spotted,
I'm just going to go back and address that made up.
Looking for the missing messy will do so very effectively.
Zyles, probably one of the D.
Goleman, which has finally finished off, messy.
He's back, stepping up, hoping his D.
Goleman can ring out in the kill feed as well.
And it will, but I'm not ready for Siren to come down the stairway and get that trade instantly.
So Flambs and Siren, we're with two pistols left, it's going to be that point for Batboom.
Alright, how far does Flammas want to go to secure the B-bomb site?
Another position of one player over in middle.
Lot of responsibility for Flammas as he steps up in towards Jail at the B-bomb site. Got to be worried about the walkout of Temple.
Through the main avenue and from canals, a drop down into the water.
teammates coming over now as I were playing it passively with the Deagle
looking for that one distance shot
how the chance at it there's no smoke for the cross
oh that's a tax you gotta pay
taxes be crippling yes they will
Saewoo's got another one boom it just turns his back and Saewoo makes the most of it
Siren
trying to win out the 1v2 and Saewoo looking for the quad kill
He's got flames to help him out here. They don't know what Siren is, but Zywu's got a bad idea.
Just playing it towards connector. Now he knows he's there. He lands a shot. Siren low, couldn't he come in?
Siren's out of that flames. He's got the kill. It's straight to the deep views.
It's Zywu saving their bacon with a big round win there.
That's a wild sequence of events from Zywu. A beautiful shot in the first player.
Second one just kind of loses the idea that that's still a point of danger.
Zywu steps up for another fight. He's got back turned the whole way.
way and now do I dare ask the question let's go this next round goes ask it
after this one I mean could that be the moment okay I'm gonna ask it anyway yeah
I mean it would be the part of the most heartbreaking but typical way the
underdog to lose but let's see if that boom can stabilize they're coming into
this you've got a case got tech not for boomage that's just I mean that's just
I would just keeping that door cracked a jar just a little bit still all go for
I love that for him. Excited for him. This is going to be fast towards the B bomb site.
They are slowing down. Already going to be a hit. Magnazes and Siren. Molotov will change the pacing of this, but it looks like they're ready to knock on the doors of this B bomb site.
three players here for a vitality. The utility is going to slow them down,
stall them out, bomb carrier getting tagged low, but Messi's the first to fall. Flemish
is simple, it's back. Messi's dead, Flemish is not ready, gets one kill regardless. Apex has to
step up and his teammate's dead. He's lost his two defending teammates and Apex they know exactly
where you are but he's trying to puff up his chest and show that there's more presence here than
really is. Renekto's in, denies the plant, Zairu's dead and it's got to be Apex and Robs to combine.
And Rops has the AUG.
He does indeed.
Oh, but Apex smoke faded, stays alive, it takes damage, going back into the fight, not winning them.
Rops steps up on his own now, 1v3, tapping away, but Flamish responds.
And Bat Boom, every time they lose a ridiculous round, they shouldn't.
They do bounce back, and this time, it's map point being grabbed.
That's a long, extended, grindy hit into the B bomb site, where you don't get that initial success right on the first blow.
You actually have to play it in such a such a long time to fight for that bombsite smoke
So up as chaos everywhere flashes and maids raining in you know, there's a couple players behind the smoke
Flamas just delivers the goods
I believe you got a spam kill on the messy to open things up through the smoke and then staying in this perch fall back
Providing supportive fire two more added into it
12-6 and six chances for bet boom to take this opening map away from vitality
I can see why you me study likes this version better with Flamas
Big impact from Flamestown that last round. 15-8 right now as well. This is
really fun to watch from Bat Boom. 12 to 6. Can they close now? This is a great
chance to do it. Yes, you've got the Zaheer all about, but the restaurant SMGs are pistols.
But they slow things down. Wanting to maximize their chances of closing this one out.
Another lovely nade, seen him throw that a number of times and it's chunked flames down
a few times.
50 HP for him, Apex 35.
A little bit bruised on the side of Vitality, 52 seconds on the clock as utility reigns in,
double Molotov in middle, one outside the A bomb site thrown in.
an execute a split into that a bomb site apex is already on the move for the flank
siren that's apex taking down one more step and with that kill with that progress of apex
that boom is saying you know what like he's so deep on that flank that they are probably already
vacated the B bomb site so it's got to be flames 25 seconds what can you do with this SMG a single
frag from flame sliver racing over but blocked by a smoke he goes for a shot through it but not
able to connect. The plant is in Bat Boom looking to secure a map victory versus
Team Vitality here on a new base. No more utility, it's guns out for Bat Boom.
Starting to move up, Vitality need to get a move on. No kit available. Bat Boom.
I'm not gonna let this slip. Truly they won but they have and now Chaka-ha-ha!
How have they done it? Again, Vitality find the way to the retake, it did not look
possible but they've come in and won a ridiculous retake out of nowhere. It should never happen
like that. Thrust rating for the Pet Boom. Yeah, I don't know. I don't have it. I have to watch the
replay. This is insane. They're in such good positions at this point. There's the one on the
flank. Robs 1v1. That's a shot. That one is wild. Yeah, just as amazed that they let that round slip
out of their control. I literally did not see a world in which Pet Boom lost that round. I didn't
didn't either, but here we are. And look at the money now.
Oh. Yeah, Formak 10s and AK-47. You could still win this if you don't, out of money
for the next rounds. Vitality would just be four away. And it just, it just can never
feel comfortable against this team.
Zawoo waits, up at the ready, there's the peek, miss shot, now it's messy, double kill,
spraying away, and Apex gets involved, down to two mag 10s here, 1 AK picked up, now in
the hands of MagnaJazz, but a 2v4 recovering, grenades landing towards the head of Boomage,
then boosts MagnaJazz up, another miss shot from Zawoo, so getting away with one here,
Bet Boom for the time being.
We'll see if they can actually pull anything off.
They were playing a little bit safe, dropping to that low level,
so it couldn't be seen by the boost.
Now swings out, ready for it.
Knew that boost was there the whole time,
trying to find it through the smoke,
but at the end of the day, he will get his kill.
12-8 for Bet Boom, but out of money after the Vitality victory.
Two in a row for the CT side, and a timeout called.
That one had a bet boom to talk things over.
And you don't mention it.
It's not going to be said verbally during this time now, but you know every player is
thinking here with how well they played to get up to this lead, to get up to 12-6, and
now all of a sudden you get this one last pushback from Vitality.
Haven't been able to close it out.
Two chances, losing a stunning retake with a man advantage.
Little piece of doubt has already crept into the back of their minds and
desperately, BedBoom is going to try and win this game before it grows even larger.
Up still in the hands of Zai Wu, 2 AK-47s in the aug for rops on the CT side.
And with no investment out of the BedBoom's side,
a Deagle picked up for Flamas with light armor. Vitality looking to close the gap to just three
after round 21.
Hey, thanks. Confident to take some open fights for the AK against pistols. He hasn't been able to win them.
He doesn't want to recommit into the same position again and get spammed down.
Isolate encasements with some cover of utility.
I've been taking a long time here not picking anything up.
Yeah, I'm kind of surprised he's still taking these fights.
I mean, there's some low risk to it, but the one
evil shot is just, you know, high risk doesn't always
feel like the reward is worth it.
Double Nade.
Brought down to 3 HP.
Just too shallow there, not making it to the stairs.
It gives a couple of players a life
with that boom for the time being, well,
Apex finally gets his reward.
I'm really hungry for these kills, and there we go.
Gets both Flammus and Zortay, both dead inside of connector.
Robs is gonna hold, and good reaction here with the York snaps of the head of Boomich,
leaving Magnages and Siren to bite their time, likely to meet their end at Apex's hand as well.
You've brought this up before, kind of setting this up as, you know, you let them,
we're talking about like, you let them linger in the game too long, and then they kind of snap into shape,
snap into place, and then all of a sudden you realize you just don't have what it takes to actually beat them and close it out.
I'm trying to set that up because I want to see what that's going to look like in this
round.
I've mentioned it a couple of times.
They've played this whole game and I haven't seen any kind of hesitation or fear.
They've trusted in the aggressive game plan, the aggressive stances and two-man plays that
they've loved to run on the CT side.
This kind of trade game, barreling into the bomb site, moving around the map and then
grouping up and hitting it.
That's looked good as well.
I want to see if some of that confidence has been shaken and lost now that you've lost
a couple of low buys now against Vitality.
lose an advantage post-plant that you had against Vitality has something changed.
Well, they're leaving some money in the bank because they want to go for three
Max hands at Galileo here. Trying to maximize the really really strong buys
down the stretch.
A loss here that have the full losing bonus giving them two full buys for the
final two rounds and even enough danger in this one to just win it out right
here. It's misdirection trying to show mid control and burst into the B bomb site with
Mac 10s. No flash or utility, it's just going to be contact.
He saved the first tag, Apex AK up and over, run, over, lump, and the SMGs in the
way are into the site, but Saibu's here and he strikes straight to the chest, recovers
Again, Sywell with another one, Siren dead, and Bumic's left on 21 HP, steps up, Sywell
sees the shadow, but cannot claim Bumic.
Can Bumic win it?
The leader look at it close, bomb in the open, two Vitality players, same position, Bumic
walks down, grabs the bomb, gets around the corner, taps him into the fight, but Robs
has picked it up, and now Vitality two rounds away from bringing this one into overtime.
I love that, that's actually a really really cool idea for Bat Broom, it almost works,
For that lack of any utility means when Sa'hu comes over and there's no smoke in his face,
you've got nothing to protect you against that AWP.
Comes in so fast and so aggressive with it, one for one for the two defenders, Apex and
Mezzi, caught off guard by the push of the Mach 10 and the timing of it, but Sa'hu is
just like perfect, clear lines of sight everywhere I want.
Lovely shooting with the AWP and Vitality's within two, that's four chances gone to the
wayside for Betboom to close out this map.
and set Siren up for a peek towards main hill.
Cost him utility and just trying to stake his claim of control of the A main area.
More flashes from Zortay, looking to support his team going forward.
That one is going to connect to the vision of Zairu.
We'll drop back and play from cake now with you, Till.
And at this point, Batboombing, very methodical, every step of the way towards A.
It's a big engagement.
How does Flames handle this?
So far, not taking contact, not taking the fight, and of course, he catches the perfect
timing.
Shots down Siren but couldn't get away so it's Rob, Siren of the Smoke, little gap to play with and now Magnetress coming in with a good timing.
Could he step up here for bad boomies, come around the back and mess, he adjusts the right time, 30 seconds on the clock.
Bomb building on Apex.
Oh, here's a nightmare here.
Vitality have got Apex in the perfect position.
Sorte, get a second!
And Apex doesn't look so.
Sorte finds him at just the right time
and opens up the B bomb site.
Bat boom, have a chance again.
Alright, bomb planted.
Where did they position themselves?
Be careful running out into the open.
Flames is ready.
Robs rotating over as well.
Open fight, double peeked.
And it's all on Robs 1v2 to keep it alive.
And how many times has Robs won a clutch like this?
No utility, but he does have a kit.
Let's see if Robs can pull it off, or if Betboom finally done it.
There's the first!
Now down to a 1v1, but it's 5-8!
Pee and Robs!
Close, but Betboom finally get it done!
A 13-10 win over Vitality.
They take the opening map of the series.
What a surprising result in the fashion that they've done it.
Vitality look like they were coming back, but Betboom withstand.
I'm going to be honest, I thought
we were going to be witnessing
one of those classic vitality
comebacks. They tease the map
right in front of you, and then
they pushed to OT. No, but today
you meet. They do not let that
happen. And that is so impressive.
It played aggressive counter
strikes. I think you know when
we talk and interview players
and they say, Oh, we just want to
go in and play our own game. There
is a fear that when you're
game there is a fear that when you're facing off against massive favorites that you are going to
adjust your game plan and try and play a bit more conservatively. Beppum didn't do that, they actually
tried to take fights and they frequently found great timings while doing so. A game that had
many facets to it because I agree that especially on the CT side you know very proactive in your face
sometimes playing aggressive Counter-Strike and taking the duels all the way to the end but there
was many facets to it in the sense that the stacking game as well in terms of meeting vitality,
in terms of coming in well prepared, kind of figuring out the economy okay whenever they had
tech nines, whenever they had limited utility, you would clearly see that Bedboom would change
the course of the round and change the way they approached it. So it was a very well rounded
performance and a performance that didn't necessarily just, you know, demanded players
individually to show up and kill the vitality players, more so, you know, as a team cohesion and
actually playing, you know, there's a better as a team compared to what's happening.
And we know how difficult that CT side can be to read what's going on in the map.
It didn't always feel like Bedboom were sending in all the troops to just get information.
They were picking timings and I think that has to go a lot of credit over to boom it
She was able to call and muster those stacks at the right time 100%
It goes without saying this is one of the most difficult teams to be doing that against as well
And the most unlikely teams to make vitality seem kind of caught off guard in some situations
There were so many moments where it was very clear that vitality didn't know exactly where the players were coming from from the side of that
Boom too, which is a very rare feat to achieve
Yeah, you know, it's it's it's a it's a good question in terms of how much is that vitality
you know not being focused enough and how much is that vitality not really showing up for this game
and how much is the bit boom making the playing field tough for vitality last round as well with
apics you know in in the position where he gets checked out we was weird it was a bit weird he
called sound sound you know so he told his teammates to be quiet and i thought when he was running
through the water that's gonna be a kill for apics but i don't know if he waited for the second player
to come by or he didn't anticipate being checked or whatever but it was it was just an odd game
all around for vitality and as you said you know it felt like they were coming back but that's why
I'm no key heavy the bit boom got the job done all I'm saying is they added a
An ability to swap over to left hand and his gun is in the one position where a player actually come out from as well
But that's one of those split-second decisions where he's trying to read the rotation
And yeah, he just doesn't hear him in time to react 100% and that's why it's so surprising right nine times out of ten
Any of those vitality plays would make the correct call in that situation
Obviously that ends up failing and that boom managed to seal the map
But we should talk about the I mean massive amount of positives for that boom coming out of this one
Let's go back to the first half CT side start with round six. You mean what do you know?
Yeah, I just wanted to pick around really to talk about the the mentality of bet boom, you know
You can see them on this CT side really try and press the attack
There are many times where you look at anchors or you look at how the rotating players are going to operate and you think well
Maybe they they're going to play conservatively or for their lives
That we have no information in this round at this moment and once this smoke blooms boom
Boomage actually called Flamas away from CT spawn so that they could potentially make
this play in the mid round and then Boomage pulls off this massive 3K and Flamas cleans
up.
This just shuts the round down entirely for Vitality because they worked the entire map,
they hoped that that Boom would be on edge and play inside of bomb sites but they find
the exact right target to attack.
It's a great showcase of what BedBoom did in the CT side, you know, in terms of poking
a little bit, gaining information, but also atypical because they did different things
pretty much every single round, certain rounds, they would be aggressive, gaining information,
playing a bit more proactive than certain rounds, they would almost gamble stack to the
degree where it made you feel that, oh, did they read my mentality? Had they had a read on
them coming into the game or was it just clear lock? No, and you bring up round seven. That's
a perfect example of that, right? I felt like Betboom looked into the crystal ball and made the
right gamble. Potentially. And that's kind of what I want to show, because I'm not quite certain,
myself to be completely honest. As you can see on the radar right here, you know, a very standard
setup coming in for Betboom in the beginning. You have three players situated towards B,
you have two players towards A, no one is in middle, which, you know, potentially leaves a
a bit of a weakness but as you can see right here it's the mid area is open. Right now they have no
information they're not poking out anywhere and they're basically just gamping on the fact that
they're figuring it out as they go along. At this point with 115 left I think what's part of the
reasoning is they know the bar right here. You have a couple of tech nines you have limited
utility so they're very well aware that Vitality will have to do something simplistic in order to
get into the round and one of the most simple sites to hit when you have limited utility is going
to be the A bomb site so you can see the rotation coming in with no information some would call it
of the gamble stack, others will call it well prepared coming into it. You're walking in
towards the A bombsite, you're vitality, you think you hit a nice timing, but you're walking
straight into three different players. You have Sotir with the AWP, we've blocked out
Smoke right here, not really hit the bind, gets the first kill and then you have two
players ready for it as well. You have Magnus and Siren coming in and getting a multi-killer
at that point and it almost felt like vitality at this point was just read from the beginning
of the round. Now again, it wasn't proactive counter strike on the CT side, it wasn't
players poking out, getting information that they weren't towards B. It simply felt like
Betboom just knew that okay with limited economy,
volatility tends to grow towards the A bomb site.
Let's just make the rotation through CT spawn
from the beginning of the round,
gamble on the fact that they're coming in and they did that.
There's also the understanding as well.
I mean, the positions they picked for that stack,
there's a boosted boomage,
there's a Zorta that can actually disrupt
that smoke inside of heaven,
and then a presence on the bomb site as well.
So yeah, I'm really impressed with what Betboom offered up
just in terms of the variety they had.
100%, it kind of goes back to a point earlier
of the reputation building opportunity for boomage, right?
you brought up the app's point that sometimes we used to look at that old
Navi roster and go, how much is Blade doing there versus Boomage, right? Whereas,
you look at this and it's like, okay, he's clearly got a mind for the game and maybe a mind for
my way picks likes to call things as well. Yeah, I mean, that could certainly be the case.
I just think that there is also the element, we talked about it earlier, just the lack of
practice. This is the map where the least amount of reps for Vitality. It's also, if they weren't
going to practice the maps, they do play a lot, then why the one that they play the least. So,
It was it was the lowest-hanging fruit, but it's also a map that has looked better and better over the iterations for
Betboom as well. Yeah, it might be a different story when we do come on to Overpass Vitality's Pig. Before we
talk about that though, I just want to give some flowers to the individuals from Betboom. It was a
very obvious team performance, but shout out, managers. I hear he's like best mates with Donk,
so maybe he's learning from the best as well, but it's great to see these guys flourish versus
what we call, you know, the superstar roster, the players that are the best in their roles.
A hundred percent, and that's one thing you can never neglect when you you speak of these
CIS teams and CIS players there's so much individual skill as well. One thing is playing well CT side
you know in terms of tactics stacking etc etc, but you need players who are also able to win the duels against players of the caliber coming in for
Vitality and MacDugess is a player that's been around for quite some time now
Maybe he hasn't had the full breakthrough just yet where you're like, okay
He's a new star in the making but you definitely see signs, you know
He and there that he's a skilled player and doing this world against Vitality
That's building a great case to be a good player
I mean, he looked great, but let's also not beat around the bush. There was a moment where it did look like this was going to go into
OZ because as an underdog team when you know, it's vitality. They did that 11-0 against a Navi,
which is we're going to hold that as a frame of reference.
Then you know that these guys can come and clutch it, but they had some pretty nonsense rounds towards the tail end of that game
that really could have changed. I guess that's what makes it more impressive that they managed to kind of, you know, put that to bed.
any of those worries, right? Exactly. The hurdle of Overpass though, Yumi, I would argue that's a much
bigger one, a much more tactical map. Obviously, you were kind of interested to see if Vitality
was going to be picking into that one as well. Do you think this is where order should be restored
and Vitality will bounce back? I think the problem I have is, Boomage as a caller on Overpass hasn't
had the best reputation over his iterations. Even back in that old Navi, they had a lot of really,
really slow drawn out rounds that didn't amount to anything. And then there was questions about
about, you know, is that blades doing or is that boomage and not making the right reads?
I'm not sure that this team, especially with the addition of flammas that this explosive
style, it translates that well, because you run into really solid choke points and great
fallback positions for your aggressive CT right choice on vitality as well. Those guys
should mop up these these sort of pack entries that that boom offer up.
Low key agree, you know, the boomage of Navi on overpass, not necessarily that impressive,
the boomage of make a squat run when he first came out back in the days like 20, 20, 14,
2015 I don't know you know that was a different version
I think they have a pretty good chance coming in against vitality given the fact that they start on the T side again
We speak of this lack of practice and as much as you want to play it down and say yeah
It doesn't matter when you're vitality and you're so much better than your position a map like overpass is very much coming down to the
Gratations very much coming down to the communication as well
And one of the first the thing that goes away when you're not practicing is exactly that we spoke to play yesterday saying that he
Do not want to go into a scenario where you're coming into a tournament without practice because the communication takes a bit before it comes up
the rotation, the split second decision making as well.
So if you're vitality, you've got to bank the fact that you have individuals that can make up for that.
And obviously, Cyroflames, he rubs, you pick a player, they can do that.
All I'm saying is there's a chance here, you start on the CT side, you're a bad boom,
you're not necessarily playing too bad on the map of War Pass, and Flamers in particular,
you know, yes, he was struggling in VP, if there was one map that he found success on, it was a War Pass.
So I'm building a case here that there's a chance.
Well, if you're bad boom, you managed to weather the storm on your own map,
to be a different beast. We're
going to see him going down
after the short break.
The F2 Double P is the F2 Shotgun!
Baby!
Got a mix up!
We are back!
Come on, come on!
Look Alex, I reviewed your department's financials, it's a disaster, I'm sending someone to conduct
an in-person audit.
Door ha ha ha!
Nail filling!
Alex, I'm here for the company audit, I want your seats.
What is that thing?
The part of the team, the employee of the month.
Your department is operating at a massive deficit.
And his fears? Or is she?
And what exactly is all of them?
I'm Story Alex.
Head office has instructed the immediate closure of the division.
You've got to be kidding me! These are our jobs!
Our livelihood is on the line!
They're really done.
I've lost the case.
Is that a case?
I'm sure of Klaus's place years ago.
Big boom.
What's up, man?
How you doing?
It's been a long time.
Yeah, I'm feeling good.
But we got you back in the server.
Yeah, you got a little bit of that boom in you today, so let's talk about your project
over here at that boom.
Oh, you know, I'm really happy to be in tier one tournament, so it's amazing feelings,
you know, after a long break.
I mean, you guys are kind of starting from the bottom
and now you're here, right?
So tell me a little about the journey for you
and for your team.
On this tournament, you mean?
For overall.
Oh, yeah, it's a long team.
I mean, one year without big lands.
And right now we're at Atlanta.
And soon is a majoring to loan for us.
So I'm happy to be here, like I said before.
And today we'll face with Ilyty.
So it's crazy emotions to play versus Apex again.
Everyone loves to play Vitality this day and age, so I'm told at least.
Yesterday you played B8, how'd that go?
It's great, of course.
Then you win the first match and the tournament is a crazy feeling,
and after a long journey with the 12 flights, hours, you know.
But still, I don't have the jet lag, so I'm happy.
And you know, 2-1 game, we lost Mirage, 16-14, it was a crazy match.
much but on second map we go back and the third map was 13-5 but still it was a
hard match for us so and today we will face Vitality.
Yeah as I say speaking of hard matches and the one you've got today how do you
look at a team like Vitality and try to prepare or plan against them they have a
ton of tape ton of demos you know that everyone wants to kind of see how they're
doing what they're doing how does you how do you guys approach it?
You know we're playing with Flamos so we have only four days in practice and of
of course, they're a better team today, but I think the main reason if we can win, it's
about individual skill, so we need to step up.
That's all.
Blumich, it's good to see you, it's good to talk to you, it's good to see you in the
server.
Is there anything you want to say to the fans at home?
No, just thank you for your support, guys, and happy to see us and you again and again.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
We'll do it. Happy to be back and I'm sure even happier after a map one win versus team
vitality. Welcome back to Intel Extreme Masters Atlanta. We're heading into the second map.
It's vitality's map pick of overpass and Jason, it does feel like vitality will be able to
bounce back in the series, but it's great to see that boom bringing this level to the
game. Yeah, that's the thing. I'm like, yeah, you're probably right. It probably should
be that way. Probably will be that way, but I'm going to see what that boom opens up with
Looks like is I mean, you know easier boomage. They're saying a lot of it's gonna be on individual skill
Well, he got the benefit of that individual skill helped out obviously by a quiet game from Flames
Hey, Zilu started out very very slow
But you if you look at the bedroom side from map one four players three three players have 18 kills and the fourth player is 19 kills
Those are your top four performers
So it's individual skill across the board you add into that the fact that the game plan wasn't here too
You could see they wanted to be aggressive. They wanted to be in the face from vitality
They wanted to be disruptive and not fighting on their heels as they back away
It's exactly what they did throughout that entire first map of the series and I think that's awesome
Let's see what they come in with here because they shocked us all in the first map
It could be another surprise here on overpass vitality starting on the T side pistol round is live attacking into pet booms defense
Wow plenty of utility here for apex and messy coming into the pistol
Now see a boom itch get boosted up siren
With the information that boom itch is able to pick up it can feel comfortable about playing aggressively on short and have a strong setup to deal with
Vitality coming down water, but they're going heavy long
Nothing spotted yet. Rob's gonna play very slow as the man away from the pack
Turn in towards bathrooms and go quiet here at this point clear things out early on
See no one peeking long footsteps starting to be made defense not shifting still no information of what vitality is doing in the
Runway coming up long as wide the hell open utilities out
I don't know if Sorte's gonna be around time to provide any real resistance
Hey, he's all the way back and look at that if I tell you already have two players running down the stairs at him
So a lot of space taking in this pistol round
It's gonna be a real fight to get even some of the space back from Bat boom not
Even close to the pistol round wing yet, but Magnus is he's got by and they haven't seen him
I haven't spotted him, but he hasn't been able to take a kill just yet now comes the bank attack
Zai-Lud, Apex taking the first couple of kills, Apex has one more in for good measure, and
eventually Flames toppling Boomich, and all five players of Vitality stay alive.
Yeah, you could see.
I mean, just so much space game from Vitality on that retake.
I think actually the fact that Magnus slips past the net and is able to even get a clean
shot on Apex and another player pushed up close towards CT stairs, that's actually pretty
incredible.
He lands those, that Pistorok can go on its head.
That was the one detailed Vitality miss, but it doesn't end up biting them whatsoever.
So pistol for vitality, they get started on the right foot.
Nice!
I like such right sense.
I don't get the console, honestly.
That's a nice pitch to hit.
Yeah, I'm sure it was a good conversation outside in the Georgia Sun for vitality to try and
get back into the series, get the heads in the game, and we listened in coming into the
second half of a new business.
no comms at all
and so nothing to take away for that
biggest win that this bet boom team have had on overpass in the last three months
over heroic
right so a real testament to the level of competition they've been playing against
yeah i mean they took a 3 to 13 loss to z2
beat 9, 13 to 9, heroic 13 to 7
we've lost to sinners and wild cardon and it's kind of up and down
obviously a very strong map for vitality. So quite a test, quite a challenge ahead of
Bed Boom. Invested here in the second round much like the pistol, four players stacked
over towards the B bomb site, Magnajez playing A alone. Very quiet round from both teams,
no one really too motivated to get into any early fights. Bed Boom playing pretty much
without any information so it looks like zaiwu and flames are going to start
applying some pressure towards the A bomb site you could seize on the mini
map some players starting to move especially now that kill comes in it's
sold the play towards the A bomb site there's only 20 seconds left on the
clock that bomb for apex time to move through siren trying to be a threat
trying to be a nuisance he's got the 5-7 out can he stop the bomb he will get a
headshot onto mezi but robs flying over the top and zaiwu coming in just the
right time for that bomb to go down and come to the point.
Yeah, looking to the north.
Well done from Apex, well done from Vitality.
Yeah, time's running low.
The map's been quiet.
You haven't seen any defenders, a little bit of attention,
and one kill towards that A bomb site
breaks up any kind of a stack they had.
And the B bomb site easy to overrun from there.
So two to nothing.
Vitality looking clinical in these first two rounds of play.
Only one player has gone down.
And that was Mezzi in the previous, the only death
Vitality's taken thus far.
So, no real threats coming up in this round from that boom, you know, deagles are siren
and magnagers alongside flammies, that's really it, so it could be a nice 3-0 start,
it should be a nice 3-0 start here for vitality on the T side of Overpass, it's always great
to get that early lead on the T side, makes things a lot easier for the rest of the half.
Sprinkly, few gun rounds here and there through, you got magnagers pushed up towards Fountain,
Eagle goes out for a couple of body shots but not enough to stop flames so the
Maktan comes out on top of the first flight, Galeel also for Apex, now 5v3.
Raps has missed this little piece of aggression from Siren and Boomage
pushing in towards short behind that smoke but I mean there's really no
no consequence in our situation in the way that turns this round on its head.
Vitality still playing this very far back. That is the one little thing too is
I mean you kind of we heard it from NKJ in the previous series when he went into the map too and he kind of said our worst enemy right now
Is going to be ourselves and the overconfidence we might bring into this thinking this game is done
Maybe a small wake-up call for vitality. I think coming into this
They've done a good job of mentally kind of talking about how they've taken a little bit of a break from heavy practice
So they're like expectations have shifted at least internally within the team
But still a loss like that where you kind of get kind of start getting bodied through different stretches of anubis by that boom
Yeah, it's part especially the opener right
No, but a half was
Insided for many parts of it. I
Just look at ruthless there being like they've been walking around the map in like a five on four for like 30 seconds
And they don't even make a move until they realize they know exactly where he is
So who's gone down? It's all good. Maybe we can bring it up to literally the last event right where they lost that map on dust
Too to flip one with their coach right and
Locked in you heard a tag saying the web replays are acceptable
Now I managed to pull it all together and finish with the...
Finish with the trophy.
Finish with the trophy, but in that series, you know, they limped through Nuke.
But they got through the series and then got into shape for the rest of the competition.
Guns are out for the first time for Betboom. AWP in the hands of Zorzi.
One kit picked up on Boomich. Good sets of utility for the CT side.
Vitaliy gonna be playing a little handicap tier with two Galils and a Maktan on Flames.
Good to see Sorte back, it's been a while since we've seen him on the off, enjoy watching him when he's having a good game and
He's got no challenge on the other side right now in this round with the AWP
So let's see what he's able to pull off
Well, Robson's already slid into position to protect against an aggressive play towards Short and Sandbags
Exactly what they want to do. Sorte has to trade it
Not able to get it on Robson, doesn't run the corner too far
I wanted to put himself in a position where you get one kill and then a camp fall back
Pumich has been spammed down to A-HP. He's at this deep bomb site. There's the kill from Sorte.
Finds the equalizer, but HP is still a problem for many of the better players, but boosts it up.
Flameless has won as well, and the swing-out monster is coming.
Here comes Apex. He's already up towards the bowels. Great flashbang. That's Flameless dead.
Flameless moves in, replacing Apex's attack.
And Sorte stuck at Heaven. He manages to fall back to a position where he can try and get a little bit more impact,
but he's gonna be smoked out and held back so that plant will be coming through.
Well the low HP player has the only kit, that's Boomich who's also been past the
AWP so even if this retake comes in the AWP is gonna come in way way late to make
sure he can preserve the weapon if it goes the other direction three on three
and the smoke fade is gonna be the signal to begin.
Oh good shot, he's eye-wool. It looks away anticipating the next maneuvers to come through
have it as well but they got the information now and so I say it doesn't
want to go for this, not enough time and you throw the AWP away. So it goes back up towards
the A bomb site, hanging on to the big green gun, but that does result in a fourth round
in a row here for Team Vitality.
Yeah, quite a roller coaster in this one, right? Opening kill goes the way of Robs and
then a return kill from Zoltay's off, the boost up for a second kill. He might not be
able to keep a good shot there, needed that one to stay alive. And the bomb goes off to
take down Apex. Every member of Vitality dies.
Yeah, look at a lot more locked in now.
Yeah, plenty of money for the Repie as well.
Let's see as this game goes on, I guess it just depends on which way you want to read it.
More locked in, more comfortable on a map that Betboom is less comfortable on, right?
The desk brought it up before Nuvus began.
It's the least played map from Vitality, nothing they don't win it,
just that it's the least experienced map that they've had to run through recently.
Timeout from Betboom going into round five.
Decisions to make, they have the Opsorts, they can drop a weapon over.
You could see Flamme is thought about buying the M4, but gonna stick back. It looks like into a half-buy around this op and
Vitality after everyone goes down they replenish with AK-47s. No AWP necessary for the T side quite yet
around five begins
M4 in the hands of Magneyes
I don't know, I sometimes just refer to that
Mayonnaise, which we just called that, AWP on Zortec
I was worried with the
The European players, Jason sometimes, Jayzer-wise, most most often they're wise.
I just never know.
And it's Zawoo or Zewoo.
Haha.
We got Robs, just waiting down in water.
Now he has got himself a pretty good position to start the round.
His teammates could come to join him eventually, but Robs just had on a swivel, saying alert in case any aggression comes his way, which there actually will be soon enough.
Two players coming in through short.
Will Robs be able to handle it?
Siren, but surely creeping towards him and Robs gets cleared out by that 5-7.
Yeah timing of that jiggle benefits the 5-7 for sure. Good swing from Siren.
Apex wants to get into a bit more safety but pushes up down with a little bit of
no man's land, good angle. Brought Flamme is very very low. The only one who
could take this fight for eight matches, Magnetjazz, and he wins as well.
Brought down to 21 HP but that's two opening kills for Betboom's defense.
Yeah, they worked hard for them and very happy to collect them 45 seconds and here go vitality towards a funneled into the AWP as well
Sort of just jump spotting look at the detect them. Oh boomage
Just about getting to a safe spot misshaw from sort say you will get a couple of chances at this though
Well from the dice box needs to connect it
Walk out that flames to fall messy and zai Wu. Oh my god, right back to me. Yep. Look at that. That's gonna be huge
That's one and the utility to burn away the second force him into the open now the chase is on towards the dice box
It's I will point out the AK jumps up dice box close. He's magnetize pulls out the five seven instead
That one for the shots were free
He just couldn't connect them and messy only gives you one opportunity before he turns and takes that kill
That's a 2v5 conversion. That's a 2v5 two kills of the B bombsite
Zortzay gets the next one with the AWP while blind, but the low HP, the 8 and 8 into the
bomb site, the Molotov to follow up, forces the low HP players into the open, and then
just a little bit of luck going your way.
Now, I just couldn't find a clean fight at the end wrapping around dice boxes.
It started out so well.
It must be such a deflating feeling to fight so hard.
Play it so well towards B to get those advantages.
You come back up to the A site, you've got enough numbers there, rotated early before
Vitality have arrived to the site and you still lose the round. Yeah, Vitality playing with some plot armor in that round
She just weren't gonna win it
Now we're gonna change the pace
So we're gonna double flash and come through this monster smoke never expected it, but nobody was home
So flames see a happy to fall back
So it's they got blind and retreated into safety just at the perfect moment
There they come straight into was a site, but they're gonna be blocked by utility they'll get by it anyway
A plane just runs forward, the AWP is dead to an MP9.
Who is she only playing getting a defensive shot, so Siren also enters the feed?
Yeah, but now they know there's two.
They know there's both there, and that Molotov gonna force him out of the fight, a little bit of damage, but stalls them out.
The bomb is still far back, which is a little bit scary, because Zywu's got a cross.
Wow, he's uh...
He's having smoke.
He's tempted without it, and yeah, this smoke allows Robs to die, so he needs Apex to get something, he looks the wrong time, so...
Zywu in the clutch.
Now, we talked about the bomb being back as a weakness.
Is it going to turn out to be the strength?
Now, Siwu, to be lagging behind the rest of the pack,
he has 40 seconds here.
Strength might not be the right word,
but maybe he's saving grace.
Maybe he can do something with it
that he still retains that control,
but tell you what, this is around vitality
beats themselves, very uncharacteristic,
miss smoke up towards heaven, miss piece of utility,
bomb separated and segmented very, very far back.
All right, Siwu, steps out into the open,
misses the shot, needed the landing immediately.
he had any chance of winning that one, and Boomich puts him in the ground.
So, I mean, there's a lot of rounds there with the Betboom had a shot at winning,
and finally they get one breaking their way.
Yeah, I mean, even it feels unlikely as well.
Like, look at them coming through.
The opening provided by Mezzi during this execute.
Frenzy gets that beautiful shot onto the AWP.
MP9 out duels the AWP.
It's that missed smoke, man.
If Robs has some safety and some clearance with that smoke in place,
and he doesn't go down, you just have so many more resources and strong positions.
That'll be frustrating, but other than that, Vitality's played pretty much spotless.
Lucky to be alive as MagnaJazz.
Missed the opportunity to pick him off, made in hand as he turns the corner.
He's going to scurry back to the A-bomb site.
So what's A, being patient?
I hope it can be another opening kill.
Fun on to Robson, it will be.
So back to backgrounds, Robs picked off towards B.
And it's putting vitality in a really tough spot here.
Slows things down a little bit.
He was meant to fall back at some point and pick up the bomb
to rejoin his teammates over towards bathrooms potentially.
So they'll scramble back to T spawn,
make sure there's no pushes off that kill.
Changes the plans a little bit.
Now no more aggression in bathrooms.
It's two players to come down towards Blue Door.
Flammus they need to find. Yeah, pushed up. And Rob's was so passive this round they have no idea about this aggression.
Yeah, got a clear hit, got a spot in. Flammus getting the one before being traded out by Flames,
but that will keep that boom ahead with the player count, but it will also
give them enough information early enough that they can rotate some of the forces down to this B site in time.
Okay, safety, having smokes.
It's gonna rotate off in the open, good shot, good trade.
Yeah, so I will really quick to get that trade in so vitality of even out the numbers 20 seconds
I will go forward with a boom it's this time winning a jewel. It's all on flames up on top
Boom it's dead and flames looking for the clutch up against Magnus as 10 seconds
Gotta get the bomb gotta get it to the site
But he's lost to
Magnus as in the open free kill and another round for a bet boom
Yeah, it took the risk that he was coming on the flank and becoming up sandbags wide open to that play for Magnus as
fairly held on by Betboom, almost trading their way in by is vitality, but man what
a good hold from Betboom. Defenses look strong at points today, this is now two
rounds in a row, good opening pick. Zortay's off starting to have quite a bit
of impact in this map, even the jump up over the top looks great but Flamesy
can never locate the last player. And Betboom is burned through the money that
Vitality built up, AK-47 in the hands of Zairu, upgraded pistols on a few other
players. Yeah, finally, that boom, I've got the reward of wearing that money down here for team
Vitality. Gotta take this chance now to go up to a third. But this is what I was talking about,
the start of the map, you know, when Vitality gets such a strong lead on the T side, they win
the pistol, they're able to convert them. You've already got a really good foundation laid out
to build on. You've got five rounds T side already, you're gonna take a pause here, but you'd imagine
they'll squeeze out an extra round of two and a half.
Okay, that's really points to how important it is to get a good lead out early,
and with that aside, we're losing the HK47, so hero AK picked off, and...
Zortay can start to have a few hits!
Zortay, yep!
He's liking what he's seeing right now.
Vitality players walking into a one by one.
A conveyor belt of death provided towards him.
And he's just feasting on them.
There's another one!
sword-taste off, ringing out in the feed, and Magnetize to come up the stairway to secure
a third round for Bat Boop.
You love that feeling if you're on the Bat Boop side. Just watching the kill feed, watching
your opp or just rack them up, one by one, quad kill overall. Feels really good when your
opp starts delivering like that for you, because you know the opp just makes your life so much
easier if it's on point like this. Beautiful shooting, maintaining the aggression, and well
Well done, another buy for Vitality now, so who's gonna be stuck on the Tech9 due to the
Hero AK in the previous?
Strong opening towards the B bomb site for Vitality.
All five players here, nobody headed towards Fountain.
They're going through a monster, it's Siren.
Stomp in Apex, Flammus.
We'll get the same result this time on Flank.
So Vitality limping to the deaths right now as they try and get out,
but Rops might just relieve them of their pain.
He's got himself a second here, comes Messi, needs the other,
and Vitality have found a way again.
So Zortay, yes, farmed them in the last round when they were on the weaker guns,
but now has to do it in the gun round.
Now that grenade is good, it's soft and zile up, but it might not matter much.
I guess AWP
Let's see as always I can pull this one off
Around the corner he goes
Looking for the rifle instead the AK-47
Now the low HP really matters steps in the open needs a quick one and nearly gets back to Zywoo
But vitality somehow prevail from that after losing double members coming through the monster tunnel
They still get through from short. Yeah, that was a really grimy execute
Both of them just going blow for blow trading kills vitality kind of playing bet booms game in that round where there's no Fidesz to it
whatsoever
It's just brute force making sure the trade kills but again another round where bet boom do so good at the start right first two kills
You're sitting in a five on three at that point rock steps up is able to grab you to and then activate mezzy around the corner
Snatches that round away from a strong bet boom defense rocks once again gonna have pressure put on them early
No, Siren is running down, he's blind, completely blinded, so Rops will take that kill, no issue, and this time, getting away.
So, I tell you to clean opening, it's been a while since we've seen that.
Yeah, and low health on Rops, so he just grabs the glill, he's gonna just play very, very far back, lurk watching for pushes, so we're covering the back, the flank of the team as they progress.
Oh, Magnetjez, still in the advanced position, a little bit of an unpredictable angle.
But, Flam's predicted it pretty easily, so he's just very, very ready for that position.
That looks so easy, didn't he?
That was a time that position was really, really strong.
Well, not as much these days.
No, it's kind of been, that's an angle that everyone clears now.
Because if you don't assume it's going to be covered, you're just in trouble if someone's there.
No real chance of a reaction, so lovely job coming through the smoke as well.
Great flashbang.
It's round one by teamwork and utility.
Apex activated Robs with the flash to get the open and kill towards short on a blind opponent.
Now again to crack into the A-bomb site, completely blind defender with no chance.
All plant comes in from as you front of the dice box.
Here goes Robs from the back. Boom-itch.
About to...
Get an easy kill. Robs, he strolls on him.
But the round already dead in favor of Vitality. It's up 7-3 now.
Well, Boomage hiding just behind the tree and spotted him trying to spam away and now
Zawoo going back over towards Zortay who's making quite a lot of steps on the stairs
trying to use utility to keep Zawoo back with the gun to backtrack and remove Boomage first.
Zawoo gets away with the AWP.
Yep, no surprise.
At least we have that going for us.
You can drop a weapon over if BedBoom want to invest here, they'd be shoving their chips
all in and round 11 I think more likely is small buy and save up for the final round
of the half.
Potentially even a timeout just to talk through the financial situation.
Yeah, nice and easy, MagnetJet doesn't even get a chance to react, yeah, shake it your
head, it's just too fast.
Round 11 is underway.
And Bedroom do shove all in. Around the AWP of Zortec. M4 from AusMP9 and 5-7. It's a fast play towards the B-bomb site through Maastricht.
Yeah, right through and Flammeus gets one. Siren the other, but the trades are even.
And now Magnaja is trying to rotate down through connector. Robs takes a while to get it, but still finds success on the Mag-10.
2B3 for Bedboom to try and recover.
Yeah, I don't think it was nearly as much of a knockout blow that Vitality wanted, so they know the rotation is going to be here.
looking at a Mezze with 25 HP, Rost with 32 HP, and they just want to move around the map.
They don't want to attack head-on into this defense that they know someone surely slid over in
support, if not both. So they're going to exploit the fact that this map is absolutely huge as they
rotate all the way back towards Long. Rost doesn't have any significant utility. It'd be great if
you had like a smoke, a Molotov, a grenade to chuck things out, but this flashbang might do the
the trick with Zortan boomage already here. A little bit sensitive you can tell
they're hoping and praying so this might just be enough to seal the belief that
the B-bombs that'll be the finish.
The
plant from Mazeep puts it down on the dice box and that's slipping away into the night
to save DWP and from us again.
Trying to find an AK-47. Really anything but the FAMAS here.
Yeah, anything better. Some Utah.
Alright, 8-3. Vitality showing their prowess on the map.
Yeah, they're back.
Yeah, this was, again, we understood that this was probably going to be the likely outcome.
Just wanted to see what Batboom was going to bring to the table after the impressive run on a newbis.
But this has just been all vitality. All the answers, all the rebuttals.
There was a three-round stretch from Batboom. They won their three rounds in a streak.
But outside of that one little window, they've just been absolutely run ragged on this map.
Well, checking in with the B-Stream. We got pain versus foot currently ongoing.
That's on the second map also, Overpass.
Ooh.
Great day for Overpass fans.
Yeah.
Timeout taken from Bedroom, their second. So you can tell it's important they want to get this fourth round.
Any kind of breathing room, any kind of space to operate with in the second half to have a little bit of forgiveness for the mistakes that'll come.
for a difficult T side.
Stepped into this map in Vitality, a hard reset
after Anubis as they started to come alive towards the tail end,
but not enough to make and complete the comeback.
But that late game version of Vitality showed up at the start of Overpass
and just showed there were multiple steps ahead on this map, then that boomed.
Round 12, final round of the first half.
It's underway. We've got an up in the hands of Zairu, up still in the hands of Zorta.
He's had that quite a bit, but able to, he's managed to save it a number of times.
Seems a great sequences of it, but Vitality with this kind of more punchy,
trady style into bomb sites, sort of neutralize the ability of the up to have impact
at the start of rounds.
Well, they're trying to get it involved, or at least they're going to boost Zorta up
so he can look down into water.
He's not going to detect anybody from Vitality heading that way because they just aren't.
going to be accelerating up through long instead.
So you've got Apex and Flames moving it as a pack,
as a unit all the way up, and look at much space
they've got already.
How far did they take this before MagnaJazz
decides to have a look?
I think all the way.
I don't think he's going to consider it.
I mean, they haven't really exploit on this pacing.
Here he comes.
Into the peek, and now there's two players
running in front of the space.
Can he handle it?
No.
Just a good amount of damage, but can't get a kill.
Now, Messi and Kahn are in a great position here
to cut off rotations.
It's so hard to deal with this.
It's so hard to deal with this if you're bet boom,
because two players being that deep at long is usually a signal that that's
like a finishing like all the time in here you know like it's coming at the
eight bomb sites of the players that be move a little bit quicker but it's only
been two guys who backed away and the rest of itality is waiting for your
reaction is one rotate fast trying to get those reinforcements up to the site
but you know go sort a boom how often we had sort 10 boovage in a 2v5
2v4 you know these two players always in some impossible situation we can like
It's gonna be nine to three here for vitality at the half this time. They won't be saving their weapons. They have to go for it
So flying into the sky final execution on the B site that they go before the smoke pops
So I've actually given them a chance. Yeah, it's a really nice find to get just at this point of them
They're stepping into the bomb site as you looking for the flank no one's gonna be home if they boost up here
I don't be the indication that as you can face forward. They do get the boost
Yeah, as I was just ready for it
And he gets damage off onto the second play, which allows Apex to get the finishing nade.
It's a 9-3 lead for team Vitality.
They lose to Nugus, but they're bouncing back in a big way here at Overpass.
I'll look to the dark
I'm no open blue eyes
Keep me up at night
I'm gonna follow this path
It runs to my door
That I've never had before
I know we must go, go, go
So close to the moment
When I smile, we will find
I know you're much more
Oh, oh, oh
Don't need anything
I
We're going to go back to the
entire stream masters Atlanta
2026. We've got vitality. We've
got that boom. That boom one
map up in the series, but we
likely we're gonna see Nuke in the next few minutes, James.
Yeah, different vitally than what we saw on the first map, right?
No quiet starts, no slow starts, everyone chiming in,
saw the engine starting to get cranking up and running
in that first half, nine to three lead,
and they get a switch to the defensive side of Overpass.
So let's do a bad boom brings to the table.
Not a whole lot of mistakes,
not a whole lot of runway to work with.
All five players towards the B bomb site looks like a rush.
They're a real quick pistol, coming at them.
Can Xaywuf handle it?
So, Jubro, it is around.
Messi trying to take some of that attention away. He will be successful. So I was so rapid on the trigger gets another one
So what's they holding on but that glock? It's not some work. It's kept them in this pistol Flamas needs to get involved as well
That's what you're right!
One range burst into the headshot flame suddenly has to win it alone and Flamas has picked it up
What have you seen a glock burst to that range? That was incredible. Well done from Flamas and that's the pistol round for a pet boom
I
I wonder if that was intentional. They seem more like a panic. He accidentally clicked the burst fire. I think so. Dang
But not he maybe did turn it on thinking the next hour is gonna be close. They realize you had to take the one at range
Nope, that's an accident
Double forces works
All right
Yeah, we'll take that grin
He's happy about that. This round for bedroom. All right get in started on the right foot at least and I don't have to be worrying about like the
the desperate attempt to convert the second just to stay alive in the map so
a little bit of breathing room for Betbroom. Pistor on loss likely to be the
death sentence immediately. Winning it opens up a conversation. Vitality have
got a bye so we got MP9s, 5-7s and a D.Eagle in the hands of Zairu so this
round still has a lot of threat involved in it. You've got Zairu taking
initial contact, Lane's turned into the wall to dodge any flashbangs that would
come his way. Well it's just the one from Flames, traded out by Flamas who does take
a lot of damage so he's down to 30 HP.
Thankfully no scout in play. Probably don't realize it yet. Zortzai is going to find the
kill on Apex, lovely shot. Seen Zaiwuz, Deagle do some nasty things on Anubis in that first
map so they're cautious going up and trying to scale against it. Zaiwuz just smokes off
long defensively
the same thing the robs five seven can be a deadly force so
best to flank him when you can
and magnetize comes through with that mac ten robs
fell now thirty seconds left we've got zile rotating back up to the ace i he's
been all over the show
twenty five seconds could be
real nuisance because he blocks that smoke
creates some vision for himself to watch them come in from long and a
singer says malta what can I would do about this teammate goes down as I was
getting away with it and then finally taken down by magnet gestures running
him down with the Mac 10 yeah only so many bullets those Mac 10s into the
smoke are gonna miss so as I will fall as long as the one kill well done from
that boom converting round number two it's gonna be much easier time here
Unarmored USPs for the most part, Deagle and 5-7 picked up.
Tell us how Zaiwu is holding their angle on the bin for so long.
Mazzie runs up instantly, that's my shot.
Yes, hold that man for Zaiwu, it's Mazzie.
I'm sure Mazzie loves that one too.
Well, we've got Matt 10 for Zaiwu, everybody else on a rifle here for Bat Boom.
So Siren probably would be a little bit aggressive. He's playing short right now to guard against any pushes.
Flammus, Magnetjez, and Zortay taking control of bathrooms. It's only Rops who's playing Divider at the moment, and they're scaling pretty quickly.
Here, Magnetjez, 20 out, Rops.
And we'll clear him out inside of Con, and we've now entered the Divider bathroom. We got Siren holding down water.
Mac-Tag, can you up-boat as Flames and Mezzie step into their death?
As I would in Apex. Both with deagles, but...
Both out of position.
Yeah. Smokes are in place.
That's gonna be a 6-round for Betboom, so they're down within 3.
Very quickly within striking distance.
Yeah, staying in it.
They were sharp on their T-side on Anubis. They played a lot of the trade game.
Yumi kind of described it a little bit more grouped up,
not really leaving too many lurkers all over the map.
They're more about kind of trading and just kind of hitting you in the face
when they pull the trigger on the execute.
Zawoo dealt with a text slow,
Kravadeevil headshot before going to the grave himself.
And the high five's in.
That's vitality ready themselves
for the first full buy round of the second half.
You're gonna get the AWP out here for Zawoo,
everybody else gonna be on the rifles.
It's gonna be a really good first glimpse
of what the Bat Boom T-side can do
when the guns are out
and what they're gonna look like.
So I'm curious to see, I feel like this is gonna be
a good sense of whether this,
It's gonna be possible for them to close the gap even further and eventually take this map and maybe steal this series
But I want to see what kind of a what kind of a round they're gonna be running here
What they look like when they attack into the bomb sites
It's a huge map not like a new bus where you kind of get a lot of freedom and safety to kind of scale to the different choke points now
You got to work a large map before you're able to knock on the door
Oh, native at the top, Siren. Losing most of his health there.
That's an old trick from Apex. Siren fortunate to not be spammed down for
the rest. That's just taking the time here, Batboo.
Get some early positioning towards water, let the orb serve for anybody jumping for
information, and now you can start to scale up slightly more towards Divider.
Yeah, it looks as if Magnige has got this position, because they have Zorte watching for short.
They feel like they have a decent amount of control to start scaling bathrooms towards the A bomb site with some safety.
Zauz here at an angle with the AWP.
Utility coming in so he backs off, Rop slides up into a corner.
And Zauz will back to strengthen the defense here again.
Apex spotting long throughout all this.
It's going to be a tough attack here for Batboom. 35 seconds left.
You've got to come into a setup that involves Zayu taking first contact.
It's collateral damage, but no kill.
Now Rocks, you've got softened up opponents right in front of you.
Only manages to one.
But Zayu off the dice box.
The fire is gone.
Apex out.
Boomage dead.
Bomb spills.
Headshot from the AWP.
And now Zortay left a long way away.
15 seconds, no chance he went in the round.
Once again, that old familiar position here for Zortay.
I've happened to save the AWP into the next one, but it's time Vitality go up to Double
Figures.
Vitality playing for their strengths smoking off the front of bathrooms
Resmoking it as well as the clocks on into run low so that boom have to execute despite its smoke
So because of that they all get funneled, you know upside walking right into the Zywoo's advp
Exactly where the best players positioned ready to take a fight
And then you have to kind of scramble and chaotically try to execute into the bomb site while he's taking kills
And you've got rups pushed up so defense from Vitality just absolutely perfect in this round and Zywoo manages everything
Even helping out over at long to take a player away
Everyone's blind, so boomage is alone with low HP, then they come in late, and it's easy picking for Zaewoo.
Double digits for Vitality, 4-round lead.
So about the best defense you could hope for to attack into, only two players, the other
three in support are very far away.
Yeah, Mezzie, AK, my barrel's spraying away, can't do much about it, Flames also gone.
So a nice hit here from Batboom into the site, both fight out he plays, who were in this position.
Got an ally, you have no other option, just how quick that was to save your weapons elsewhere.
Yeah, save call. Look at how close the kills were though. One HP on Boomich, nine on Flemish.
I mean, those two kills from Mezzie and Flamesy, and then all of a sudden this could be a different round.
Batboom staying in it.
It's a little sloppy on the kills.
They're on the fights. The lack of kills.
going to cut that lead down to three but plenty of money for the vitality side
especially as I will keep in the op in his hands as well but first gun round on
the board in this second half for a bet boom and they keep it close they keep
themselves within striking distance yeah if they had a little bit extra money
leftover you can maybe spare a few players to go hunt down these vitality
players and get rid of these weapons but you just don't have that luxury at this
point in the half of your bet boom got to prioritize your own money first
He has the gap now of three rounds.
Hey, wholesome little keycap there.
Oh, little keycaps.
Yeah.
So flashbangs come in, make it a little of an awkward fight, but the MAK10 wins out at the end of the day.
Ooh, the double think there in that spray.
Plumage with good support as the trade attempt comes in, and we go live in a round 18.
Still money behind this buy from Vitality, but they had to spend a lot to drop some M4s over to teammates.
I can't early positioning towards water here for that boom.
Good piece of information, flash for Robsopikis, he's nobody at playgrounds, nobody at fountains,
immediately Zaywu and Apex back off.
Apex going to completely evacuate over to the B bomb site. Not under attack just yet,
but pressure being applied by Beth Boomb. Deep angle for Zortes off and a lot of time to peer in
and see if anyone's going to make the mistake of wandering out into the open.
Just trying to get information to see how many plazas down in the water.
You usually throw out a half of overpass to see Vitality throw in a few aggressivores towards Short.
It's been much more passive, a willingness to play back on the bomb site.
It's worked out for the opening kill this time.
So, Messi claims the life of Matt and Jazz.
Now 35 seconds left, the final B attack is coming in.
Messi gets a second, Flames actually blind, but regains his vision just in time to silence both Flemish and Siren.
So what's he again, just left alone?
left alone. Yeah, it's kind of a weird round, I think, for
BatVoom where, I mean, Vitality just had an easy time reading it. There was no pressure.
Remember, Robs takes that peek out towards long, sees nothing. So never was there any
presence established towards bathrooms, towards fountain, towards playgrounds. No one had
to be concerned, so Apex is able to come over, and then you're just kind of going through
the motions in the details, double-nading a spot that T's normally play, being prepared,
flash peeking, getting aggressive at the point of attack. Because you have players to send
forward because of the over rotation and vitality just way too strong in that one 11 to 7 that
booms attack falls flat they got money to replenish and try again
and as he does really well here flames just about getting that second you see how it's
them taking the initiative it's from as he peeking with the flashbang getting a kill spotting two
more and then Flames he slides over to the same position they run the same exact
play and you just never actually get a run the tactic if you're bedroom because
the fights are going on at the choke points oh my goodness protection from
the flames I'll stand here short I just mentioned the last round right the fact
that we usually see a couple of these throughout the half where you activate
flames you get him aggressive for now it's coming in that nades gonna land
on top of siren keeps them on 2 HP the flammecessure is gonna move in and they
coming at the right time because it's surprising that Flames is able to get the kill regardless.
Now the pressure is on Poole, he can't get a thing.
And Flames does so much work for him short, but finally he's gone, but Sorte, he's had
enough of sitting back and not being involved in these rounds.
But the unfortunate thing is, Apex just walks up and blindsides him and he's gone.
And now you've got a Rops line coming in.
Yeah, Rops heard the footsteps, so equally it sounds like Nagnij has heard a sound cue
from Rops as well.
And he wants to keep the take a 47, so he says, nope, I'm good.
Well that's map point for Team Vitality.
point for team by town they have five chances to close it out. Betboom had six
back on Anubis it took them all six. Unfortunately for them I think in this
round win 12-7 there's no money left for a buy in the next one really. Zorte has
got 3900. Magnazes needs to keep this AK if he wants to drop a gun over so an
extended save coming in as a very important weapon for round 20 to try and
bring forward.
But the B bomb site is closed, and I think Batboom felt on their initial attack towards
the A bomb site, they felt their own discomfort with how they were going to handle the protocols
and getting around the way vitality is going to defend it.
So now you have an extreme issue for Batboom where nothing on the map is really successful
for you to attack into the play-for.
A lot more in control now.
15 Vitality.
Nuke, winning it's a third and final map here.
This Flamie is doing some great work off Shorty. He's put in a couple of awkward
situations throughout that apex.
moving forward at just the right time, reclaiming that position.
And this is the buy to try and keep your hopes alive on Overpass.
Three Tech 9s, an AK and an AWP on Zorty.
Yeah, not great. Not great at all. Doesn't feel you full of confidence.
No, you got rocks pushed up. Zylu is waiting for that slide boost.
Not detecting any heads, the time being.
He's actually looking for everything.
He really is. Scouting every possible position they could be in right now.
It's all on a timing too.
And there you are. There we go.
I can see information.
So it's actually two drops away, but I move to trade.
And he's backed off after that.
So a little bit of ground for Batboum to step into.
But look at the defense of the B bombsite.
Flensy and Mezzi just kind of backing off
to play it more passively, playing towards Graffiti.
So Flensy can shoot a rotation.
Mezzi can play the B site safe if they readdress
and reconvene on the other side of the map.
Bolster the defense towards the same bombsite
Vitality sends the final push coming.
Oh, nice work, Zortay.
Lopping's eye-wool, but Apex up next.
Good trade from Boomich.
Needs another one, but Flamesteps up,
and just every time you get through a Vitality plate,
there's another one right there.
It's in the sheet of the rotation.
It's the knowledge Vitality have that they're a step ahead.
They know it's coming.
Reading this very, very well.
Good play from Flamesteps as well.
Doing it when in the AWPer camp.
Look what he's going to step forward next.
next. Speaking of a step ahead, Zorte reads the play, he goes back in again,
Messi's up next. This could be Zorte going for the quad kill to keep his team
on the map. But Messi could end it here and now McAdrian's timing favors him as
Messi just swivels his head in the wrong direction and another round of play
here thanks to Zorte. Yeah triple kill with the AWP, really nice performance from
Zorte. Tough scenario as well, they hadn't had a whole lot of success towards
the A bombsite. This time they find it. Clever little boost to jump onto the head
And I had no time to react one through one at apex in that position without someone without a not far back taking attention
Really hard to multi kill from that position
So bedroom keep it alive four rounds they need to force overtime
They've almost got themselves to breaking the economy of vitality almost got themselves to a bitter reprieve two MP9s in this round
Everyone's very low on cash for the vitality side
There's the push from Flames. Here's the aggression from Team Vitality. It's worked out.
Flames gets the opening kill. Siren's dead. Now, Sorte, can you find the response towards
party? You've got Boombats right beside you, and this time, there's no contact from Vitality
towards Bathurst because they went heavier towards Water, so you've just got Rops over
here on his own. He doesn't have any team play just yet, but Apex is now rotating.
It's also a really crazy position. Good flash. Oh, it's perfect! That shuts him down triple
from rups yeah great flashbang as well from apex to assist in that and that will
close it you may take them on a new bus but surely you will not deny them here
on overpass flamas has fought on a little bit longer but apex is moving in
wrapping around the back but flamas has actually got a little bit further than
you might expect but zai woo now has the angle ready for the close overpass is
over a falls in favor of vitality a 13 8 in response to losing anubis this series will be settled on new
Vitality restore order as bet boom sadly flounder we predicted the overpass would indeed be a trickier
a map for Betboum and Saby, that did come to fruition and what you're making once you
make any mistakes as Betboum did Jacob, if you're a team of Vitality's reputation, they're
going to take full advantage of that.
Yeah, a little bit of unfortunate scenario for Betboum, you would have hoped they could
come in to overpass and make a game out of it. I know the score line in the later part
of the second half right here suggested that maybe there was a chance they could come back,
but don't know about you, you may have felt like one of those games that once we saw the
first five-six rounds play out, it was just a question of time before Vitality would
win. Whether that will be 13 to 3, 13 to 5, 13 to 8, I guess nobody really cares.
I think both teams would be disappointed with how they played that out. You know, we saw great
mechanical failings from Vitality, but Betboom also had a couple of opportunities that just
slipped through their fingertips, either by a misplay or by a whiff. And listen, those are the
types of moments we expect Vitality to get away with because they do kind of have plot armor at
times, which is a bit of a shame for a team that looked like it had conceptually the right ideas.
They got themselves into advantages frequently, but the caliber of player on Vitality, they get
these multi-kills when, and they succeed in these hectic moments where very other few teams do.
No, it's such a good point and it kind of really goes to show the difference between that approach
to Anubis versus an overpass when you've got a Vitality who is much more comfortable in that
calling department. Sure, they did make a few mistakes, but having that plan B, as you mentioned,
you mean that sadly, Beppin just don't often have, right?
Yeah, I think that just in general I could tell that Vitality were trying to call more targeted as the game went on
You know the they were going for these eggs for these quick splits
They were seeing if they can get a reaction out of that boom
They punished them a couple of times
But because of some of the mechanical failings that Vitality had I I think apex might have just called something that simplified the game enough
That his team could know which they which area they were targeting and then the game could slow down and then they could really sort of get
their bearings from there.
There's also a way of making sure that you use the fact that you have the faster period
players on the server, right?
Sometimes we can talk about different tactics, different approach.
You can try to almost overhype it in a sense, but at the end of the day, I think Apex is
well aware.
She also, you know, alerting you right here that simplifying it allows for players like
Flamesy, allows for players like Messi, allows for players like Robson Saibou for that matter
as well, to get the job done, you know, whenever you go into a duel against those guys outside,
you are going to win the Vespidude of Time.
It's good to see Vitality bounce back and I also will say you know that it seemed like Vitality came in with a point to prove in
The sense that yes, they didn't like the fact that they lost the newbies
Yeah, not in that fashion as well now they want to get the job done without sweating too much
What do you think is that a fair assessment like obviously we're not inside the team comms of Vitality and of apex making those calls
But she think it's fair sometimes to him to go
Hey guys, you are just really damn good at shooting heads. Maybe just takes an initiative right now
Yeah, I think it was more of that when they when they were going into the chaos of the bomb sites
I mean, when they lost those first couple of kills, they saw some of the failings that
they had in terms of getting their spacing right or their entry work.
And so by working with a simple target, you know, that's not to say they rushed sites
or played a scrappy game to simplify their playstyle, but they wanted to move in with
one or two pieces to target areas, and from that, they served as a springboard, because
they know that we were going to make a reaction somewhere else.
Well, as we're talking about the T side full of vitality, should we take a look at round
12?
No, that that's around that I wanted to look at specifically to demonstrate the point I'm trying to make as well
Because from the get-go they rushed long and the concept is they move until they make contact and once they see managers
It's scrappy. It's not the cleanest duel in the world. Therefore vitality both players get very very low
But this is the reaction that mezzy is now accounting for so they get the kill long
They get his two kills from connector and they fully respect that that boom
I mean last round of the half they're gonna try and make some sort of gamble rotation and while flames he
Susses out one of those players they exec into a open B bomb site and it's it's still not the cleanest
You know they lose out on a kill before the smoke blooms inside of heaven
But they've got great post plant positions that I mean for bedroom
It's just too much to battle back from it's a fun round in the sentences
Well that we we often speak about and you'd know that as welfare we often praise you know proactivity
We love when teams are proactive on the CT side. We know where they move out
You know, this is a great example of a bit boom obviously in the context of the scoreline
and you're down 8-3, you have to do something in order to try to get back into the game.
But being proactive is not always the right answer.
Being proactive and trying to push Messi in this scenario,
Mac and Gia is not really aware that Apex was pushed all the way up towards long-ride here as well,
you can be proactive sometimes and get punished for it as well.
And I think this was a great example of such.
Messi is accounting for the reaction, he's accounting for Bedboom being desperate to a point.
And as I said before,
proactiveness is usually a good thing, but sometimes it gets you punished as well.
So it has to come with a caveat that is not always the right answer.
Like you said, it's a bit of a sign of desperation at times.
But they were proactive in the early stages of that half as well.
I mean, they were down what, 4-0-5?
They were barely getting kills as well.
But then, Zorte pushing short, they boost on site.
They're trying to be a couple of these tricks to get some action going.
They even pick off rops, who, you know, money plays extremities.
Hard guides are really pinned down.
So they had a couple of ideas to try and get a leg up over vitality.
But the the reaction from from vitality was just okay
account for some of these aggressive players account account for that proactivity and just pick a target and I think
I mean that's that's a great understanding from I think apex just to recognize
Where his team is out on the map because it should have probably been a bit more dominant than it was 100%
You mentioned mezzie in the last round of that first half and it wasn't actually me that requested these times
It was you joker, but you coming to this
He's outnumbered 2-1 here in terms of press.
Yeah, let's go.
We went to take the game somehow, you know, and I think Messi was one of the players in the first half as well finding a lot of impact.
And I just love to highlight whenever we can, you know, this is not a game of highly significance for Vitality.
It's not a game where you felt like they were losing control of it, where we before have highlighted Messi as being one of those stable players that sometimes buys a bit of time for the likes of Saibou and Robs to come alive.
But it's good to see Messi just always find, you know, impact. He's just stable.
Again, it doesn't matter what player you highlight or talk about right now for Vitality, but it proves and provides a lot on the server.
Now, another player I do want to speak about in this instance, not necessarily based on this performance alone, but it's Flamesy.
I feel like if there was an angle to attack with Vitality that it hasn't been praised that much, it would be Flamesy.
The fact that he in 2026 is playing the best Counter Strike he's ever played, how much is that in his individual level all of a sudden stepping up?
stepping up how much is that apex you know maybe giving a little bit more
resource on the server as well in particular he's the highest rated player
within the vitality game but the CT side of overpass he's one of the highest
rated players in the world on the T side of nor past as well this is his
playground this is the map I remember a game during ptl inclusion a poker I
think that was the grand final where I tell you played pervish in where I
think I tell you played the best counter strike I've ever seen an overpass and
flames he was the spearhead of that as well so it comes from so many different
different directions. We don't have to mention Saebi in this game. We can talk about Flamesee,
we can talk about Messi and then we can talk about what's out of the winning.
I remember making an offhand comment on, I do my own podcast, whatever, no shameless
plug, but the idea that Flamesee was overshadowed last year considering his team was so successful,
he did play such an important role because Donk exists. There was, I think, a bit of
a chip on his shoulder perhaps that he wants to be that player that wins opener of the
year in some respect because all of his teammates won awards and he just sat there like, come
man, I mean it's thong, what am I supposed to do about that? But it's kind of cursed.
It's become a reckoning on the rest of the scene because 2026 now there's three players
that say at ridiculous ratings that tournament to tournament, any one of them or all three can
pop off. 100%, I mean maybe a bit of a point in the question, but do you feel like Flamesy has
maybe been robbed of an MVP here all that this year? Well, let's not get started on MVPs being
assigned to the wrong players. I've been, I've not been satisfied. I think there are some fans
might agree, but the criteria is very clear when they are given out.
Yes. Let's talk about this final map. There's going to be a little bit of a surprise in terms of
that being let through by Pepin. I mean, do you firstly agree with that sentiment? Do you think
there was maybe a quote-unquote easier map you could have taken Vitality to?
No, because the alternative would have been Dust2. That's where Vitality would have posted into.
And Vitality have done that in a lot of different series, despite having the,
I guess, the most crazy stat line ever on Dust2. Having one is at 32 out of the last 38 times,
they play it or something like that, even more so at this point. It's just a map they play at a
high level, but often it's the third map in any series because teams like Falcons, teams like
Spirit, they're willing to play Vitality on the map. I understand why BedBoom would not do it.
Then again, what's the alternative? Nuke, which Vitality are also very strong on right now. So
I don't think there's any clear-cut mistake right here for BedBoom. It's just whether or not you
want to get owned on one map or another. Yeah, I mean, for me, coming into this map, I think a
lot of importance will be on Flamas. I think he's been playing Ramp from my understanding,
But he's playing a very passive style of ramp, which is probably more aligned with the dilladez situation and offering responsibilities in that regard
He's such a like an explosive firepower fight driven type player that I don't want him in those types of spots
But they do try and mix them up
They try to get him down secret early to take some yard control and really get into the action that way
So for me it will be about his ramp holds and whether or not they can activate him on that CT side
Where do you see Betbu maybe having any opportunity to pull off this upset where so few teams have gone this year against Vitalio?
It's hard to make the the case of that to be completely honest. If anything go test Apex sometimes.
I feel like he has a habit in some of these games of taking
Liabilities and taking freedoms, you know, sometimes a bit too aggressive on Yacht, you know and getting into the game
So maybe test him in the beginning. The problem is he's backed up by Saivou quite a lot
And I love the way that Vitali on the CT side are kind of helping out Apex in Yacht, you know and making sure that he's not a
liability anymore. So I don't know, to be completely honest, you're asking a question
with no answer. You know, you can try all you want.
Sorry, man. I just want an underdog to prevail. I will say that sometimes when they go for
that aggressive yard pressure, they put a lot of pressure on Mezzi to hold on to that
eight bombsite. So he's good for it. That's the problem. But sometimes that eight bombsite
does feel a little open. A third map is required between Betboom and Vitaly. It's going to
be going down on you to see who will be guaranteed a place in the playoffs at the Inter Extreme
Masters Atlanta 2026.
This is an easy one to put to bed. Another flawless one back to back four foot.
This is a very important round for Payne.
It feels like a kind of a necessity to be perfectly honest.
They've lost control of this game with these couple back to back to back.
And we're now in a spot where you lose this.
You've essentially got one more actual gun round before foot take the map
and I'll push us towards the side there, which to be fair is what we expected.
Still close, still very, very close.
I think the pistol in particular has given Payne enough breathing room
to allow this one to come close.
Well, we'll find out here.
Last rifle round when straight in the bin.
Slow move up here to just try and get bits of control
that they couldn't get last time out.
Bombs still behind, you know?
So just looking for this first kill.
The creek.
Surely doesn't win here.
Ha ha ha.
Never mind.
4HP! Never doubt, never doubt!
Crazy stuff.
Big fight for Cemetery.
That's a really audacious move from Snow.
Unnecessary, I think, is the other word for it.
Dies with the smoke and just dies to the AWP.
Yeah.
No bomb as well to boot.
Cemetery gonna go down though. He takes an overface himself.
Into safe.
3 on 3. Really difficult to predict.
Painter all over the place at the moment.
Look at this long control. He got this for free.
3. Big battle here, big battle here. Oh, and Long's gonna win it. Ducks under the bullet.
That bomb is still in transition. So Payno, at a certain point you would say maybe you
do need to group up prior junior with a big fight and he's got an idea of dropping down
below. Wow. But demon will be there in good time. So pretty important, I think that safe
He finds this kill, which he does, and, well,
Brian Junio's like, Okie dokie, yeah, he's good.
He's so confused.
He's in a bit.
Maybe that's part of the plan.
He's doing shotter runs between the A and B side.
I think Deeming gives it away, though, as he smokes short.
Yeah.
How is he to know that they're not both together, though?
Really kind of silly round on paper here, four-pane,
and it is safe with an individual 3K that kind of fails them out,
have a lot of questionable moves and pushes and bomb going down,
and then back up.
Yeah.
really, really indecisive kind of round from Payne that could have gone against them.
Yeah, so easily could have fallen flat.
It's not to be. So...
Still kicking, tying this game back up.
Still an opportunity for the upset here by Payne.
Well, we all knew it was going to happen, didn't we?
The third and final map, Team Vitality, bounce back on Overpass, and now we need Nuke to
settle who is going to move forward.
I mean, this is a situation where Team Vitality are absolutely the favorites coming into this
third map now bet boom have impressed us winning the first map for a little patch
there above the past but let's put real Jason I think this is why the story for
bet boom ends in terms of being able to pull off the win versus like how yeah
ask them to take two maps out of this this pool for vitality that's just so
strong as well I mean if you just look at new statistically the win rate doesn't
look that bad for them I think it's around 72 73% but it's the quality of
those games as always we're just like the competition vitality has been
racking up on these maps is just way way different way escalated they're gonna
to be very, very strong here on Nuke. And BedBoom got to be looking at the CT side of
Nuke and saying, we need to start hot. We need to get out to a huge lead in this opening
half. We need to ride this defense to the victory and be as suffocating as humanly possible
against this Vitality attack. Deciding map, Nuke set to begin. Pistol run is live. Vitality
attacking into BedBoom's defense. No one eliminated in this game. It's the upper semi-finals
of Group A. The loser will drop down to face FaZe in the lower bracket.
And the winner will go on to play against the winner of pain versus his foot, first spot in the semi-finals.
And a guy on Rops who is 70 HP, for initial damage being taken, and trying now settling in today.
He's getting ready for what he's going to be a heavy attack in towards the A-bomb side.
Vitality dropping Rops into the vent, but the rest of the play is flooding out of the hut, into the fight against Siren, who does well against Apex.
Couldn't quite match the output of Flames, and then Rops comes back up and makes sure that that surprise is there for Boomich.
It was like Robson's just faked the vent drop, so maybe the call came out, and then maybe the call came out, kind of made Bedroom hesitate on the rotation, so support a little bit late coming in.
Three Vitality players inside the bomb site, so good luck for the Heaven players getting out here.
Well, they try.
Well, they don't stop by Zywoo, it's not just Zortay left, he'll play towards the door, he'll give it a good kill against Robson, he does win that fight, turns back and was ready for the next engagement with Mezzi.
but some energy being brought to the table here by Apex, happy about this pistol win for Vitality.
Yeah, and gotta add to have been pleased, I do have had a very positive chat after map number two
with the way they bounce back, the way they look like a completely different team from Anubis to
overpass, and I'll get the comfort of Newt coming in, so off the back of this strong pistol round
victory, Apex hyping the guys up. Second round investment, for Bed Boom, it's gonna be a scout
on Zortay upgraded pistols, MP9 on Siren. Plenty of utility but looking to seal this
bright back out of the Vitality's hands.
Yeah, so great chance to be potent in this round if you're a baboon, but let's see if
they can get something going. Really look to Zortay on the scout to maybe get some tags
here so often the ops of these pistols can become a lot more deadly. And he's searching
outside, he's just not getting opportunities just yet. But those smokes won't last forever.
Yeah, I mean Vitality are happy to deploy those smokes, see if there's gonna be any
break see if you're gonna if you're gonna paid out any kind of utility
whatsoever nothing really comes from it another salvo of utility outside
flashbang takes sort as attention away jumping in the air over the top of the
box a.k.a. keeping him pinned down and now the Mactana scaled up close and
Zorte's got a key falling back deeper and deeper in the CT spawn it does open up
the fight against Flammus but he wins it on the D-goal any packs is that to make
sure there's a trade available it goes back again but this time magnetize will
find success on the 5-7 his reward is a galeel actually huge they never
expected the second player being there. Let it tuck in and make yourself a small target
for Magnus. Find your kill a little bit later. Out in the open is Zortay. That's the equalizing
kill. Now into a three on three and you still have Robs lurking over in lobby, waiting to
see exactly how Zai Wu and Mezi want to play out this round.
Well, 35 seconds. Not a huge amount of time to play out the round if you have vitality.
Going to start climbing up Heaven and going for a finishing move towards the A site.
And Robson's telling them at the moment that nobody's pushed into lobby yet from the CT side,
so likely still defenders inside the bomb site.
That's why Vitality's taking this slow and being very, very careful.
Two players at Tetris.
Both Pouge and Sirens.
They could both fall very quickly, line up, available, Messi going to descend down into
the site, runs it forward.
He's got some protection, but that protection from the side will come in a little bit late.
And done, cap plan.
The response was right, but yeah, not enough time to get the plant down.
One second in it, Magnet just needs to stay alive, and that's exactly what he does.
So smiles on the faces of Batboom, they've won it on the time, and they will answer back
after losing the pistol.
Yeah, I think, I mean, it's hard, right?
Like you mentioned, they had plenty of time to get in and get the bomb plant.
The time wasn't allowing them to clear everything out and make sure everyone was safe and make
sure all the angles were empty so that no one was going to stop the bomb plant.
Unfortunately, it's just the timing of Zawoo turning away, where he's like, okay, well,
I need to actually check and make sure nobody's following us up heaven.
I need to make sure our back is covered and that's the swing out hut
So frustration immediately for vitality they can't convert the second round and now the pistol round victory
Falls by the wayside especially with this double up
Oh, we're making a triple up. I can't believe the managers gets over that one apex is firing over the top of main
Magnet jazz had and just enough bullets to deal with him as well
It's questionable whether or not he would with the a1s
This is kind of like step one of this of this map like accomplished right is don't let vitality get out to that hot start
Don't let them like rack up the rounds don't let them get to like a safety net of like four or five t rounds before you're able to respond
They respond immediately in round two
So absolutely perfect that you're keeping vitality on the back foot and putting them in a situation
They're going to have to grind out gun rounds on the T side of Nuke to be able to put rounds on the board.
Smoke is going to take away the ramp room option.
Well 35 seconds and they're just wetting the smoke out, playing the fade of it, giving
themselves a chance to take down Flamas so they will.
looking for a second. It's pistol on pistol right now. Rops just has the better one.
Very gentlemanly challenged, wasn't it? It was. Like, you know what? Let's go. Let's do it.
Very dignified. Yeah, I like that. Now, the unfortunate part for Rops is
Boominx is down here. And I guess in a way that's almost mercy because he kills them before the time.
Rops gets some money and is now on equal standing with his teammates.
Well, yeah, a few extra from the kills, but two to one and this round shouldn't have any
significant investment from the vitality side.
Magnus handles this perfectly.
First player tagged up, which makes the conversion
of the second kill nice and easy.
Apex, yeah, I got the jump in terms of the fight,
but half of it was spent with him in the air,
so not accurate with the tech nine,
and an easy closeout for Betboom.
Doesn't make it any less frustrating.
Two to one on the scoreboard.
Zywoo's got a hero AK-47.
Rops has passed that over with his cash flow.
So let's see what Zygu can do to limit
the economic growth of Bat Boom.
Oh, there's a threat.
When Zyla has the AK out.
This is a...
A round where Bat Boom can really start to stabilize the money.
Flamme has to be tested.
Cut under a good amount of pressure.
And we'll just drop immediately with the utility to help him.
And we'll fall all the way back into the depth to the B bomb site.
Oh, he has got some help. Boombitch is with him.
And they can use utility to block out that ramp.
So you have ramp room, where do you go from here?
Especially without a whole lot of resources to make any progress elsewhere.
And that room's playing this perfectly. Like, there's no reason to challenge them in a ramp room.
Let them have it. There's not a bomb site over here.
Sink back into the site if you're flammas down low. No one's dropped to support you
either, but that can come quickly.
It's all on Zywoo. This opening kill needs to be his. Running into his flammas and
we'll clear two out from the back of the site. He'll go again and he's really
handled this very easily. Zywoo's got to fight on so many fronts and flammas gets
him as well, so a great round from flammas picking everybody up.
And he's all on his own down there with all the pressure.
Let me make sure that he makes it look quite easy.
Yeah, nice, nice easy round with unarmed opponents coming right at him.
So three to one, but now the guns come back out for vitality.
Now they get to get into things.
Apex has passed his AK-47 over to Robs who dropped his previously for Zywoo.
So Apex is going to be stuck on a pistol.
No option play, tech nine for the leader.
Galil on Zywoo, but plenty of utility to run the rounds.
How much can Beppin extend the lead before vitality start fighting back?
I like the attitude they're bringing us all. Magnetjazz, confidence, try and push up and get in the face of the outside players here at Vitality.
Talked about that in Anubis quite a bit. It felt like it was one of the things that gave him so many rounds.
What's that up in your face? Not afraid to take a fight and be disruptive to Vitality.
body.
Hey, guys.
I've been taking down.
Here comes the rush to the attack out towards the A site.
Good turn from Robs, but Magnetaz came back to heaven at just the right time.
And now Mezzy all on his own.
Very low HP.
Now, Batboom with another.
How many can Mezzy take down with it?
And smiles on the faces here at Bet Boomers. They know they're off to a great start.
That's an absolutely awesome round for MagnaJazz. Like what a rotation to get there at that exact moment.
You know, like the kills are coming out, his teammate goes down and this is just when he swings.
First kill here, lovely one over towards Hut, able to clean up some weakened kills and Mezzi with low HP tucked down.
But those things come so quick, there's no chance of a reaction of a response from Vitality.
Beautiful sequence with the AK-47, 4-1, now a 3-round lead.
Pistols it is for Vitality, they head outside.
Magnetize is on a heater right now, he's loving it. The start is fantastic.
How many can he rack up?
I'm gonna try and disrupt even the outside wall, but it will work out for Vitality. The smoke should be put in place.
They're breaking through the smoke. Magnetize can do no wrong at the moment.
Even got blinded by his teammate's flash. Okay, a little bit of danger in the way back stepping in they got to be ready
And they will sort a and boom it's all providing kills no progress no success for vitality
They're stuffed yet again. It's five to one a four-round lead
Yeah, step it out of the open sort has got that you'll no problem on raps
And do we see vitality call of time out soon? It's a question. I mean they have one right now
Oh, yeah, this gun round. Yeah, they're gonna grab it here
have a little conversation. Pissed around victory, but five in a row now for Betboom in response.
Vitality can't get anything going and it all starts with outside where Vitality is usually very efficient, very strong. At the moment,
that's where Betboom is stuffing these rounds.
Stopping outside progression, preventing themselves from having to deal with the mini-wraps, from having to deal with the plays down secret
whatsoever, taking these kills around red box, and there's really no leverage Vitality is able to create without that control outside.
This has been awesome so far from Betboom.
The timeout so XTAS can try and kind of revert that scenario.
Five AKs now for the T side. Full utility.
MagnetJazz 9 and 1 so far here on Nuke. Flemish as well. 7 and 3.
Those two guys putting in a shift to open up this map.
Well, just running a play out of secrets, always good here for that boom.
Just flying this over there with the AK.
He's gonna see a couple of hits now, showing okay, really getting away with everything
right now.
That's after a timeout, team Vitality have lost two players instantly at the start of
round and immediately their initial plan is thrown out the window and you've
got to improvise. Then you stuff outside and now look you get a readdress towards
lobby, robs under pressure, they're gonna fall back though. Zortay sticks in with
an angle with the AWP. Robs gonna slide over towards squeak door.
Nezzy's outside very far back. Flamzie has the bomb alone down in secret. He can't
really push too far before his teammates get into a position to assist. Three
versus five, Vitality still looking for a solution to get out of this problem.
And the whole defense is backed off to play it passively with such an advantage in the round apart from this one position
Right, you've got Zota who's still somewhat aggressive towards high. So Rob strolls into the cross at he dies
So now you're down to just two players
That's a nice tap from flame source heaven, but what can you do with it with 25 seconds?
It's the time is the obvious problem right now as well for vitality. They just don't have enough of it to get anywhere
Yeah, this is going to be a save. There's no progression to anything for Flamesey and
the bomb. He's kind of been stuck on an island. When his two teammates went down outside,
he really had nowhere to go after the fact.
And you just posed the question or posed the statement at the start of this about the fact
that vitality have to be stopped. You can't let them get a good start. Maybe we can flip
that the other way. That boom from getting a good start. Because you see over on Anubis,
they just went on an absolute tell when they got going. And now it's the same here on
Nuke.
They called it back on a new bus and that was the one conversation we had to is like, you know
There is going to be that moment where vitality punches back like we know it's coming
It's a matter of when and it's a matter of how much of an advantage can you gain?
While they're frustrated and angry and stressed out and I'll tell you what that boom is really applying a lot of pressure to him
Yeah, they really are
They've made vitality look frustrated in a way that we haven't seen many teams able to do so this is really cool
It's also kept him in a tough money situation, right? They haven't had the A to B P out, they haven't had clean buys consistent.
They haven't been able to play a full round. Every time they get to red box, every time they try and cross the secret, it's like you're playing 3G5.
So it was Apex that's part of the issue, I think, for his frustration at Deslan is he's not getting to call 5 on 5 rounds with any kind of map control.
Well, that's going to only add to the frustration. He dies outside alone, now his teammates are funneled into almost desperate two players around and they're just getting destroyed.
getting destroyed destroyed destroyed it's why we're stuck alone remind you
vitality won the first round they won the pistol they did win the first
everything else is beating that boom you need a moment here for vitality like
a clutch or a big individual step up energy back in the side we can so often
provide that but no we're up against him not gonna let him get any of those
opportunities and that's going to be a seven to one lead. I think this is also a situation
where being like there's there's almost like a certain benefit to being the underdog because
I'm not sure the start of the series like for Betboom stepping into this game you're fully
100% focused you're like let's test it let's we have a big test for ourselves it's the best team
in the world greatest team of all time best player in the world is on the team best IGL best entry
fragger everyone's here best lurker let's see how we can stand up to him let's see if we can test
it so locked in and focus is Betboom that hasn't slipped at all since round one on the opening map
Vitality, though the team is scrambling for answers right now down by six.
It's been such a long time since you've seen this Bat Boom Squad at a tier one event.
leading the way versus the world number one. They win this and they're into the playoffs.
Come from the qualifier. Eight maps of Nuke for Vitality in the last three months. Seven in one
record, a lone loss to the Falcons. Well siren. Here are the next steps coming out and Boomich has
got him protected. Everybody is absolutely tearing it up right now on the server. Flemish and Boomich
having a field today. Apex can't get out. Vitality getting utterly destroyed by
that boom. Yeah, they are. I mean, that boom doesn't look like they're concerned
about anything. In this eight-round run that we've seen out of that boom, there
has been zero bomb plants for Vitality. They're not getting anywhere close to the
bomb site. Last three rounds, actually excuse me, I'll just say the last four
rounds of play. Only three defenders have died in four rounds of play. Money is
growing. 15,000 on Zorze heading into this next round. 12,000 on Boomich.
They're just so rich and it's impossible now for Vitality to break this
economy and have an easier couple of rounds to close the gap. Everything has
got to be on nightmare mode and Vitality's been beaten it feels outside so
many times that it's almost like you know what let's not even bring numbers
here maybe apex like there's no point because we're just getting wrecked we're
losing way too much outside there's no value for us here so this smoke wall
All outside is just a fake aruse.
And Vitalik is going to line up utility for the upper bomb site.
Not a lot of time yet left to pull this off as the smokes fade outside and just now, Bedboom
has creeped things off.
Boomage sees nothing there.
It's on Siren and the defense.
Both top-down evaded, sprays away, gets both!
Flameside, who dead in their tracks, is now just eight pegs left,
and it's the same story over and over again, round after round.
It's Bat Boom shutting Vitality down, not letting them near the site,
and nine-to-one lead, pure domination, Vitality out of money.
And this is just going to continue.
Where do you go now, if you're Vitality?
You've gone outside round after round, you've gotten blown up round after round,
you're losing two players every time you commit, you know, more than one guy to that part of the map,
You tried to go ramp room with some numbers a while back.
You met Zortay with an AWP picks you off.
You've been able to take ramp room, but never been able to get a clean look into the lower bomb site.
Now you've hit a couple upper bomb site execs and you've been shut down emphatically by this bed boom defense.
So what do you do with your vitality?
A lot to be discussed during a very short time out.
Yeah, well, bed boom are outside of the top 20.
We're the 21st team, but ranked number 21 in the world.
Team Vitality number one.
All right now, Betboom looking to deliver them a loss
and head into the playoffs ahead of Vitality.
And Betboom haven't been to an S-tier event
since the Blast Austin Major.
Had no invite here, they had to earn it,
they had to work for it.
Running the Atlanta qualifier,
the IAM Atlanta qualifier back in early February.
Earning their birth here, and now capitalizing on it.
Oh, it's tech 9's for vitality, at least some money for the next.
Apex has been trying to get across safely.
It feels like the entire half, finally, he's made it towards secret stairs.
But it's in a round with pistols.
And he's made a sound cute.
I don't think he's gonna care so much if they hear him in that position.
In fact, I think he kind of want them to hear him in that position to hopefully get some rotations or it's a under pressure off
Oh, he's between two minds. Oh, he's let him get way too close
I think he just lost the plot a little bit in this round
So now it looks over towards boom it shouldn't magnetizes they drop down vents apex is gonna be a Lord
But these guys have to deliver and he's given it off to Zayu as well in that mistake boom it's trying to challenge in moving forward
The AK look at the ground. I love this. What a reposition. This is sick from boom it. Oh
They might just all run on by
Boom Hitch, wanna play! Perfect from Boom Hitch!
Rops has come to say hi, the tech nine to the headshot, then the AWP is out.
Can Rops get a clutch going out into the double doors?
It's siren waiting, the no scout won't land, and Boom Hitch has won this with a great reposition
into the darkness and vitality.
It is to spare a single round so far in the half.
Yeah, that's gonna be something I look back on.
I do the VOD review of this half of this map and look at the inability to punish Boom Hitch
moving out of that bomb site. Molotov in place, I was off, he was looking towards the right side of
silo. To the boomages, Molotov, nobody could look at the left side and he's able to slide into the dark.
Lovely, lovely round from boomage and pet boom, what a half they're putting together. That might
have been the closest Vitality's been to a bomb site since the first round.
Well that really tells you everything.
I'm telling you, playing at the moment, light shot coming through for Zortay, in 4v4.
Zortay just backed off in time, he's got himself out for a really good Apex, again like nothing
can go wrong for a bad boom right now.
Yep, this is a disgusting sequence of events, Apex can't get a clean look.
What a shot from Zortay, what a round so far, two kills for him.
He's light flamesy as well, who softened up for the late stages.
Rops has some ground towards secret and towards vents.
I don't know if Betboom realized this, but if Magnesius tries to get down vents quickly
to the lower bombsite, he's pretty much dead.
Siren's moving himself downstairs.
Flammus joining him, but they need to get someone inside the bombsite doors about to
open.
No man's land.
The fights are messy to take him away and Flemish will fall, it's now 2v2, can vitality
get a second round here.
It's still up for grabs for Batboom, that's the scary part, you've got Sorte coming in
from ramp, but messy denies that.
And now just magnetize a 13 and one half so far for magnetize.
This won't be a very tough task, this 1v2 has got a chance to separate them into 1v2
ones though. First will be Masi. What a great head shot in the second round but
Batboom in pole position to close this one out and go into the playoffs. Can
Vitality come back?
the last four-worth, the last rivals finals championship against Navi. Navi
took an 11-1 lead outside of the CT side of Nuke, switched sides,
Vitality brought it all the way back and over time it ended up winning that map
in stunning fashion. So we know it's possible, we know it's there, so to
bet, boom. It's all about closing this out as quickly and efficiently as possible
and boy would a pistol round go a long way. Such an important pistol and Zai Wu
missing shots to kick things off. He sees how many targets are here, he just can't
did anything and now the pressure's on APEC he's gone, Xayah really manages one, Flammus
and Siren, really important work, just a strong vitality players towards Heaven, it's now
just Rops and Messi, can they pull off a 2v4, otherwise it's Batboom up to 11-2.
Yeah you gotta hit Tab and identify Rops still alive, you gotta be very cautious, Siren spotted
him out now, I think Xayah who played that role with an airsoft gun, I don't think he
was actually, he had bullets in that one.
Well, yeah, I mean, it's just continuing, isn't it?
Magnetize in the sky, messy takin' down from heaven,
the angel will fall with the wings to the headshot,
and now 11-2, that boom is so close to making this happen.
You know, on some level, it's like,
if this is what you need to beat Vitality,
if this is what teams do, everything go in your way,
you almost just gotta take it as Vitality and say,
fair enough, completely obliterated.
I don't know if I've ever seen Vitality made to look this pedestrian.
Yeah.
Vitality have won five S tier events this year and Beth Boom haven't even been to an S tier
event.
So this is crazy to see.
MP7 out, Galil's out, Beth Boom in pursuit of series points.
Eagle's 5-7s is what vitality have to play with.
It's the Frost Troat Secret. Two players waiting.
Robson Flames.
They're on 5-7. Hit play.
It's gonna be Robson's Eagle that connects the first kill, but Flames has been shredded out.
So they still want to progress through secret, Zorte is coming in late as the smoke wall is
faded.
So spotted by Apex on the cross.
Four on four, the player away from the action for Betbouma's siren just keeping eyes on
lobby for any kind of push, any kind of aggression, he's seen nothing yet.
It's not any kind of significant warning system, but Apex will be able to relay the information
that someone's stepping in towards Mini to attack the upper bomb site.
There's just not going to be a lot of time to react if you're those bombsite defenders.
30 seconds on the clock, Apex getting one.
You've got to have another one.
Step up here at Zyre, going forward.
Siren's out of there.
Mestis Gecko breaks them apart.
And now just Bluewich left.
1v2, Waps chases him down.
Vitality stopping from getting to series point.
Okay, there we go.
There's that little shine.
There's that force by wind, the low economy wind that we know Vitality's going to bring out.
your boomage and your bedroom you're just gonna say hi guys we got to take
that one on the chin let's not be concerned about it no conversation look
towards the next lovely job just being able to find ways to riddle down the
player counts beautiful shots from the inside the site with the deagle
vitality of their third now eight rounds back that boom two away from securing the
playoffs at IEM Atlanta and a very rare series victory over vitality
I hear jazz on red, so we spot a siren across him behind the credit card, he will make it
across without perishing.
Flamus is turrent, stepping in towards main, he's got the tech nine out.
Flam's gonna be smoked.
will still hold his position but the block is in.
Siren.
Silent inside of the smoke.
Right beside each other.
This kill is everything.
It really is.
And it's not looking good for Flamesy.
He has moved.
Anticipating to fit in the smoke and then Flamesy wins it.
And now they come out towards the site.
The rest of the shutdowns have vitality.
Clean it up. They go lose a single player.
Alright, that was tense as that smoke faded.
This one from Flamesey, and then the cleanup inside the bomb site, Des talked a lot about
that, how powerful Muzzy is inside the site, how well he delivers for vitality.
We're going to have to see that a number of times throughout this half.
So vitality, survive.
Converting the second round after losing the pistol, just like that boom did to them.
And now building on that, with the follow-up round victory to secure the economic advantage
and a little bit of relief against Glocks.
Money can get in a really good spot here for vitality very quickly.
My players stand up last round. Good chance to do it again here.
It's really the win condition for them is to make sure you have a full, a buy to fall back
on. The drop's doing some damage onto two players. I'm not gonna finish them off, though.
Apex is thirsty. Sure is. For now it's gonna go back towards him. There we go. That's more
like it. That's a UK name. Yeah, sure. That's a perfect cam for it as well, doing a backflip
getting style points. You got flames dropping down to the door and swiveling around. So
five players stay up for vitality. Apex was just letting Mezzi get the glory, you know?
Sure. Round 17. Guns gonna come back out for Betboom. Apex looking down the line for vitality's
defenses. They figure out how they want to play this one, starting to slowly creep back into this,
but still quite a ways away. Six rounds back, vitality. I got a lot of money now built up off
of that and some smiles in their faces too for vitality but obviously the first
couple of steps in a very long road back into the game and that's how it starts
missing it before and a fast play for Batmobile charging out it's Messi
handling the pace very well. Messi getting away with two a lot of damage onto
a third player and the Grenade got to go up into the sky from apex trying to
catch one out but it's Orte dropped a 13 HP that move populated the upper bomb
Here the flamas is into a seat event is that bomb plant will come through
Rops gets the kill on the planter very quickly after those so it's all crumbling down here for that boom
They've managed to squeeze the bomb plant out of it, but nothing else. Yeah, that's actually a picture
They didn't invest everything a couple players picked up enough weapons to have the force to crack in
To break down that defense to at least get the bomb plant
So this next investment for best boom is going to be very very strong decent amount of money built up problem is
With a round like that, where you've kind of like come in and not invested in the AK-47s,
not even able to take down more than two, you've also given Vitality a great chance to grow some money.
So this CT side economy, much like Bed Booms in the first half, is very, very strong, very, very quickly.
For T side of Nuke, we talk about like the benefit is sometimes when you get the CT side of the breaking point,
take away some resources, take away a couple of their toys and their gadgets.
T side can get much easier, but Bed Booms not going to have that for a number of rounds.
This is the big one though. Zairu's brought out the AWP. Zorte has his on the T side as well.
Flamazorte and MagnaJazz to work outside together.
Breaking over the smoke and MagnaJazz makes it down the secret stairway.
So he's got a player in a good position early on into the round. Zorte.
Okay, that's the opening. But he steps into the opening. Zairu dies.
No trades in from Zortay. Mezzi again. More impact from Mezzi.
Look at the reposition as well to dodge the nade damage that came in.
Zortay's got that wide angle in towards Mini, but nobody from Vitality is exposed.
Hunkered out inside, the upper bomb site is Mezzi and Flamesy.
Robs now pushing up radio to get a stance in Lobby.
And Apex is safe downstairs.
That boom's not going to get any easy looks for the rest of this round.
55 seconds left for them to piece it together.
He's under pressure, but he's got Mezzi to alleviate it, helping him out for the back
of CT Vant and we're starting to see that team play come on line for team vitality and
we're starting to see Mezzi really step up and show us might.
Oh, it's starting to get very, very scary now for Pet Boop, 11-7.
You can imagine a timeout soon and there are days.
For how frustrated and panicked we saw Vitality looking in the first half, they must have
just had an incredible meditation at halftime. They came in calm, smiling, still composed,
and now that you're starting to get this streak rolling for vitality,
starting to look very, very confident. Five rounds in a row after losing the pistol in the
second half to gain some semblance of control. I mean, it's weird. There's some semblance. It's
like they're controlling the game right now. They're just so far back that, you know, you can't
really say they're in control of the game quite yet. I mean, it probably helps, definitely helps
in that halftime talk when you have already come back from an even greater deficit just a week ago, right?
So, I'm going to tell him he's doing it again.
So the timeout for Bet Boom has resulted in them not throwing all their money in, so they're going to go for a more conservative approach.
They do fully invest the magniges. He goes to the Hero AK,
but everybody else is on a tech nine and will leave a little bit of money over.
Number two, with how well they played in the first half, we kind of didn't bring this up too much,
But this is a T side that you're gonna try and call and operate and win against vitality while you're playing with the stand-ins
You know CT side you kind of you kind of shoved him over towards ramp room
Let him do his thing he can drop down if needed don't have enough to have like a list of protocols T side much much more complicated
Well at least because the first half went so well for them
They've got all the timeouts available in this half. They've used one of them now
To left apex gonna play over to a secret
Zayu, timing's not too far off there. Oh, here goes Apex. He goes up, Magnetjez. With
that hero AK, it will be open up here for Batboo.
Okay, well now you're going to try and split it up, Rubs. Oh, catches the flash, full in
the face. Zayu can't pick up the pieces. Lower bombsite in trouble.
So it's got to be a 3v5 recovery here for Vitality. Look at Flam's having to worry about
so many positions. He goes out, fights, gets a single kill. So it's got to be Zayu and
Messi to win this. Zayu's got to kill on Boomich.
You can go for this, you have tons of money.
You can go for this round as vitality as Mezzi and Zai Wu.
Oh, but Magnajez, really being the hero right now,
he had a great first half, they gave him the trust
to pull out the AK, and he's made it work.
Inside event now with the AWP.
Mezzi so far off winning this one.
Timing, Magnajez just gets him behind cover.
Mezzi out into the site, into the open,
gets the one, nearly flicks back,
but Flamas has got the head shot.
Bad boom, have serious points.
small celebration from boomage there. I think that's just the release of the pressure of
saying alright we got the 12, now we don't have to worry about you know being losing
this map whatsoever in regulation. We just got to worry about winning one of the next
five rounds. Lovely opening provided. Rops eats the flashbang. Flames he can't do more
than just one kill and from that point Vitality is scrambling.
12-7 round 20. Alt back for Zywoo. Rops juggling an AWP over towards ramp room so he can switch
Shout to an M4 called upon.
Tor open. Zyra on the hunt. Not able to connect.
The fire making that fall back difficult.
Flames will help him.
Love that play from Zyru though.
This year we've seen him get so much more assertive of what he's needed
to make a play to get his team back into games.
He tries it again here but negated, held back.
Boomage got dinked.
I think my Apex is just outside now, so let's get me left on 16 HP.
Alright, damage dished out to both sides.
But no kill yet.
It feels like Vitality was sensing an upper hit after spotting two deep in towards DOR.
Or deep in towards lobby.
Shifted Zaiwu and Mezzi.
Playing pretty close together, Apex and Mini.
47 seconds on the clock, no decisions yet from that boom.
Another smoke dropped at Squeak Door.
Zortay's gonna work outside with the AWP, and Zairu on the other side of the equation.
Zairu wins it out this time.
Now Robs secondary AWP gets a kill, now he's under pressure, pulls out the 5-7, they're
getting close.
They're ready to drop on him, but Robs has the AWP out, hits another one, and Robs can't
handle it all.
He's up to 5-7, out one more, four, and Flames charges in.
Invitality, hold on, four players up,
and much better this time from Robs.
He would feel happy about that, frustrated about the last round,
getting caught by the Flash, but this time,
stepping up in a big way.
That's a great sequence.
Just dropping back to every single position,
grabbing one more with the AWP, retreating battle,
picking them off as they progress and trying to scale into him.
And the 5-7 for those grimy, close-range fights.
Easy one from Zai'wu.
I thought with this round play, Zortay might play passive
and maybe look to just punish anyone trying to rotate
flank through secret, flank through secret.
They peek into the op, Zawoo just has so many angles he gets to play
and Zortay doesn't know which one.
Round 21 is live.
Money's starting to get bruised for the Betboom attack.
Siren got into the vent.
What can he do with this?
He crossed outside, Zawoo again.
Same opener this time again on Zortay.
With this position at Siren, oh!
Okay, okay, you can't get past now.
Zywoo making you pay the heavy tax.
I think miscommunicating which smokes they were trying to have thrown.
One in the first one, very deep.
Second one, more shallow since Zywoo could see over one, but not the other.
Absolutely wrecked.
Oh, breaking the window so that Magnetjaus can get out without making noise.
Then he steps on the metal.
But Robs is not ready.
Not ready for the push.
Oh my god, the timing, the timing is unbelievable.
This is insane, he gets forward!
Boomwich is gonna be so shocked about it, but...
Magnetjazz goes back to try and make up for it, eventually gets the trade kill.
But it's going to be a 2v4, a retake for Vitality, trying to stay alive here,
trying to keep this comeback going, but then tech 9 in the vent,
Siren steps up, Magnetjazz with the AK, and the only player that can change it is Zywoo.
And he's missed the smoke onto the bomb, but he can't do it anyway.
Magnetjazz with the headshot, and it took a team rising from tier 2 to topple Vitality.
It's BetBoom's first tier 1 event since the Austin Major last year,
but they have joined the list of only Falcons in being a team that has defeated Vitality in a series in 2026.
An
The unforeseen turn of events, it's Bat Boom, feeding vitality here.
Tell me, man, that's got to feel real good, don't it?
Oh, I think I'm really shocked, like everyone, I think.
Yeah, just a little.
I mean, this was a series where both of you had to work for it pretty hard.
Talk to me in your own words about how this series played out.
The first map was really hard, but everything was under control.
Second map, I think, like first seven rounds, I think we just don't know how to play the
map.
the feelings. And third map, it was a crazy snowball on city side and really
nervous last rounds, but we still we got it. But you guys get up to that 12th
round. I mean, is it just a little bit of a side relief? You have a really
good first half, you have all this room to run with, vitality can be scary, they
can work their way back in, but you get round 12. Does it feel good? Yeah, of
course. Yeah. Well, what do you want to say? What do you want to say that people at
home? You just beat everybody's favorite fan favorite? I think it was a really
a lot of viewers on the translation so guys, shit happens you know and sometimes the outsider
won.
Sometimes.
Thank you so much Mimic.
Thank you.
We'll head back over to the desk.
We do have plenty of more Counter-Strike coming your way.
Truly a historic moment for Betbun.
They've become one of only two teams in 2026 to be taking down Vitality.
I love those words from Mimic as well.
Shit happens not for them though.
That was an incredible last map to be closing out this series.
There was no question who was in the driver's seat, and we had a lot of questions about
how they were going to handle it on this map.
Turns out, not really too many issues.
No, I think that's the cool thing, you know, the fashion they're winning, because I agree
that we're the better team in isolation in this specific game, you know, and the way
they win the last round as well, you know, just to make matters worse, winning a 2v5
with a couple of tech minds in the play as well.
You know, you saw players step up, you saw clutch coming out from certain of these guys,
as BOOM had said, you know, I think he's as surprised as the rest of us. They walked
into this game not expecting to win, obviously, but expecting to maybe put up a fight and
all of a sudden you find yourself a nuke and you are and you were the better team and you
needed yourself not only a W against Vitality, which is big, but also a qualification for
the playoffs. So there's a consequence to this win. It wasn't, it wasn't just something,
you know, as an opening game or whatever. This was a big win for Bed BOOM and great
for the VIS, great for the team.
Well, that's the thing with Vitality taking breaks with them going on this US tour and
saying they're not practicing. Everyone's asking surely now is the time. If there's ever going
to be the time, if not now, then when. So the fact that a massive underdog, nobody would have pegged
bedroom of all teams at this tournament to actually cause that upset. I mean, it's a massive
vote of confidence to not only the stand-in in Flemish, but also the calling and the structure
behind this team succeeding where fatality fell short so often.
Yeah, I was going to pose the question, okay, you say Falcons being, and yeah,
sure, maybe there's some logic to that, but bet boom. But then you bring up further, that point
knew me, the fact that Phamesis on loan in this team, it seems like Vitality just have issues with
that kind of situation. I don't know, I don't want to take anything away from this result for
bet boom that was simply stunning. Yeah, you can take anything away from them. But there's definitely
a clear correlation for Vitality. Whenever they play teams with us standing, you know, our teams
were not their full roster, so to speak. We saw it against G2. We saw it against Foot as well,
losing a map to a coach. So there's definitely something to be said about that. But as you said,
You can't say anything away from Magnetius, Flemish, and Bedboom as a whole.
They got the W by being the better team.
They don't lose the series when they play against those other teams.
You know, when they seed a map to a G2 or a flip, they still close the series as a whole.
So, I mean, this result is absolutely crazy.
And it's these two important heavy hitters on the side of Bedboom that had the most success.
It was Magno on outside and Flemish over at ramp.
And there were times where Flemish wasn't aggressive.
He was playing more passive positions.
but it felt like the map shrunk massively for Vitality.
You can't go outer, you can't go round.
Those are the two extremities
that are typically heavy pressure points for teams
to establish their rounds.
Vitality couldn't get a leg up in any of those situations
because both of these players were so damn flawless.
And not to get ahead of myself, you know,
because I do think Flemish played an excellent series
and I think he's been a great addition, you know,
one of the better playing stand-ins, so to speak.
If you're dealing with sitting at home right now
or if you're a bed boom, like what do you do for the major?
What do you do for Kelowna?
I know there's still a tournament to be played right here.
We don't know whether or not Bed Boom is gonna go all the way to a potential semi-final or final for that matter as well, but just what they've shown so far, that raises questions for Dilla, this Flemers and this whole situation.
I do want to put this show on the other phone and just talk about the weaknesses for Vitality because yet again, it's really sloppy T-Side.
Yeah man, is this a warning sign for them?
Yeah, 100% you know, because now it's happened a couple of times.
Apex, you spoke to him here on the desk and he raised the concern himself, you know, saying that T-Sights on Nuke have been struggling some this time around.
They got a couple of rounds, but it was still struggling some, so definitely something to be working on.
And I guess that's the first time anyone right now is able to localize a clear weakness.
You know, if you're any team out there, if you're Navi, if you're Falcons, if you're anyone, you know that when you have Barthelika on the T-Site of Nuke,
you have a pretty good chance of getting off to a good start.
Yeah, I mean, I'm watching so many Tier 2 teams crumble under this type of pressure.
pressure. Every single time they got big advantages, Vitality did start answering back slowly,
but surely, to pull off that 5v2 to clear out the map, that was not where you thought
that the road would end for Vitality. A lot of teams have fumbled from far better positions
if you're an underdog especially. And as much as we have to give the credit
to BedBoom and BedRound in particular was very impressive, it's also a sign of where
Vitality is at in this game. That's not a 2v5, they lose, they don't lose that against
Na'Vi, they don't lose it in Falcons, they sure as hell don't lose it against BitBoom
if they're playing up to Pan, playing up to their level, but that goes back to the conversation
where we're having.
Yes, you can get away with not practicing once in a while, you know, maybe you can have
one tournament where it still works out for you, but at some point there's going to be
a bill and this was the first time they had to pay.
They call America the land of opportunity.
And well, this is an opportunity for everyone else to capitalise and vitality is expense.
100%.
I mean, Apex even up here saying like, hey, we obviously didn't feel so great going into
footwork to feel arguably even worse coming into this event is given up in their a game
and that's translated in a result. You kind of teeter up. So Jacob, they're going to
have to play tomorrow if they do want to qualify, they'll have to play and win two games in
a day. That first one's against phase. Yeah, that's a feels bad man. See, that's the fun
thing. You know, I think the biggest lose on this game is not like tell you but but arguably
face going to have a tough time in that lower bracket. Anyone who's going to face by telling
you in the lower bracket is now having a significantly harder route hitting the playoffs. So yeah,
It's not great for volatility. I don't think they're too worried about it. You know, they
can write off this game and be like, okay, that wasn't our greatest performance. And
maybe they also feel that like a practice was a bit of an issue. But if anything, they're
still the firm favorite to win the entire tournament, despite being in the lower bracket.
Yeah. I mean, I do have to sympathize with them trying to figure out their own game plan
on the side of phase. And then this is the curveball of all curveballs, really. So not
an envious position. This is the roughest and like most unlikely draw. They could have
have. But either way, it is
better than to be guaranteed
at least top sticks here at the
Intel Extreme Masters Atlanta
2026. But up next, we do have
one number twos in Navi. They're
going to be taking on a game
a legion in our third game of
the day. Another playoff spot
on the line. It's going down
We are back!
We have kicked off already, I have 1st armor.
At this point we had 2 damage with Wiggles on A, very lucky, they are fully ready to
Smash for mistake, no small cats.
Okay, it was good.
Mistake by him.
Actually, he took the bad angle, I guess.
Okay, bum, look at this pressure.
Took on Insta, bum, I understand CTL as well.
3 and A, look at this pressure.
I see the ball, bum, bum, bum.
All guys, full pressure.
Most likely the call was to just go together
because we have 1-AK,
while their head is from Mousin, I think.
From Mousinio.
And then we just go together.
the guy with pistol pistol will go first, make space and then he'll probably trade
and I remember we didn't know anything about middle, we just gambled up, they don't have it
and they don't have it
but they still play to be
miss shot and it is over, when you miss this shot it's over already
why?
stupid
and then look, I was even before right?
look
space creator
who is
ima
dead
that's where he is
but he got hit
Connect.
Be careful of this.
And now this one we take. Clutch.
Or two, sorry.
I don't see because of the camera.
Clutch.
Bomber before it gets by again.
wavling because us here at the Intel Extreme Masters, come on.
I play video games, funny chance?
Sorry, come on this way, come on this way.
Talk to me about teams playing other teams and people playing other people in video games, eSports.
I think that there is a culture for it, but I haven't really been involved with the culture of eSports.
What do you think separates a good eSport from the great eSports?
You need a good balance of the game and you need players that understand the mechanics of the game.
You can use those to the fullest capabilities.
I'm literally on Super Smash Bros. pretty much only.
What's your favorite character? Who do you play in? Who's your main?
Ness.
More of a Kirby brick, everything, and to each other.
Yeah, any new girl that I teach Smash?
She plays the Kirby.
Maybe one day I'll grow up.
Are there any games that are just embarrassing to be good at that you can think of?
This is going to be a hot topic.
I think it is a little embarrassing to be good at God.
Okay, let's go out and man, let's film what they need to hear.
I must have sat at the wrong table.
Yeah, we're kind of talking about video games.
Do you guys know anything about video games, e-sports?
I know stuff about brawl stars.
Okay.
I know Atlanta has a big cod scene, but how many times can you play Cold War and say it's
a different game?
What do you look back and say to the younger you're watching?
Go hard for the times that need to be taken hard and just have fun.
It's Navi, it's a Lexi B in the city of Atlanta.
This is the first time I'm going to talk to you, so let me go ahead and ask you, how
you find the city?
I've found it nice, didn't have too much time to stroll around, but it looks nice and it's
walkable.
I feel like the downtown is way more walkable than any other American city that I can remember
now.
over from the hotel, you get here the venue, the venue's massive, the Georgia
World Congress center. Also massive would be starting out your campaign here
in Atlanta with a W. You play passion UA yesterday. Let's let's just jump into
an UBIS. What happened there? It felt like you guys might have got pressured
there a little bit. Yeah, I think I just think that we started slow. I think they
had a good game plan going into it. Other than that, I just feel like the T side
was horrendous. But once we got to the city side, I think we calmed down of it. We
understood that we can make the comeback even though it looked grim.
12-9 I think it was still as soon as we hit the overtime which is due that we were the better team now and we are in the driver's seat
You win pistols or you know you can string together those conversions and then that that fourth round hits and you lose it
How detrimental is it? I mean it hurts your feelings obviously hurt my feelings. So tell me how does that go?
Not that big of a deal to be honest
We had a good plan going into it, but I just think that they executed theirs better and we
You know at the start of an UBIS had some solo duels solo fights that we kept losing and
Once you go down that path is not good to give the opponent some confidence game religion today
What do we expect? I think the same that we what we played against them last time
I think they're a solid team. They're here to upset the bigger dogs and they're trying to learn
We are always trying to be one step ahead. We try to analyze the game. We played against them
I'm trying to be one step ahead on the veto.
Maybe it's going to be some different maps now,
so we need to be ready.
Other than that, I just think that we need to trust ourselves
with the same way and start stronger compared to yesterday.
Yeah, Alexi, be allergic to it.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Okay, in situated, ready to get Na'Vi versus Game Legion underway.
Small technical doohickey.
We're just waiting on one of the members of the Game Legion
to be getting back into the server before we can commence.
But that gives us time to talk about what Alexi
was just discussing the last time they played. It was less than two weeks, 11 days ago, Blast
rivals 20-26 season one, Na'Vi vs. Gamer Legion. That was a Group B upper bracket final. And
Mirage, Ancient, and Inferno with the maps played there. We've given the video up the
screen for today. I think we'll see something different out of Gamer Legion. Last time they
picked Mirage into Na'Vi. They actually lost Mirage yesterday to Sinners, and Inferno was
the map that they did win. So I understand we'll hear the Sinners changing the pick,
I expect Navi to go the same with an ancient of theirs and then the third and the side will have to be something different this time round
Maybe a nuke
We'll see how this one starts to shape up it as you can see on screen
No, I'm gonna start CT side of inferno and then the cars you will get to waltz out middle on the T side of
Sorry, it'd be wait my religion picked T. Is that that's what it's saying?
Yeah, they gave now via CT start on their combed earth
They've had to kind of grind out in some of these smaller events. And now just before we get to the major, we're seeing them have a
resurgence as far as tier one events go, right? Obviously, I was just talking about blast rivals in Fort Worth not too far away
Well, it is far away, but at least it's in the same country. Yeah, and now here in Atlanta
So this is a good opportunity for the Counter Strike world to see what game a legion are gonna be bringing into IEM Cologne
to round down to that was the
first season of 2026 that looks
like everybody's in the server
ready to go. Freeze time ticking
down pistol round buys are coming
in and we can kick this one off.
I think you've already all had
your excitement for the day with
the vitality upset, but let's see
if game alleging can deliver
another winner of this qualifies
for the playoffs as a seeding
game to come the loser down to
the lower bracket where two
best of trees will be required
tomorrow.
And it's inferno. We're going
pace. Yes sir. Slow and steady wins the race on Inferno. A little jump spot for
Inme. It's just impressive that Snax is still calling the shots and playing this
game at a professional level. Champion of Canavitsa 2014. We're all about the years there.
He is 2026 and he is still competing at a tier one Counter-Strike level. Yeah now
an in-game leader right obviously we had that G2 stint. He was over at Game
religion before that so they can deliver today so calling them into the
pistols we can see on the radar a site essentially empty Emma and bit on long
so they're playing retake a and likely to be smoked off in a moment start one
motor one long and away they go I'm sure stacks be bowling towards pit the bottle
go down this is where you need to look at what remains for now V there's a smoke
Alexia flash on mccasey and that rotation is now on the way so you've got
your three sets of Kevlar and you've got your bomb plant so all that you till
well spent. Now 5v5 in the post plan, no kit. I'm curious to see what this retake
looks like, not forgetting of course you know graveyardless ports and starting
off with their mid-clays. It's gonna be a two-man pit setup, Hypex and PR. Gonna
try not to give anything away to those USPs at range. Alexi B throwing a dodgy
looking smoke with a bounce in that rounding that corner and finding that
opening headshot trade from Hypex but now they're clawing their way into the
site puts it all onto PR with plenty of time for that 10 second defuse they're
gonna commence that right now he's trying to catch a lexie be on the back
staff but he's got the covering fire wonderful saves him in a 10 second
defuse in time now via retake a setup converted. Yeah lexie had to have faith in
his teammate they'd become a best so well done with the bomb going down it does
present the question. Our game will be going to go for a false or do they want to
just take some pistols now and buy into the next for the AKs out ASAP. I can see
Rez starting to buy in, so that answers the question here, but you can see this smoke drops in, it segregates the line from pit.
As you said, it's a bit dodgy, doesn't feel like it's necessarily doing the best job for either, but covered him off there and wonderful.
Make sure he picks up the kill.
Forced by PL with the Galil, MAK10s, Fort Hypex and Towson.
Fn9s for Saks and Rez.
Smattering a Vuto and just to avoid any early C-Teenage, right, they're gonna be mulling D, getting the HG's in.
If you could avoid that, allow the CTs to rifle through it.
Triple HE, they're going to go off of them, Alexi B tucks in, and yeah, unfortunate incendiary completes towards their commitment, he chose to recede, and Towson will go down.
That's tough, that's your opening gamble, and it looked clunky around half wall. I understand the molly came in, but still...
still.
Snacks, looks like he's a dead man, but he actually is the first bullet out of his Tech 9, fortunately.
Alexi and Ima are in a position to kind of defend and repel. Still with Res on to Alexi, it is just Ima.
Still low, doesn't look too threatening and it isn't. PR's the last dude standing, 39 points of health up against 3.
Wonderful coming in from CT on that rotate, bomb committed, first orange, so PR just going to try and delay the inevitable.
maybe pick up an extra kill, can't do it, just in a headshot through to Bit.
He'll survive and Navi will get through that second round test.
I don't know, well it should be the 3-0 now with the eco coming in
and this is where we can present to you the setups as far as map control and defense is concerned.
Navi will have Mikazi and Alexi responsible for Bit.
That's going to leave the trio of Bit who will be the A anchor with either Wonderful or Emma
depending on who is supporting that B site or not.
I don't know what he was saying, but he was, you know, he said spirit, cloud nine.
Yeah, it was just like talking about Cow's Pro too.
I sent off as many teams as he could.
Yeah, I really liked those NIP guys back in the day.
Did you guys hear a team 3D?
I was born when they existed.
That's from a Maccazi P.O.V.
Just listen off names.
Mr. Maccazi.
And that's what we like to see.
Yes, it is easier to play the game when you're in a good mood.
Well, his former teammates and the XNAVI Academy,
They were, uh, battling against pain. I understand that third map is stuck. There was some tech issues.
I was trying to poke and prod around to understand what was wrong. I don't know if I get any official word.
I was talking to the observers. So who knows if what they knew was right, but, uh, hopefully everything's right in the server.
Because that game is for the playoffs. And now that Vitality are in the lower bracket of that croupé.
Oh yeah, you want to win?
You really want to win.
Yeah. Oh, mate. Yeah. I mean, I agree with Jacob as well as, you know, short Vitality loss,
I mean, it's not like you're
going to be able to do that.
You're going to be able to do
that. You're going to be able
to do that last but so did
phase it away. That's true.
You're going to be tough for
them tomorrow. We'll see if
twists and the boys can give
it a good crack. Of course
that boom in the playoffs as
we all expected. The second
team Vitality have lost it all
year. Crazy. I mean, it's
flammas, Zorty magnages. I
saw 90% of the new best, but I
was surprised to see them
picking up that map up. I know
it's always been a bit of a
lower wrong for vitality, but
team playing the more careful picks such as a new this is your path to kind of being disruptive and well
There's a great demonstration. Yeah passion couldn't get it done this navi, but that boom in in a very important game for them a
Lot of these teams because of the invites and the VRS points. No, you're not seeing them also often
It was quite the void
Hold a minute and 15 about to hit the clock and no damage has been done either way.
This is a bonus round for Navi of Swords.
Just one SMG for Alexi Mikazi on the jump spot, highlighted by the obscene here with
an incendiary.
Grouping up for a bit of pressure, bottom banana, our game a legion.
We are trying to keep many boost planted here and he does go down, gets in for one three,
that might accelerate Towson forward onto the solo B-hole. Just Mikaze here, that's a lovely quick headshot out of Towson.
Mikaze unable to even pull the trigger in time, so I'd walk brisky through snacks.
Oh, he's such a snacks maneuver though, he loves pushing through smokes. Sure you lose hypex,
but he might win the round. He goes for the double kill, trigger discipline on display,
playing around the smokesnacks style. Now, you might have a look. I can't find a guy that's lost his weapon.
And he's alive. That's frustrating. Oh, that's very frustrating. It's not baiting if you win the round. And well, the fact that there's in game leaders
pathing through that smoke boat taking a risk, starting well there with opening kill from beer and ending in the favor of game
leech in the first round on the board. So well done from Towson. Gee. Yeah, that was an instant, didn't it? But the chaos snacks. One of the
original smoke criminals. Now we're in Stewie's turf right now, but this guy was doing it
before Stewie was playing the tier ones.
Yeah, and Art was still kicking a football around.
Yeah. I just had a look, so they won 51 points.
They're both from Vitality.
One point.
Vitality lost 30, but who cares?
They can donate.
Yeah, but they've got plenty.
You get some points. You get some points.
It used to be points from one win. That's huge for that thing in the project. I mean,
I just saw it in the frozen where he was talking about, you know, the trophy would be less exciting than the VRS point.
Right, he just didn't get back at the invite bubble, don't he?
Yeah.
So this bonus round that was lost is, you can see, hey, how well it went in the opening three that they have the all-power wonderful.
Now, everybody has the M4s. There's only one kit on a Lexi.
So, keep track of that if we find ourselves into a post-plant, but there's no rush from Game of Legion.
I like to see this, right? They're not really going into any risky business if they don't have to.
Sir, more unusual warpline, and it's not going to work out for Wonderful, so some diligent Flash works,
forces him back, and now in combination with the Nades, puts Wonderful down to just 31 points of health.
We are seeing BXX smokes, are they committing it?
Oh, they've missed the CT.
Yep, and Wonderful has not missed onto Towson.
Regardless of the Flashbang hits it, now number two as well.
Well, Mccasey and Wonderful have managed to find themselves the lion's share of the necessary frags.
I'm going to go down. Wonderful. We'll have to wait for the rotation to come in.
Bit is still worrying about the lurk.
Well, he knows the lurk now is over towards the site, so Rez and Pierre noted.
Yeah, well, this will really be a two on four they can flip.
Or is Pierre just giving them a little bit of something to celebrate on the way out of the door?
He knows he's got to stay proactive, especially with Rez on two points of health.
He is just the insurance policy here now.
Regist position triangulated wonderful.
It gets another frag so high impact round from their all but
they get it into his hands and he finds great impact.
I'm sure Macaulay grateful to have a bit of support on that B site.
I don't know if this is statistically the case,
but just watching wonderful since crack of this year,
he's looked like the all but the Navi needs.
Yes.
And there's been a lot of question around him and his apple,
but he was always capable.
with the lack of consistency or disappearing in certain moments.
One of the players, you know, that it was visible, you know, you could always see it,
you know, all the human characteristics and get counter strike gameplay, but you could
see nerves.
Sure.
You could see overthinking, and I think that's something that, you know, he's definitely
had to overcome.
We've seen that.
When you're in a system-heavy team, well, every team has a system, but when you're in
a deep or heavy team, exactly right, a lot of the gameplay, you know, there's certain
Decisions that you're gonna make that are gonna win you around just by making the right choice
But once you have that framework, then you need your players to play right within that framework
That's built by blade and alexi the creativity and the skill expression of the player makes the difference
Well like pushing a confidence mode because you know you can catch that next follow up frag
Takes confidence. You have to have faith that you've got the right call. Do I read it?
It came out even get the bomb down
It's going to help them to potentially go for another buy in the next few days.
You can see how weak this one is.
It's two Galils of Tecna with two AKs and we're just talking about wonderful.
You see this line is adopted now over towards apartments.
It appears to be in the right place.
The bomb in Boiler on Rez.
So Snacks calling them directly into this A site.
There'll be four of them here because Alexi's cheated over.
Okay, so information.
A one-way flow spotting bit on the short side.
Mikaze does have a blocked smoke and he's been showing great restraint with it.
Just to know, Hypex in second mid right now, maybe Jakey can grab it for us.
He's just been sitting here with this smoke waiting for the go call to lob that one out.
Here they come.
Oh, nice.
Yeah, lovely team play there.
Swing it out from the long side.
Wonderful onto PR.
Jumps into the pit.
Jumps into the jaws of the Sniper.
First on B in the previous.
Now on A, he's in the right place at the right time.
Two back to back rounds.
Navi Sniper racking him up in the Maltese.
I think they're getting the plant. I think the best they can operate here is with the save. So next round
take the
harshal with the two saved
rifles and
then hope you get a plan under that one because
Hypex and Talsum will only get the 3400 lost bonus. So you really
find they need kills or a little bit of extra cash somehow
But this is quite the dominant start from Navi to kick off the campaign five to one
Oh and blades happy
Okay, the vibes. Hi, I think Navi seeing Vitality lose as well, though, that creates a
good point, a tough proposition now because let's assume that Vitality run the lower
bracket and Vitality win, sorry, and Navi win this game and the game tomorrow, the
seeding match. That would put them on the same side of the bracket.
Yeah, it could be, yeah.
So, Yanko in the green room said, listen, Vitality can win a Besta 3, Vitality can lose a Besta
3, but they can't really lose the best of 5, so might be a better opportunity for Navi to get it done in the best of 2, didn't really work out in Ria.
No, at this point.
But everything has gone up at topsy-turvy.
They've shoved.
They've forced port behind these two, sir.
Yeah, and it's not worked out for them too badly, with Rez finding Mikaze, it actually, it forced to him.
Rez has the opportunity to open up the B bomb site in the standoff between the two of them.
Him, though, crouches into the angle, puts some damage down.
Range.
Stubborn.
Committed.
But he's actually still trapped.
Forced to stay on the line by the flame.
Snax the one to profit.
Now wonderful, however, time has been bought to buy him
and get him over towards this B site in time.
But they're not showing signs of a full commitment yet.
What is that?
Well, now they can explode through it.
And he can't just pick them off one at a time.
I see you.
And the USP doesn't feel like the weapon for this job.
They track it down.
Snax, an avant-garde approach, but it works.
Okay, a bit's heading over. Does he want to give this one a look?
It's going to be 1400 into the nexus, the loss bonus.
Four CB.
Okay, well, I think if he can stay undetected for the next five or so seconds, they
might expect him to be saving.
But you're not expecting snacks with an orb on this line, so.
He doesn't have the kit either.
He's going to back away.
Okay. Well, he will be able to drop a rifle into the next, which will help out the buy department.
Flexi will be able to buy a wonderful as well, damage being done, it will maybe even be able to take that AWP.
That does help.
Well done, a bit of grip there from game allusion in the banana fight.
Ima, I understand right, he knew wonderful's rotation was coming so he's trying to be a buffer but the fact he gets nothing done there
and then wonderful's having to deal with that smoke that you, I guess scoffed at because yeah.
I haven't seen it before.
All right. But it's still so risky, right?
Because if there was another rifle there and you're coming through, you'd be screwed.
Yeah.
But up against an AWP, it really did like a completely nullified, wonderful threat.
He's sitting there with the USP going, oh, yeah, that is my best bet.
Unless I'm going for Hail Mary. Yeah. Yeah.
Well, it's like, why, why can't I?
OK, well, first, a tactical timeout call from game a legion.
Well, on the force by OK, I mean, that makes inferno, that keeps inferno interest.
It does indeed, right? Because you win this one, you're gonna break the money of Na'Vi, they'll have to go down to the eco, and you get an opportunity to make it a one round game, so a big moment for GamerLegion.
But you do need to go consecutive here, if you don't.
You do.
It's not all in vain, it's just, uh, we kick the can down the road.
If you're gonna kick the can down the road, make sure you put it in the bin.
Yes.
Always recycling a myth.
Allegedly.
This is a set call. Look at the damage from the nades.
The speed of this is insane.
Look at them go.
It's gonna have a face full of lead from Rez.
And now it is just wonderful.
He's gonna work it out for him.
It's the first clean on the flick.
On number two as well.
Hypex down.
Bomb loose.
Mikaze.
Alexi.
Ima.
The entire Navi squad now have the bomb
and likely have the round set up to succeed by wonderful
handling this pace.
Just smoke him off.
Yeah, they look at the amount of smoke
so they still have after that wonderful.
They can still drop two more, they've got mollies, they've got HEs, just hold them at bay.
Put them around on the head, have them swinging at nothing.
Yeah, this is brutal.
They took a timeout for this call and they lost half the team's HP, just running up mid from Nades.
And the rest, of course, to the quick sniping work of Wonderful.
How many of these Na'Vi rounds are attributed to a multi-kill from Wonderful Sniper?
11 and 3 right now, let's see what else we can get done.
What are you doing?
Boosting over the spike, okay.
Can you get an angle on this?
they gotta be creative oh quick he was very quick on the trigger there
it's been salted in the missed opportunity yep another smoke you're gonna
have about what 10 seconds left by the time that fades yeah 15 and then they
were a Molly if they really wanted I think I'll just use their guns
That's some what's going on? Maybe we just save again.
What a standoff! This has been the longest just stalemate on the A side. Rock, paper, scissors.
Yep, we've got enough nades. We'll keep you blocked the entire time. Thanks for coming.
You might even go down after time.
That's a rough one and in there is going to be arriving from apartments to try and take
anything extra away after time.
Jaws gets away with it.
It didn't want to give away too much of their own there.
Just hearing some yells, pain vs. fault we mentioned earlier, it's 3rd map Dust 2 and
playoffs on the line with that one so go whack that on the telly or your tablet or telephone
or...
There's the Nade, look at this.
Oh shi- that does so much damage, that is.
I know it's the AWP, right? So the Nade doesn't even feel like it's the main factor of this, but it slows them down.
It definitely takes a chunk out of your confidence.
Yes.
They're going fast again, 4 and 2 mid. Yeah, they're looking for another set piece.
Oh, he's lucky to get away with that, that's the bomb!
And he's the bomb again.
He gets away.
If they hit the Nade,
We'll continue as part of this post. He's got lineups. He's gonna be thrown. Yeah, he's gonna flash them out through here
Nice find bit down as an opening death. Wonderful called upon once more delayed them the rotation miles away
Look at that three man. I can see T spawn
Thanks for the retake here and seeding the site so
Maybe now we just go fishing if they don't get anything earlier
I know a save in a 5v4 seems crazy, but this is a tough retake
So just calling a fast day after a failed fast day.
Yeah.
So I have to admire that from Snacks.
He's been stubborn with his calling.
Yeah, they're saving.
There it is.
They're out of there.
Yeah.
Ah, they actually really have admiration for that.
You've called a timeout.
You run into a brick wall.
You eat nade damage and lose out a rather depressing round.
And then you immediately return to the same call.
And it's the difference between a kill and a leg shot,
right, though?
Because if Hypax goes down, that's the bomb lose.
Someone has to go back to get it.
He's there throwing the flashes for them to scout
with top middle and it would really make a whole lot more of a difficult situation.
So brute force, name of the game, game legion, wrestle back another, make it a three round
game.
Now be hold on to this, he's got 2300 plus the 14, he'll be able to get himself an M4
or he can be dropped one foot from Emma or Alexi.
Alexi has full nades, Alexi can just hook him up with the M4 and everything's going
to be fine.
to be a strong buy.
Can you really risk starting 3B again and has that conditioning with those players towards A?
Force Navi's handed to something different, while Blade, he wants to chip in to have that exact conversation.
6th round CT side Inferno, you're already happy with that, but you're not content.
You want to try and get this done as quickly as possible?
Suppose coach is empty and Blade, want to talk and being done, in a bit, chipping in.
And again returning to the money, this is where the hearth could spill over against
Navi, assuming they lose the round and the board gets wiped.
He kills so heavily in the favour of Na'Vi so far in this game, we are talking.
In the 9 rounds played so far, 8 of them calling for Na'Vi.
Now it's just grouped up and out of play.
Just a lot of 4-1.
Ooh, there's some good nade damage from the T side.
They'll soften up the Karze heavily.
I think from a lexi beamer clan it's going to do some serious damage in return.
He's got another one.
That could be well placed.
Hold on.
Let's hang on that.
They're going to swing on that.
I'm half-all though, getting a legion tuck in.
And swing it in for a one-and-a-tuck.
He keeps Navi with a head above water though.
Block smoke on the half wall, you've got the man advantage.
Feels like this has gone exactly how Navi would have hoped.
A lot of these rounds are over in the opening skirmish.
The boost might be enough for LTE down after one.
It was Towson though on that low HP that gets the trade so it's just you know one and a half men
It's up to the PR incision into the A site and he will get a 1v1 against bit
Well, they're nice facing the right way, that's the other story
I mean it feels like Towson's dead and the second bit finds him
Good awareness obviously knew that there was a gap but clearing deep
Oh my god, there's so much damage.
Ha ha ha.
Yeah, that was true.
But, no, it was Jewish.
Yeah, he, yeah, they took a lot of damage.
There's Naid standing on Nuke and throwing on this one.
600 ish utility damage for Nervi so far,
10 rounds into their CT side, which is, you know, a very solid haul.
I wonder what the average is.
In a CT half of Inferno, what is the average of like T.
U2 damage, yeah, yeah, it doesn't have to just be one play. Obviously, we know that plays like Apex and Alexi
They get to throw more as the in-game leaders
But it'd be interesting that's not an A. Yeah, I just get shipped down a half
Smoke as well forced to retreat
And it's actually an open kill from a bit. He's tapped one as wonderful catches PR on his abscrawls
So, you can't really catch much of a break and this is what I'm saying that the rounds just feel over
It feels rough for either team to battle back in Rez gives them something
But you just have to look at the HP bottom right of the screen 19 and 36 foot resin Towson respectively snacks on a hundred sure
It's the
Hypex death curious about because he died at the foot of middle to bits rifle
Yeah, so did bit just go for straight angel down mid since Len and McCasey makes it even worse
How about a round on top of that?
Double to the back
Lovely on the backstab. No, I mean things are flowing. Let's get that bit killing the replay if we can please DJ
Yeah, since when is bit taken those kind of angels early
Little bit of that disrespect finds the perfect timing on it and finds hypex. It is
So that was dangerous crispy
Hi pecs is definitely been showing some signs of frustrations, and I'm sure that's another one to add to the tally. All right final round first half
half.
Basically, check 9s and it's a set A call.
They tried this one before.
Yeah, this is it.
You just extinguish.
He goes straight through.
Very quick from snacks.
He's got him there on the archside that he can contend with.
Bit does tuck into site.
Wonderful force to tip away.
He draws attention with his orb shot and Bit will profit.
Swings out on the short side, repels the first two.
And there's wonderful from the Bit 4.
Nice.
Quick sequence of two.
Make it three to close.
That is a stunning shutdown.
16 frags.
free death's wonderful habit of field day, it's not looking good for Gamelige in first
I
I felt like a rather fast first half here between Na'Vi and Gamer Legion.
We are getting into things.
It's still the group stage here at the Intel Extreme Masters live from Atlanta, Georgia.
Na'Vi definitely hot favourites for this one, especially with the Ancient as the second
map.
It felt like for Gamer Legion to pick up a W today, even after a very recent head-to-head
where Na'Vi bested them in two maps, it felt like they'd have to win on Inferno and with
only three rounds under their belt, I'm going to throw a cliche in your face.
Still feels important for the CT side getting off onto the right foot to start it's tough when the only all they've ever
Knife get on now
Speaking of foot as well that games probably still going on it is out over on the secondary stream dust to it's very close
Kind of the opposite of what we've got going on here. Nothing consecutive. There's a fight a Bruin forbid
It's a very good so first he gets knifed and then he gets caught with a perfect little glock head shot from bit
So that is as far as openings go there 12th
Sheesh, so I just in case anybody doesn't know how maths works a game regionally have one
Come on Pia your personal record, let's go. Oh, it's a punchy reaction very nice first
He kills deep from PR. It's still rain supreme there
bad at all oh like this boys come on I just got you a 3k just disintegrates
Alexi just snatched his one through the smoke now high-packs you've been having a
tough game let's go the young pole not necessarily in pole position for the 1v2
clutch look at this crossfire you'd have to be ZywOo to break this kind of fun
And they've even bring the fight forward. Wow, Alexi and Bit getting the job done. Five
kills between the two of them.
Well, they might just force by the game here, but I have had Ben, aka SEO, the stats guy
send me a message regarding the U2 damage that we were talking about. And I'll quote
him here. He said, had a quick look for the Inferno CT side U2 damage average in 2026
through big events is 540 per half. That's 45 per round. And Navi ended up with about
700. So they were slightly above that average. Vitality for reference have a 64.2 per rounds
utility damage, 770 on the CT arm. Wow, okay, cool. So they were above the average by 250
years. Yeah, and Navi are pretty close to Vitality. So that number 2 in the world. Check
out. Check out. Here's the force. Oh, that's the perfect flash to counter this beast.
Oh, no fun, but it's cancelled!
Immersed, set up to succeed!
What a lovely feeling that it's relaxing.
That's not so wonderful.
I'm going to be planted alexigene into the site.
Yeah, there's ants, they're all going to try their best,
but without that frag there on the big,
it gets away on just four points of health.
Yeah, this is live work, baby.
They are steaming through this one and Pia and Rez are just looking to hold on to what they have.
There was another smoke available for Moto, so she fell way back in and felt absolutely no way.
This is where the issue does arise. That matchup we're referencing from Fort Worth just the other day.
Ancient was in the pool and they lost 34.
Maybe that is one of the factors of why they wanted to start on the T side this time round.
So, we'll, no, ancient, we're not there yet, but it feels like we are.
We're sailing on track to be there rather quickly.
Yeah, so they did start back here at Fort Worcester Rivals of the CT side.
They won the pistol, they won the follow-up, but then they had two more CT rounds throughout.
So just looking to try and change the tone of the game.
Yeah.
And, you know, it does come as a surprise, I'm sure, if you're Navi, with that in the
video, but it's their confidence.
Where McCarthy does his absolute best work.
The second tactical timeout, you weaker this one, you give him 12, your guns come out into
the following, and we go to the desk.
Yeah, and then the desk throws to a break, and then we come back and we do it all again.
We come back from the break, and then we start map 2.
Let us know how you've been feeling about the 24 hour counter strike schedule we've
got at the moment.
We've got the hero event going on in Asia.
Yeah.
the biggest names in the world but that's likely where the matches kick off. I think here in the US
they started at 11 o'clock at 9 o'clock on that. Yeah. Then you go into Astana where you get to see
you know Falcons with Karrigan, you get to see Maus, Maus made the playoffs with Jalen, Zelex on
debut, you get to see all those teams go on Tota, Tothuria, Mongols, Parry, Parryvision got eliminated
and then you flick on the telly and you get to watch Vitality lose to Bethan. Yeah, every moment
of your day can be filled with Counter Strike at the moment.
I think we had this happen once upon a time as well back in the pandemic time when we
were doing road to Rio, right?
And we were in Cologne and you would go into the Asian Counter-Strike, into European Counter-Strike,
or it would go Asia into CIS, into EU, into America.
It was crazy.
There's a lot of Counter-Strike.
And then as if you needed more, there's a major around the corner.
Look at that swatter. Yes. Yes. Yes, please. By title factors for that one, I promise.
Yeah. And Towson is managed to do a little summoning with a 5-7. They're in it. No pressure whatsoever right now.
What about the Snacks Deague, though? Yeah, it's certainly a little threatening. You can see him. He captures two body shots, but he will survive.
Oh, that's an unfortunate timing. Oh! The USB thing. I pictures had a game. He's in one of those games. We've all had one. We've all had more than one.
You just don't feel like you can do anything right
And then you're high-slide. I think Tim is low. At least he gets an all. Okay the final round
For the start of the incredible nine round cut this is even if he just gets two kills
He's like guys if I just had the all more. Yeah, we would have had a chance and you've got T side ancient to like
Reset you got to play T side ancient
It does. It really does. But yeah, I mean, I hadn't thought about it, but if Navi do continue to breeze through these games,
and move my sanity in the lower if they continue their run, there is an interesting connection between these two, meeting in the playoffs,
how earlier they're scheduled.
Whoa.
Let's see if there's anything.
Well, Piazz in the left of his own devices here.
Imma is playing responsive base banana flashes if they need them and they've been able to
establish half walk control so now he can start to join the rest of the team.
Bid is just making sure there's no second mid pushes through halls or window and Gameligener
essentially gambling.
You can see PR on the radar on his own.
Currently over towards coils.
Wolfs, that's old school, sorry, everyone coffins.
And he's about to be dead.
He doesn't even know it.
Alright guys, Alex out of the wrap.
Alright guys, so first map in the bag for Na'Vi, and with Ancient waiting in the wings,
things do not look promising for GamerLegion to secure themselves that way of spot today.
It's gonna be a long wrap.
It wasn't comfortable, especially that last round in particular.
PR just conceiving the site space, they contacted in, and once that bomb went down,
went down, it was a real half-hearted retake, that 4v5 after getting caught by the Alexi
B-spray.
They obviously did have that Towson kit.
Yes, they did, and they gave it a good go, you know, Towson leading the charge, Alexi
B-shore with his little half-hearted flashbang play, did catch snacks, but they wrapped
around on the spools, or the coils, or the cough inside, and sure they got a couple
of kills, sure, it came down to that 1v3, but it's a 1v3 from Alexi B.
Come on!
So impressive from Alexi.
And we have to do see another round.
I can't believe it.
We actually see another round.
Okay, well done.
Well handled.
Under a lot of pressure there, the fact that you lose the sight with absolutely nothing
done.
I told ya.
Yep.
Just give the man the AWP.
Can't pull more of those.
What's his role?
AWPer.
What gun does he need?
The AWP.
What does he not have?
The AWP.
It all lines up.
Come on, Blade.
He's furious.
What?
Come on, mate. Come on, mate.
What?
Is he saying, listen, the cast has started.
Okay.
You were supposed to finish it there.
Call a fast A.
What would snacks do?
There's no way they're doing something fast.
What do you think IMD stands for?
Intermission.
Yep.
Moderate.
Data.
Probably is, uh, yeah.
Yeah.
Are there red v conference next door?
Yeah.
It's just still baffling to me.
They only have two opening kills.
I know it's, you know, they are getting dominated.
So that makes sense.
But just two opening kills.
All right, here we go.
I'm just going to make it three.
That's a very good flash.
It's they're feigning fast right now. They want to take map control quicker
Well, that's a lot of damage there. That is deep HG and in the MOLLE I suppose
Flash what's he doing is he going through on the fade? No, he's gonna push through the top mid smoke for early short control
Towson will block apps hoping that fit in him. They will respect it
But they probably won't now Alexi B in combination with bit they flood into the side snacks court jumping McCasey gets the third
And that's gonna be round. That's gonna be map. Inferno goes Navi's way in a convincing fashion.
Yeah, one round too early wasn't it?
Hypex and PR are gonna give this one a go, but a good shift, mainly from wonderful MP.
But I think everybody's had some moments in this one.
The fact that you're winning a game in this dominant fashion, and McCarthy only has seven kills to his name,
shows you the depth of Navi, and they are looking hot to trot right now.
Hypex, we found that a moment's time.
Yeah, I mean, bring on ancient Ryan McCarthy and keep it cool, Jets.
for the first map, his teammates pulling across the line,
constantly 13 to 4,
Navi's home tough up next,
and Gamelige electing to start on the T side.
That's all coming up.
Brutal way for them to be starting off this series though.
It doesn't fill you with confidence.
Individuals barely breaking double digits.
In fact, just Towson able to post 10 kills.
That's at the top of the tables for you.
That's just not good enough.
Needs to be a completely different story
going in to the next map of play.
I have a tough time seeing that change,
But enough from us, let's throw this one to the desk.
Yeah, tough times for Gamer Legion, but for Navi, full steam ahead.
Doesn't feel like the even breakerswap on Gamer Legion's map pick,
and it felt like everything was really just going their way from some beautiful utilities,
some great holds on that CT side, an individual shanko coming alive.
Welcome back to the desk.
Very quick one to start off your day.
It's great to be back, Freya, and yeah, a quickie, as they like to call it.
Unfortunately for the game religion, right where the T side works in general is reliant
a lot on some of these early round plays, opening idea if it doesn't work, if they can't
end the round quickly, that's where they tend to struggle a little bit, right, if the round
extends itself, they have to play into the late round, that's where they start lacking
some coordination, that's where they can get outplayed by some of these better teams and
I think we saw a lot of that here on Inferno.
Yeah, it was quite clear to see what they wanted to do in that T-Side, you know, try to play fast paced Counter-Strike.
A couple of Baneir takes didn't go their way. I'm sure we'll dive into it later.
A lot of utility damage coming from the side of Navi. Not necessarily because Navi did anything in particular to do it.
It's more so the game of leading just didn't respect the fact that there's got a B-nades thrown down towards middle in the beginning of the round.
Round 8 was a great example to me where they run up, you know, they decide to rush middle and rush quad.
The entirety of the team took more than 200 damage in grenades within the first 10 seconds of the round.
And at that point you can argue, yeah, sure, good on Navi for throwing the grenades,
more so for Gamer Legion, respect what is Inferno, maybe just slow down a little bit
and then you can rush, you know, with a couple of seconds delayed
instead of losing the rounds within the first 10 seconds.
I think it comes down to good preparation from Navi and understanding,
like, how Gamer Legion likes to play on the T side,
and we can dive into some of the examples here right now to talk about the specific rounds.
We had one early in the first half, right, it was one of the reset rounds,
Now he was up 3-0, they lose the first round.
Like after that, we go back to it.
You're going to see from the game of the legion, this smoke for top mid.
Now this is sometimes used just as a bait, really, but they did want to play for mid.
You can see the reaction from Navi.
One in San Diery, you'll always see that almost, but the second one, that's kind of unusual.
So they're really committing, then a smoke comes in after that.
So they know the game of the legion wants to play fast, right?
So this blockage, you can see forces them back.
They didn't fight for banana control, so now we got all of that.
You can see Makazi has it, even Alexei is going to come over, throwing an extra smoke.
So now, Game Religion needs to, you know, go to Plan B, right?
Make some adjustments, you can see Wonderful on his way to B, VDAWP, Alexei, they make that swap.
So another layer that Game Religion maybe doesn't expect that they have to deal with.
Great job in the mid-round actually for them to clear these angles, not lose any players,
good protocols for Gamer Legion to chase them back, but you need to look at the time as well.
This is where teams like Navi, right, like separate themselves from maybe a team like
Gamer Legion. Like everything that they're doing is fine, but look at how much time is passing,
how long it took them to do all these things, and Makaze still has some utility left. Wonderful
is there with the AWP, and you will see some of that counter utility come in as these B hit
also comes in one miss smoke that didn't really matter all that much but wonderful gets a shot
off before the smoke blooms gets a kill now they're pushing through a CT smoke he breaks their
timing for the flashes right like this execute isn't at all what gamer legion intended because
of how now we played in the early round they had some extra utility and they're able to
even though the bomb gets planted have a pretty comfortable retake yeah it's a great round that
also had consequence a field for gamer legion later down the rock you know because playing slow
Counter Strike against a team like Navi. That's not what you want to do if you're
game a legion and then as I said you know round eight you decide to rush
middle you take a lot of utility damage in general they try to up the pace in
that seaside and that's not working out either so it's one of those scenarios
where I get the understanding from game a legion I understand what they want to
do I understand how they're playing and as you said as well it's not like they're
making glaring mistakes in this round they're actually trying to take banana
control they're using the utility in order to flush off wonderful and push it
back towards calls but there's just a difference between these two teams in
understanding of the game and individual skill level in order to close out those rounds.
I think the problem is like when you play like this and have a lot of these sets calls from the get-go
right like you start getting
Into this trap maybe of okay now we have to bring out now you're getting too much into reading what your opponents are going to do
So Jacob's talking a lot about round eight try to play fast. It doesn't work round nine
They go right back to it and it works to get the opening kill now
Navi saves. What happens then? Navi takes a timeout, right? And we have the following round ready as well.
So, the game-religion was really trying to go fast day a lot, right?
Like, they just wanted to get through, win a round by doing that.
So, they can maybe condition Navi to stop playing 3B. So, Blade takes a timeout.
Game-religion maybe thinks, okay, after the timeout, they're gonna switch. They're not gonna play 3B anymore.
But Navi is just too smart for that, right? It's another 3B opening.
It's Alexi with the H.E.s being his best apex impression, right?
Like he's just doing so much damage here, and you can see that game religion is stuck.
This is not where they want to be at this point in the round, but they did not
expect this sort of an opening, this sort of a setup from Navi.
They expected maybe just two players fighting, they're gonna push them back and be able to maybe explode on B.
But Navi can had three defenders, tons of utility.
They win out the banana fight and then just clean up again on A one more time.
So these are some of the mind games that you get into, you know, from a coaches perspective as well
I've had situations where you know
We're losing or couple of rounds struggling with let's say be on Mirage
Then you take a timeout and you say we're gonna play for a this round
Because they expect us to change and then we'll go back, right?
So there's always like back and forth with this and now we just had great preparation
I think they had a really did a really good job of reading game religion
It's such a good point as well, particularly when you've got players standing behind you during that time out as well.
You know the mind games are going to be wild.
I do want to just spend some time giving some flowers to Wunderful.
I mean, Chad made a point during this. He felt like, just eye-test-wise, Wunderful's had an uptick post-crackout.
Would you agree with that?
Yeah, Wunderful. I think he's finding more stability.
We saw during the major in Budapest what Wunderful can do at his A-game
and how much of an impact he's going to have for Na'Vi when he's playing his best brain of Counter-Strike.
I think he's also up the level naturally with the AWP, but even more so with the rifling as well.
On a map like Inferno, we see him rifle a bit more often than we used to and he finds more and more impact.
So if anything, we knew how well wonderful can play.
We just didn't see it often enough.
Certain times and certain tournaments, he was the one being pointed out saying,
you're not delivering enough.
I think as of recently, he's been very consistent and he's big part of the reason as
not only why his individual form is uptake, but also why Navi as a team is getting better and better.
100% him and Macaulay, right? We mentioned both of them as players who improved, you know, in the last couple of tournaments and you can see the immediate impact it has on the results and the performance of Navi.
100% Yeah. I mean, you mentioned Macaulay and guess what's waiting next? Ancient. That is his playground. Absolutely loves that map and putting up insane stats on it, too.
Does it feel like this one is going to be going very handedly in Navi's favourites? Anything game that Legion could do?
Well, I think we talked about how they like to approach T-side,
game religion, you know, ancient lens itself more to that style,
a little bit than Inferno does.
I know Inferno was their map, but their game plan really didn't work.
So the silver lining is their map pools overlap to some extent, right?
Like they play the same maps, so if they're able to maybe get a slightly better start, right?
Put Navi on the back foot. Navi is always going to be great at gun rounds.
you can put a hit on their economy and make them play with worse equipment and get a couple
of e-calls in there, that's your path to success.
That's the irony, I very much agree with you.
I think you have to keep up the pace on a map like Ancient.
You have to play fast against Navi.
You have to test whether or not Mikasa is on one of his games, so to speak.
Well, he's going to shut down middle beginning.
LXB as well, you know, player towards a goalkeeper who can be tested at times.
I think he's one of the players that does so, so well with his utility that in terms
of his, you know, sometimes lacking, I guess, individual output or aiming abilities. He kind
of covers for that by playing smart. But if you're next, that's something you can test
out on that CT side to see if there's any loopholes and maybe a way into the game.
No, totally. I mean, we talk about MacAusen and his strengths on this particular map.
What is it for your money that stands out about who makes him so difficult to put away?
He's fearless. Like he's so willing to fight, you know, he's so willing to put his body
out there, you know, and just, you know, as we like to say, trust in his aim. And he's
He's also getting smart about it. I think that's one of the things that we spoke about
Mikasa coming into it. One of the things that Blade also said that his decision making,
when to fight, when to back off a little bit, it's getting more refined, it's getting better
and better. But if anything on a map like Ancient, it's just his willingness to fight,
it's the confidence, it's the relentness. He's never backing down and I think on a map like
Ancient, that's a good thing.
You questioned a bit about the maybe arrogance of Mikasa to Blade yesterday, but that's what
you want to see, no?
Yeah, on a map like Ancient, I don't mind it at all. As a matter of fact, I don't mind
it all from from a castle, but I think from Blake's perspective as he also said sometimes he have to to tone him down a little bit
But that's when you're playing vitality. That's when you're playing Falcons
You're playing game leading right now knock yourself out my castle do whatever you want
This is the time to truly be letting loose and they already are that he did that on map number one of inferno
Their choice of ancient is in wait after this break
Keep playing and see what happens when I say we're in Atlanta, Georgia, that's because
Well, we're here for the Intel Extreme Masters.
Believe it or not.
It's just about time to find out the final people here that Atlanta may be able to tell
me about Counter-Strike.
Dude, it's been a long day.
It's hot as heck out here.
Someone out here will absolutely know about Counter-Strike.
What's up?
You play video games?
Yeah, same. People play video games against one another. There's a team or maybe even
a solo component sometimes. It's weird. I know it's not all the time you get filmed
doing your job, but I'm just going to have to ask you what do you know about Counter
Strike and what does Atlanta know about Counter Strike?
I'm not as tapped in as I once was with Counter Strike, but I have a lot of fond memories
of playing in high school. We used to stay up all night on school nights just playing
Counter Strike, me and my three best friends.
We have a big tournament this week here in Atlanta.
You know what I'm saying?
It's over at the Georgia World Congress.
They're stream hacking the Intellect Stream Masters, right?
Oh, yeah, I gotta come around.
Come check it out.
You know, I've been all over the world,
but then they said we're going to Atlanta.
I'm real excited, because you know, I know it.
What do y'all recommend?
I'd recommend.
Manchester City.
They got the best wings, right?
Best wings, you know it.
Best wings, yeah, gang.
I appreciate y'all.
Have a good night.
Hi, Snacks, how are you, man?
Hello, I'm pretty good.
Sorry, one of these interviews just starts off real weird because everyone's around here,
so Snacks, you got a ton of history here in the city of Atlanta.
What sticks out to you, man?
Where do you even want to start?
Ah, history.
I mean, I think I won some here.
I lost some here, maybe major even.
I even remember this major.
We had those fancy shoes, you know, for the whole team with those small lights that they
were like, making different colors.
I remember one of the guys, didn't put them on, so I think that's what maybe was the
case in the days that we didn't win, but yeah, I think Atlantis can do a second home right
now, I've been here a lot of times and I really like it, yeah.
You know, I'd ask you what kind of food you'd like to eat around here, but obviously at
this point, you know, what kind of work are you trying to do on Navi today?
It's going to be the same work as you ask for food, so we'll try to eat them, honestly,
I can use my stuff, but then we'll go back to the previous question.
Obviously, barbecue is the best, you know?
So that's a simple answer, I think, for me.
But it begs the question, you know, we have different varieties of barbecue.
We've got southern barbecue, Korean barbecue, some other types of barbecue, really?
Everything.
All of our cues.
Me is great.
Hey, so what's your cut of meat then?
I don't feel it.
Me only if you count it.
It seems pretty good.
I like it.
You must be rich.
That's expensive, right?
And I mean, like, organization is playing usually, yeah.
Yeah, well, that's the case. Hit me up.
I feel like it's playing as well for you and sometimes for me as well for the public, yeah.
Yeah, that's the idea. Hey, you know, this isn't live, so don't worry about anything.
But if you were to say anything before we did jump into a matchup against Navi, what would it be?
It's going to be a tough match.
Thank you very much, Nex.
Thank you.
The Intel Extreme Masters Atlanta 2026 is brought to you by ESL in partnership with Intel.
Acer Fredditor DHL
Checks
And ZOE
We continue here, the Intel Extreme Masters and a tough match.
Indeed, Snacks was right.
First map does not go their way and a rather convincing start to Narvi in their pursuit of playoffs.
It could be food, you know?
It could be apple, Snacks is hungry, it's Atlanta and he's looking peachy.
And he's ordering a filet mignon if he can.
On game allegers dime.
Of course, of course.
It's better when you don't have to pay for your own steak.
Oh yeah, a quick fill in by the way as well.
little bit of an eyebrow razor in that veto was that the fact that not not
navi picking ancient but came a legion electing to start on the attacking
side chad brought up at the start of this series that they had recently played
you know it was only one what 10 11 days ago he said something like that under
two weeks yeah under two weeks so a very recent affair to go off of and maybe
that's their their game plan coming into this was to perhaps start to change the
tune but no yeah you get a nice teahall and I think yanker was discussed I
And the reason is how I think is because as he was saying this sentiment, we live in the green room
But I believe he was saying that you know the set piece style that we saw at a game leading some of those rounds where they had
success at the level of the 4-1 or that
You can do that on ancient right? Yeah, it lends itself to that type of calling slow on the pistol though
Be fake. Yeah, I'm not the instant kill high pecs. You had a rough start on inferno
So I'm hoping for a better one here on Ancient.
Rez has got Makase spotted out in snacks that finds the frag and they will take the A site.
Okay, and highpacks is now on a bit of a lurk, so...
Gonna try and penetrate this site, never looking for a way back in.
It's gonna come down to these early exchanges and wow, PR has racked up a clean one.
Clean two, rather, from the donut side.
Flank not really necessary at this point, just a lexie beat to go down.
It's Rez, nice clicks with the P250.
Dreamstar. I also want to kind of talk to some of the stats and he's at home too. Well, who uh, you know think that they mean everything
Of course, they're important
But look at a player like hypex in both of the maps that you see in play and he is essentially the utility bitch alongside of his in-game leader
Right, you have resin PR who they're gonna be setting up for fights
Townsend also likes to get stuck in for those so an orper's duty on this map on the T side
You're smoking red a lot
You know, you're throwing the flashes to facilitate your place to come out and then you're having to play into the round second
So you're throwing the maids and you're planting the bomb
It's gonna be rushed
But it's definitely a be look over the top of the Molotov bit of a classic on this map and
Speaking of classic so as that smoke the bid is contending with great old pop
That's a set of Alexi be he goes running in actually finds PR
So that's getting a bit stressful because they onto snacks a rifle to be picked up
Well, two to be picked up and retrieved and both relatively retrievable.
S-Moke, excuse me as well.
So that's going to be dropped towards top ramp to block for lock-up.
It hasn't been able to find it yet.
I think the smoke has got it.
It's right there somewhere on the bricks.
He doesn't want to be, you know, staring at corpses
if he was to get time through the smoke,
but it may have been harder to retrieve than I realized.
Regardless, they're going to cut noise and let Reds go searching middle.
Important, that's the way back in.
3v3 now and they could just regroup and finish towards B. You've got one smoke on Towson. He's got a flash as well
You could just smoke short all long focus fire on the other
Because now B they're having to account for a whole lot more now due to that resfrag
Look at the gamble over towards the B site. Lexi gravitating over to join wonderful M bit
30 seconds will have to be the finish. Yeah, they're in the right place
It's all about that next dragon. Ooh, it's provided by Hypex.
Smoke on the long side. Couldn't be better. They show restraint here.
And Hypex actually hits the headshot straight through the smoke to ensure it.
It's important that he gets that kill because just highlighted there when we saw the bomb going down, you could see the buffer of the smoke.
It's not perfect. So, parving through, maybe he could have stopped the bomb plant and with the time being so low, could have been a real issue.
real issue. So, Hypex is always just saying, hey, look at the amount of you two he has
to throw, he gets himself three, make it four against the four spy and should be setting
game of the night for their third consecutive round now. Let's see, we'll have to call his
boys into an eco. So, got chaotic. It was a good attempt, but Res getting a kill in
middle is the one that really changed the time it is. Oh, wow. Okay. Doesn't even catch
a whiff there. So they have been able to upgrade a couple of pistols, everybody with one of
choice. Alexi with a smoke of P250, there's a few digs and a couple of 5-7s in this.
I am in aggression immediately. Oh, that's the end of bit and you tried to find a little
headshot angle. Alexi with a block smoke that he's cut through, so yeah, they've made
I work at this one
I just see if they can get this up in a cave and a little bit of damage right now a
Lot of residual cash for game a legion just yet in these early stages
But the last thing you're hoping for if you now be is to let them go through with this one clean
Thanks for setup res of the flash
Lovely gameplay wonderful at least managing to find res
because he's death not in vain just wants to get to the lake I oh my shots so just to fall
wonderful all right so well yeah they don't let them get away with the clean a couple of
reinvestments required maybe even some drops being asked for if they want to make sure the full
nades are in play but we will see Navi don the gun so wonderful guess his opening was extremely
impactful with that on the CT side of inferno it's even bit who are shutting down that A site
when they were bombarded time and time again.
No defuse kit available for Na'Vi into this one, so keep that in mind if we find ourselves in a post plant.
Not starting too crazy, Neil. Just...
Emma and M'Kazi.
Oh, M'Kazi spotted. He's in the pocket.
Monotov doesn't look like he has to extinguish.
He gets a flash to his face. He unloads his mag.
A team kill for Brez. Oh, it's all going wrong.
Yeah, M'Kazi was stuck on the wall. He thought he was parting into Donut.
It was a bit clunky from everyone, but the team killed Canary's rectify.
Can't beat Malmokaze.
They're late flash, sure, but now they're operating at team-man disadvantage.
Yesterday, the amount of TKs we saw from Na'Vi...
It was unusual, wasn't it?
It was, especially on Anuvus.
And obviously, warming into the tournament was still the same thing about Vitality.
So 3v5, congregated over towards B.
Cassandra a minute on the clock, a decent amount of Utah to work with.
But let's just bring the fight.
PR just locks away as the LCD progresses,
doesn't stop him from snapping the neck of the legs.
He's going up.
Certainly could.
Bitt's committed to this fight, and now with the info,
PR had his chance, trade available,
Ipex can't hack it, Bitt solid as a rock.
He racks up three in defense of B.
First, three contributions, and it gets Navi on the board.
Okay, well done. Yeah, there was a lot of pressure there the timing
Oh, you know, you think it's gonna work against PR, but no so much more pressure applied and then bitches having to stand deliver gets the job done
Weird one in mid. Let's see this need it. Let's see if he can pull the flash.
He thinks he's causing it to don't I assume. Yeah
And then oh it bounced off the wall. Yeah, and it helps the imma did a little bit of damage that has softened him up
And it did look like he was in a really awkward position, you know
like there's wall bang that limits his peak, he can't be tucked into the corner, kind of in limbo
in the open, but stashes down very well and ooh, Makase with empty hands.
I won for one. Oh, Rez. Yeah, you did find Rez. Snacks is the one that trades him.
Ima however will keep Navi with the level up, but ooh, that's a bad miss. Can't hit it onto
Hypex, pulls him into an even keel. Ima, he's very noisy.
Yeah, Ima, wow, Galil bests him. It wasn't expecting PR to take so many liberties out main,
So immediately back into the winning ways and less bit unless you can win this 2v3 post plan
It's my break play
Talc's already tucked
Ipex responsible for donor and bit looks like he's parthing main. I think they're saving maybe he's just going fishing
See if you can get a kill met now. He's not if anyone was like
Here taking the fight he might well they are creeping in
They do have a kid. They do have smokes
It's gonna be tough though. Yeah, it's just this fire with PR
I don't know if he gets that instant one shot, but PR has nailed it.
And now the next round is going to look a whole lot rougher around the edges.
2400 is the lost bonus going into the next.
Wonderful we'll be able to buy.
The Kazi, the same.
Alexi can drop an M4.
I think it might even be a blade timeout.
Now it's fine, you lose the pistol, you lose the conversions.
That's no drama.
You win the first rifle round, but if you can't go consecutive now,
This one is going to be teetering, have been able to bring out a wonderful up there.
Yeah.
I think he's just called that time out.
Okay.
If you're going to go for this type of investment, at least make sure you give yourself enough
time to talk at all.
Oh, he's not fucking around.
Is he?
It feels like he he's repeating things he's repeated many times before.
That's that's what that you've talked about.
Yeah, exactly how that felt.
And the little light kicks.
Yeah.
No, he is.
He's not pleased.
I mean, they're a map up. It's it was a very comfortable first map
But understandably if this is your your home turf you want to have polish on it
I just think I might 12 things can get out of control that quick. Yeah, and if you if you make a couple of little mistakes
They can be extremely costly and the game can get away from you real quick. So
Look, it's great that blade gets to be this figure in the team, right?
I would prefer the bad guy to be the coach the in-game leader
you don't want to sell the moon in that way.
I'm in 12%.
And yeah, if Alexi's saying the right stuff and they're not doing it, and then Blade gets
to come in and I'll put a bow on it.
It doesn't come down to Alexi just kind of, you know, bickering.
There's the strength, I'll need how easy is that?
What?
Hypex could flash work, another one connects.
Talcim could successful, Alexi goes down cave.
Oh, it could not be a worse outcome of the back of attack pause.
Nalvi, you just kind of had this meeting of the minds. You just discussed what you needed to be doing differently.
And then the mid-fight is won out by Gamer League and Blue Force.
Yeah, the fact that you lose everything there as well, it didn't even get anything done from Cave. Wonderful.
I'm probably already thinking of the save. The problem is that happens so early,
but it's not like they're even on the 42nd bomb timer.
They might even be finding themselves in the right place to contend against this, but I don't think that's what they're hoping for.
No, especially now you've eaten that flashbang.
Every scopes that knows here. He's
Overlooked for the first and was there on the rest bit gets another they've made this manageable
V1 the high-packs does convert
Saves them. Oh, it could have been a whole lot cleaner, but you'll be happy with that. You'll take the round
Didn't have to be that close. Oh, it didn't at all. All right, it's a bit gets crazy output
They just went committed knowing how if we play the trade game, we're gonna win the trade game was not played
Oh rough for a mccasin in there
I mean that's gonna have you feeling like you probably should you know give them it or at least stop fighting for the way you just did
This is where you know you normally talk about a team got wanting to send in some probes
Right, you said one guy out to get the info on where they are then you group up off that info
Against this beer harass against the line of eyes. This is very aggressive bit punishes PR
He took a bit too heavy of a damage from the Molotov, softened up for that MP9 burst to the face, headshot out, bit again!
He is doing so much work defending this bombsite. Wonderful. Very quick on a flank.
This is audacious. Res could swing in and find him. That's not ideal, but bit continues.
If I actually get out with the bomb, it's fine. You can reset again. Just get out with the bomb.
Let's do Scope up on the rampside is bit really gonna find himself a fourth on this mp9
It looks good for it. It looks great for it. Now you committed res needs to save you
He has provided an important double that was nice find onto the final frag in the down to the hypex quick scope
Reza's bailed game a legion out there and bit
I mean he tried every trick in the book
So he has had a multi on the only round they won and it felt like this was gonna be the one where he really got the
the car starter for Navi in map number two, but you're now down six to one.
I know stretches this over, but Navi are under pressure and maybe pressure that
they didn't think that they would need to be under considering how easy map
number one unfolded. So they can get out the full buy, the guns are there.
And the T side picks start to make a lot of sense when you see how
Game of Legion have managed to start.
Just a note from Inferno. When IMD took his first time out there,
They went into a set piece fast play. Yes. That was where they copped that naid in the congregation like three or four
Them trying to run up the guts of middle. So I'm curious to see off the back of this one. Does he call another Pacey play?
Because they haven't had any issues taking mid and as you've mentioned there's one or two options
If you're that a mccasin image, you don't play me anymore. You just start donor or
While you bring more bodies. Yeah, I was curious is high-packs gonna go for something aggressive with the AWP
He's just going to throw a UTL and have them smoke knaded for him
And he does catch a glimpse of Makazi
Tapped on the Kirby with a pre extinguished and they will maintain their mid control
This shows the confidence in RTV that they know that they're a dominant team on this map and
able to get this space
Now they can reset and send a bit more standard AWP on A. Emma also there to assist Makazi drop-backs towards radio jump spot for info
Alexi pretty staunch defense aggressive in cave and hit playing retake on the ramp. So
This one is just gonna simmer in but with the pieces on the board at the moment for game
Allegiant doesn't let me either want to return to middle with a couple of smokes and fly. Yeah, here we go
I've been lined up now
So another cave smoke the one that will also obscure
Heaven to mid
You like this right there
You can see the path that they're building for themselves to now to be able to put pressure on a so wonderful
Made aware of this doughnut slip
Piaz still kicking him a fuss on beat. Wonderful has to hit the opener. Yeah, but I pex is already on the line
He'll stay
Now it's all about this first fight
Snacks down no trade gets his eye to the scope of turns tail and high pex trading
It's Mikaze tucked. He has to find an impact here and impact denied by Rez. Quick find with the collage headshot.
In that force forward, nails it onto Hypex cover for Towson ripped away. He's doing everything until Rez finally fells him.
Don't know, occupied. Oh, he's not ready for this up close. Nice forward position from B and the guard was B throwing his grenades.
Surely Alexi's gonna go for the 10 seconds stick here.
Bit has the AWP. He can't miss the shot. He can't miss the shot.
out. He's still- OOOOOOOOH!
OOOOOOOOH! P.R. gets the clutch!
He's confused! He's baffled!
An orb, not the weapon you need
for that cover and a smile on
IMD's face. I guess
they're expecting P.R. to just go back through Heaven to Donut
to take the fight because it's a Donut plant
but he's gone through CT and he's put that one off.
I loved P.R.'s face there. That's not like
I just owned you it. So what do you do it?
This is great from Ima.
This sequence right here essentially
puts the round back on because it wasn't enough
from the aid of fence.
This takes down Imashaw, but this is a 1v2.
There's no kid, he's out of the corner of the smoke.
Oh no.
All right, well, can you salvage it?
That's a worst shot.
Yeah, can they salvage this at all?
Still five on the table,
but down to another half investment.
Okay, this is good for Mikaze.
He should be able to punish Snack Thrull in his youth.
So not if he dips away, jumps up
and touts him there for the cover.
Okay.
Can't say he's not having his way in middle, is he?
No.
This is a good flash, it doesn't matter if Snax doesn't lose vision, they're very stubborn
for it and Snax just full commits to the spray.
Alright, wow, Gamer Legion looking for their eighth.
Very little to stand in their way, it's a Desert Eagle in Cave and in there on the long
side it's about to be smoked off.
Well I'll be honest, you're picking T side, you're not expecting to get eight, look you
mean that you can set the tone a bit more but you're not expecting to win eight on the
T side, so this is great.
after this is it was a real luxury ice just cream on top and tell you what the
luxury is having res already CT spawn he they don't feel any need to rush this
I like this right with resident of an all the space you might consider all
let's rotate back through but I always find that type of rotation very scary
Oh, and he gets the info.
Two cave.
Bomb up the ramp.
Bolly into cave.
It might be pushed.
Hypex!
Hypex covered by Rez!
Okay, that got weird.
Nice trying to close it out.
Alright, some moments where you can see the chaos.
Starting to brew, but now we really need to dig deep now.
Second tactical timeout from Blade.
I don't think we'll see the same frustrations,
because some of the rounds that they've lost,
It's been just well played from Game Legion.
But you're right about MacAzee being kind of nullified.
He hasn't been able to have his way in this first half.
He did quite well in Inferno as well.
You figured, okay, don't worry, he's heading into Ancient Next.
But it was a bit, 19 frags first map, still top of the table.
Wonderful as well, it was very good.
I think with this one, map number one, Game Legion were really struggling with openings.
They're not owning them in openings, but it's much more of an even affair regarding the incisions.
And Mikazi's been on the receiving end of three opening deaths so far out of four opening exchanges.
So that has definitely put a bit of a thorn in the side of that mid-hold.
Elbow smoke, doors smoke, cave smoke, red smoke, standard openings.
So, move was set up, they call it off, I don't really have any map control right now, they
don't know for certain that AMAIN is theirs, they're making that assumption they don't
have B lane and haven't probed out middle.
So allowing RV to expend all their utility just to get this early control, you can sit
down to just a handful of smokes, couple flashes, an incendiary or two and a HE, so
very light on with over a minute left on the clock does give snacks a couple of
advantages to call with this cave smoke dropped out again last time we saw them
with this thing went through middle right now oh he's missed on that very
weird
well snacks doesn't care he's just walk straight in
actually he's got a lot of work to do he's got bit on long side but no flash
bang just a head to head duel with snacks great opening kill from their
captain game a legion breaching the B site here unless bit can really rack up
a mega multi-flashball snacks this is his round they are getting absolutely
destroyed right now ragdoll the tone of the game I really like this calling from
game a legion right things that they've done earlier in the match hold up okay
There you go. It's sort of swept under the rug.
I'm probably just playing to save right now.
But yeah, you know, you can see some similarities in how they're approaching these scenarios
and they've done a lot of conditioning.
You've been able to take out, been able to get through mid to Dunno.
They're able to win out those midfights.
So there they're playing a 2-1-2 set up and a passive one.
Right now, we've done it with the mid control.
They're an FB lane presence.
They're playing very, very far back on the sites.
And that does allow those fights to be isolated one out and now nine rounds.
So...
...affluent turn of events from map 1 to map 2, what a difference in map makes!
Mirage is the third in this one, and that is, uh...
Just the last second as well, worth highlighting.
Okay, yes.
Could be a different maker of Fekin, he's third himself.
That's the fullest flash you're gonna see!
I mean, it just pops within an inch of his nose.
Yeah, the molly's behind him, can't go back.
Oh, Blade really lost his last two.
Mm-hmm. He's burned through his entire cash of timeouts.
Well, if you don't get three rounds of the CT side, you're not having any chance.
So this is their final chance.
It's always, yeah.
You're smiling about it.
I wonder if it's like a bit gaslighty as well.
Exactly.
Exactly what I'm thinking, you know?
It's like, if you don't laugh, you'll cry.
We're here now.
Let's see what we should do, shall we, boys?
9-3 would be nice.
Hold up better than the alternative.
They did come back from 9-3 on a Nubis.
Yeah. It's doable. Just has to start right now.
That was also when they were on the stronger side.
Good point, well made.
They were on the T side and they only managed three rounds.
That was the pistol, the conversions, and then they got nothing after against passion.
So, well, it would be remarkable.
Comeback's seen a bunch of those lately.
Thought we were gonna have another one with Vitaly Lumei earlier today on Nuke, but no, no, no.
That boom, led by Boonich had other plans.
Just a rally of flashes from both teams to try and contend for any of this space.
I know Mikazi was up close and personal, the MP9's sounding off.
Hey, thanks.
Yeah.
And you're hearing steps, you throw your block, you tell.
Wonderful, immediately starts to move.
I say that, actually, he sticks around on speedway B and a missed CT smoke.
The gaps, ooh.
Oh, no.
The gap.
The jig is up.
The gap is middle.
That's the only place right now that Navi don't have eyes.
So the comms will say yes, they can leak red and they can be donor
Still to have a smoking a bunch of mollies so
options available for stacks to call a different finisher and as they trundle back through CT spawn a sort T spawn after
We were in CT spawn with the CTs
Looks like they are going to try and finish over towards a
This is brave from in the car say
They're looking for answers middle and they're gonna get caught in a real time a brutal death for him. It cuts caught by res
Yeah, they just have no idea what's happening on the map to napping
Keeping it simple our game of Legion
And now what Macaulay needs to get himself three my god, he does get to onto the US PPR. Where's that trade?
We need it gets it done
Still the bomb will get down!
Nice bit, makes it a more advantageous turn to straight through the flames as well.
Now he buys time, he's going to be joined by a LexiBee Donut.
A warp in A-Mane is very powerful for this.
Oh, Towson, he's just committed to this.
You're going to have wonderful walking through the, uh, site box.
Actually, Hypex on that line, he's hearing this in Donut, so Towson has to just tap the first head, otherwise it's not.
It's not easy. Okay. Hypex and Towson get theirs. Now 1v1 emerges. It's going to be hoping that the
Nade stops the sound and he just peeks on in to finish it. Game of Legion 10, Navi 1. Three
timeouts burned Navi 1 round to show for it. This is great, right? Look, there's been a couple
of moments where, you know, Navi have lost the economy game, right? They've had these buyers
that have not shaped up the way that they needed to. But still, you can't take anything away from
from the approach of game religion right now. This is great to watch on the T side.
And it hasn't just it hasn't been, I say gimmicky, but what I mean is fast.
It hasn't been set pieces.
They've been able to have some well structured rounds.
Oh, McCarthy is going for the self run boost.
Just three pegs, right?
It's a lot of early laning, though.
Yeah, that means it's just wonderful on the side.
It was too far away to help.
We've got a famas chat, this is going to be hard work for one before.
Because he's had Ted Jull and yeah, damage inflicted, but from him actually manages to catch him, MP9 finishes the job.
Favourite today, having a tough time.
Truly.
I mean, we even had this conversation when we saw the Vito as we started this series and you know, I posited the question whether or not
Inferno felt like a must win for Gamelige and it did.
However, you know, upon review as we find ourselves in that second map, ancient far from the Galantip and RV.
Yeah, this one could be quick. Just take you back to Fort Worth less than two weeks ago.
Now, V1 has won this map 13-4.
They're now on the receiving end of an 11-1.5.
Game of Legion. They're not out of this one yet.
They want to push into the third.
Mirage around the corner.
A pistol round and we'll throw in the towel.
You have to understand how things aren't up here.
No, do that, yeah, touch them tall, or creak with it
Welcome back from the break, if you missed this series so far, the landslides continue.
Mount number one it was quick.
Now two, looking to be the same, but maybe not the result you were expecting, 11-1 T-Side.
Emily Jean-Electi to start there, and showing us why.
This has been not a walk in the park, but a dominant display.
Just the pistol round stands between them, and calling ancient Dunn, Mirage, third and decider in the wings.
Alex, what do you reckon?
I reckon we see Mirage rather quickly here.
Has he even want to put the energy into the comeback if he now be?
that's it especially you know I mean you truly would have to play the most
perfect T side to finish this with how over time
early cave controls nice wonderful also primes that over the p250 so they have a
lot of space you've got a red smoke that's just now been sent out gives
wonderful a bit more room to search for this p250 he's looking for PR on these
jiggles and not pull it through the brickwork so if they get this cave
controller could be as simple as a Lexi smoke short does the long Molly and then
they can path into the site clear it out take long after the Molly starts to
fade I will say it doesn't look great for game a leading currently
Towson and Snacks on the bc they're both of hey cheese though Alex so maybe for
post oh good or to stop the plan excuse me he's used one or on the smoke break
They can not even do a great success either.
That's number two.
Oh, oh, messy from Burt.
He aren't finding him.
Press pressure, Towson exemplifies.
Oh, he's hitting great shots.
Two quick clicks on the USP.
Wonderful, down to high pegs.
It's looking good.
Game religion wanna get to Mirage ASAP.
It's 12, the tall one.
And as you highlighted, you talked about this just
before we went to that break about the fact that,
you know, not too long ago they played an ancient
it was a completely different story. A 13-4 smashing. GameLegion couldn't get anything going.
Didn't get a single T-Round and this time they got 11.
Yeah, I think like obviously the side change means you're trying to change your fate, but again,
there's just no way you're doing that expecting to win 11-1 on the half-way against Na'Vi able teams.
So it's been an extremely strong showing.
Two going to Mirage next. So we have the desk coming up to cover this off, but it was the map
out the game of Legion lost to Sinners yesterday, so there is still cause for concern, but I'm
a little bit concerned about Na'Vi just none of the shots hitting, nobody's looking crisp
other than say Bit who has had a couple of multi-kill moments.
Well that's what I've been saying recently is that they've been winning the Major.
Of course, yeah.
No one else has seen that coming, it's just me.
Well forced by, that's their only option.
an APOP set up, deep donut CT deployed and here they come.
Him, Matt, he is trying to fight for that extra fight,
but he could be caught by high-pitched smoke wall cover,
not bad, it couldn't get it done and yeah,
it's only going to take us 14 rounds to wrap that one up,
ain't you a quick trip to Navi's pick, they can't get anything going.
I can't believe how dominant that was, I should have been
Heading through the backlog to the last time.
Now he lost an ancient nap, badly.
See how quick I can get there.
And you've got the deaths coming up in a second to break that down.
I'm not sure what that is to break down.
It might be...
Ha, yeah.
Now we don't look too upset about things.
They could look a little bit more unhappy with it.
We've got a 13-7 loss, a 13-8 loss.
It might be the number one.
Yeah, for this roster, at least.
I'm struggling to find anything in recent history,
but we'll throw it over the deaths.
Maybe they've been on the stats.
I'm not sure I can offer you too
much more. I'm just looking
through Navi's results in the
past six months. And yeah, we've
never seen them lose agents this
badly. This is just from one
landslide to another. Not what
I was expecting. We got some
logic as to why game religion
officer went with that T side
pick to start things off. But
yeah, elation from game religion
and then for Nabi. This is a I
don't really know what to make
of this one. Yeah, absolutely.
I think, well, we prefaced it a little bit by talking about how game religion, the way they play T-Side,
Ancient kind of lends itself more to that style than Inferno does, and they were able to flip the script, right, or not to...
They are the ones who won't pistol there, the ones who got the early reset, we said,
if you can make Na'Vi play with a bad economy, you're gonna have a much easier time to go up against them, right?
And just throughout the half, obviously, they were able to keep putting the pressure, keep finding openings,
which is something they weren't able to do on Inferno and Naby had no answers really on their CT side.
Yeah, it's surprising it happens again for Naby.
I think you and I have had the conversation a couple of times, Janko,
with Naby winning the positions, Mappi coming into the home map,
and then they fall flat, not only losing, but doing it in a style like this,
where they remain non-competitive whatsoever.
Also, Halle Mekasa coming into the game, I think he had a rough one.
You know, in terms of being relentlessly aggressive towards Middles,
he lost the best majority of those fights, couldn't really get it over the finish line,
And that was part of the reason I think why now they got off to such a bad start in the beginning
They came in the tragic ring for for the fence weren't successful with it
And then they couldn't couldn't stabilize after that
I don't know whether I'm just being a Debbie downer
But like there's bad stars and then there's that like you expect so much more from a team like Navi like not to take anything
We're from game religion obviously this was great of some amazing prep coming in from them
But for Navi like this has been a bit of a staple for you for some months now
Yeah, I think it's unfortunate like that we had this happen, you know a month or two ago
You remember that was that series where they won their opponent's map pick 13-0 and then they lost their map 13-5
Right like this is happening a couple of series for them, but it seems like they got out of it right like even yesterday and
You know in Rio they had some better showings to some extent
So I don't know if it's maybe a little bit complacency from the players right like we heard from played even yesterday during halftime
of their first game on the Nubus, saying like guys like, you know,
passion you a is like twice the team we are at the moment, like you have to snap
out of it. So they have this tendency at times to lose energy, you know, to not
put their best foot forward. And yeah, it seems like it happened again today.
We saw Blake getting pretty enthadic during some of the timeouts. Let's just say that.
Jake, have you brought up a moment from around that time period? What are we
looking at here? Yeah, in relation to what Janko is talking about, I think
blade took an early timeout in order to avoid that scenario from happening again.
You know you have round six coming right here and it's after a blade timeout
you know after him speaking with big words probably saying hey guys step up
right here right now if you don't do that we may end up losing this round.
You have then Mikasa getting caught off guard in an intro duel.
You have Emma popping out of middle as well being completely blind and for some
reason despite being blind and still in the smoke I felt he had the opportunity
to fall back and actually not take that fight. He decides to walk out guys and
within what 20 seconds the round is over. You lose three people.
Alexi B died in Southern Room as well, and at that point the round is over.
I think Blade took that time out in order to avoid what we talked about right here,
Janko, you know, with them coming into the OMAP pick, a little bit too overconfident,
maybe not communicating enough, maybe not sticking to the game plan or whatever that may be.
He even hinted that when we talked to him on the desk, you know, that sometimes he feels like
they lose grasp of it, you know, maybe lose a bit of focus coming into it and it feels a bit too
overconfident. So he did the right thing by taking an early time out, clearly speaking with big words.
Unfortunately, no blade timeout effect came out of that and they lost around within 15 seconds after they did it.
If I'm blading in a scenario like that, I don't know, Janko, if you ever tried it as a coach, I'm like,
okay, I tried whatever, you know, and at that point you kind of lose faith in a sense.
Probably why you're not a coach. You've just given up on that first one.
Giving up in round seven, probably not the recipe, you know, for success, even though I know it looked like that's what I was doing.
That's what I felt when I was outside. You know, yeah, I beat you to it.
I beat you to it. But yeah, I think it was just the complete opposite right one of even some of those early the reset round
Like one for had won miss shot from outside donut, which was the deciding one in the round
They win that they break game a legion. Maybe they get rolling
But it just didn't happen on ancient
So we maybe flip it on to the positive angle then because obviously we can half on about the fact that Navi looks incredibly lacklustre
after coming off an Inferno that looks so dominant when it's a comfort pick for them. What a game
allegiance do then to just make them really uncomfortable in this one? Yeah, I think they just
stepped up a bit individually, right? Hypex had a great game early on in that anti-force by round.
He got a 4K, which was really dangerous. Like they were on the verge of losing it. So he stepped up,
Razz did a great job, you know, in some of those midfights had to head against Macaulay. And just
Just across the board, Snacks had a couple of good mid rounds in there as well.
And the agent is a map and you play like this on the T side, a little bit all inning.
And those early fights can decide who comes out on top.
And we saw Gamer Legion come out on the loser side, really, on Inferno when it comes to that.
And here they were able to finally find some of those openings and just snowball these rounds.
I very much agree with that sentiment.
And I think when you look at a game that's 13-1, I feel like there's always this, you know,
almost unlocking the map to a degree that when it's so one-sided you know if
the individuals from the side of Navi are not able to match the individuals
from GameOlegion we don't need to talk about you know certain rounds how they
approach its game plan etc etc it was a shooting gallery you know a lot of the
rounds were decided when the first 20-25 seconds and at that point how much do you
want to dissect that as you know being game plan decision-making micro
management you name it that's sort of like the next level that's the next
layer this game had one layer there was GameOlegion being significantly better
from an individual standpoint, wrist stepped up, high-pick stepped up, won the duels versus
Mikasa, you know, he never really got into the game and that was a big part of the reason
why Navi was struggling as well in that first half and to me it wasn't a game with a lot
of different layers and it probably goes without saying when the score line is 13-1
but I didn't anticipate that to be the case, you know, I didn't anticipate GamerLeading
to have that ability to shut down Navi in this fashion.
Navi had their opportunities like in that first half, you know, like we saw another
around where even Bit gets like a bunch of kills with the MP9, they can't finish it off,
wonderful, maybe too quick on the flank. There was that 1v2 from PR where they missed the
smoke on the bomb, Bit picks up the AWP for some reason, right? These are around three
rounds almost back to back where Navi has a good opportunity to win it, but they just
sort of fumble it to some extent, right? So they'll definitely need to bounce back for
this decider.
see some Rez Highlights rolling in there as well, which I always love to see. He was instrumental
in that game versus Sinners yesterday that got them to this position too. That's of course what I
feel like a bit of a broken record saying it. We always want to see Rez stepping up and getting
a bit of a vintage performance out of him. And he has been stepping up. You know, I just looked up
coming into this game. He's having the best start to a year in his entire career in 2026 from a
statistical point of view. And yeah, you may argue when he was an NIP, he played better teams and
bigger tournaments. So maybe having better stats was difficult. But we're talking about a player
who's been around for 10 years. We're talking about a player that by many were ridden off,
you know, a player that we thought after he left NIP, he was never going to come back to
tier one Counter-Strike. He's arguably playing his best brand of Counter-Strike right now in
this period. The last three months, he's the highest player within GamerLegion at a 1.21 rating
or something like that, doing a really, really good job. So I think for us to do well, not only
for him, obviously individually, personally, that's a great thing. But for GamerLegion to
remain competitive and maybe enter the conversation about being a team in tier one Counter-Strike
again. It's needed to have them play well. No, and you need to sustain that as well, particularly
coming into the Major. They're going to be starting from Stage 1, so then literally starting right
at the very beginning. This series isn't over though. Of course, we have Marash to decide who
goes through to the playoffs here in Atlanta. What's your take on this, considering we just
had two blowouts and not really too much to gain from? Yeah, it can still get interesting. You
know, last time, this was Game Religion's pick actually, picking Mirage into Navi. Navi won
both pistols and 1-13-10 and that was a bit wonderful and Makazi sort of leading the way
both had a really, really good performance that time around. So this can still get interesting
for Navi, obviously the big thing is snapping out of whatever the hell was going on on Ancient and
sort of getting back into form for Mirage. This could be the day of the underdogs, but only time
will tell. It's game a legion taking on Navi, map number three for a spot guaranteed at minimum
Top 6 here in Atlanta, it goes down on Mirage after this break.
They're coming into the mix, bit of a faulty boost to start things off with a chance to
actually fight up against Trite.
You're gonna reassemble it on the right side now and both shots miss
But not shine away from the duelist try
does like himself a
Bit of damage with that scout. He has to worry about the lower tons present
So and his instincts kick in there just in time smoke for the mid doors and a little bit of contact spotted
From Kevin before they can make their move. It was a challenge out towards middle early
It catch that visual
And I hit up Calwalk instead, JT set up a bit of an aggressive stance right now.
That smoke's still in bloom, and Sinner's just once again willing to draw out that clock
a little bit, but they're gonna move a little bit faster here with this mid to B smoke.
And I think they're gonna speed it up here to 10 now.
We're gonna take that target in towards the B bomb site, try to find one, do the smoke
but Kvim already taken care of and it's just Nickaxe on the back of the site.
And with an isolate, one frag, you need the multi, he provides it.
He's gonna offer up so much to do to relief here for this retake.
It moves from Nick, so Beastick already does indeed.
SDY with the drive-by leaves it all on to Kessarack who at least gets the bomb down.
Now it's a playoff of wants to fight through the doors, sustained against multiple enemies
and try with Motu's AWP will lay him low.
So an upgrade for Tri, he's done his work with the scout, he's done his digging, now he gets the luxury vehicle.
Such nice work right there, able to find that one kill through the mid-to-beast fork as well, that's going to help out big time.
There's a nice connection there onto his counterpart.
And ends up coming through with the close.
On top of that, you've got Nix with a multi-kill on that B-bomb site.
I want to take up the mantle of more tricky positions and provides a much needed multi-frag
here for passion you way to secure things.
You gotta try leading the charge here with that off now in hand.
I stretch out for the peak towards top of the middle, it gets a shot off here.
Worried about the lower tons presence, he ignores it.
Not worried at all here, it seems he's going to get a second shot and that one is going
and B-Stick can't believe his eyes.
You know what he really is?
He's trusting.
He knew.
If no one got me, JT got me.
He's not going to let me die to these lower guys.
That's valid.
Got a lot of trust in JT too.
As you should when he's 17 and 10 right now.
Mm-hmm.
He's giving you no reason to doubt him.
The calls have been good as well to read the responses.
So the CQ side has looked good.
Look at the longhold tries already repositioned from catwalk to long
Smoke going down. It's a really promising time here. Good luck trying to get past this duo one good fly
It's helpful, but the op moves away the flashes don't connect and give him has an easy spray down
Is it pushing through gray screen?
All right, what do you do at this point? You've got 40 seconds the bomb is stuck top mid
Stress sense trying to create some sort of a space but they're not it gonna be able to link up the c4
Or even if he somehow took eight here, it might not matter a jot.
Instead, they keep the record sheet clean on the passion side.
This one is starting to look quite compelling for passion.
It smiles here for SDY.
He's happy to be back in the server, happy to be in it.
It only took 17 rounds for Narvi to win Inferno, it only took 14 for GamerLegion to take Narvi
down on Ancient, and so we find ourselves here, Mirage, winner of this one, securing a spot
in the playoffs here for the Intellect Stream Masters, we're live from Atlanta, Georgia.
It's a beautiful sunny day, but we're locked inside to play video games as per usual.
I've got Cherry B on the mic as well.
I don't know where to set my expectations because I don't really know what we've just witnessed.
I think the desk as well, just saying whatever it was that will happen on ancient,
needs to be shaken off by Na'Vi and understandably so.
I think you said the tone, right? Because that shifts.
The fact that now it's just one map and we lock it in for the playoffs.
Na'Vi, if they let their foot off the gas after an easy Inferno,
Well, they need to put it right back on here now on map number three in Mirage.
I'm pointing out this was last time round the pick of game allegiance.
They've got one other knife and they'll be starting on the CT side.
They lost both pistols just under two weeks ago.
So that will need to change here today as well.
So Na'Vi, I'm sure they can go outside, they can brush that off,
but they need to come in here with intent right now.
It's going to be the pistol round by taking shape.
It's a Kevlar for game allegiance.
Nothing tricky.
There's Na'Vi.
They've given wonderful.
The P250 is waiting to lob out the window smoke.
Alexi with the second bunch of utility.
Had a lot of information early for Towson.
The fact he's pushed up so far in the apartment so they can focus fire elsewhere.
Snacks, this is so outrageously aggressive.
Doesn't nail it and neither does Rez.
So, perfect start to know if he's pissed or high-pitched, however, has warmed into things.
He's found his footing, top of the tables on map two.
And now, an opportunity to rectify his dancing with Bit and Makaze Core on the reload of Bullet Shy.
Puts us into a 214.
OK, well, tossing coming short, PR ticket.
We could find Alexi.
Alexi's coming on that short side, but backs are turned and Alexi's gonna be dropping straight into car to take that just headshot angle.
nice find that range from alexis clock PR in the clutch and already bell run
goosh by that clock at range and maybe just hold on to that Kevlar it's not the
favorite option but it's the one that he looks like he's gonna be opting for and
that's if he can get away alexi trying to track him down now they're cool for PR
so if they continue to hunt he grabs one more gets the hold on to the Kev that's
and M4. Hero just took a look at his notes. He's got a big smile on his face. I saw them
outside when they were in their huddle and him and Snacks were having a little bit of
RG barge. You know, in a bad way, like in a friendly, in a big brother, little brother,
you know, pushing each other around. I don't think PR could push Snacks, but Snacks could
definitely push PR, I think. I think Snacks could snap him in half.
He goes in the gym. He's inspired by Rezzy. He's trying to get the gun show working. There
We go so even played trying to bring the energy so pissed around
Roan or mountain for three said the tone shift
But it needs to be a tone shift in terms of the game as well because if it comes in a navi just landslide right now
We've just had three maps. We've got 13 for 13 one
Stomps in wash just you ask yourself what that what's going on, but regardless
Get that round number two underway and it is just gonna be the eco so PR treats himself to a dig everyone else
Just onto the usps so action on
Talk a bit about the CT setup that you're going to be seeing here, so high-picks, obviously,
the AWPer.
You're going to see him starting window-breaking smokes, ticket, all the normal braiding procedures.
You've got PR as your A anchor, snacks, gets to take connector, res short, and over towards
B will be Towson.
So, you've got all that to look forward to and more into the next rifle round.
Should be the first rifle round.
and steady though for Na'Vi.
It's not the one of these maps where they should feel extremely comfortable, but I just said that about Ancient and they got blown out so...
I know what's in store just yet.
Here we go, chance to fire off!
And there it goes.
Oh, he hit the tag.
Wow, how is Reston that bad?
Incredible little double dink onto Alexi.
Snacks parkour!
Okay, gets himself up on the bricks.
And Ava takes him down.
Oh, after all of that patience, Torsen,
he waited in that corner for the entirety of the round
and now goes searching just into Mikaze's galel.
So still a single casualty.
Rez does well to find something on the eco.
And Alexi looks a little bit silly, so everybody wins.
Alright, out come the guns.
No Hypex Orpchus yet, the funds.
Why should they be cooking there for a glass? I guess you want the U2.
So they're juggling that across.
No kit for the CT side in this one, minor concern.
Yeah, regression tone set up.
Yeah, Nima is gonna be there to receive him, so I head to HEVDUAL GLIL VIRUS M4 on the
Uncrouched, but you know, backs away, and him is spotted by Towson.
He's lucky that was on the ankle hill.
Well, they've seen enough. Look at the reroute.
It's such an eccentric, very quick to this as well, but looking at Mikazi and Bitt's positions,
this is gonna be a lost sight.
Well, right now, Gamelidge, we're hoping to, like, stall out the default,
really put a dent in it, and then they were hanging around for a mid-trap,
but while they've been doing that, this reroute you mentioned, it's about to pop.
Yeah, it's ready, and Snacks is gonna be the first receiving.
He'll load up high and catch his bit.
On his opening venture,
Emma Altetra, some spotted flashbangs on his clears.
He has to give himself a smoke to work around, but he could get caught with his nades out.
Emma is up close.
He hears them, and they will go,
What? Two for one?
But it's got this PR flank.
He can get here in time.
He can, he can.
Tawson has to live.
The bomb's still not planted.
Wow.
Coming down to Emma are wonderful.
Hit toss and just live. Stay alive.
If you shall PR into the palace and still haven't planted God, it feels like he's gonna be a dead man to PR. Yeah
Okay, should be good and is Towson pulls it across the line patients
Rewarded on the first gunny look like that was about to go wrong for a second there
It really did a little bit hot under the collar, but they get away with it
Okay, I mean one of them's planting or one of them's not looking at you. It's a hard choice to make
Okay, so they do put themselves on the ball with the first rifle rounds
Yeah, this is clunky isn't it just lining up with each other
And then PR a big choice to back
Flubs his lines right there and Torsten strikes in the back line. Wonderful was screaming. Yeah
Doesn't work out
and a hefty blow to start off wonderful's round 45 to work with the desert eagle chunked
Okay, so Emma has a smoke as part of this and so does a Lexi so they can get a window smoke in anicon smoke
Just make it look like a default if they want but Emma worrying about the bee pushing fair enough
They have been pressing that side of the map
in these early stages
They have 3B, so now that he's kind of pushed forward and says it's not a pop, you were
playing for the B-pop. Now it's clear they can retool, but again, it's about will they
be in the right place at the right time? And having to do it silently is now worried about
those sound cues through the underpass.
Smoke's bound there for info. Snacks isn't catching anyone walking out, doesn't get
any additional information. It's a bit blocked.
It's a brave push by Towson against this type of a buy, but it gives him so much information
there in the driver's seat to force Navi into an eco in the next, so this is looking great
for a game allegiance second round.
Looks like this is the final bit of U-Till, Alexi B's throwing it out from behind that
top mid box.
Top Con and Window, Emear and Lourdes to stretch his legs, so A-split.
There's three inside though.
Thanks to Towson's push.
30 seconds.
through the smokes, next is back, turned.
Macalzee opens up, there's overlooked,
still they lose PR, and there's the trade.
Lovely work from Macalzee, and that should be round.
Okay, well it's a bomb, it goes down,
and now it's awesome with 40 seconds,
he's got the choice, does he want to give it a look?
I think the safe is the better of the options,
and that one's agonizing, you had all the info,
you knew that it wasn't gonna be B,
at least not through the apartments, and,
Oh, you stack doesn't get the job done when you've got the bodies in the right place
You're hoping to go trade trade trade trade trade and then by that point the rotations there and you're all good in the hood
But that one
Leaves a lot to be desired now V strike back three to one
Tells and saving this loss bonus for them is only 1900 into the next so
I just have to be
Light investment behind the save don't fall
But you're happy with that right you're limited in terms of your resources you limited in terms of your weaponry and RV
You still have to pull up around like that game. Eleager will call their first tactical time out of the map
Has to be the live by right just a couple of upgrades pistols
I pex will be able to get the AWP next round if they take this option.
You'll be able to get your full gun round, sure it does mean you can concede a fourth round but
continuing to shove like this seems risky unless you have a gimmick but it's so hard to have a gimmicky
CT move especially on a map like Mirage.
Towson doesn't have a good window spawn, he can't jump out underpass or try and run out middle of a
he could use it if he wants to try and jump up palace.
The timer has subsided, they are just going to take a light upgrade with a couple of pistols,
or maybe it's just Snax who's invested Bres as well.
So how threatening can they keep this?
How much pressure can they continue to apply to Navi early?
Well, Navi are the ones applying pressure with this very fast rap,
but Snax has got all of their backs turned.
This could not go any better!
With Rez hitting the head, he...
Snacks on the quick, flank picks up an AK, Rez stands his ground and wonderful brings him down.
Trying to find a safe haven, it was just a carpet of flame.
Alexi's so far away during all of this.
This B-split's so rapid and the fact that they've been pounced, the snacks might be on for another.
AHH!
Yep, not with his knife out, he won't knife to a gunfight, and Alexi profits.
He are a similar circumstance, caught retrieving guns and it's really ugly.
I guess you know we're both of them are now.
Oh, mate, yeah, but your advantage is disintegrated.
Okay, wonderful's got the ball on his back
in Alexi's top mid.
This high-packs has been able to get a gun now,
so it doesn't have the armor, sure, but...
There's been other Navi 2v4.
We saw a bunch of these yesterday.
It was a bit an emmer who found himself
in them time and time again now.
It's wonderful in Alexi B up through connector.
Tassan, by being pressed forward on the A ramp,
they're not gonna hard clear him,
but they have to plant with it in mind that it's an option.
So do you want to get the full site control, clear out Ema,
make sure no one's backside.
That way, you're sure he gets one from Palace,
but it gives you a whole lot less to concern yourself with.
And have you never to silently get into the site?
But here's Towson.
He gets the first frag onto Alexi cleanly.
Timing really favored him there,
and now wonderful thrust into the clutch.
Towson, such good restraint, nose as well.
Wonderful, probably faking it out, time against him.
headshot as well for good measure. Okay, Snacks can be very grateful to see that one get closed out.
Narvin, a 2v4 goes 2v2. It did feel like we had a similar conversation on Inferno,
and then Narvin were able to bounce back in his lighter bi or a bit more hodge podge scenario,
but they just had that. So the fact that Gamer Legion did succumb, take the eco, essentially
giving them what was meant to be the fourth round, and they're able to bite down hard with a couple
There's a couple of Dustly Deags there, so beautiful work. That's going to be a buffer of cash too.
Gameleaves, you win this when you laugh and...
Oh, wonky it is for an RV.
Oh, that break didn't quite land.
Had a molly not deep enough either.
There's certainly, you know, a discrepancy in the polish when you see these teams clash.
They're not in the firepower right now.
I'm constantly moving, Game of Legends. This is nice.
Staying dynamic.
I like this Porsche game. It's a whole lot of info, but it's more than late-round implications that this can have.
Last time they had all the B-Apps. They had the A-Stack and they still lost.
But Snacks appear are both staying in Palace. This is odd. You don't see it like this.
like this you don't but also bit is a demon in palace and his real late
reclares he's gonna be you know maybe needs to maybe you need to no you only
need a PR he takes him down cleanly and it pears the one that has to be active
because he needs to fight and then snacks we overlook that's the con player so
now maybe PR tension drawn to the tetra side
Snacks open to be overlooked.
Oh, the timing!
Oh, it's brutal!
Res only the one.
What in trade provided?
By wonderful on the collage.
HyperX from CT and you got Towson coming in from Khan.
Give this one a look.
They double swing him and he's, yeah, put it between the two of them.
Towson has space now, though.
You're right.
Two of the three, attention drawn.
It's half-hearted right now, but Towson's taking his moves and actually confirms in his location.
Just live in it.
Get some self-warrant, hang on, it comes down to a 1v1, a high-pex versus in-met headshot angle!
Always meanie, why's he jiggling?
Time is sensitive, high-pex can't take it.
I'm on it for good measure.
He can't keep his AWP, he left on the bombsite.
And he does hold onto the AK.
I mean, that's twice as well with these rounds where you got this fourth position. You got this early control palace and a weird horrible timing for snacks just looks away as they take down his partner and crime PR.
these rounds where you got this fourth position, you got this early control palace and a weird
horrible timing for Snacks. Just looks away as they take down his partner and crime PR.
Now look at the buy from Game of Legends. Double AWP, MP7, MP9, D.
Just like we all strategize. Classic buy for the CT side here. Glass cannon on Snacks.
I mean, if you know of it, it's going to be quite a weird one to play against, isn't it?
don't even really know what the buyer's gonna look like because the round you lost they were on eco so
you know that they have a buffer so you're aware that they have something extra but you don't know
how extra like double orb two smg's and a deagle kind of extra
strange half this bit strange series yeah that's how a very unique marinade so the cluster of cities
right now it's this sandwich and double con set up that's at least at the most interest for the
the defence, it looks like that's the part that's going to get the action at least.
So Shanger smokes over towards Connector, Bon picked up by Wonderful, he'll reroute to
Joe McCarthy and Bit who are priming to get ready for this A-Hit.
Here's going for a rather ambitious off angle.
Upon the box, it wasn't to peek and catch them by surprise or they'd walk past him.
Wow, gets onto him, Alexi will trade.
And as hearing all of this, gonna be calling for Hypex's rotation. Can the MP7 cast him off guard?
Yes, it can, because he just jumps like a basical over the top.
Trade from Wonderful.
You've got Hypex on the AWP line, but Wonderful able to plant.
Maybe the smoke break could expose him.
There's scope tough on it, and there's that second AWP, but Snacks can't hit his shot.
Not the one you want to see in a two on two.
Two AWPs, and he has a chance onto Bit as well.
Snacks had the shake of the head there after that clear comes, and he doesn't hit the shot.
knew that was the opportunity and I think that he will just hold on to this. He's not
going to get hunted down. That's nice. Hypox can be dropped this again into the next round.
Sure. That round would have been much more competitive had he hit the deny on the plant
there. I think that the biggest issue for game
allegiance the moment obviously the school and is about to read five to two. But because
of the back and forth nature of this last patch of let's say five rounds, their loss
bonus is only 1900 so it's this this really sucks you know you have this
orb you you can't buy much around it and if you do you're just gonna push the
the issues later into the half so it's like we have the orb we're gonna use it
but we kind of have to eco here it is so it just gone down so regardless yes he
would have gotten the bomb down so it was maybe a you know split second earlier
sure. Oh, yeah, there was an ugly trade there as well. Okay, sir, they just hope the hypex can
continue to keep the pressure on with a couple of kills. It's a nice shot. And also, I think he
suspects the snacks did just boost someone to ladder as well. No other reason for a CT to be
just swinging window like that. And so wonderful is going to peek into him. That's
That's very ambitious.
At least you know where the gun is.
You didn't establish though that it was a full eco, so hit man.
Oh he knows now doesn't he?
Yeah he does.
The USP's get that chance and with Macase down to PR, nice little headshot, he likes to
be scurrying over to ensure he can lend a hand and hand each shell.
Hypex, Hypex is alive!
Okay.
What is this?
I think we have more stress than them.
I don't know.
Some of these situations.
Yeah, it's good. It's definitely a very unique series now. We came a lead you just a real banger
Yeah, okay six to twos guaranteed at least time things up at the heart. Let's get your guns this time
Jumping swing from in there and then he's wondering where the kill is from Alexi. Come on, mate
I saw you on the minimap
Oh dear
Okay, so no open this one the money's not there. No, but you have got armored rifles, you know, you'll be happy with that
Direct out of Navi with this one, just gonna be straight into an AXE Acute, Alexi re-reading
back to join this.
So it's HyperX and PR, they're meant to deal with the Assault, Snacks will be able to
cheat over Jungle, and then the rotation from Res and Torsen, here comes the U2.
McCarthy out the ramp, Alexi out Palace, and McCarthy just bringing the fighter snacks,
Quick trade out of Hypex, PR solid as a lock on site gets three.
And even gets the info on to him, they will spam him down for the quad kill.
Shut down an RV.
Punished by PR.
Thick round from him, ten to six right now.
Double digits, reached the first in the server, and it was nice to see.
I think PR's, well, we know he's one for the future.
It's how long do you get to hold on to him?
That's going to be the question.
But right now, bringing them back into it.
just a three round game.
And the financial woes for both these teams
has been the conversation.
This is where the round time line showing,
you know, the finance being broken
and how bad these buys,
how many full buys are you even able to count
for both of these teams in this match so far?
It's very few in front of the team.
Clean start, PR, finding bit, clean head shot.
Another one on the round side gets it blind.
Committing in though.
I'm trying to forge a path for the wonderful and elixir tail.
Gotta get that bomb down.
That's the main objective, flash as well, place to redeter emm on CT.
Oh wow, a turn from the flash and emm at willp, he counts successful onto PR.
Sure, snags trades and puts a minute or two on fall, but more importantly, it has bought time for this round flank.
Wonderful, nice shot onto smacks.
It's the flank from Talcet, should be sealing the deal.
So they're the craziest sequence.
Yeah, you can have to hit it, bait first, bullet out of that Desert Eagle if you wanted to stand a chance.
The bomb going down, it does give them the extra 600, but they are going to have to stomach an eco, and then full buy in the final to try and go 7-5 on the half.
That's crazy, right? That smoke they threw into giving them the space, they turned from a thing, it's flash, it could have gone really wrong off the back of that, the PR.
Very nice openers, and on heavy hitters, right, Bitt and Micaela to be felled.
Yeah.
Well, this one, the most competitive of the maps. Yes, and it's nice. Let's go try and especially with class of the life and
The context now the vitality can only come third in their group
Feel a bit bad for foot or maybe we need to feel bad for vitality
Yeah, the other ones who are gonna have to try and run that gauntlet
I think there's much sympathy for vitality at the moment and after another ESL Grand Slam
I think yes, well you can probably count on one hand the amount of times that team has had to play two versus three's in a day since Rob's joined.
Good point.
Townsend versus unarmored pistols.
Res will get there in time.
Shut down.
Well handled, easy as you like, and the final frag on Emma will be coming through momentarily.
Nothing in that round for Navi.
Okay.
Okay, Hypex calling his opener, or at least hoping to be able to present what type of pick he's looking to go for.
But also bringing some energy there. Talking a bit of trash, which is, you know, half of the course, that's what you get, especially when it's just your boys, right?
You're not yelling over the fence. You're just geeing up the team
So wonderful glass cannon because he no head arm up
Let's see now V can you get seven what a camellia to dig deep and tie us up before the break
And so be the fourth consecutive CT round
Taking themselves out of trouble
This isn't an usual start love this so feel escorts the art forward and actually pushing ramp
Now, Bit is in Palace and Hypex will be responsible for that, it's Tech9 out in case he does go
for a smoke walk.
But in the meantime, Navi have taken some top mid control.
Bit's powered back, he's not going to come back and clear spawn, so P.R.s actually pipped
the gap right now.
At this moment, you're just hoping that your teammate's blocked.
Bit's not going to see him.
P.R.s already rounded the corner.
It's about how many can he take.
Lexi will be first with the play.
prospect for PR. Do you just take the one or do you go for the trigger discipline? Potentially
room for it to backfire, but how much info? How much do you see?
One bullet needed on one. Okay, no other.
Spot three. Spot three. Strikes quickly. Nice onto the second, onto wonderful. Immett, shred.
For all the return, PR's gone. McCarthy's been boosted into the window, so now it's his turn to
be the unknown entity. Hypex playing this well from Ticket though, so unless
because he goes through CT. I think Hypex is in the round when he built bombs on him.
They're coming up short. He's going to die. That's the round.
Just like that. Bombs lost. 6-6 on the half and less bit. And Macalze can make this work in 30
seconds. Doesn't look likely. There's no way. The head just has to go for the kills right now.
You're not going to be able to get the bomb and get it down. Now Macalze, as we discussed,
he's going to be overlooked, but you're only going to get one.
He's running out of time. 18 seconds. Bit draws attention. Down to Rez. Wow.
game a legion for consecutive CT rounds to round out the half these are just
for stats right now because he gets one sure he's gonna run on in and give it a
good go but with five seconds left call this one down we type things up
finally a competitive half
I
6-6, and as Chad said before we went to the break, we finally have a competitive one.
It has been rather dominant from both sides on the part to the third.
on Mirage though, a dead even half. We've swapped sides, now Fee now take to the defence
and I don't know where my expectations lie but they did have a solid T side, Gameligen
that is, over on Ancient. Will they be able to match that or at least have a similarly
strong team unity? The calls from Snacks, they're not always the most complex but they
certainly function very, very well.
There's quite a contrast from Inferno to Ancient. Ancient was a lot of default, had a lot of
moves ready to go based off of what they found. Inferno felt more direct.
Sorry. No, that's okay. It happens to everybody. It's just it's now pointless to
go for this. Yeah, exactly. All the risk, but they're still up. So actually, nothing, no harm, no foul.
Just depends if Towson heard them. That's true. That would make a difference.
He's not pre-aiming in the way he would if you had. So this one.
Up close and personalist, Towson. Yeah, that's an unusual approach because he's like
lined himself up to ensure his model is not visible.
Hypex just has a flash and it's Snaks and Rez who have the majority of the utility. Rez
still loitering in spawn. PR aggressive over to wall day ramp as well. So it looks like
they're just going to try and cause some gaps. See if PR or Townsend can find a way in and
then the pack which would be Snaks, Hypex and Rez can group up for the finish.
Okay, look at technical window smoke and shallow right midside cons smoke and yeah
technical indeed there's so many moving parts to this you've got PR P250 searching a you've
got snacks solo mid and there's the opening okay.
Lexi's moving. Yeah, I'm wonderful. Oh, is that because it wasn't spotted?
Bomb's there! I take zone! Oh, wonderful! He's had a real rough pistol.
Lexi down. Should be their site. Should be their round. Okay.
Bit. He's heading over to give this one a look, but this is a tough 1v3. I really liked the call.
I mean, and I'm sitting there going, oh, they calls haven't been too complex. That's a very layered
pistol. Lots of thought has gone into that one. Alright Bit, giving it a look, heading in now.
Yeah, I think he's going to find it cleanly. Three kills on the pistol from him.
Well there's a difference from just the two weeks ago, as it was both pistols I believe falling in
favor of Navi.
Gamelige and Oru in there, as long as they get past this force, they're in a strong position
in this second half. And considering the ups that we had earlier today, wonderful. At least
he smiles about it because the dual burredders just meant to unload. So starting to look
Look at some concerned Navi faces on our screens.
I know this isn't just a freebie.
Wonderful cops, a light tag there, but unconfirmed.
Just peppered through the window smoke.
He's going to repose over towards Ticket.
In no rush, our gamer legion.
I wonder will that be there undoing?
So a B smoke dotted in for now, but they're more than happy
to wait all of this out.
They have another smoke on beer.
There's a couple of flashes to work with.
If you know that you have to hope that you've right place right time this scenario.
They're essentially sold out right so they don't think it's going to be an A play.
It's very mid-foot, it's picking up through the window.
Maxi jumps out and now the distraction. They crunch into middle.
Max Andres gone.
Out A.
If they can get across unscathed, should be set for the three on four.
Mikaze has access to stairs, and, oh, I want hell of a flashbang.
We'll delay his activation.
It's a deep CT smoke, so they will be fighting for that.
Flash into this.
Flash and go.
5-7.
Towson is going to eat that flashbang.
Full blind, inner-profits.
Hypex trading.
It's PR and Hypex 2-1-3.
Mikaze on the staircase, patience on to the first.
Now just PR.
He's been having a hell of a game.
Can he come up?
Clutch is not easy, but it's not impossible.
Only six bullets. Yeah, they're low though and that's enough. He's got two left and Alexi gets the gap closed
That's an important round out of Alexi went from three Franks to six
He has doubled his kill total, but it rectifies the loss of the pistol. Okay, the bomb going down means we're gonna get these
Forced by wars back on PR didn't look too happy about that thought he had it in the wheelhouse
Gets himself up to 17 and that would be in one hell of a clutch that might have been the one to be one of the first
now is in the coffin but this is great right through the smokes bit comes through Alexi
jumps first he's meant to be the bait on the end of the rod it's bit who's the one that
been traded upon really important round for the legsy and straight into the timeouts
of late knowing the importance of winning against this potential force coming up next
you should take control of the game from this point forward just make sure you don't have
a foot fault to a Pompey Tech 9 round, but that's also given the 30 seconds over to Gamelige
to have this conversation. They're yet to buy, you can see it there on the earth's up display.
There's been no level of investment just yet and with Nexron getting 1900, if they do take
the eco now, they can bring out the AKs into the next. So that's the discussion that's been had and
looks like they're going to concede, so not wanting to draw themselves into the force by wars.
a lot of this map has been both teams with less than ideal buys so I think thinking to
themselves if they could just get out a full rifle round be the turner of the tide now the
being what should be gifted their eighth round just remind everybody where we are but first
What's up Lanter, but second of all it's group B. We've got passion versus sinners going on
elimination game
After that one concludes there will be
Likes of M80 liquid I'm very curious to see how that game goes
And we'll be bringing legacy Astralis. So we're locking four teams in for the plan. So we've already got two
Unexpected to pain and bet boom besting vitality and foot
And both teams like footleg recently fielding new players with safe joining cave
He's stepping away and flamas as well
Yeah, that one's a bit of an odd ball over there with bad boom
We'll see what happens for the major that flamas had just done an interview with HAT
So the headline reading something pulling the lines of actually I could just read the headline
Yeah, I'm trying to show that I'm individually good before the next transfer period which will be the offseason, right?
So I think there's no doubt about that. It's just that he's kind of moved to VP is what's outward
his prospects so I'm just looking at that boobs history it says January 16th
sortie transfers from that boom to TDK and then April 8th just off the
transfers from TDK to that boom he's back yeah they've been a cookie strap
artfrost dillardes flammer sortie yeah it's been happening because of bees is
all right well the eco is done guns back out
oh early ramp flashes gets bits and forward momentum he are blocked on
palace. This is a big one. It's gonna be a lot of midspace for Snakes to stretch his legs.
Look at it, they're just slinging, just doing the snake. Just contact down to Conn ready to surprise,
but nobody's home. Emma's not considering this just yet.
Wow, the chopper crosses audacious. Guess the infocom, I can't believe Macaulay takes yet double.
Hedge shot through the bricks, finally brought down by high-fags, and our bit on default traded
out. P.R. through the smoke. Looking good, what a well-structured round. A very important one.
Fuzzguns and it's dominant. What a statement that is from GamerLegion.
MacAzzie probably thinking he can't catch a break there. He's just being like,
he's having a good map, sure, but in that fight just...
He bullets to his head.
Everything gravitated towards the noggin there. Well, there's still money for the buy,
so now they aren't forced down the pistols just yet, but great little lurk there from P.A.
That's your job, right? As soon as the A anchor shows himself, you have to deal with him.
And your teammates drew the entire...
Of the action. So here we go. Alexi, he'll operate with the pistol. The rest get the rifles
Will they be knocked down be in missed window smoke? Okay, that ain't great
Don't get a cost them
Amaligen aren't looking for the fight just yet. They actually back off expecting Nabi for the follow-through
This actually works
Well in their favor look at the utile disparity at the moment in this one and we have a minute and 20 left on the clock
So there's a lot of options available to game a legion and they're juggling smokes in spawn to find that finish
So stacks to be the man thrown him out
The pack now finds itself over to would be where Alexi is he's gonna smoke a Molly and a flash is gonna need all of that
That's wonderful. McCartney in a safe mid clear these smokes being nothing. They're ahead of them
Now it's about what site do they think it's gonna finish upon?
It's just Alexi. He doesn't have any support. There will be no support for Alexi.
Alexi throws out his incendiary dumps, his UTIL just a 5-7 in a dream, and Townsend nearly goes down.
Doesn't find the kill he needed, buys time, distracts, and McCasey destructs.
Takes down Townsend, takes down Rez. Snacks has slipped through, but it doesn't matter.
Inner comes through from the market side. Nice couple of shots from Snacks, and he starts the 1v5.
He's only got 30 seconds, though, and he's still surrounded.
Two members of Na'Vi jigging out, you know, on site, bit towards the market side.
It's wonderful this in the apartment. Should be able to close it down and does.
Last attempt from Snacks gets a couple, but that's going to lead to Na'Vi 9.
Kamelugin 8.
I know that looks comfortable, but that's extremely stressful.
You can see Alexi there managing those angles and just buying enough time for Mikazi.
They're creeping up Cat Top Mid as the B-Pops happening.
They have to come screaming it. So fortunately Alexi's U2 is able to stall this one out and
segregate it. Mikaze making good on the damage Alexi had done. Without that the sight would be
overrun. That's touch and go. That isn't as easy as it looks. Also what I have to admire and it's
a demonstration of a core concept is that you don't always have to go for the kill. The reason
that worked for Mikaze was a product of Alexi being alive. He'd drawn attention, he'd done damage,
drawn blood and the cars they had two vax turned because obviously I'm low HP and
there's a 5-7 on site I'm worried about that I think that anchors right
survivability it's one of the keys in a sniper position especially pit on
Inferno back and forth we go again
nobody streaking anything crazy together longest run we've had is four well I
I guess five if you include
the start of the second half
Head to head
Ah, that's how that breaks, meant to go
And now Rez is gonna be brave and walk through the smoke to be a second for him there
Oh!
Oh, not at all not!
Actually, the timing is insane, impeccable from Rez
Okay, that's a lifeline, you back in the game off the back of that
At least the round
It was front most definitely, I mean this is still an admirable haul
hall because he low on HP and all the members right now a game of legend
congregating in middle power in numbers no yeah Navi not to know that either
bits playing retake a because he clearing out be on the low HP but they've
just part on in obscured by the smoke galaxy V can't contribute it's bit that
will get the info far oh it's a lethal amount of info
But you're saving. I think you're saving off the back of that.
I can have a look.
You can't really risk losing any more rifles. I think you have to save.
How brutal.
You have to save.
What a turnaround. You get the opening kill,
in there with a smoke break play, and it's timing.
Again, I mean, counter-strike, even the tier one professionals
are not impervious to counter-strike timing.
Show us that from Hypex's perspective.
That was a banger of a shot, right?
that one essentially securing the round right there because he blade pacing in
the background. It's gonna take time out into the next.
Just both halves have had these patches. The difference being that the tail end
game leads in trying to get those four right. They're gonna be able to just
look at a similar fashion to put themselves in a stronger position than
this. Wonderful can drop. Makazi can drop. So they can get another full gun round
but it will be lacking some key piece of you.
I mean, right?
It's just walking dry.
Here it is.
What does he see?
Well, Bear was looking through the gap.
It looked like Hypex just understood the same.
Look.
Yeah, there is a fraction of his skull poking out
the top of that box.
Hypex nails it with a laser beam.
Direct.
Alexi Al-Qaib.
This is, we've heard some tense moments before with this, but yeah, direct and a shred to Alex.
This is the CT side, right? Sure.
Here's the lead up.
These teammates are going to be calling their plays.
You want them to be calling their plays.
Love a gear shift from Game Legion right now.
Well, maybe it's not worth going just into like a heads-up play and getting blended by a bunch of these Na'Vi members.
Especially when you look at the, you know, discrepancy in the Utah department, if they could just go through their protocols, you'd have the advantage.
Okay, they're feigning mid-control and they're gonna go for an execute.
Interesting, okay.
Looks like it has respected the, uh, window smoke, so they have no answers middle right now.
But it's been read. M-McCazzie, short player, starting A.
Ooh, you're right.
Maybe the timeout was discussing this, Joker maneuver.
It's a bit place to be disruptive.
This actually partners up with McCasey.
So this is the fight, Houston.
Off you go. A headshot exchange.
Mokaze activates.
Hypex gets to both of them back.
So a 3 on 3 PR out palace found by Ymer.
So now the bomb spotted on the radar.
Hypex has had that on his back.
He's got snacks alongside for the ride and they're running CT.
They're going to push the flames over the top of them.
Yeah, Alexey obscured by the pop of the molotov.
Snastres couldn't catch a glimpse.
So now it's Hypex in a clutch, but it's something he could work with.
He knows one of them at least confirmed.
the Lexi towards CT. Wonderful and unknown as it is in there.
Takes the first head. Removes the Lexi B. No immediate trade. Got a fight with Emma.
Does isolate the dual, but Emma bests him in it. So, Navi will find 10 first. Hard fought for that round.
Okay, just making sure that both of them leave that round with AK47s and
and, uh,
Well, the bomb going down, it does mean that Game of Allegiant can get something relatively threatening out, right?
The extra cash there is huge. It puts them in a spot where everybody will have, uh, at least
an upgrade.
It's two AKs at Galil, two Mac 10s, and U2 in the mix, so
they can continue to try and throw blows right now.
We've just had another back-and-forth for five straight rounds once more.
They're going out again. This time not fuffin' around in middle. Everybody just grouped up. It's bit here this time doesn't have the support of Mckazi.
This is that stubborn calling we saw work for Snacks in the past.
They've gone ancient.
It's been quiet by least on this map.
Yeah. They've kept it humble.
Here comes those flashes. Here comes the commit. Matt 10 leads the charge. Snacks porting half.
They are in as well, low HP.
They've got the A site.
They've got nothing for a second wave. They used his ult on the execute. Just a molly on Rez.
Oh, the nest PR, understandably.
Going for the push on the smoke, it's a spam nearly connecting. Rez, Snaks, Towson, I'm giving you a roster rundown because they've all just got kills.
Towson won the double up, Hypex could be exposed. He's actually in that blind spot here on the walkup.
Tux on Firebox and you've got Wonderful in a 1v3. Two of them low.
He could wall by Hypex. Snaks providing some covering fire.
Just that headshot angle as well makes it so difficult.
Towson with the impact round.
He leaves with three extra kills and we tie things up again.
There's meant to be no utility to be able to do that, right?
The fact is, you get your execute and you're meant to get side control.
And then at that point, you don't have any flashes to go into CT.
You can't do that deep smoke.
There's nothing. You even lose the opening kill as easy as this.
They're fading towards jungle and stairs and the kills just come their way.
You're right.
You had to have known that the fight was...
like they can't well they could they could just sit on the side but you have to be active
and you'd expect the ct's with full utility belts arrive and start incendiary nading clearing every corner it's ugly it's ugly for navi
especially when you look at the finance here at this stage in the game
the gameliers you're actually given blade this this time right now
there's no fun option at this point for a navi buy not a tent
being broken late on the CT side is the absolute worst place to be but T side
Oh cool. We can still bring up Mac 10s and tech 9 CT you just throwing together this
Five sevens and and you and a plan right like a well-placed flash bang a smoke push something disruptive early
If they don't stack the right side, you're gonna see them saving. Yeah, and if they don't find themselves in the correct traction early
They're gonna have to say because think about it
It's only 1900 into the next round and that's to defend against 12. You need something
But, when you are a world-class counter-strike team...
I know, six rounds back and forth like this is it.
You've got to be able to dig yourselves out of these rounds.
I like this approach early from game lesion though.
Alright, let's avoid them pushing, you know, underpass, let's avoid them going for something
super aggressive.
We'll just do a default spread.
Everyone's covering something.
The only problem right now is I guess is Palace and A ramp and Bit's buried in there
for now, alongside a wonderful...
Alex did a great job delaying last time he was left over towards B on his own devices.
They're gonna try and test him again, but right now he doesn't have the incendiary.
The smoke's being used.
Oh, he hears this.
That's a lot of info.
Okay, he had multiple pairs of footsteps pushing around for info.
Yeah, they heard the singe.
They definitely have a singe.
Yeah, now the trajectory makes it clear he's up close.
You still want to go for this? Running into a 5-7.
Flash is chained together.
Galexity loses vision. Support from Mikaze clean.
Finds the burst, finds the headshot.
Imma, stucks into sight. This could still be Narvys.
Not without Galexity though. You need someone else to step up.
Mikaze finds number two. Towson unable to trade.
Rez trying his hand as well, but that's a distraction.
Wonderfuls, Deagle's connected in the meantime.
and they've only got 14 seconds. Time and a headshot from wonderful.
Navi needed this so desperately and they managed to pull it away.
Stealing an 11th round forced to invest. It was pistols, it was ugly, but it's Navi taking 11.
We have seven rounds where we have had a different team winning, right? It's just back and forth,
back and forth throughout, and it's just these buys that are being tossed together.
Mikazi again the Guardian Angel from short delivering that's the only rifle in this one
Second the best to last is Mikazi and just going back to another A execute
They're just a executing again Mikazi's here this time last time he was here they locked it down
This time he's gonna have to contend with both res ampere parthing through palace
Imma's Utah will sit delayed.
Good incendiary.
It's gonna flush him out.
Doesn't spread.
They're pushing through.
Through the flames.
PR.
Ambitious.
Back turn.
Rez finds him.
Hang on a second.
They're losing bodies.
Imma lucky to get away with just a scrap of health.
24 points of health.
It's Snax and Hypex.
Smokes fading.
Can they really pull this off?
They've got the number disadvantage.
Snax on the radar.
Quick adjustment onto Imma.
Wonderful's there too.
Can't pull it off.
Wonderful brings him down.
And it's Hypex with 20 points of health.
All the way to the finish line. I think image and sendry there came in huge red
The fact that it stalls that they have to wait right? I'm sending run through but they know at that point boys
We've already done the execute if we're not in the air exactly so they respect it for a moment
But then they realize they have to go and game a legion. This has been hard for you need some more of that bullshit on these
Lighter buys to come in again. You've got some digs. You got a galil and we got a tech pause
So, oh, oh, I see you just what you want to see
team speak issue so well cropped up late in the piece legendary other team speak issues 12 to 10
third map you just had managed to break the the trend that has been these trading blows of rounds
and now just one more separates now V from the playoffs here at IEM Atlanta 2026 it's quite an
interesting field that we've got. It's fledgling teams looking to take the
fight to the top two Vitality and Na'Vi and both have come under fire today.
The Astralis legacy game coming up next both those teams are oddly waiting to
get in the server and get that one started.
He's game allegiance turn to show they can win with a cobble together by
Navi pulled it off thanks to Mikaze and that famas you've got high pegs on the
only rifle this time for game allegiance. Aggressive orping but he is
gonna cut pull the ripcord on that one backs off into the site. It's been a
Base flip. Snacks and res will work through underfasting the connector.
Hapix will be throwing out a window smoke from spawn late.
So PR through Palace, Torsten, and Hapix will be...
Check their boosting window, or is it going to be more concentrate? Let's see.
I think you have to go Conn, but I think you know, trying to pop up Conn and...
Yeah.
Yeah, there's the boost.
Interesting.
Wonderful.
Makes the sound cue.
Himmer slipping as well?
You don't have to hang around a jungle if you're Himmer.
But he is.
I should have snacks here, right?
M4 versus M10.
No, no way!
Himmer, head in hands as he watches.
Is this really going to be an 11 for?
Could very well be all miss or shot.
Down goes after 1 PR.
Finding bit.
So your rank is gone.
It's a comfortable retake.
Snacks is low though.
so it could be a 3v3 real quick.
Can't say from the corner approach.
Nice block, they partner up, they're doing it.
Hey, you can move to this again, right?
You only get 1,400 into the next round.
You've got to get out of there.
I don't know, they're gonna let you this time.
No, especially when you know they're in jungle.
Great flash actually catches high-fakes.
Might give them safe passage.
Oh, and Alexi fights for it.
Keep on chasing, keep on hunting,
now keep on taking it down.
Okay, well they're sticking in it only just wonderful can drop
Alexi will likely give up the M4
Alexi's $50 short of being able to buy another one so it could be the Famous again
Maybe he looked like tout looked in the hands of a car seat
But it this looks so sketch doesn't obviously
Obviously, Snacks has the moving accuracy as an advantage right there, but you're still
hoping if you're in there that he can get that one done.
I mean, he gets that 90% of the time.
I mean, it was a bit of a jump scare for him, and Snacks found that impact frag to start
the House of Cards to come tumbling down.
They know they're up against the AWP.
They know that was retained.
Do we need the extra rounds?
3 players in middle, audible to WONDERFUL.
Alexi's cheating over short, they're gonna try and biff mid.
Him is here too.
Snacks just walks into the angle, all too easy.
Expected them to respect.
The smoke and our WONDERFUL can dip away, gets his in no trade available.
So they have that advantage.
Towson trying to turn up the heat, but he's exposed.
He's flashed and Alexi bursts him in the face.
Narvee, 2 kills away from securing playoffs.
It's right there.
It's right there for the taking, but you do have the 2 hardest hitters on GAMER LEGION.
still alive, with an opportunity to thrive, they can't hack it, PR goes down, and it
seems Narvi, just in time, will convert this close barn banner of a third. Just
high-packs to get past. He'll play the fade, and if Alexi does go down, Mikasa's
right there to react.
Now HP on Alexi B, high-back spot.
Get spotted, perfect angle management.
Keeping that B-side safe is Alexi. 13-11, playoff secured.
A hot prospect with an RV, but they will need to work for that playoff spot.
Yeah, look, Alexi not the most kills, but definitely a lot of impactful ones there
in some crucial moments down the stretch, but this was a back and forth affair all throughout.
You got a 13-4, a 13-1, and then a 13-11.
1311 one of these is not like the other but we saved the best for last and it delivered in the entertainment department
I think you could probably count the amount of full buys these teams had on one hand
It was a lot of thrown together lighter investments and a whole lot of nonsense coming out of both of these teams
They do get the job done. They still have to play a seeding match tomorrow
Will it be the quarters or will it be the semis and will it be legacy or astralis?
That's the final game coming up on the a stream next
But this one, it's definitely given you a lot to think about if you know V.
It was a shaky day at the office.
We're going to be throwing this one down to Jacob.
Standing here with Alexi B after what was a half-fought victory versus Game of Leading.
Are you surprised that you had to fight that much to get it over the line?
No, I think that everyone of us understood after ancient that they're here to play
and we didn't, you know, this is our map.
And it felt like we were not there at all. We were tilting. We were frustrated.
We were just not us at all. And we saw that if they keep up this pace, Mirage is not gonna be easy.
Is that the few times where you win your opponent's map pig? You come into your own map pig in the second one
and then you you don't show up? Is there anything in particular that stands out for you or was it just a map off?
I don't know. I can't give you the best answer.
I just thought that after having such a good
Inferno, everyone felt on the same page. We played good as a team.
Going into Asia, against any team in the world, I just felt like,
yeah, we're going to take it home and then we start 1-11, so not good.
Well, it happens, you know. I win at the end of the day.
You book a spot in the playoff where you, tomorrow, will play for a spot in the semi-final.
You're facing either Astralis or Legacy. You got any preference of the two?
Honestly, no preference. I think that both are playing pretty decent
And I believe we lost against Legacy or online EPL, the event we won.
So maybe we want to take revenge against them.
Maybe, maybe. Just a quick note as well.
You saw maybe earlier that Vitality ended up losing to Bedboom,
now find himself in the lower bracket.
Does that add extra pressure on your camp?
Are you still just focusing on yourself for now?
Focusing on ourselves, definitely, after today.
I'm hoping to play against them for sure.
But yeah, it's good that we see other teams breaking them.
maybe they're losing a bit more confidence and everything's good for us.
But as of right now, we just need to fix ourselves for the next game.
All right, that's our luck with the XB.
We're heading to a break and once we're back, it's going to be with Astralis taking on Legacy.
My map, dust too, is so beautiful when the sun is low.
That nightfall that Elo Harvester's led.
Their cruelty to my people is all I've known.
May thy mask live and splatter.
And a double kill, it's all onto Alexi.
He's got 19 bullets, everything he needs.
us too.
Oh for fuck's sake.
You're missing with any fucking bastard.
It doesn't matter what day you're joining us.
This is the Intellect Tree Masters in Atlanta.
Georgia, 2026.
Mic check, one, two, one, two.
You play video games then?
So violent for no reason.
Hey, yo, what's up?
Y'all know anything about counter strike video games?
You know about counter strike?
I'm on the Georgia Tech fencing team.
Tell me what crossroads there might be
between counter strikes and fencing.
You know, a counter strike, you're in a clutch situation.
It's kind of like the 1v1 situation of you
and your opponent in fencing.
Just going in for the last stab
or that last quick scope off.
All right, bet.
That was good.
What do y'all think about people playing video games
against each other competitively?
Oh, I love it.
a smack talking they do for your favorite contract players I'm gonna go
with an OG Kenny S would you say to Kenny S if he was watching right now you're
my inspiration I think about you every match but I'm fencing what do you think
about that Kenny S was never my favorite if that's what you're thinking
I'll play video games by chance oh he didn't even realize it I mean Jacob when
you roll up here you saw this my place and I'm gonna bike a little bit faster
What do you think I thought I missed look at as far as where it's possible from you as fast as I can
You have fun immediate. I had a blossom media media days. I'm you did what you had blasted media day
Just kidding
Hi
The Intel Extreme Masters Atlanta 2026 is brought to you by ESL in partnership with
Intel
Acer Predator, DHL, Chex, and Zoey.
last series to round out our second day of play here in Atlanta and it's legacy who are in with
the chance of making it to the top six. Whilst IEM Rio might have been less than ideal for the
Brazilians, they're on their first step to recovery after taming MAT just yesterday, but on the other
side of things, Astralis. They are no doubt a taller task on a rebound mission of their own post
rivals and that began, I would argue, Yanco quite emphatically versus Liquid yesterday.
Yes, you're absolutely right. I think it's a very interesting matchup, right?
You mentioned Rio for legacy Brazilian teams in Brazil. Never do all too well, do they, right?
Losing too hot to getting eliminated by them after having a close series against
Maus was not something they were going to be too happy about, but
chance for redemption here in Atlanta against an Australia school has been
improving with every tournament this year. Slipped a little bit at rivals, but
looking to bounce back. Yeah, a team you know on the uprise, Schirm slipped a bit at rivals,
could have done slightly better, but overall I think a project moving in the right direction
with some very interesting pieces to it as well. So very much agree with the sentiment from Janko
that it's an interesting matchup. Both teams having a great opportunity here, booking a spot
into the playoff already, whereas if you go down to that lower bracket you have to play
twice tomorrow. So I feel like in terms of pressure there's a lot of both teams here.
Let's just give a quick recap as to what happened in the Astralis Liquid
a fair decision yesterday because you might think I'm being a little bit harsh but the first map man
that was that was diet straight some liquid right the entire series for team to be completely honest
sure first map was worse than second one as well as with a better team by by quite some margin how
much of that is as well as playing super super well and how much was that liquid you know
sitting debate I think there's a case to be made it was a bit of both but main takeaway for me was
was as well as just being in full control you know playing with a lot of confidence being very
Proactive on the map, Yabbe obviously as you can see having a great series together with Starr.
So two of the big hitters within the team doing a good job.
Not really a lot to say outside of well done two Astralis, whereas I'm curious to see if they face a proper team today in Legacy.
How well they're going to deal with that pressure?
Yeah, you agree with that?
We're not a proper team?
Yeah, it's been looking rough, especially when you look some of these highlights
for Stairway, what he was able to get away with both him and Jaby had an
incredible series but on the other side you have legacy Houshura team but still
getting used to art and in his leadership style it does seem his mellowed
out a little bit compared to his Furia days probably humbled by the Fuxo run
right but you know the talent that they have on the squad with Dumau and Lato
I mean, they've been around for a long time now, they're not newcomers, they're not, you know, the up-and-coming players like they are getting into veteran status now.
It's been five years since they broke out at the Stockholm Major in 2021, right?
So you're hoping that with this lineup, they're going to be able to find some results.
We saw flash towards the end of last year.
You know, people had them as a potential playoff team, but they couldn't get past stage one of the Budapest Major.
Well, we speak of stars on the side of Astralis. I think it's only right that we check in with Stare, Cursy of Tress.
Well, here we go. We've got Astralis in the house, and we're about ready to get a game started right here.
We're going to go ahead and start talking about some of the stuff with Stare as to where you guys have been.
I mean, you started your first campaign out yesterday, Liquid 2.0 routine in the office. Was it about what you expected?
I mean, we hope to beat them, but I think we're playing well. I lost with us to game management last event, but on that we're playing pretty well, I would say.
I would say, so we expected to win, but they actually made the engine very competitive and it played very well on the C side,
which was kind of surprising because we normally steamroll people in our seats aside.
So we had to really adapt that one, so it actually came on top.
So we expected to win, but they played pretty well, I would say.
Yeah, I'd say they held their own at least in the second map. First one seemed like a little bit more of a wash.
But for you guys, what did you go back and take from that? I mean, it didn't seem as though
Astralis was tested, so to say, from that.
I mean, you're right in the first map, we were really interested, I was kind of like,
But as I said, I'll say, we actually had a lot to take from it because, as I said, our
scene-side normally works very well, I would say.
And when you meet resistance on that part, then you can see what goes wrong and you can
adapt to that.
So I think we actually learned a lot in the ancient wild-winning, which is very nice to
do, you know?
Yeah, learning on a job is kind of ideal, actually, all things considered.
Let's talk about today's matchup and what we're looking at between you and Legacy.
You got a Dust2 first map, let's draw a starter CT side.
Did you get to the veto you wanted?
Did you guys get the matchup on it?
I would say so. They have both Mirage and Dustin decent strong maps and they like to play those maps right.
So it's our two worst maps statistically I think. I'm pretty sure Dustin is for sure, I'm not sure about Mirage.
So I think they have a nice pick for them at least, but I think we expected it.
We're not prepared for this, so I think it was a fine result. We have two at least, two and a half very strong maps, so I'm happy.
It's very true and you know for this trial set of things everyone's always asking
How's the giga Chad? You got anything to say on his behalf?
I mean he's just chilling and always warming up. He's locked in. I know the scowl is dragged out today
He's the most ID carry us
Yeah, he got some personal lead against you know beating brisket inside. I believe so so he will he'll smash them
I believe he's an interesting cat nonetheless. Thank you very much for your time. Of course
Good little sneak peek into what the maps are gonna be in this series of I want to ask you Yanco
last time you saw these guys facing was back at EPL. It was an ancient industry back then.
I feel like a Stralis, they're a bit of a different version of themselves when compared
to the beginning of EPL versus right now. Yeah, it's true. Maybe their map pool is widened
somewhat, but ancient still feels like their best map, right? Like it's one of the most
played and the highest win rate that they have. All the players being really comfortable.
I wouldn't be surprised if they see it again. And then, yeah, stare, obviously, spoiling
it a little bit, but the main goal for Astralis has been to get better on Dust2 and Mirage,
right? Like to figure out a way how they can go around that.
Yeah, Dust2 has been very integral for Astralis to, I guess, to fit into the map pool, legacy
coming in with the pick up Dust2, but that's also where they did the best work against Team Liquid,
in particular, Jappi instead, had a good showing on that map, so should they carry over some confidence
from the opening game, new coming in for Astralis, not too big of a surprise, Inferno as the third
deciding map. The main takeaway for me, you know, from Trace speaking to stairs,
just the confidence that he's speaking with, it made me think, you know, when
was the last time I heard that amount of confidence coming out from
Astralis player, you know, yeah, we expected to win and we wanted to win
that game and he was a bit surprised that they were able to apply pressure on a
map like Ancient, when we normally steamroll people, it's a new look
for Astralis. It's been very dire for a long, long time, but I like the confidence
coming out from stairs. It's a big curveball in the veto for legacy to veto
ancient and not overpassed because it's been overpassed and Ubers for them and then to see
Astralis not pick overpassed with it being there. I mean it's been a map that they pick
in series. I think they were just caught off guard completely that they didn't want to pick it
with no prep and instead went with maps that maybe felt were going to be the decider.
Does that mean you feel like one of these two teams has come out on top?
I think legacy definitely came out on top in the veto. Getting to veto Astralis' best map and then
not get punished for the map that they've been banning lately, right? As I said,
between Overpass and Anubis. So, yeah, that gives them a much better chance in the series.
They might have come out on top in the veto, but let's see if that can be translated into a W.
A spot of the playoffs on the line here in Atlanta is going down with Chad and Alex.
Spot in the playoffs. Yeah, I don't know who the prime candidate is. I might probably lean
towards the Danes, but I think they can see have impressed as far as, you know, adding art and
remaining a threat on the tournament circuit. Head-to-head this year, it is in favor of
legacy dust, just discussing that was on stage 2 of EPL, so that was also a 2-0.
But that was when Astralis's Dust2 was a weakness, and it still kind of is. I think
yesterday's result against Liquid might be fooling us to think, okay, maybe they finally turned it
around, but let's wait and see. Timo also took to an interview with HLTV talking about how they're
They're trying to find a balance with, you know, arts crazy moves.
Well, the rest of them like to get up to that's going to take some time.
Lots of conversations did have he had as it should be a B pop.
All five members in the upper tunnels.
Rear with a smoke to block.
Hooksy presumably he blocks shallow, right?
Like he's going to want it to.
Yeah.
The smash to block, especially with his first headshot and now a combo meal.
The double nape.
How is that happening?
That was that transpired focey and hoaxy in combination.
Well, not fun for Lato.
That right there, I like that pistol a lot, right there.
I guess I should be going down in a second.
Gets a chance now, alright, he's on.
Alright, alright.
I love the little manipulation there.
Forced stare or mind control them to go clear into the crosshair.
Another smoke, so there's still time to wait this out.
Doesn't need to get stuck in immediately.
can just take his time allowed to fade. Yeah, make a couple of steps. Make them consider
the fact that you could be coming out in the mid to be always just he's just going for
it. Okay.
Well, that range while they're not playing scared. That's for sure. Who's ready to pick
up a loose end? Yeah, that's our pistol. When we saw the other one that they ran yesterday
as liquid, remember, they had to really like kind of long corner, but not spotting. Yo,
They're fading from back a car, Yabi's hiding car.
This time they have Hooksy Middle, who has Flash and HE.
Right, so he's able to get the double HE off
with Fosey if it's the B-POP.
He also has a Flash that he can set up with.
I think it was Yabi who was close short.
I think Raga's just saying, hey, listen, Chief.
Slow down a bit, hey, but you reacted that one pretty quick.
But yeah, that pistol set up,
you have a lot of different outcomes that you're ready for.
And nice to be able to get ready and just have a double HE.
Okay, so
Satan doesn't get a kill. They'll just stay with the eco did do damage
It's up now just going to
Essentially run the scout with a p250 invested upon the zoom out
It's this one of you a slow round
Yeah, good they're discussing the fact that ancient goes out so legacy not wanting to tussle with that regardless of
Last time's result where that was in the pool
They're seeing if they can punish Astras on Dust2 and then not have to get punished on the other end.
But these Brazilian teams, other than Furia, and then maybe even Furia in recent times, it's been hard to find any consistency with them, right?
Pain, they win the odd series here or there, but I understand this year's has been a bigger roster change coming out of them,
and then another one forced the safe having to come in for NQZ.
And then it's the same with Legacy, you see these hot streaks and then sometimes they just disappear.
That's a nice headshot, so the main threat neutralised, stairs caught the scout.
And Latta will pick it up and put it to good use.
I've called the pooch here, so he's low.
Yeah, he's down on Goose though.
And he's got Hoogsy in support, and he gets a completely overlogged, yes, he assumed it
was clear that was an assumption that costs him.
No plant, and a glock to the back of the head as Hoogsy on high alert pivots him to it,
and gets himself three kills for that to kill Total.
Okay, so, uh, Sansa can just buy a scout again and everyone else can upgrade into the AKs.
He'll be looking at the homework. We'll see what, uh, everyone's looking at the notes.
Wow, what a selfless IGL.
Art will drop the AK and, uh, Art requests a Mk10.
Is he selfless or does he just want to make sure he can get stuck in real quick?
You know? I can move quicker with this one.
He does have a preference.
Oh, they're trying to stop the, uh, the long-dose smoke here.
That's nerdy.
So they're going all in.
Mission accomplished, you get your vision.
Man, Yabby's pushing middle.
Yeah, Yabby instead were great yesterday, weren't they?
Yeah, that's a nice one-two punch combo meal.
Well, they, uh, the jig is up.
Yeah, you don't need to hang around for that fight, either.
So that's the smoke in the cross. Hooksy blocks.
Yabby's there in lower tunnel.
Yeah, and bomb is going that direction. They'll be stay outside. They'll think it's clear. Yeah, they're not being particularly
About the push-low up its bad info and re is also leaving the site
They think it's long. Oh, dear. I think it's long
Fortunately Ryu is you know diligent enough to keep taking passing glances
But I mean what you go? Oh?
All right. Oh the sites lost guys. I think
I think, maybe we can grab this one.
They won't be.
He got it.
There's a flash coming.
Yeah?
Really?
Give it a look.
Good job, catch it.
Nice!
That might buy time.
Another flash.
Bootsy window.
Gonna need the default plant.
It looks like I'm just gonna go down, but Art takes a hefty blow, 45 to work with.
Now, I think of the 4v4, at least you hang around.
No kit though.
Yabby's got an incendiary.
and send the area you could throw that towards the big box
breaks all options just gonna bounce it off the wall yeah that one's on the window
and swing on the flash good work uh-oh what line gets his lasso and sands and will activate
he comes down to a 1v2 and art nails it on the swing from fozie just bad information that's all
that comes down to right and there's the long pressure with the smoke the sands and throws out
they clear through tunnels that there's nobody home. Ryu, still, yeah, as you mentioned, being
diligent, worried about it, but they're not thinking that's the finish, right? So they've
made some assumptions and that's ended up costing them there on the board now legacy.
They can't get out 2M4s, hook C and you'll be able to buy 3. Ryu could buy one as well,
but won't have anything to go with it. Or because of this cash that they have to
to smash they just take the 1400 eco and then full by next round. I think that might be,
oh, maybe not. It looked like that was going to be the decision for a while but the guns
are being equipped now.
It is just a little bit weird though, right?
Ria is a Piancar, oh he's not starting, he's in lower tunnels, okay.
Well that's one way to get the action early.
They're just pushing, they're just pushing and everyone's not looking!
So many backs turned!
Sadsing was responsible, catches Hoocsi.
Yeah, has to hit a bang in here.
Yeah, he really does.
Desert Eagle as well, and Sendier is flushing forward, and that's the end of the round.
Yabi is still long doors.
Okay, because I'm sitting and looking at the way that they distributed the weapons, and I'm going,
if Hooksy's anchoring long, he can work with just a 5-7 or something. You know, you want Yabi,
Fozy, and Stare to be the men with the rifles, and then you re-use and your Hooksy to the world could
operate something less. So they decided to take the fight to them, but this will just cost them,
There'll be an eco coming up next.
You see the idea, right? You can understand it, but I guess you're...
When you're making this play,
you're likely hoping to nearly capitalize on just two players being there as part of a default, right? A bit of a 2-1, right?
Two tiles at two lingon around middle, one outside long. Instead, they get the entire team.
So running into legacy, and well, they'll take that one. Time things up now, 2-2.
He does have a good spawn if he wants to try and push lower tunnels, more even up middle.
So with the best spawn available.
But considering they've already felt quite aggressive, do they want to tone it down?
In my opinion, this wouldn't be the time to do that.
Just safely crossing B.
This could be one of those quick walks.
It does look like it, doesn't it?
It feels like a scary five-up cat type beat.
Yeah, they're not messing around.
Nice couple of flashbangs gets you up.
They're gonna hear the steps right this faster scaling. This would just be about damage. Can you take anybody with you?
Can you save an AK? Can you have me hold on to the M4?
Call this one three. You did it simple aren't they? I like that call from legacy. Hearing lots of yelling going down as well.
The Sinners vs Passion UA series for elimination on the B stream.
Also part of route B. It's lower bracket round 1.
That one is going to go to distance.
So overpass, the third deciding map will be required.
You guys can check that one out as cleaning house legacy.
It's just the man who saved the rifle looking to do the same again.
Yabbi over towards B.
Bomb over halfway gone at this point.
They don't, I think in these early stages, you don't need to hunt, right?
You're not, you know they're buying into the next, right?
It's not like they're saving saving this and it's like oh, there's a there's a bogey gun on the eco
You know that there will be the rifles coming in and you want to establish your economy early as well
So don't do that. Don't keep all five alive
Fosy can glass cannon so at least he can bring the all pin to take on sands and on the other side if he wishes
He will. Okay. Are they going to try to facilitate him with HEs to go for smoke breaks in middle?
Or do they just want to go for something a little bit more standard?
That does look a little bit more of a standard approach. Just three players with their util sets to lock down that long control.
We just see Liquid try and hammer home on Hooksy.
today that's inviting for this and yeah this is very inviting he just walked
through the smoke really cheeky boost as well to try and peak over the top of
the short smoke this is a very aggressive maneuvers and loud as well
that's all the bulls tail of the first up this is his incendiary doesn't quite
pop as he would have liked
it's in parks behind that mid-door smoke but a later rival he's gonna make life
So difficult for Stare, he has to be worried about that.
God.
And they're here they come.
Stare, focus is on to Nissan, that's a nice find on the Sniper as well.
You've got to get across this sight line.
You've got what, a HG to do it?
Yabi even flanking them, looking to seal the deal here.
Oh, it's not ready for this, good catch from Yabi.
That so could get the bomb down.
So for extra cash in what I'm assuming is around loss, it's a five on two.
DOOMOW gonna have three players on the other side of that short smoke.
Nice trap now.
He's committed to this fight behind the staircase.
He's gonna have to try and hit that first bullet.
How about two?
In quick succession, Stare and Yabbi's skulls collide with DOOMOW's bullets to the third as well.
Two on five.
And now Hooks the Enthusiast to do what the others could have done.
Nice five.
Finds Lato.
Still DOOMOW in the ace for the ace for the clutch.
He's on the defuse.
He fakes it out.
Time is light.
He's got no kit.
Dumas pulled it off and he's clutched and impeccably played round.
Oh, they thought he was trapped and they tried there with him and short.
Dumas just unleashes the line-up.
That's nice, but the fact that he's able to get that third as well,
that's the piece that's meant to deal with him.
So on the fate of the smoke, they start parting in, the spacing.
No good, the superstars downstairs and Yabi Ryu,
hoping he can mop it up.
The kit falls at short.
So at that point, the pressure's already on.
already starts to tip against them and what should have been Australia's getting back on the board. There's now an extension of the lead force straight for legacy. I don't care what you say sitting in your arm, Jared homies allowed to show as loud as he once after that one.
That's nice. Had a bunch of aces within these two days of play. I think that's about the 10th ace we've had so far. It's one of those things that I keep track of in the events because some you have very little here. It feels like we're getting at the floodgates opening.
Well, that one is going to really affect the atmosphere.
Yeah, because you just down to another partial investment, as we can see, at least they have
the loss bonus maxed out going into the next so they can get that juicy full buy.
But I feel like you've done all the hard work.
Tough round to lose if you're a Stralis.
Great round to win if you're legacy.
Well, you can wipe away some of that hollow feeling if you win a partial.
Hollow easier set than done.
I love this, right?
The fact that they're just going to get this long control.
As soon as you get saddened in pit or platform, at this point, your biggest concern is as
just scaling up behind your cross smoke is them catching a timing with a flash
but they're only gonna have one flash left on foezy and they're already
scaling. They're scaling and this seems lurking and they're fighting. Wow, that's it.
Just going through the swing ahead of the smoke grenade. HG towards the Gandalf
position will soften up two of the pistols. How is he down? This will be dealt with very
quickly but you see that approach there. It looks okay a little bit risky but he's
going ahead of the smoke, but by being ready to cross, oh, I almost caught a penguin, but
being ready to cross long at that point, they can't, you know, do the flash play through
and catch you, right? So they removed that option. I mean, you just, you just kind of
outlined like their best bet is when you smoke, they can kind of catch the time and catch
the flash. So why not not give it to them? Fair play. Okay, that makes a lot of sense
as to why Latte was taking those jewels.
I think Saddam wants a boost middle here.
I just saw him.
Like his body language.
Like his model turned.
Yeah.
He looked at someone.
He looked him in the eyes.
No.
Okay.
Not boosting him.
Oh.
They are going for a full on beer.
So they've made these rounds look very similar.
They're just going to pop bead.
Ryu and Yabi are going to be doing a high low setup.
Just ready to stand and bang.
Do Mal down.
Clean head shot.
But that's the follow up.
And six.
Unless this AWP can really do anything on the cross, he's gonna be smoked, it's just gonna be a Hail Mary pull at the trigger here.
Don't even get close though, there's no point. Just hold on to these guns, go and fortify somewhere.
You know, shoot off a couple of warning shots, you know, pepper through the smoke a bit so they think that you're coming for it, because if you...
Earlier in the game, I said, no point hunting. Now, hunt. Right? It's at least one or two bodies.
You got seven grand in the bank. Exactly.
And you know that there's going to be max loss bonus for Astralis so in a scenario like this where three players stay alive and you get 3400 loss
That's another gun round you take away one or two
Then they're in a scenario where it's a different conversation
So that's why they're taking this very seriously as a save stare holds the incendiary hooksy for the info for those irresponsible with a long range duel alongside
It's just coming too easy there for legacy isn't it right? They've done some very grouped up team-based plays
obviously winning a 2v5 is going to help out the account as well but we're
currently looking at 62 lead and that's without the pistol
some long spawns if they wanted to use them
they have a long spawn if they want to use it's not even one of the best so I
I'd take that back and I'll pretend I didn't even say it
There are no long spawns for them this time
That's what I meant to say short aggression though. It is good. Look at the pre-aid
He's been watching the foosie demos
Sands in that is a cheeky opening kill
See this. Yeah, that's my pride there. I think that's throwing us an extinguish as well so that flows you can edge
Yeah, well it was a sands in the found him. It's a good clawback kill from stare on the boost
It does look like it's trying once again this more aggressive velocity, you have to.
Oh, I like it.
You have to.
You're pushing.
You're talking on the fade.
This seems likely.
Oh, I think, no, doesn't see the barrel.
Close to the screen, I guess.
Yeah, I think you're right.
Niappi on the AWP picks it up off of the fallen Swede and takes down Hart.
All right, Lado.
You want to even win a 1v4?
Well, you'd want to win a 1v4, but can you win a 1v4?
the 2 on 5.
He was the passenger in that one.
Dumont did all the heavy lifting.
He was alive.
He was there to help a little bit.
But now he's going to try and want to have an AWP and he's not going to be ready for
that.
Yabi leaves with 3 kills.
Astralis leave with a third round.
Well, that's nice, right?
You get pipped at the post there if you're foezy, but your teammates are able to pull
it together.
So there you go.
right now. So Yabbi will be one, Fosy the other, we saw this against Liquid.
Crazy, that's the first time they've done that and it's the first time Fosy's tried that.
There's still a chance to man this a much closer half.
Looks like it's gonna be a quick test of Hootsie's lock. After this incendiary they may go.
Okay, they're going to be real naughty.
They're going to boost over the smoke, I think, so Hooksy wants to play close.
Oh, yeah, look at that angle.
Wow, never mind about over the smoke.
Hooksy!
Oh, he goes wide enough.
Still down to Lato, though.
That is a cheeky waiter, a manufacturer, an opening.
And it's so premeditated, they went straight into it.
They went straight into that.
At least an opening kill.
What more could you ask for?
That's it.
That is actually disgusting.
Really cool.
really cool. Okay, so you've not only got the advantage, now the CTs are the ones that
have to make the move.
Nism's playing it by the book.
Just hope you can actually watch it.
Just look at the camera. It's no surprise you didn't see Huxley last round. Like, look
at it.
Oh, wow.
Like, look at it. I know he's close, but it just looks... I know there's a lot of them
that do it.
Brazilian yukenda.
That's just... it's a lot.
It is too much like you can see each individual pixel from that just don't I don't understand how they're able to be so good doing that
Right, okay. No, I know there's a lot of players that do it and obviously it pays off and
You just can't see your whole screen
I wonder he didn't catch him on this list. There's only 20 seconds left. Yeah, it could get weird
It's best with art try a solo cross-law
The bomb, the bomb, there's only 20 seconds left.
Bomb, and that's round.
That has to be round 50 seconds!
Okay, what happened?
That's an overcook.
That's a massive overcook.
They started off with a really cool idea.
You get the kill you wanted,
and it just disintegrates slowly.
Just sat around sitting on their hands for the rest of the round,
getting too tricky with it.
Oh, okay.
That's the gift back after losing the 2v5, I think.
What was the guy's I just I I'm sitting here talking about Nisman the screen thinking they're
gonna be able to piece this round together like a piece of cake because you're up against
double orbs. You've got the space and then that that's baffling, but blacks in that's
baffling. Okay, it's the, you know, it's the it's the one. It's the one. As you said,
it kind of, you know, equalizes from the two on five. And now a strahler's actually have
an opportunity to have a fully tied up CT side hall. I wonder what like was it?
Wow.
I wish I spoke Portuguese, I could hear the comms in that round just to understand what
was said.
Well, here they are, scurrying suicide, yeah.
If everything you have is cheese.
You're a cheese salesman at the cheese market.
Look at this.
It's just a contact walk.
Okay, Stairway's going to have at least a sight line.
They're not going to be able to contact walk all the way.
There's four players.
They're not in a default.
They're just ready to explode.
Okay, and then he sees a smoke.
He throws a HG and doesn't get the kill he so desperately sought after.
Dumas found Ryu, Gabi got an awful lot of work to do, and they catched him through the
corner of the box there.
That was a nice find.
Pressure was applied.
Nysim did a lot of damage, it's Lato that gets the kill, but Nysim made him so uncomfortable
he couldn't string together anything.
What is admirable for me about being able to call at this?
Now look, it doesn't work all the time.
It is the fact that it does work some of the time, right?
It just, like I'm thinking about this.
You're not even playing anything that's an assemblance of what you see other teams do.
You've called a lot of runs in Counter Strike.
I don't know if you've ever called the...
I wish I could have.
The way I had to call was Cheese.
It was like, let's have a couple of set gimmicky executes.
We'll do some pattern calling.
We'll force them to have these expectations and we'll snowball a couple of rounds.
That was my piece of victory.
And these guys, the amount of different looks of just oddball cheese play that you don't
see from other teams, it's fun.
They are Brazilian and the cheeseballs are.
But it is cool to see a team that's calling and strategies diverge from the north to such an extent.
Yeah, for sure.
They've got the unique flavour from it as an entertainment, as something you've got on the television.
It does lead to certainly plenty of that.
And they've got individuals who can have extremely high output.
Oh yeah.
Okay, so mid-door mollies so they can't go lower.
Enable Sands into very quickly, go and assemble her onto the pre-ank short for the boost.
They're just full confidence in the fact that no one's gonna pray over flames.
And it do not get to greedy.
Look at the map control you've earned.
Oh, and Fuzi's quite committed to this.
Flash.
You need to at least feign footsteps and pressure like Duma does there,
but you don't need to follow through. You just want to bait out the nades.
They've been able to do that very successfully.
It's a surprise to see Yappy also staying with the double orb set up.
Wow, it forces so many grenades.
And there's plenty more at CT spawn.
You can see stairs scooping up a couple of extras.
OK, well, are they going to overcook again?
They've got a minute.
Yes, let's really stay locked in on.
Don't talk about this in the screen.
No, I'm looking at the game.
I want to see how close he is to the screen.
We need to be in?
Are you faking a need to be?
45 on the clock.
We don't have the short presence anymore, but maybe we didn't want that because we didn't
want to sweep.
No, okay, we are a need to be in.
All right.
It's good to be certain.
It's a good call considering the setup.
He's going to be blocking doors though and he's going to try and maneuver around there.
He's getting cheeky.
Oh, but he's selling you, have you?
Really cheeky. Oh gets another one to are the bomb now loose outside of the window. That's all down to the orp. Yabi and Ryu
Two man hold of B a two-man hold of a full commit for players from legacy committing in and now
It's just sad city hasn't got the time for anything here. Just try looking for an extra kill or two
I have to give it a go. We're about to give it a half-time break. This one's for the stats ads and so get stuck in
anyone? Anyone fancy a frag? There it is. Stair will pick it up.
Astralis 5, Legacy 7, Dust 2 and no clear outrunner.
Lato 12 frag, hall. We're gonna swap sides. We're gonna be right back.
I'm not sure what you're thinking of, but I'm sure it's a lesson I've learned
I know I even know you're right
I'll be getting lost in the storm, so be justin' what it takes
I'm gonna do my best to find what I need to know that you're right
I'm not sure what you're thinking of, but I'm sure it's a lesson I've learned
7-5 on the half-first map, Dust 2 picked by Legacy trying to exploit what they consider
a weakness, what many consider a weakness in Astralis's pool, however, quite a competitive
one, it was at 1.6-2, so nice stabilizing 3 in the final 4 from Astralis.
Just back that with some numbers.
Okay, I like this.
I like that. Yeah, it's getting up a bit better back up. That's our punish pick 18 times this map has been played
In 2026 for Astralis. They've won at six lost at 12. Yeah, okay
So it is a bit of a sore spot for them
Sandzin's got a lot to deal with on long will fire up a couple of shots and just around the corner in time
Smoke quick
Reap halting the Glocks get across. Dumas not there to flash
That's a fight. Just yeah, he's getting there from short now
Looks like they'll have to concede the plant.
Wow, 5v5 for the retake.
Nysim dropping that smoke to Doom out to set them up for this.
So what, I guess the short smoke fades and you go.
Who's anti flashed? Don't touch on Goose's Yabi.
Doom are holding onto his flash. Now he throws it indeed towards Goose's position.
Still doesn't stop Yabi onto Nysim.
Two back from the Brazilians looking good.
I'll get good, I'll get good.
I'll find it.
I think I've seen Stash. You'll be able to wrap this one up plainly.
No way, mate. You can do whatever you want with that bomb. This one is going in the favor of Astralis. Nice shot.
Alright, he's going to get out of there with three kills and the Kevlar.
That's an M4.
They have a pretty tidy looking four spice. Adds no slaps on the scout. You get that in his hands.
upgrade it into an M4 here and actually this is going to be a good looking second round of play.
Oh he dropped the M4, does he not want it?
He's given the M4 the sands and he's gone with head armor here. So I don't know how Art ran out of ammo
so quickly but he didn't have any mags left. That was the problem. Like as soon as he shot that last bullet,
when I said out of ammo, I was really mad. Out of ammo. Oh wow. Okay maybe you did a couple
of accidental reloads out of habit.
Very hefty blow to Hoopsy's health.
This is another one of those themes we saw from Rashaf yesterday.
The Xbox and Mid-Door Smoke.
Don't play through this, boys.
Don't play through this.
Well, the watch is there and two were there.
Hoopsy.
Oh, the Xbox, the shoulders.
Easy pickings.
He was softened up as well.
Doom now and Sadzip will shut him down.
That's Yabi and Hoopsy now in an early grave.
I've just given away the map with this one. I know that's so dooma, but it's mega dooma
That's the vanter black pill. I'm not sure how oh, okay, you're out
Do my down
A plant likely saddened those cute play around this mode stairs gonna hold it
He's responsible for your focus short side. Aren't missing and lato all piping up the short side saddened just the patience
It's not gonna work out for him foesie as well on to what those two kids they started this round off with it's nearly all
They leave with stair will get to
That's a good turn around and it is incredibly important back someone thought that I that round might have determined the entire outcome of dust
To I thought it was
Let me watch my words. That was a terrible decision for books in yami. Yeah, I understand they put a lot of resources into getting there
the control early. Who was the first player, not this skirmish, to par that shore? I feel
like Saird took control of the situation, right? Because their smoke was there and they just went.
And you had to take a gamble in that situation. The fact that they know that Saird's ramp with the
M4, he doesn't want to pick on his own. So they isolate that CT fight. They were brilliant understanding
of those rotations in. That is a hugely important round. But look at Art. Mag 7.
Oh, nice play. Little underhand job he catches Dumau playing anti.
They've run the same round. Oxy and Yabby get up cat this time without any issues.
Oh, and a little bit of info there. He's been spotted out by Lato towards the rampside.
A Hutz Mag 7 is... I mean, what's he supposed to do? Look at the way Fus is holding him.
So this is what I imagine when Dumau is talking about, you know, mixing what art wants to do with his moves.
with his moves and craziness with with what the rest of the team likes to do because
with this type of investment that he's gone for, the reality of him actually being in the right
place, think about the options, right? It's pretty limited, but if it does work, you know, then it's
it's it's wow, that's a $900 a pump. Exactly. So if he can get himself on, on, yeah, the elevator
right now, this does actually start to become a little more interesting.
He this is great right if he stays at this elevation could get over the jump max seven in a way
Maybe even hang around for some more
I think he's just going to walk
Now he's clear to close doors supported by the rifles
There it is
I was hit the jumping max seven so very quickly understandably as soon as I'm going to run in the opposite direction
He should just try and grab that rifle and hold on to it
Nothing really else for Art to do.
MCJ, Pooxie had a rifle, right?
Hello, I think.
Wait, you might actually get an AK if he kills you, have you?
He's going to be loud though, isn't he?
Have you seen him?
Wait, you're not clearing under me.
Yeah, I actually really like this right if this guy is gonna do this
My skin started to crawl yeah, thank you emcee there was there was a good I just
Still got an M4 I guess
He gets it people are watching for fun
people are playing for keys but people are watching for fun.
Why is it you respect is it because he bought the mag 7?
If this guy is going to do that shit, yeah I'm going to knife you, you know?
Listen bro, come on now.
He's not gone now and looks like Sansin is going to be deterred by the Molotov.
It looked like he was perhaps considering going for a more aggressive line around that
Xbox smoke but flashed along.
Ah, it's commenced to the spray and catches Ryu's trade attempt.
It's high impact to star, isn't it?
It shuts down.
They're going to go into a mid to B.
So that's in perfect position, it just nails it.
Trade from Fuzi's plea.
All right, it's only noose and not B.
Oh, a chance on T'Latto, get some low.
Yeah, that only would have mattered if Fuzi and Yabi were able to turn their attention
to that site.
How's just the one man, the abster?
He should die from ART who's found himself in suicide right now so they've made sure
to cut him off at the pass, and I'm critiquing ART's antics, so enough money to get an M4
and lock down long on his own, so good job from the in-game leader, it's gonna be that.
Oh, I guess if I'm top mid, good round from ART.
Well, the money a little bit all over the place for Astralis.
Do you want to take a timeout?
Wouldn't be a bad time to have that chat.
I think it'd be a really good time to have that chat, especially with what I'm starting
to see take in the buy department.
Oh, they're not going to take the timeout.
Okay, well, three had enough money.
He's pointing AWP and giving it to Fozy.
That's what he ruggers reaction to the double kill from our art.
Yeah, you have to get the trade in there, don't you?
Yeah.
Ooh.
So that's him looking for his rival.
I hate this.
I hate this buy.
It's not that I, it's not that I hate that they invested.
I hate with what they invested because now if you're going to do a B pop, if you don't
actually get into the site, what's foes are you going to do?
Save?
It could have been two rifles instead.
Right.
Yeah, I see your logic, it's sound.
I can get us dust too and you want to work the orb, but if you want to work the orb you need to take map control.
Right, you want to get your short space, you want, you see if you can pipe in that mid to B.
If Nissen's playing like a jiggle smoke offense though, that's an orb shot you can hit.
Yeah, but look at Duma. They have 3B.
I am blocked.
I don't know if they'll change the call though right to go to go back everyone is
start moving now and then Hoaxy would do the decision instantly.
The question is, is like, can Hoaxy do any convincing?
He's just got a P250, no nades.
How'd he start?
Okay.
Flash?
Oh, Fusey, blinding!
Perfect!
PUSH!
No one's killing him!
Finally, Stare gets the bullet into his brain.
You've got Lato and Dumau on B.
Fence is nade.
Flash is a good, they do connect, so do Dumau's bullets.
He removes Stare, Fusey looking the wrong way, but now can adjust.
This LATO that racks the bomb gets the multi-shutdown.
And that one feels good.
Two consecutive, four legacy.
Those first two CT rounds in quick succession.
And dominant as well, only one casualty in both of those.
And it will now be the Astralis EK, so it doesn't get any easier from here.
So the response to Yabi's Util was a flash push of tons.
Yeah, when you think about the fact that they only had two players towards A as well, at a certain point, they're going to go,
well, our stacks here, we should use the stack to our advantage to try and garner some info.
I imagine Legacy are a difficult team to play against. They're a frustrating team.
You can have very frustrating rounds and lose frustrating rounds against a team like Legacy.
I think teams who play off meta in terms of having a few more like gimmicky plays who shoot hard and can play faster, scary.
Yeah, because if they can get the momentum rolling, you're in strife.
Shouldn't be any strife here.
I say that as things have gotten a little out of hand here.
Two Malken people down.
Another ace.
Down could be another one, you're right. Four kills deep.
Fousey's just gonna be hoping that Nissen brings the fight his way.
And two Maltes!
Five back to- well, not back to back, but two aces in a single map.
That is a outrageous output.
Yeah, one much more impressive than the other, but still he's 18 kills deep.
I will also say that one was necessary given how it started.
Yeah, it did get a bit sketchy there.
Okay.
I don't want to push you guys. I fozy stop jump spotting for suicide as well. I don't
like they can call this possibility because of the CT smoke.
Yeah, I think stairs stopped at his tracks. We heard that smoke plume.
So you need a molly from somebody backcat to try and flush this.
Yeah, we could do it.
Oh, it's out. It's not gonna matter anyway.
Still gonna throw it in.
Using valuable resources, Satsun.
Oh, still gets the opening.
Sound reposition from Satsun Swiper.
It's what you want from Europa to be really jarring.
I know it comes with a lot of risk, but yeah, look at that in the pit.
does to T side when you're up against an orb but he's so dynamic
I feel like hooks is giving away a few openers let me take a look
looks like it's gonna be a real cut and dry just finish a Ryu actually gonna go
first he slipped the gap Satsen's definitely not gonna be ready for this
he does round the corner he misses his shot art wise die to Ryu as well he's
Cut the rotations at least.
Dumau sat in and are are here.
Stair has vision.
They're gonna swing it up the ramp and oh,
they line up for Arts M4.
Pick a discipline from Ryu,
needs the second on to Lato,
but overlooks the position.
All with his back turned,
a nice shot from Yabi,
but he'd need to hit two more of those.
And he is one bullet from death.
With only 18 seconds to close this gap
and to turn the tables.
should very well be a 11th.
Hard work already done.
I have no time for this now.
That's it.
Yeah, he's dead.
He doesn't even commit to the bomb.
Okay.
Well, it feels like they've taken control of this now.
Four straight rounds.
It would be either a force or a partial out of Astralis.
And, well, first, it'll be a timeout.
So, Hooksy has been involved in three openers.
They've all been opening deaths.
It's easy to see why he would be frustrated.
It doesn't even really get to play the round getting picked apart, but very well done from
Art again.
A couple of really nice rounds from him in this second half.
Two kills are long to stall them out.
Two kills on A to stall them out now with that spacing.
So if you don't shove, you are playing for overtime, but you can still get a decent partial
buyout because next round you get the 3400, so you can splash some cash, leave yourself
about 1k.
A little bit more if you're aim's fozy.
In fact it's all very...deagle centric implies this is not going to be quick.
I still just returned to that buy that they went for.
Then they had the extra money on Ryu.
I just...
It's easy to question it, you know, when you're watching like we are, but just with
the approach they went for, it didn't feel like the one.
Oh!
Perfect timing on the HEG grenade,
Art's done some significant damage up and firmed.
But he is just gonna stand in the open,
hoping that with his initial engagement,
they do not multi can come on through and there he is.
Why not three aces?
Why not have another one?
Why not three?
Ah.
Cause Stare has hit the shot with a scout, that's why.
He's still kicking up a bit of a fuss isn't he Stare?
He's trying his heart out right now.
15 kills him, 14 for Yabbi.
Maybe Hooksy can get some redemption. It's a bit tough. He's only got a P250.
Yeah, Lato is just going to be swinging between the two of them for the rest of this round.
So I guess if Hooksy could catch wind of that, there is a path to be.
Catch Lato.
Well, here's the aggression. They've just stopped waiting for it.
Oh, Lato actually does catch us.
Shoot.
It's not even looking, it's looking the wrong way.
Ah!
Oh, mate.
One more round, that's a little take, but remember that was the partial, this is the full.
Spawn's going to dictate some of the options.
I think they had one timeout left.
Doesn't look like they're going to take it.
What's the call, Hoaxy?
This is the all-part. This is just to patrol for lower.
So not even trying to fight toe-to-toe for the pig.
What a threatening smoke it is to be front of one deep towards suicide.
It's there though.
Yeah, this is a forward position and that toe is not safe.
If you make a move like that and around like this and you don't see the landing.
could signal the end of us to yes indeed open kill for legacy courtesy of the
second highest fragger from legacy I think the crazy part is there's no I
don't mind it from stare right he has a bit of a hot hand with some of the shots
he's hitting but there was nothing set up to react off the back of it if he did
die right no trade potential no group up ready to erupt and try to look for
something elsewhere now you're essentially operating for over a minute
with just a 4v5 so it's gonna be looking to some of the others to try and
battle them out of this one and they are gonna turn it into a mid-to-be split.
Look at this short retooling from the CTs.
They don't know it but if they go there's a real chance them to at least apply
pressure this mid-to-be. Yeah it's not comfortable for Nysimera.
He's from the heel of the pre-air and catches Yabi on the edge of the smoke.
Barbell activates from the short side sinks up with Sanzin's flashbang and it
Looks like this is going one way.
Up until it doesn't chance for the plant.
Ooh, Hoocsi, you can't be catching bullets like that.
Catches a stray down to 16.
You've got 20 seconds, you need to plant.
Ryu was hoping he could catch it and make it a 2v2.
Now the nade's gonna hurt.
Ryu down to the dunk, Doomount does him.
And now Hoocsi already catching a bullet.
Puts him into just unrealistic territory.
Sandin, they're gonna buy time for him to walk on into this one.
And it will be a comfortable close legacy starting with a win on their pick.
Just two under their belts, new come next.
Astralis gonna look to rectify and continue their pursuit of the playoffs.
It's sort of a concerning right, you're looking at a 13-8 scoreline and you've won both of
the pistols and you've been able to get the conversions in there.
Some odd by choices, losing a 2-5 in the first half as well, sure we did see legacy have
a bit of a fumble with an odd
call after an opening pick. All
in all, I love the odd stuff,
right? I like the out of the box.
It's giving us something to keep
us entertained here. But as you
mentioned, it's new cup next and
Astralis going to dig deep. That
wasn't it over to the desk. Yeah,
legacy with the leg up in this
qualification series and nice
little streak to be ending things
out for the Brazilians as well.
I just want to pick up with what
Chad said there, you know,
typically when we get to see
legacy in the server, there is a
This was no exception.
Yeah, you're certainly right about that one.
And we saw some individual moments, obviously,
the Dumao clutch will get into it a little bit later.
But you know, it's probably one of both pistols here as well.
So we've actually had the opportunity
to have a really good start.
But when it came to the gun rounds,
legacy much more comfortable on this tour.
Yeah, if we take a look at some of those individuals,
I mean, we were talking about, of course,
Dumao and Lado, kind of the ever talents, I guess,
which we were bringing them back
often prior to them halting vitality streak, right? And I guess I was a little bit maybe
concerned with the whole reshuffling of the project, them falling out of some of those
various invites as well. But it's great to see a solid bounce back from them.
Yeah, I think the problem is similar to, you know, more recently in Saudi and MIBR, like
I think they're great players, but they have never had really a team around them where
they could compete at the highest level. I mean, they're just the next generation of
Jury and Keisarato in a way, which was the case with them too, in Furia, especially Keisarato,
unbelievable player, but their roster was never really good enough. The first trophy,
they won of a big tournament, was once fallen, joined years and years later. So I think that's
also a little bit the case with Legacy, and we saw some flashes from them last year, obviously,
a little bit at Austin, more so towards the second half of the year. And now they're hoping that with
you know, a veteran captain in art, that he's potentially the missing piece to take them to the next level.
What did you think, honestly, when you heard that Art was joining a legacy?
I was shocked that he got the opportunity, because I don't think he has earned it, you know, on the server or with his results, with Fluxo,
but talking to some of the legacy guys, you know, I understood the thinking from an organizational standpoint.
First of all, we all know how difficult it is to get Brazilian players, right?
And then on the second hand, also thinking about the major and the players that are available.
If you take that into account, there really isn't many, if any.
So Art is someone who's obviously experienced playing on a tier one level,
has captained for a long time, you know, becomes more of an option that makes sense, right?
And I think if you believe that he got humbled by his experience in flux, so right going from attending all events with Furia to playing, you know, local lands in Brazil and online tournaments, right?
Like this is a big opportunity for him as well.
And it does feel like I don't want to say he's taking it seriously.
I think he would have done that regardless, but understands that he needs to change a little bit and has to make strides for this to really work.
Yeah, I feel like that kind of trope of the hyper aggression. That's definitely gone past. Yeah, all right
I feel as ridiculous. Exactly that way. Yes, you know, still some of that art flare
But definitely mellowed out. It's been template. Certainly. Let's dive into the do my moment
No, you were mentioning tell me this from your perspective. What's so impressive? Yeah
I mean, it was crazy because you can see it's a 2v5 post plant and even in this there's three players there, right?
And there's always going to be a bit of fortune on your side in these moments, right?
He does a good job playing the angles and gets the line up here and even value. He's ready for him as well
I don't know if I throw a flash or something like that
But yeah, this kill also on to hook see that's the one that wins him the round because there's no time for
Fuzi and you know, they were already
Winning like they won three rounds in a row up until this point in time
But this just has such an effect on the mental right like winning a
2v5 and getting an ace right all your teammates are gonna be hyped up
for you just gives you so much more confidence and energy and
You could just tell it was going to be hard for Astralis to come back into the game and somehow win
That's two after that round. Thanks to get a little bit funky. This job was alluding to you got round 10
Yeah, I was I was looking at it because Chad was really confused by what was going on in this round
First of all, this is a really cool boost. I don't believe I've seen this one before, didn't necessarily net them the opening kill.
In the end it was going to be Lotto, who this is also the play like on top, the player is supposed to surprise, but then Flash comes in, Lotto gets the opening kill onto Hooksie.
And then they took too long to organize themselves. How do we want to end the round with having long?
seemed like they wanted to go back to short and they were waiting for a push that didn't come
so so much time has passed they didn't have upper beat controlled and have no idea what's going on
so they want to sort of simulate long and buy time for this short flying to happen but you can see
the time it's really running down so Astralis react towards long they're going to be able to
get a kill with these flashes from Raiu they see the bomb and pretty much at that point in time the
around is already over, right?
Like they don't have enough time to pick up the bomb.
And sometimes this happens, right?
Like they had around where they took long, went back to B.
So now they're thinking, okay, how we've conditioned them
maybe somewhat by doing that, do we just go long?
And it's like, we go short.
Maybe someone should have smoked something.
And then they said, oh, I don't have a smoke.
So now, well, how can I go short
if we don't have Xbox smoke?
We don't have anyone in lower B, right?
So now I have to change the call again.
And this all takes five to seven seconds,
you know, 10 seconds for you to say something,
for someone to realize, I don't have it,
for you to come up with something else.
And unfortunately for Legacy, you know, in that five before,
it was just a little bit too discombobulated
and Astralis capitalized.
Obviously it didn't end up a-mattling to all too much
in terms of Legacy managing to get the W,
but I'm just curious, hindsight and is,
but what would you have done after, you know, Lado,
does get that kill after obviously the boost
doesn't work out exactly how they planned.
What would you have called if you were up?
I mean, from that point, when you don't have control anywhere else, it's okay if you want
to wait for a push a little bit, maybe in prep, they saw that's what Astralis likes
to do, but I would have just grouped with five players long, honestly, because once
you don't have control anywhere else, leaving the lurker is pretty risky, like you're just
hoping he can outplay or get some timing.
This way, you're committing your brute force that even if Astralis was doing this fight,
you would get the trades and you would get the bomb down and get into a post play.
Is there anything when we look at that second half and legacy managing to get 62 rounds
in a row?
Anything particularly lacking in terms of the Astralis approach?
I think it was just a couple of set rounds at the start, you know, getting, trying to
do a long export that doesn't work, then your buy isn't ideal because you don't have a lot
of economy and then you lose that and suddenly you're on the back foot by the time they started
playing default, you know, Hooksy dies to an op mid, there was no smoke for anything.
It just didn't look great from Astralis' side, unfortunately.
It looked like some of those games that Hooksy was talking about that happened at Tribal,
so I think it's going to have to give a bit of a drumming to his teammates in between maps,
sort of try to wake them up a little bit for Nuke.
Yeah, maybe breathing a bit of a sorrow relief Nuke, obviously, that pick,
but there was maybe a little bit of, I guess, not confusion,
but there was a few question marks about that, Vito.
Maybe for the people that didn't tune in for the pre-show portion,
can you explain what maybe you expected what they could have picked into?
Yeah, I was definitely expecting the legacy to get rid of Overpass, right?
Because right now it's between Overpass and Anubis.
That's their seventh map, and then they sort of play it.
They leave one of the two depending on the opponent.
Astralis's promo ban has become Anubis, right?
So they could easily read to Overpass.
No Overpass, no Anubis, everyone's happy.
But they read to the ancients instead.
Astralis's best map, really, and then Overpass was there for the taking,
which is another map that Astralis has picked plenty of times.
They play a ton and they didn't go for it, which to me just tells just says that they were really surprised by it being in the pool
They must have expected it to be banned haven't prepped it at all
Right and then didn't want to risk sort of just going into the map with no prep
Yeah, and and went with something like nuke, which maybe they expected to be a this either potentially or
You know something along those lines
Maybe they wondered if it's going to be a pick from legacy, but I'm sure they did
Some homework on that map and and they trust the prep. Yeah for sure
I like that thought process from you as well in terms of the new expectations then what are we gonna be seeing from Astralis this one?
It's tricky right like they're still struggling to find consistency even foosie. He talked about it in an interview a couple of months back
It's like I just I'm struggling with consistency. I know when I'm on I can be one of the best, right?
and he didn't have a good dust tool. So if he can turn it around and they can put on a better fight,
but legacy seems locked in. I think they can close it out here. Well, if Astralis do indeed
want to rebound, they have to do it now. They're map pick of Nuke, Lazingway. If they want any hope
of turning the tides in this series and potentially locking in the spot in the playoffs already of the
the Intel Extreme Masters Atlanta 2026.
Batch with your tail, it's evil
And that's what's gonna happen
Gotta get some!
Me!
All back!
Who comes back?
Bro, you're kind of wasting your life.
Bro, he's always at a high pitch voice.
Only you can hear me.
Look straight forward and act normal.
Listen, gigajag, my shooter has his aim pointed to left side.
The head.
Alright, someone tried this before.
Well, how about today, big head?
Do I have your attention now?
Nearly, nearly.
That could have been your self-production.
production could you at least take out a bystander I'm not gonna do that for what
reason budget reasons and the fact that these bullets are reserved for you nice
okay I'm sold
you see Rasmus I've grown a little tired of these double standards the joke is
Literally, anyone else misses a shot?
Upro.
You'll miss a shot?
Danger.
Any at any coace?
Start betting.
You'll get any coace.
Did it, sir?
No, you never ace.
Not even against Z-Coach.
Clearly, I haven't seen you play lately.
Oh, believe me.
I was watching you.
Here's how it's going to go.
Going to death.
Every single fight.
Until you lose this game.
People are going to be suspicious
It cost us all that's where you like the trade
And
the rest of us.
Bon giga chat, clutched around and we'll let the fans really see that big brain of yours.
down on the ground it's nothing major
I'll switch up for now, okay?
I'll go get it
They boost long
Okay
I smoke mid
I smoke mid, you can go to the guys
I'll long three I think
And they flash as well, that's three
And what are you doing as a live, guys?
I'm just playing, just play like you usually would
Just smoke, love it
Smoke and leave
And then you play center map, guys
Yeah, okay
I can flash close mid
I have sub mid right now
You're gonna go now and then be able to flash
Yeah
Flash twice, flash twice
Flash one more
One shot
One more
One short, one short, one short!
Shorting pit, just kill short!
I have one more short.
One short, one short, one short.
Short, short, short.
Nice, nice, good fucking concert.
I'm running, hold short.
One more, one more!
I'm blind.
Maybe holding midcast, we don't know.
I think so.
Stop withholding long push
Hold low, I figured it out
Holy shit, that's another 5 pack bro!
Last round, hello!
Yeah, I'm on it
Even saving
Holy shit
Fuck this guy
Fuck you, you're a fucking genius
I actually can't
At the barrel
Right knife
Yes sir
Fuck!
He'll stay here, he'll stay here, he'll stay here.
Oh, he won't.
He'll die tomorrow, just so...
Oh!
Nice!
Nice, yeah, bro.
Back in business, the inter-extreme masters.
Dust2 was a lot of fun!
You could have some giggles, of course, with strontas.
It's not laughing at the end of Dust2, because Legacy stole it away from them, but that was Legacy's pick.
We're heading over to Astralis' turn with Luke.
I'm glad they shared my sentiment, when you have a knife, I'm knifing him. Good.
I was like, yeah, okay!
But I think the frustrations might be Astralis' undoing against Legacy.
The fact that they play this style that's out of the box and it can get under your skin,
I think that's exactly where, not only the veto, but the gameplay has pushed at least the Danish call.
They need to try and shake that off and bounce back. It's the T-star of their map choice.
But you're not going to be given the good graces of all the space that another team.
Right, you're going to see a lot of lobby pushers. Art's going to be doing all this madness.
It's not going to stop. And if you expect it to, well, that could be where this all goes wrong.
Yeah, underestimate legacy at your own peril. This is a team not to be triumphed with and on
Luke no less. I think the other factor is let's say you assume that they're gonna be aggressive
So you tell you that you gameplay to like wait for pushes and then they don't push. Yeah, right
Especially after you've kind of conditioned them for a whole map
Who knows just
gone aggressive actually
No worries shuts them down try to run through the main smoke and he receives them comfortably reuse kept the round alive
Listen round
Dumau knows who's traveling the bomb, so surely he's a dead man.
Oh!
Closes the door and dips.
Come on, Hooksy, this is your moment.
He could win this with a smoke as well, but Dumau's gonna beat him to down B.
In the open.
Yep, in his blind spot.
Dumau doesn't really have the perfect weapon for a quick tap to the head,
so he's running and gunning with his dual barrettas.
That's such a slim chance here.
The fact is just Lato.
The around the world.
Satin back up the vent in time.
Oh, it does hit the headshot.
Satin is vulnerable.
Down the vent. No, no, no, no, no.
Oh, he's dead.
Enti!
And then that starts crying when you're down.
You just gotta hear that 13 times.
I think that was...
Let me think before I speak. I want to try and be nice.
That's a great another secret.
They were pretty heavy stacked top, right?
Yeah.
And that main smoke, you don't expect them to drop into an entrance like that.
But they're so noisy, right?
So you know that they're there.
So it just is extremely telegraphed and the misdirection was very slim.
Sorry, Tim. I won't get in the way.
Yeah, I don't know.
I didn't love it. I
Love this one's over. All right, well the coach out with guns come out of Charlottes
They take the lightest investment option. No, no, no, come on now. I'm for it. Not against the ex God bless you
Oh, that's a good one. What goes inside?
How quick can the shots dig their heels in are you on a galil?
No, Hooksy on the call-in. He'll hook his boys up, so everyone else with the AKs, Hooksy will take the worst weapon of the bunch, and this is where you can get a little bit crazy.
Little one of your legacy, you got these two SMGs? Why not go aggressive?
I'll take a risk. Like this. Like that.
He now is so brutal with it. He hits the dink on Yabi as well.
They're not far off from the nature of not finishing what he started.
You just hang around if your art and Nisman just push through with these SMGs on the fade.
I think they will. I think you're absolutely right. Reuse a sharp shooter though.
That's nothing. 2 MP9s, trade to the one rifle.
You don't even get to play out your rounds. Yep, you don't get to do anything at all, right?
They this is classic. They've used the bonus round exactly as you would have hoped
They're extremely jarring. They set the tone. They don't allow you to run whatever you wanted to run
It's good stuff, I it's expected stuff, but it's good stuff
Do not just pushing lobby as well
Which has you kind of reeling from that as it enhances the MP9 push as well
Yeah, it is interesting right that he took the the traction first
Yeah, but I think when you go and you look at some teams and you look at their tendencies the dormant has to really be on point
Right if if you're having a lot of rounds where maybe you don't have anybody and lobby dealing with that earlier
Because you're not expecting cities to push it. That's a gap that you can really start to exploit as we should be
No, we are we saving are we going for it? We're going for it somehow
So if you have he gets out ramp who's gonna try and drop down the vent
Yeah, he hasn't gotten out of ramp
and hook see
I'll get down the vent. So that's a three zero
that
Now that's that's where it does start to sting. There's ten more of those
When you put it that way it's not that bad
But I mean you're right. This is becoming more and more of like a
Frequent sighting in the nuke better as well as CT's fighting door. I mean filter should be a lot
But that's that that right there is what I'm talking about in terms of finding a tendency and then exploiting it, right?
Yeah, yeah, right. Yeah looks in the skies for help
You boys are in partial territory. I a lot of the moves that would make
Are they trying someone
Can't fold them for trying that's the kind of thing I would try Chad
I know that's it. I would I think a lot of frustrations from that first map
Definitely you're gonna breed into this first. I'll see you look at what happened in four workshops. So was that art in lobby?
Yeah, he's
He's pushed all the way. It's uh stair who's managed to find double on the D. He's all for naught if this flank connects
No one's on B. They should get the plan. Okay. Hang on
This round isn't over
Just yet
It's the Glock. Oh, it's sharp of a dink
Dis- ah, I should have stair here.
Shit.
Does.
Not feeling good about this, are you? With the Desert Eagle and a clock.
That was easy.
In fact, you got the plant's mass.
A dead man standing there, waiting for the collection.
Yeah, even worse. Okay, Ryu.
They've all got kits as well, so you're not too worried.
And there you have it.
Yeah.
I'm mad for that.
I'm mad on Osrallus' behalf for some of these fights they're having to take.
The way these rounds are going, respect their legacy though, because they have brought all
of that same energy from Dust2 immediately into Astralis's map pick, and Rugger, I mean,
you know, his face says it all.
It's just, your 4 rounds deep and you already have everybody but at least a residual buy,
right, and that's not even taking into account saves and the ramifications that's going to
have.
So, you're not too concerned if you do lose one, knowing that you'll be able to bounce
back with a full fledged buy, but let's see what's the opener this time round.
starting towards Yard. No more of his lobby hijinks. The pressuring top, the
harassing top of the lot of nades.
Flash for a lobby take. And a heart creep. And a heart creep from the wall. You ain't
gonna get in any room boys. Go on, get in any space. They are not letting them breathe.
The lobby's meant to be yours, it's meant to be a given. Not against legacy, not
against this very well-structured CT star. I mean that it does go 100% in
flames there's something for you to celebrate but you're not going to
clear this in he's already pushed all the way up comfortable deep trophy yabbi
alvent though maybe he could make something work you got foosie as well
joining him through the hot walk they don't know of event jobs best play yeah
oh he just dips back so he's allowed to slink out
that's gonna go in a dress that or is he gonna push okay yes they're making
short but they hear the plant on A.
So I was in Yabbi this would have
been a lot. This would be huge just to get the ball rolling right get to a start.
Getting into Nessim oh my goodness you could die to the Nade here because
around the corner in time sweet geez he's down to one HP oh and Fuzzi's gone.
Doomow finishes him off. Yabbi can win this.
Well there's two of them both with kits Doomow low art to provide the covering
fire oh no he's the one that's going to try and bait him out and Doomow combined
Desk's are being slapped. Yabby feels like he could have won that one and he's not wrong.
They kind of lined up for his spray. I can see five. Astralis is still not able to break
the Goose egg. And yet to find an opening kill as well. So that's a bit tough. Dimm out
three and zero in that department and Arton Sadsen shipping in for one of their own. This
is great for him. I don't think he knows he's in the flames for a big portion of this because
of the flash, but the fact he gets another one before he goes down there, that's brilliant.
It's crazy. Just as his vision comes back, he realizes it's a bit of a lost cause.
Fingers still stinging a little bit.
Yeah.
The coach gives you 30 seconds to regret the slam or the loss of the clutch. Both suck.
But you've taken your time out. You got the bomb down. You got the max loss bonus.
You can buy again.
They're pushing ramp, they're pushing hut with the orb, they're really essentially forcing your hands to yard.
I wouldn't be surprised now to see a yard control set up.
Alright, pushing towards red, pushing under silo, being aggressive outside.
Huh, just happy to still.
Stay at stand and Nissen will drop down immediately, so he'll poke his head up through secret.
And I can tell him that no one's crossed just yet, so Nissen knows he has a lot of room that he can take.
Also having to consider the ventrop there as well was Nissen. That's I think on that clear. They're gonna say hey, it's unlikely
Always a question mark, but not okay not not playing to yeah
So I would be interested to talk to right. Yeah the shake it ahead from Raga
You seen this yeah, I am Gabby's gonna be holding for it. They went high alert is two man elevated
Nice from Ryu finds out
This surely is where the, uh, first Australia's round arrives.
Two men in frontage, you've got Stair and a power position as well, likely to clash with Lato shortly.
He's got so much to worry about Lato. Door walk, heart walk. Main.
There's a lobby crawl for Yabi to be concerned about, but he's so focused on the heart, could go down to this very slow procedural clear.
will clear both of them.
Oh, game!
Whoa!
Great shot!
That turn!
Lotto plays!
Important trade.
He's here as well.
He wrote it up to Ben.
Hoops is not looking for this at all.
No way.
Now the bombs last 30 seconds in the 2v2.
High octane counter strikes.
Now the Orbs are having this.
They're still worried about him.
Radio.
They're moving and bug shaking all over the shop.
Fusy.
Get run at, leg shot.
Punch in the corner.
Yabi, good cover.
Nade finishes him off.
Dropping into the site with 17 seconds left.
Yabi tasked with the plant.
Was he going for the kill?
He doesn't want that, he's just going for the kill.
10 seconds, Saturday in the fight.
Come on, and Yabi does convert,
does come up clutch on a very time-sensitive mission.
The coach was shaking his head
before any kills even happened within the round.
So you wonder, it must be a comms-based thing,
or the attitude that he's hearing from his players,
right, the tone and the voice,
the way that they're talking to each other,
or maybe the way that they're not.
Here's that flick down, obviously obscured there
by the player cam, but the fact that he's able to adjust
into that, they almost claw back a 3v5 man disadvantage.
Yabbi did so much work there, he saved Rosie as well for a moment.
At least provided the trade.
Aw, well, sad to not too remiss about that at all.
Are you going to get yard plays from Astralis here?
Some art starts down to secret.
is not great. Four smokes invested here. Yeah, because there's just so many breaks in the
modern game, this makes sure that you can at least so the seeds are down, but look at
this great KMMC. They have the full info. So your biggest worry is maybe they creep
through and go into main, but if they're throwing the double wall, would that be the
play? Well, everything's available. The top pot lined up. Back 10 on hook seat, two Galils.
Oh, because well, so you're not really going to get anything on going. Is it a fake? Two
You play the heading ram.
Flash is duke-ing it very nicely.
Makes life difficult for Sanzi, but not for the Nissan Dumau 1.2 punch.
He's going to dip back.
He hears confirmation that there's more bodies moving towards the ram side.
Good survivability.
Rotation's here.
Yeah, he gets a freebie as well.
Stairs head, straight into his crosshair.
Art from the control side.
There's Dumau for a second.
It's just flowing so nicely for legacy.
In multiple misdirection there from Astralis, right?
The double smoke wall outside to say, hey, we're going to be dropping down into secret.
Top fake where they even committing into the site the ramp play where they did get the space
But because you don't get anything done on a this one just plays the number game brilliantly down from him
Okay, looks he's pissed off
I mean that was such an elaborate round like you
Can we I don't know that this right this if we're having a listen in I'd love to that would be the listen
And wouldn't it wouldn't that be a listen? Yeah, I
Don't know if we can yeah
The legality of the situation is, understandably, you know, we do, yeah, we do try to keep the players happy with these lissons.
He, he's the opposite of that.
He's spewing.
You wonder what it is, though, right?
It, as in, yeah, specifically.
They pulled off the rat like it looks like they did the call exactly what you you called. Yeah, so
Is it is it the comms aren't flowing as they need to be is it the you know
The players shut down when they don't feel comfortable. Oh, he's beautifully played absolutely pedestrian. That's a casual stroll
Shut down swallows the nade and you could go down to anyone and boxed in again. Okay. Well that's seven one the scoreline will read
There's another opening kill, falls in the favour there.
Oh, legacy.
We are 7-1 in that department too.
Did I hear JKS?
Is that doing the JKS?
What did you say?
I don't know.
You may have.
I don't have great hearing, but...
If that is the case, it'll be a vent move.
Okay.
Okay, some event centric.
Yeah, door or vent move, if it's the JKS.
I'm curious now.
So we'll see.
I was really wondering who were the teams to join in my mind coming to this event
It wasn't let's super clear cup, but there was two teams who definitely should have been the plasma one by tiny the war number one
Now the world number two. Wow, no surprise there
The next would have been foot
But that was predicated on whether or not
Locks is gonna be here and he's here. Yeah, they lost earlier today. Yeah
The other was astralis
Outside of those four names, you could have grabbed the rest of the field and they could have had a life tournament and they could have been in the playoffs.
Yes.
Any team for the rest of the field.
Right, some you could make more of an argument for than others, sure.
Legacy being one of those, I think I could make a case for.
Maybe game a legion as well to a slight degree.
We got aggression in the yard.
Stairs just going straight across, Doomow's super pushed up, he's got the whole squad
with their backs turned and Art has found the opening as well.
He's going to get a quick tap to the back of the head of Fozy.
Already operating at a 3v5 but you have got access to B, Nysim's AWP peeks in and Stair
doesn't quite finish off the kill.
But look where the bomb is.
Uh, yeah.
I'd like to-
So you have the sight, you just don't have the necessary-
Oh god, what a horrible problem.
I don't think you are solving it.
I understand what Hoopsy's doing though, he might get the info his way up.
Two people on the screen, okay, but now they've seen the bomb.
If you get some both, I mean they're coming secret so the pressure's on, I understand that.
If you cut him off a lobby, and if you cut him off a lobby and then it sounds in place heaven with the AWP.
Lobby there.
That's a fine headshot from Yabby.
A shot.
Okay, so they've equalized a three on five and now the vent pivot from art has to acknowledge the potential.
Yeah, there's only 35 seconds, so a shot will have to accelerate and they have no nades.
He's got an incendiary.
If Arches hides, he wins the round.
Yeah.
An hidey-shell.
Just duck on the DECON door.
Oh my god.
He's just set for a frag here, right?
Feels like a guarantee.
And it is.
Stag goes down. Perfectly played! Perfectly played!
Oh, pause it! Home with a quad kill!
Come on.
Eight to one.
And it's such a team effort.
Like, every piece in this defensive squad
is doing what is needed, what is required.
This was the nice shot.
Oh, wow. Very nice shot.
Okay.
Splattered into the lockers there.
All right, bully.
Partial at least it wasn't a swirly
Things are flowing so down well and for Astralis, this is not what they were expecting after dust 2
lower bracket remember to best reach required tomorrow and
In each group for the lower bracket only one spot and 16 playoff
They're in.
Now does he the flash? First time we've seen the opening go as well as his way of that capacity.
He keeps a moving advantage. What a shot.
Quick follow up onto sad in pushing heaven.
Is there a world where Nyssen can ruin all of this hard work?
I bet he wished he had anything other than a hand of the hand.
And there's another wallp from to pick up if you want.
Oh, he's tagged him. HG?
Are you safe? 50 D?
Another headshot from the Ryu D.
in the round, massive work, gets his total up to six. Stunning. And this is a guy who he definitely
can have some immense output. It's just the consistency that seems to plague him. So that's
going to be a bit of a fire starter. Off the back of that, you really want to convert another.
Because the fact that you've won yourself a round like this, right? A partial by a
top pop, you catch the timing. You like that, but you need a rifle round. You want that bed of four
before the break.
Art doing hard things. Art doing hard things. The flash from Sadzins sets him up and that's the kind of death where Boosie is screaming. What is he doing? Look at Yabi. No way, Lato goes completely unnoticed. Yabi was looking the wrong way.
This one's pushing Lobby, he's gonna shoot me with the back of the head, it gets worse for Astralis, this is a cruel and unusual punishment for the Danish Roster.
Just don't get to breathe, it's just so rapid.
Oh, Stan's got the timing on the flank, so he walks in the blind spot, looks like he'll at least get sad zen.
Oh no!
Ah! Okay.
You can't do anything, there's nothing you can achieve, there's nothing.
There's nothing you can do!
It's just like six cents like the hairs on his neck just started to stand on end and he pivots I
This is a half the eye if I'm a stress I would love to just delete from my memory like open up system 32 and just purge it
crazy crazy
Ladder's noisy there too. Yeah, he was he was maybe it was too many calm
Yeah, I think you're right. Oh, yeah, we just saw laser focus on his cross-air
I can't believe that.
An AK, a glill, two diggles, and an AWP.
Who leaves?
Last round.
Still wanna know what Hooksy said in that timeout.
I do, yeah.
You might be lucky on the break, we'll see.
I let her down the vent just to make sure there's no hijinks.
It's all reblock smoke wall.
Donnie Yard now, thank you very much, Hooksy, for the tutorial.
You're gonna throw that third piece in.
Question mark smoke allows stair to load through. Does he want to try and play into
credit card? Does he want to go main? Does he want to go warehouse? Secret if you pass
close all options.
Gets across from the art presence.
Yeah they know this is a possibility though.
Yeah so warehouse under Australia's control.
Oh it has the cross though.
Yeah so it should have a...
Info at least they're actually gonna push forward they're gonna give them heaven and hell
They are holding for the back
But the time is starting to get away from 35 seconds final round and the bomb's gonna get across the sideline
Of course it does course it does of course it does so do you come and take the fuck you get shot in the back
I'm not upset enough. But now fozie still got to get the bomb across
Still got to do that
Satsin now forced away so heaven is under air control over a Sean Lado
Yeah, that's always in a perfect position even though foosie tried to make it difficult still nails it nice shot from stairs
He's had an impactful round. Okay three
A lot better than two
It seems like a certain to you with Satsin so low on the HP stash and finish the job at 3k from stair to get a
Astralis something to work with is this how it's going to go down a two zero astralis sent to the lower bracket
Stay tuned and find out with us
Oh
A war mark on back and it's been rather cold from Astralis, it's going over to the CT side
of Nuke so the third, a very important third found with stairs 3k, but very little going
right and very much going right for legacy, it was a very coordinated CT side disruptive
same energy that you may have caught on Dust 2. Not so easy to do so on the T side though.
So is there any grounds? Oh, the bookies have given up on Astralis. Okay, so...
Look, I would normally say that three rounds on the T side of Nuke, it's pretty workable.
But I think with kind of the tone of the game and the type around Astralis won, maybe not.
But let's see, can they erect the blue wall?
Has to start with this pistol here and you've got the setup. You have to be tucked on vents.
It's a molly name molly part.
Your competitors, Yabbi nails the first onto a jumping doom now.
Nissan vs Fuzi, oh no he can't handle it, can't hack it.
Yabbi wants to Yabbi, Nissan in, it's all onto Ryu.
They have flooded into the site, they've hit their headshots,
and now they're just ready to give, they're ready to blow it.
Sansen's going to find the headshot.
And that really is going to change the lay of the land.
You can see what that means, like Sansen's face is like, oh we're doing this.
He knows exactly how important that is.
And it'll be over pretty quickly.
Yeah.
Level of doing this.
Astralis will shove, they are going to force.
It looks pretty deep, heavy.
Yabby hooks, he's there all equipping those.
So hell to bait by their own Molly there.
Not be able to come out of the hut, but otherwise...
Yeah, I like it. Simple stuff.
Just try the ex-hooks and sand.
Scout for Fozzie.
Five-seven for Ryu.
Oh, they're ahead of the time.
Um...
well they're in B
you have to go absolutely nuts and then know the window is broken so they're
prepared for you double door side
and you're dead
great awareness miss him
as soon as you see that window broken there you go
someone's in thanks for that I suppose
they are absolutely just rabid right now they are not wasting an ounce of
time. They've got a hot day with the playoffs. And it's just two rounds away.
The playoffs are calling Legacy's name. The fun thing with Legacy is they do play an
entertaining solid counter strike. So, you know, getting them on a stage game, crowd
going a bit noisy. It'll be fun to watch. Obviously opponents, we've got to wait and
see how these seeding games go. But we do know if Vitality want to see themselves in
the playoffs they will need to run. I think the sheer velocity of this hunt as well.
Yeah you don't get to keep us a stare at smiles at least.
Goddamn just all over the show. Alright Eiko now all you force up the game but you should Eiko.
I kind of feel like you weren't trying if you forced again but if you forced again off of a
timeout then you're trying. Or you call a timeout and then Eiko because they're gonna think
obviously force it and they call the timeout.
But if I'm rugged right now, boys, this is going to be one of the toughest comebacks we've ever had to do.
Right now, we're pretty fucked. We're going to have to take a partial by.
We're going to have to give them 12.
Yeah.
But all we have to do from that point forward is one round at a time and do that nine times.
That doesn't believe what he's saying. Probably not.
Yeah, this one time.
here we go fallen call the time out right they were 11th 3 down and he was in
the astrologer he was in a split it's just a weird day next because because he
said he's retiring actually what fallon's doing is yeah he's he's moving to
Denmark changing his name yes it's gonna be fallen backwards yes I like that
Nelaf. Nelaf. Nelaf. And who become the new all-ping in-game leader for Astralis.
Yeah. No one saw it coming. No. What do we mean five seconds ago?
Well we've had some one-sided games of Counter Strike today. We have. So out of
Five maps, three of them were absolute blowouts.
A 13-4, a 13-1, maybe another 13-3.
They are just so hungry.
You see the bloodlust every...
Oh, there's a player there.
Let me kill him.
Yeah, run through the flames, come on.
Oh!
Ha, ha, ha, ha!
So cruel. Can't catch a break anywhere. Anywhere.
I think on the on the bright side for Astralis the frustrations are almost over.
Yes, I suppose that's the silver lining here is that it's over quickly.
Come on OZ. One more!
Winnable! 1v1, hang on. Lato versus Yabi, AKV Deagle, but one bullet would do it!
Oh, he hits him through the corner!
Also survives and clutches up and by the way, a very quiet 16 and 4 solid KD.
Fosy's had a rough one. The desk was the desk. Yanko and Freyja.
The two of them. I don't know if you can do them by name.
And there was a 3-0 desk involved?
It was.
Oh yes, it is.
They were talking about Fosy not having a great dust 2.
Yeah.
Having a worse nuke.
Why is he here with the galil as well I could have used to try the galil anyway
Doesn't matter it really it really doesn't really doesn't matter even the slightest to be honest
16 starts with an astralis opening and it's fozy. We're just talking about it. He's having a tough go at things
That's not bad
I want whistles by the earlobe
I think you keep on a little piercing that
We'll do him how he's in.
He's ready?
There's number two.
He has doubled his kill total.
Okay, partner them in.
Whatever you do, don't lose this one.
Unloseable chat, there's no way they can lose this one, don't worry.
Lost a 2v5 on DOS2.
Yeah, but this is a new, it's a different story, so it should be fine.
Just don't, just don't lose this one.
They're pre-eminent, they're ready for it.
There he is.
OOOOOOOH DEER!
They're in A, and they have so many nades.
Oh dear, of course!
Smoke main, please smoke main, Nyssen.
Smoke it now, Molly have it again.
Yep, round over. Alright.
Playoffs, baby!
Yeah, playoffs indeed, flying out of the heaven,
Smoke, they get one in from Ryu.
Maybe Sanzin dead as well,
No, he still stands his ground,
A 1v1 emerges, and he's on the other side of the smoke.
It's planted for him, so Nyssen's
actually gonna lock this round in, no worries.
You don't have a smoke, you've just picked up a kit, and there seems to be a BLIND SPORTS!
STAY WITH AN ELRICE BREAKER!
Okay, well that was a specie.
They almost lost a 3v5.
Yeah, very close.
But they all saved.
If you're legacy, you aren't going to feel like that one should have been yours.
Yeah.
Well, let's take the time out.
What is I tell you what I'm called just forced by in just to a top rush
but obviously not like as lazy as it sounds when you say just do a top rush
but like with the bells all the bells yeah I want to be like satin yeah he's
got such like a optimistic face oh we lost oh that's right I've got so many
rounds I can see the win one that's alright good team effort right 16 for
You got 15 for Art and Sansen, 14 for Dimon, this one at 13, so everybody firing for legacy. Obviously, when you see the scoreline like this, but it's not a carry job.
It's not just one or two blokes putting the rest of the team on the back and dominating everyone's had their moments throughout Nuke.
Still a pretty good looking buy. I know it's a little heavy, but you know that Astralis are compromised, only having one man stay alive in the clutch.
He's got vision from both the flashes, still turns it, and he's got a lot of work to do.
Does well on Tolato.
He's got to trade the 10 from Sanzin, works out, smoked off, and you're really going to
play a borrow down here, so Stare in the right place, R as well looks like he's been spotted
by Yabi, so pretty easy fight for the MP9 up close.
Stair.
He won't be cleared.
Stair will not be cleared.
He's not being cleared.
I guess that free burst would love to stream together.
Doesn't manage to do so before Doom out catches him.
Quick into HootSea.
Out to Handel, by the M4, and another Astralis round.
This time, me more convincing.
Coming down to the 1v1.
This should be the eco.
Oh, that sound.
You gotta hear that round after round after round
on this comeback if you're Astralis.
But you know that you've done the hard work
to at least force the finances
into a position of save.
They even want to try a Diggle just
to see if they can soften up.
That really did pretty well there, right?
Under a lot of pressure.
I know you said he dodged those flashes,
but I like the rally of flashes, right?
The first one to play close behind,
trying to stuff the choke point.
The other to force him off the line.
So they make it comfortable, and they do have a D.
In the hands of Art, of course.
And a sad Zin.
Zooz.
Ah, here we go.
The flying, beautiful movement.
He's a bit far away, isn't he?
He's really just having fun.
Yeah.
Ah, this time.
It's a serious game.
It is a serious game.
It's playoffs on the line, yeah.
Make no mistake.
I guess when you have the buffer of a map,
like if this was the third and decider,
that would be so with the Na'Vi game,
the legion game, then, yeah, maybe the smiles
wouldn't be there.
Final phone call here from Ryu.
Well, now he's dead.
Wow.
Some very precise clock bullets finding his head.
Helmet or otherwise he's dead.
Yeah, Fosy, you mentioned the helmet, don't have one.
So he needs to be careful around those pistols.
But this one should be tucked in tightly in a moment.
Yabby's down. He doesn't actually have any support right now, Yabby.
So he can't really just swing and take the fight.
He could be a little bit more involved if there was more teammates.
Those teammates are on the way.
Sair blows off the door, but bomb goes down.
Who moves first?
Stan joins Yabi so they can double swing this in his latter that's holding for it.
Imagine.
Hey, could get that shot, but not gonna happen.
Yabi brings him down, it's just the Desert Eagle of Doom out, found with his back turned,
who'd see on that decon door.
See, nice from Astralis in that one, so everybody contributing against the eco.
Bomb goes down, sure, but you knew they were gonna be buying to next.
This just gives them everything they need guaranteed.
You also don't want to rush a finish like this because, you know, if you're sure you're
going to stay in the cycle with the max loss bonus, once you get there, still have to lose
one more round.
But as long as you keep getting the bomb down and all of those, right, that's the key.
But if you start getting shut out and not getting into the sides, not getting any kills,
full by partial full by partial and it can spiral quite quickly especially if
you play with the high tempo I love this could have been cool come on boys
I'm about to come and make move you're making when you are you know cornered
yeah and about to die easy-feasy for art guess what important trade back from
Hoocsee who knows actually gonna play around the smoke and really will catch
him save yeah listen punishes though oh my god he nearly found Ryu as well stare
on the vent not going to be able to immediately lend a hand, why is that bomb going? So Lato
and Sansen looking like they can just walk into A.
Yeah, it's been evacuated. Stare has to worry about the secret slip. Closie and Ryu are
going to clear yard, so they're going to get fortified in A. Where do they plant for?
Heaven's side gives them less options in the post.
But more conviction in getting it down.
You're a bit more boxed in though, right? You don't have a smoke for main.
You're just gonna have to stand for this fight.
Lato's got vision, doesn't hit the first tap, tracks posy, and don't forget Ryu's low.
He might fall to stair once more. Legacy, just two kills and the playoffs are yours.
Stairs close to neck out, Ryu down stair, in that blind spot, a look at the tracking.
Lato's got the Ryu, disappears around, going for the steep fake-a-roo, but here's Lato!
He's gone down stack on hack it come clutch it legacy to the playoffs and all right. It's starting to play to maps
It's over again in this heads ahead
It's up four straight maps for legacy over Australia's they come into I am Atlanta as one of the top dogs
But I have to battle through that lower bracket legacy
They have a seeding game ahead of them against Navi tomorrow. They'll be for the semis or the quarters
But we just displayed the aggression
I'd you love to watch a legacy game when it flows like this it's fine
It's out of the box you always on the edge of your seat
It's a big smiles on the faces the Brazilians get it done that CT side from legacy on this nuke
It's just one of those ones where if you watch it back you put yourself in Astralis's shoes that was so you must have felt so
Mad your blood boiling some of the timings your opponents were catching it was brutal those frustrations
I think definitely would have bled over from dust too. Yes, right
Winning both pistols on that one as the handshakes come in
That's a way for saddening to put his shoes on
He's going to be walking around the studio in his socks
But an entertaining game of Counter Strike to round things out on the a-stream. We do have one more game
It's raging on on the B-stream right here right now liquid versus M80
But let's throw this one to the test to wrap up the day
Yeah, taking down Astralis again is one thing doing it to earn Plays birth must taste even sweeter
I can ask that question straight to Dumal. Congratulations, playoff secured for you guys on Legacy.
Just tell me how that one felt, because it was, I mean that first half just felt like it went by so fast.
Yeah, first half was very fast, because I think we were very aggressive at some points in the lobby.
And she might change from very fast.
We heard from both you and Art in different interviews,
he'll figure out how to balance it out, he likes to be aggressive, I like to be aggressive,
I'm gonna give him some space, he's the young fragger nowadays, it seemed like on the plan
was, yeah, you both are gonna get in their face, everyone will actually, is it just in
prep you saw that that's something that you guys can exploit or?
Yeah, in prep, usually I watch my things and he watches his things and then we just
group and see things together and then I saw some gaps and I saw opportunity in the momentum
of the game because they felt, I don't know, they were just dying piece of fast, sick of fast,
look like they were losing control of the game very fast and then I just took some
spawn and then I just, you know, passionate. Also, what is it about Brazilian teams in
Brazil, man? It's just impossible to play. I mean, you guys...
Yeah, we're just winning, yeah, just winning.
You go there, right, last place in Rio, you lose to Hot2Here, completely different team.
You're already in the playoffs, you just have a seating game against Navi, so what changed from Rio to here?
I think in Rio we were a bit...
We had a very good conversation after we lost because we were not feeling each other like as a group,
a unity outside the server and then we were more we just have a talk and then we just put more
trust in each other because we all want to win and then then now after in the game it's easier to
fix things when you're outside it's good you know. It feels like you can see that trust
with you guys in the server as well. I don't know how involved you are with the map veto but
we were maybe having some questions about you guys obviously chose to remove ancient in this one
and then Astralis they they picked into that nuke and we felt like this video
sided with you quite a lot we thought maybe they could go with overpass like
when you saw that these three maps were on the cards versus Astralis did you
feel like yeah this favors us yeah as it favors us because our analyst our new
one he was cooking and then it was nice it was nice move from him so yeah I
think he's a he's I don't know what to say but he's a good job yeah he did a good
Yeah, he got a good read were you surprised they didn't pick overpass would you did you expect them to pick overpass?
Yes, yes, yes, we expected no car overpass, but we expected more overpass
Yeah, makes a lot of sense. I just want to ask you about your next opponent
You've guaranteed to play offs, but maybe you could make it straight to semis gonna be Navi
What do you make of them at the moment? I think this is gonna be a nice nice game
and yeah
there's some more team and
We expect to win anyways, you know, so that's it.
Got to go with confidence, final question.
Just because we're asking everybody about Vitaly at the moment.
Bat boom taken down by Vitaly, I mean,
you were there as an underdog almost a year ago,
taken down by Vitaly, what did you make of that one?
Yeah, someone just said in the game,
but we thought it was just lost,
and they just say, oh, no way, we thought we were trolling.
Yeah, we were trolling, because this scene is always trolling
if there's results and stuff.
He was stretching one for a Bat boom,
and it's all lying, you know.
And I think, yeah, I think it's just a moment, they got what they needed to do, now they're probably focusing on major, and it's just a loss, doesn't mean anything, you know, they're still in the tournament.
I mean, does it make it feel more feasible for you? Like, imagine there's a scenario where Vitaly don't make it through to playoffs, like, does that mean the trophy is maybe a bit more open?
Yeah man, it should be because they are a good team but we still have to focus on ourselves and there are things because I think now CS is very open in general.
Even Vitality winning games and many trophies, they still have to fight a lot, you know?
It's not like, I don't know, like Astralisera where they would win 16-0, 16-0 and it's over, you know?
Because I think now everybody knows how to play CS and it's very...
You have to kind of know your team and just know your things because it's too much if you think about others, you know?
Yep.
Do you think Astralis over Vitality?
It's a question everybody's asking at the moment.
Astralis, get us.
Well, this is Astralis.
What the guys you just played?
Give us a Astralis. Sorry.
Prime Astralis.
I played again.
Prime Vitality.
Yeah.
Yeah, if you can Astralis.
If I tell Timon's the major, there's no more debate.
But for now, I think it's always going to be like, oh, Vitality wins, but they have three, and then I started with four.
I think just in the moment, they have more advantage, so it's just the moment.
We can see bias.
We cannot compare errors, because Australia was just too much as a team before, and now Vitality is a good team,
and they have very good players in an era where everybody knows how to play, and too much anxious threat,
and everybody knows micro things in CS, little plays and stuff so yeah I know
what Ricardo thinks. Yeah, yeah, you don't have a cast. Anything about Alper? The device? The best in the world?
Oh yeah? Yeah. Once is your go. Yo, you and Jason feel the same way. Devices the go. Yeah.
Thank you so much, Tamal. Congratulations. We'll see you in the game tomorrow versus Alby. Thank you so much.
You can leave your headset on the desk.
Yeah, obviously that does indeed.
Tia Blackacee to be facing Navi.
And then, yeah, when we look at this one, though...
Yeah, this is not the lower bracket, guys.
Bad boom versus pain gaming for a spot in the semi-finals.
Shocking. I mean, obviously, bad boom is the huge surprise
taking down Vitality, but pain as well.
I mean, it's been ages since we saw them play tier one Counter-Strike,
taking down FaZe 2-0 on day one,
day one and day against FOOT, another team that's on the rise that
lists their trophy in Bucharest a little over a month ago.
So, yeah, a tournament of upset so far, it feels like.
Yeah, and it kind of does feel bad for FaZe, right?
Like, you've been thinking this is the most unlikely scenario to be happening.
Like, listen, I don't think FaZe is right now in a spot where they have result
expectations of any kind.
I think they're just trying to feel something again, Freya, right?
And then they got to do that in Trials, they got to play in front of a crowd as well to some extent.
And yeah, I mean, they fumbled on day one, managed to beat energy today and will play against Vitality.
They have nothing to lose.
They will be there. They will be there.
No matter what.
They will be there.
If I wasn't saying, he's not even thinking about like trophies or anything.
He just wants the points.
Well, they're going to get a lot of them if you beat Vitality.
Yes, a lot on the line, I guess, in theory.
And that one obviously is we were just tearing up their Navi taking on Legacy.
that's going to be a very exciting one. I'm just glad that we do get to see both of these
teams going through to the playoffs. I think that's going to be some very exciting counter
strike on the line. Let's take a look at the lower bracket for Group B, though, because
that is going to be the long haul for some of these teams and even longer for the likes
of our M18 Team Liquid there. Only just starting their matchup over on the B stream, the winner
of that indeed facing Game Allegiant. And then, of course, they will have to be doing
the double tomorrow at Yanco to see who's going to be going through last week.
Yeah, that's the tough part about going down into the lower bracket. You have to play two
games on the final day. Also good to see Senors win a game right? We talked about them as one of
the surprise packages perhaps for the major going with that road, you know online Counter-Strike tier,
three smaller lands getting there the long way around waiting to see the the final results,
you know they weren't playing themselves in the tournament at the very end,
managing to get through taking down passion UA and will have another opportunity to prove themselves
tomorrow. Any initial takeaways for Astralis in terms of the result here? Obviously not eliminated,
just means they're not guaranteed to be going through the playoffs. Just in terms of what we
saw, is it worrying for you at all? I mean, it's just what we see from Astralis this season,
right? The inconsistencies, like when they're on, they can look very good. But when they're off,
you know, something like this can happen. And you need to give props to legacy. They were very
aggressive things were going their way. Astralis wasn't on point enough today to punish some
of that aggression and that becomes also really frustrating to play and I think that's something
that Astralis at the moment still struggles with somewhat keeping their emotions in check.
I just want to get your thoughts finally on the game that's going down on the B-stream at the
moment. So if you don't want any spoilers, you've got five, four, three, two, one. It's Liquid versus
MAD and currently it's MAD up actually 10 to 4 on that first map. That's just to that's
Liquid's pick. So things history repeating itself again. Yeah, I'm along past the point where
anything can surprise me about Team Liquid, even in a, you know, in a negative way. Like I have no
expectations anymore. Like I don't look at I don't see the player names. I don't see the player tags.
I just see the organization name. I just see Team Liquid. And I don't expect anything. And I'm not
not even meaning here. That's just the reality. It's been that case for a very long time.
Even though they had good players, big names, they just have struggled to build a team.
They haven't built a team in a very long time. This isn't it either. I know they'll be at
the major. They won't do anything of significance there. Put your money on it and hopefully
after that they'll get to where phases got into which is rock bottom and you have to make changes or
significant changes will happen and maybe you can start building a team.
Bit of a somber note to be ending day two of the age stream out on though.
We'll be back tomorrow.
We'll be back tomorrow. We will always be here. If you think Anco might be wrong,
maybe head on over to the B-Streme to see how that will go down and yeah we'll be seeing you
for four more better threes tomorrow at the end of the Extreme Masters Atlanta 2026.
Unity rips it up with unity
Still need to be the greatest of my generation
Operation victory
You might of fly
We will stay
Through the perils we dare not to stray
This battle for man
It's like the flame
I'm a lurker
I'm a sighted dangerous dynamite
Dynamite
Standing by you through the clouds
At the speed of light
You're gonna tap me down
And turn on streaming
You're gonna become a superman
I'm a man with the knife
I'm an arena rock
I'm going up dynamite
Dynamite
I'm standing fire through the ground
I'm at the sea of light
Going up I got it down screaming
I'm a man with the knife
I'm going up dynamite
Check it
Traumatized, lonely nights
A lot of fights, big dreams, never bigger lies
It ain't what it seems from the outside
I went out for the plague, will I surrender or will I betray?
Given the trauma that lives in my brain
I use it to fuel up the bottom of my veins
I never complain, I'm positive and do it
If there's a battle of people, we're through it
If the wind blows, I think I'm gonna be blown
Cause what is it, it depends on you
Fuel up the fruits of my labor, I've been a bongus
Indispensable and not with money
The clump of hands, rubble the way I don't know
When the struggle pushes me out, I'll shove it off
I've asked for it
You can tell Extreme Masters Atlanta 2026 is brought to you by
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Chess and ZOE
Rafa, really making history, absolutely from the novel.
And Ace is the champion of the Angel X-Train map for your finals.
Storm's still not found out, he's gonna take this fight though, three seconds left!
Last two rounds, the match is gonna start in little free to see.
And this is a massive move, look at that!
He's down, he's down, he's just a nexus kill!
He's gonna get him!
She's gonna get him!
And it's all gone!
I'm gonna take it!
Unbelievable rune!
Winning 4-0 victory!
Overclass it!
And they did it again!
In the blackboard!