Music
You're just on another level.
He is still that guy!
No introductions.
The Warmer.
Kickoffs is now.
The Rainbow Six North American League season kickoff.
That is crazy work.
Ten teams.
New rosters.
new stories. We don't call ourselves legends. We earn it. Who will set the
tone before the season even begins? Will they prove they belong? Will they shock the
world? They earn their spot at the main major. Only one way to find out. Loop stage
This begins April 1st, earned here, not given.
Welcome to the North American League season kickoff.
of the North American League
kickoff by the end of the day.
We're going to be more than
halfway through the group stage.
Welcome back everybody.
So glad to have you with us.
I'm Jonas Willinger joined as
always by Foxy and laxing lacks.
It's wild how quick things have
developed here.
I mean two days in we're already
starting to get a feel for which
teams all wear in the overall
power rankings and for a lot of
and for a lot of these new teams,
we're seeing some of these new identities take shape.
Yeah, but that's also the beauty of this accelerated league
and this accelerated format and also just even having groups
is we really get to see these games kind of go by very quickly.
I mean, we're used to the NAL just only being two days a week.
We're getting three days a week and we're seeing these matches
back to back to back, which is really exciting
because as we all know, and as all siege enjoyers,
that's just more siege to digest and enjoy.
And so far, it's really been fun to watch everything unfold.
And we're seeing a lot of these teams progress very quickly because they have to they got to play back to back to back in this first week
There's no time to let up. You don't want to find yourself in that final spot of the groups
So there's a lot of pressure on all their shoulders
But we always talk about a pressure makes diamonds and we're seeing some teams just rise amongst the rest
Well yesterday, we had a chance to see the final two teams who we didn't see on that first day and 80 and cloud nine made their debut
starting with cloud nine taking on the fiery dark zero box yesterday was quite
a start to the afternoon. It really was I like this version of cloud nine I mean
any team that kick throw and Eddie have been a part of hasn't really found
success or impressed me as much as this roster have the rookie players really
came to play center was one of the standout players that showed up big and
it was nice to see him have a good time the rest of the team felt empowered
with this new life on the team, and I feel like Cloud9 is in the right direction.
It's just unfortunate they're playing a team like DarkZero,
which really feels like they hit the ground running.
Everything's been slicking for them, Blacks.
Yeah, it certainly has.
And again, this is what we want to see from these newer teams, though,
is to be able to fight against these upper echelon, these top tier players,
these historical players, and they did put up a good fight.
Unfortunately, DZ does end up taking that win there,
but then they even transition into game two.
Again, we weren't really sure what we were going to expect from the side of SSG.
We already knew what was going to unfold from the side of wildcard and even in those first three rounds
It was looking really dicey. It was like, okay, sure SSG really isn't fixing the mistakes
We saw in their previous game against dark zero the day before but that's not everything kind of switched on its head
We started to see this new shape this new vision of what this SSG roster can really look like and to even more put that into perspective
The attacking half was yeah nominal. I mean it was five straight to say the least
to do it on attack to be able to close out on clubhouse a favorite map for
wildcard it's a very difficult task but dream leading the team and the new
bloods on the team they played amazing everybody you know raid bullies at the
top Aiden at the top they really shut it down and then we bounced into a game
another heartbreaking defeat for a hundred thieves they look so good coming
out of the gate constantly getting those opening kills against Shopify rebellion
it really seemed like it was their series to win but once they got to that
match point the pressure got too heavy it started to crumble and shop of our
valiant won four rounds in a row to be able to bring it back and it's another
resilience win from shop of our valiant making it go to the distance those
individual players everybody coming alive and the second game back to back
dropping over 10 kills and they just individually were better they didn't let
being down so much affect them and that's why they were able to amount an
an amazing comeback and crush Hunter Thieves.
I mean, resilience really is always the name of the game
when it comes to that SR roster.
I think it's just a little more time,
a quicker, a little faster pacing.
We'll see even more from them.
But to push that aside,
let's focus on the last game of the day.
Honestly, I was really impressed
with how one of 30 went into this matchup.
I mean, you're going against MAD,
one of the biggest heavy hitters out of NAL,
and they had a great strategy in the early half
of early aggression.
Take those gunfights, get those picks,
play back into your layers,
and as much as I want to give them praise for that,
What we tend to notice and what we've talked about time and time again with these newer teams is they're always going to have the upper hand because they're unknown entities.
But once these upper tier echelon teams figure out what their course of action is going to be and how they're going to handle these attacks, these defenses, that's when they are going to pick you apart.
And that's exactly what we saw through and through once that side swap happened as M80 completely understood how they were going to address any single engagement that was going to be in front of them, any bit of obstacle.
of obstacle and they would then just dominate. So we need to see a lot more adaptation from
these newer teams if we really want to start putting them up with the upper tier teams.
It's clear that group A is going to be a battle as a result of Shopify rebellions right dicey
to overtime wins only one point ahead of M80 in second five years just behind them in third
Fox. This is the parody we like to talk about right when we come into a new season do we
We see these teams being competitive with one another in group A.
We're absolutely seeing that in group B.
Things are a little bit more strung out because Dark Zero sits on top.
But it's very clear that we've got a very competitive start to 2026.
And it's funny that this is how it turns out because on day one,
we said group A is probably going to have the two runners leading the charge.
But no, it's actually the more close group.
Whereas group B, it seems like Dark Zero is on the island of their own.
There's still a couple more games to be played.
But that being said, DarkZero is sitting very comfortably,
but I'm very worried for the teams at the bottom.
Both groups have two teams that are really stuck
on the bottom four or five spot,
and eventually they're gonna have to play each other.
And one of those pairs is actually playing each other today.
Right, as you mentioned, Outlast,
one of the teams stuck on the bottom
will have an opportunity in our very first game of the day
to try to get out of trouble.
But we've got quite a slate of games ahead, Lacks.
We talked about it, DarkZero, Outlast, to open things up.
to see if the newest T1 team can try to make an impact against the team that looks to be the strongest, but overall, I mean, quite a few good games, including SSG and Cloud9 to round things out in our third matchup.
I mean, everyone should be a good game, just everything that we've seen so far, but again, I'm not going to change my answer from yesterday.
I am looking forward to this first match up just to see what Outlast really took from their match versus Wildcars since they did have the day off for day two.
So I am curious to see what we're going to see from the side of them because so far we've seen all these rookie teams really have a great debut.
This is now Outlast's chance to really show something here.
For me, I'm looking at the second game because I was talking about those two pairs, a hundred thieves and one of 30 both sitting on one point currently.
and they've played some tough teams.
Now one of these two teams is going to get
a good amount of points whether they win
and be able to jump over the other.
And it feels like it'll solidify the loser of this matchup
being stuck in that fifth place
because the teams in the rest of the bracket
only are that much better than currently
what we've seen from 100Ps and 130.
Well, something we have seen from dark zero
is that they have come out of the gates to winging,
trying to say that, okay,
maybe we put the rebellion at number one power rankings,
So that should absolutely be changed.
Dark Zero and this SSG core have been on fire.
Lacks back to back seven four wins to start things off.
And today against Outlast,
this is the team that shows no signs of slowing down.
No, not by any means, but again,
it really comes down to Dark Zero.
They haven't really had to show their hand
in any of the maps.
They've got to play Lair twice.
And I think that's been very important
for them to be able to do because again,
if you can just make it through group stage
of only playing a couple maps
not have to show your hand once you get into the later half.
That's perfect.
And we've seen that time and time again, even in the SAL.
We saw Feria only play, what, Clubhouse?
And they played it four or five times,
and then that put themselves in playoffs,
and then they show their hand and show their map pool.
So if it's for DarkZero, they can continue
to show that same, you know, not show anything actually.
Then that'll set them up for a lot more success.
Well, we've talked a lot about Kino and NJR, right?
The additions to this lineup.
Got to point out the real success that this team has
been having has been on the shoulders of almost everybody,
including J9O and Foltz, who have continued to play incredibly
well, especially coming into this season, some great numbers
and great performances throughout the day yesterday.
Yeah, and that's who I really want to focus on here,
because I think this big change with obviously
NJR and Kino joining the team is impacting these two players
the most, because they aren't stuck
to playing supportive roles.
I mean, even when you just look at their numbers,
J9O going 11 and 7, Foltz going 11 and 7 as well.
and then just even the operator pools that they're playing,
usually Foltz is stuck on a hard breach
or having to play a shield.
He can flex off of that.
He can play the Capitao.
He can play the Ram.
He can move around.
It's the flexibility that we're highlighting
time and time again,
and it really is turning back the clock for these players
that we aren't used to seeing them in this light
of getting aggressive, having these aggressive plays
and being able to make these moves
because now they weren't free before.
Now they're free, and it's really why
we're being able to get behind these two
even more and talk about these two even more. And specifically for Foltz being the IGL, I've
said this time and time again, if your IGL is at the top of the leaderboard by the end of the game
or any point of the game, that just fires up everyone else to play even better than what we've
already seen. So again, I am really getting behind this roster change. I'm really liking the adaptations.
I'm liking the flexibility, versatility that we're seeing from these guys. It's really been a fun
show. And I'm curious to see where Outlast is going to try to battle these guys. Yeah, it's a weight
off their shoulders absolutely because now they can play so many operators and
these two players in the past we've talked about them of being some of the
best in North America but they were on that SSG roster with so much talent now
they still have a lot of talent but they have a lot more flexibility and it
makes things that much easier especially for Foltz in the eye gelling
department there's a lot more tools that he's able to position wherever he needs
right there's not a lot of unknowns when it comes to this dark zero roster the
The opposite has to be said for Outlast, right?
All five players who have never played
in the pro scene before kickoff.
They made their debut the other day
and it wasn't necessarily the most fun for them.
But Fox, they've been able to shake off those jitters,
hopefully, and they can come into this match
against another powerhouse team,
a little more level headed.
I mean, we can only hope that they've shaken off
the jitters for Outlast.
There wasn't too much to take away from their loss
in day one, they didn't really get to play yesterday.
They had a little bit of time to be able to dwell on it
and figure out what they want to do.
One thing that I just hope that they've been able
to make sure is correct is just letting go of losses.
That's one of the earliest, quickest, important rules
that you need to be able to learn with the team,
with no experience on how to just let go.
They lost it, they need to move on.
There was a couple of good grounds,
good individual plays here and there.
The experience gap between all of the teams
in the league is absolutely going to hurt,
but the faster that they learned that one loss doesn't really matter.
Just like we talked about it when we had the interview yesterday with SR and they
were saying at the end of the day,
nothing's really going to change whether you win or lose.
That's the mentality that they need to have is just maintaining that confidence
that we earned our spot into the NAL and that they deserve to be here.
And hopefully that confidence can slowly trickle down and focus on getting
opening kills and not losing those opening kills in the first place,
making sure that they're focusing on the baby steps
on getting trades, basics.
Back to basics for Outlast, that's what we wanna see today.
Well, DarkZero have played just one map so far
and it's been lair.
Have to imagine that with those back-to-back
seven of four victories lacks that maybe Outlast
will want to avoid heading to a territory like that.
Yeah, I mean, you can only hope that's going to be the case.
I mean, sure, there is two VODs of them.
So, I mean, there's always a room for possibility
to play it three times in a row
And we're playing it three times in a row.
I mean, again, maybe they saw something
that the others didn't, and that they're
going to exploit DZ here.
And something I don't want to count them out.
We only got to see one game from them.
But it really is a big question mark for me.
All right, Lair to start off the third day of the NAL
kickoff at his dark zero and outlast.
and welcoming us here joining us here in the NAL. We've got Gus and Zenex here on the cast guys take it away
You can welcome us in all you like. It's so good to be here from APL to NAL from the big stages to what is one of the best regions in the world
Gus excited for this obviously an important playday as we kind of already have had two playdays happen for NAL
Getting through the group stage now is the important time if you haven't started well pick up form if you have started well
you want to keep things going.
And that's the case for dark zero.
Yeah, I mean, outlasts on the other side, of course, a bit of a rough debut for them at the top level of siege.
We'll see if they can maybe dance back.
Um, as like just kind of alluded to on the death row, a very bold decision to go to land dark zero have played it twice.
They've looked really strong on both occasions, but perhaps they have something up their sleeve to take them down.
Yeah, seven four wins on both occasions on layer puts him in a good position for outlasts.
of course, they lost their opening match 7-1, absolute beat down from Wildcard. So, obviously,
looking to bounce back, currently at the bottom of the group, and for those unfamiliar, if you
are at the bottom of the group by the end of group stage, well, that's it. Your chance to go to the
Major is done. So, a very important game where for both teams, they've got two different objectives
here. For Dark Zero, it's keep the good times going, top of the group. If you do top the group,
well, you get that better placed position when it comes playoff time, where you're only then
for us to keep that game coming
in one best three away, from
qualified for Salt Lake.
Obviously for time outlast
got to win this game. Gotta
try and get something going.
I've been looking for a
momentum starter, but it is
going to be rough going up
against arguably one of if not
even the most stacked roster
here in group B for the NAL
kickoff. So we'll see what
they've got up there. Sleeve.
I'm hoping for a competitive
matchup. But I think this
barely needs to be framed as a
David Vika lifestyle matchup.
I don't know. I mean, it's absolutely the favorite, but it's a better one. This is the
thing. True. We've obviously been doing best of threes over in APL for the better part
of maybe six months now. So it's been a while since you and I have been able to cover a
best of one. And as we know, historically, funny things can happen, right? The downside
is probably the case that our loss is starting on attack. And as we've spoken about, the
desk is spoken about. DC have looked really good on Lair. They've played it twice so far.
They get to go defense to begin in the first half
You think about like top floor even basement at times can be difficult to crack depending on how the
Defense is roaming around the map
Ultimately, this is going to be difficult first half for our loss
But if they could pinch a few rounds and certainly important ones like top floor
They could definitely give DZ a run for their money
Yeah, I could certainly be the case DZ have looked fairly strong though
So it depends on when there's two layer matchups that we have to mention, of course, SSG, Play-Dig 1, and then C9, Ena, Play-Dig 2.
They've got four defensive rounds in those respective matchups, and set themselves into strong foundation.
And I think they'll go into this style of matchup, at least on paper, with the expectation that 4 is an absolute minimum.
So then they will want to go with, try and compound that into maybe a fifth round, and really establish dominance in a matchup that,
Outlast have the VODs that they've been able to look at and prepare a counter-strike into this matchup.
But DZ are by far the more experienced team, and they should be able to beat them on that pure ability.
Now interestingly enough, DZ actually are electing to go to the tertiary site.
So they're opening round, they're looking to flex their muscles, and try to make a statement here against Outlast.
The bans, while they've played out Paid, Bandit, Ying, and Grim.
Yeah, that is actually quite interesting. Don't typically see that.
I'm in at least from what I've watched of lair which is predominantly api up
But even really on the international level. This is interesting though grass and early from DZ
Neuers China just trying to make early contact from
Balls back doesn't really get what he wants
But it does already kind of put the doubt in the minds about last even just entering the building is not gonna easy
That's are gonna play this on the the more wrong side top floor
try and put pressure at the entry positions, make this really annoying for Outlast, you probably still want to clear top down.
Top down the name of the game, double flank pressure pause for Outlast.
So once they, or if they are able to establish that control they can prevent retake from defense.
Vertical is really important in flushing out the site and then opening up routes for any plant potential going direct to objective is very, very tough as DZ will be looking to hold up above.
And they're layering utility quite aggressively here, trying to slow down this attack as much as possible from offside across, not wanting to peel too early.
And I think that's a great strategy. They want to try and layer as much pressure as possible, not give away anything for free.
I'm going to like the way the Dark Zero are playing this, but Outlast are kind of also playing into their hands.
I mean, it's Bung's briefing. You can get some pressure on that first floor so far, not the case.
Okay, so we're at last this Milito, they hit the opening headshot.
Nuis goes down, big kill onto the Azami, so no more keeper barriers.
Can very much kinder this delay of Dark Zero.
Golding you, Mac!
And to be fair, when you look at the tie remaining in this round,
minute 20, so so far, DZ have been able to at least stall out this 12-4 push.
As we start to then head into that final minute,
now us now have the extra play.
So they can start to push into these positions with numbers and play the trade game.
Yeah, the question will be can they crunch into A6's room with a big stack from Jano,
and NJR, but Kino also at the shotgun does net one. So a minute on the clock, 4v4 and it is shaping up still to be quite an even round
Provided easy, I would be landed. It looks like they've been given that referee
Kino still three gaspaves NJR can use that shamanical launcher later in the round if need be more importantly J9O with that nitro cell
40 seconds a lot of utilities still available for the defense of dark zero outlasts have finally been able to get
decent control on the second floor but you've still got three players pushed
back on the site horizontally on the top floor for DZ. If they want they can
easily push back in as Outlast will eventually want to drop and go for
plant. J.R. I know is still lurking inside of storage. He'll be the first to
pound to the bar of his chair back. Looks to rotate over towards the
breach. They'll look to now lay utility and get a plant down. And J.R. pushed back R6.
That's the problem outlast you haven't been able to fully deal with those roamers up above on the top floor
But what they have to know the two chat might get that kid on the floor puts them in a post plan to be three
And certainly puts the owners now back on dark zero to close this out
They've got the extra player advantage
They've still got pressure on this top floor, but you've now got to go down and actually get the counter diffuse
And this is where outlast with 27 seconds could pinch this round
potentially Ronix in a good lurk position able to net one twenty seconds now on the clock
DZ need to move fast yeah they're gonna split up and this is the problem and J.R. was now
by himself on that top floor because J.R. I know had to go to box this should be a winnable
round out for Outlast J.R. I know all he can do is pick it two players up for Outlast
Trevmark finishes that off Outlast take the opening round well so we'll start then from
Outlast able to grind out that top floor control and whilst they still wear plenty of pieces
the puzzle to try and unlock late some strong positions from DZ, particularly to disrupt the
plant, but then also even in the retake, but unfortunately didn't quite connect. They weren't
able to prevent that diffuser from going down, and that is one of the weaknesses of that particular
site. Once it goes down, which is very difficult for the attack generally speaking, the ability
to retake is challenging with the outside breach, and then the ability which we saw to
to re-learn my Cup of All for Outlast. So overall, a really strong start, a hard
fought round and ultimately the tertiary selection for DZ does not pay off.
Yeah, I mean I just feel like it was a really well worked round for Outlast in the sense
they didn't panic at no point in that round. They panic in terms of the pressure coming
from the defense and denying their ability to take that top floor positioning. It took
that time, I think it was about 90 seconds left in the round when they got that open and killed,
which was millions of newers, then it's five on four. So you get that opening pick and it just
gives you that freedom to kind of push through. Yes, Nesta then lost his life four before and
he thought DZ then in a great position. But the problem very from DZ's perspective was they kind
of just left Bunkster Briefing completely wide open because they wanted to control that top floor
so much. And that might have been their downfall in the end, because the plant goes down even in
in the 2v3 and they had three players still on the top floor and when everyone had to
scramble and run around and someone has to go for the kill and then others have to hold,
the defense starts here, it just looked a little bit out of sync.
So into round two of the solid snake selection to come out here from our last and operator
who's in terms of band rate has not been particularly high globally just yet but impact has certainly
been felt on a map as large as they were you want the ability to work into the map and
clear it efficiently. Varonex has the perfect operator to do that. The radar is particularly
strong at the moment, really keeps the defense on their toes positionally, and if that can be
combined with perhaps the backbid for a bit of map clearance and drone work as well,
in fact, us can communicate that correctly. They should be able to ascertain map control pretty
quickly, and then they'll be able to get the ram the luck to work on that. Varonex getting some
really good information with the radar. And even if you don't find the information, typically labs
is quite room heavy, especially on that first floor around the stairwell positions, just trying
to cut off attackers from being able to get what is essentially one of the more stronger positions
on the labs. But labs, what? Sorry, what lab this? I mean, I was like, no, no, no, I don't know.
Oh, it's only morning, the opening kill for Outlast again, two in a row. Great way to start so far on Lair.
Here for Lair. Decide.
Yeah, they're running. That's what makes it really good at just clearing out this though in terms of the time as well.
It's still over a minute remaining and what they've been able to do is now force all four remaining members of Dark Zero actually in base.
Yeah, absolutely. I think they'll be pretty pleased with the opening portion of that round, but I've admitted on the clock now
And so they have to be efficient from this point onwards extract value from the virtual flush this defense out from side
It looks like that has been largely successful
It's now a key over what's filtration that he's pushed back newest in that double stack
The pre-extra hold position that will eventually peel lean back into the utility the trap utility lay it on site
That last was one of the big snowballs stack
Yeah, nice we got from Dior, it's over towards filtration.
He got a second in that exchange as well.
It was a three on one.
Trev was able to finally get the trade.
Keeps numbers equal.
Going in the last 20 seconds.
Trev's got three kills as well.
Kino is very low on health.
Good vert angle here up above for log up.
14 seconds though on the clock for outlast.
They need to get moving.
Good flush and now the advantage.
I'm going to have to find the kills here, I mean, to be fair, Tram came to go for plant logger and Varonex to have the work in covering NJR and J9O.
Jess is going to sit this, the Razerbloom not doing enough, he is going to be able to...
No, Nott doesn't get it down, the best of mine is going to push him off.
Wonderful use of utility, saves the round for Dark Zero because they were staring down the barrel of a Zero-Two start.
Well, the Denod didn't quite land back in round number one for DZ, but the Hailmarian
round two does.
I think they'll probably still be a little bit on edge with how the early to mid rounds
have been playing out from the limited amount that we've seen so far, but obviously they'll
be quite pleased that they were able to conclude that round successfully, tick off basement,
and then likely head us to the top floor for the next round.
I mean what a start to the game, what a highlight moment and certainly needed to Dark Zero outside
of just the individual playing themselves.
The round was shaping up to go the way it out last once again.
You see NJR Christmas wine in the back pocket, Razorbloom had gone off as well from J9O.
And so ultimately Dark Zero steal it at the dead.
One-one.
You might have of course best of one for the group stages here in NAL.
But the most important best of ones, especially for a team like Outlast, currently in that fifth position,
which would not get you a spot in playoffs.
And that started lively. Two rounds in, and so far, you know, you were saying David vs Goliath,
I'm sure many would have expected Darkseer to be the heavy favour,
but we've seen two rounds of action, and Outlast have definitely come to the table for this match.
Again, part of that maybe a reflection of the counter-strating efforts into this matchup,
I'm sure there would have been some of that.
As the balance and the game-bow develops, the expectation would be that these guys start
to get a stronger read on Outlast and they're now able to adapt on the fly and not just
play into the straight defaults that they have over the last couple of play days.
so again this match should have all been their favor but that's not to discount
Outlast so far who have looked quite confident here on there. Control over
Skybridge here in round number three from Top4Dplants. Exterior Hard Bridge also
works nicely here from Outlast. Of course facilitated by the Khaid and the
Bandit Bands. Locked down below as well so the Buck and the Daimos combination
here potentially in an effort to flush out R6.
This could be quite intriguing.
Three targets are available to Nessar.
Oh, what a swing though, Millie was not ready for that.
Kino gets aggressive.
Great way to open up the round, so he stands off the board,
no RAUs, he comes to pressure from below,
combined with a bar catch off from Kino.
And well, that's not the round.
On top floor layer 5v3 for the defense,
it's going to put Atlas in a very difficult position.
Great frag grenade to force back NJR.
So that Nesta can get to work on the floorboard, but a really big outplay from Kino to get the double kill and set this round up now for Dark Zero.
Just had that confidence to push forward, try and break up the tempo from this attack, which now is absolutely disroutable.
Oh my god, another one continues his rampage! Oh my god!
Maybe the last one was a little overzealous, but 4k from Kino. It leaves Ruronix needing to get 4 himself.
Okay, no with the shotgun to go to the top floor and dogs you're gonna make it two rounds straight
Wow
The first two were impressive in their own right
But then to go on and get the third to top it off at the fourth to be fair at that point round all this essentially over but still
great anchor work
And the green side stack from outlast
It whithers away
And we walk out now from this third round without us only winning the tertiary side and maybe it does now compromise that storyline a little bit that they can look competitive in this matchup because the primaries have looked so strong from DZ.
Well I mean the basement site was very close wasn't it whereas this one wasn't that was the most one side of round we've seen so far which again goes probably to say it's top floor layer it's a very difficult site to attack into at the best of times.
I actually kind of liked the setup from Outlast with the Buck-Damos combo because typically you only see
the Damos is the one that maybe puts pressure on that first floor so much of the fighting and the emphasis on that site is
around like mezzanine for instance and opening up the
the reinforced walls and trying to go very direct into sight for what is usually a big heavy stack defensively
but yeah, Kino being able to just swing early take aggression around mezz and then
And that second kill, certainly from top down through the floorboard, was exquisite.
Great start from Kino, and it's dark zero of one of the last two rounds.
As I said though, it's the tertiary site where the first round won throughout last, and that's
where we head back to.
And here is the Kino highlight package, aggressive on that initial swing, able to counter the
verb from down below on the follow-up, and whilst getting hit with utility and a 1 HP,
He doesn't get the third but backs it up with the fourth.
He was very eager for the eighth.
Well done, fortunately, not meant to be.
Yeah, and again, you kind of, in some ways...
I don't want to say the word need, but playing in that sort of way is definitely a positive for the defense on that side.
Because if you sit too fast, you've got to bark and you've got to dangle down below.
So eventually over time, if there's zero pressure on them, they're going to put a lot of pressure
back on you through the floorboards being opened up.
And then the death marks, that starts to go out and you've got the sends of the ROUs and
then suddenly the attack is just kind of swarming into sight and nowhere's really safe because
all the floorboards are opened up and the Daimos is probably sitting down below.
So you do need to find some level of aggression.
It's not just fully set back through our gasbabs, use the shimiko launcher from the chanker.
And so that's a really good play from Kino to be able to try and get some aggression
the defense. This is going to be now where our last leader is spawned in a
best of one and this attacking half two might be fine if you're going to find
that second round it's probably going to be Bunkson briefing. As I mentioned
before the benchmark for DZ throughout kickoff thus far has been on their two
low appearances four defensive rounds per half so to break that drought and to
extend that to a potential fifth they will need to bounce back here on the
tertiary side it was pretty close last time out their low potential top floor
was was quite strong but unable to deny the plan and then the pose was played
really well by our boss so I'm sure to be an emphasis from DZ this time around
and maybe being a little more aggressive on this top floor trying to disrupt this
clear well first initial attempt there from vaults but he'll fall back almost
gets caught long-angle there from Millie but doesn't quite land the shots are
quiet and there's a small change up this time for DarkZero so they got NJR
playing towards briefing last time on this side was a five-star top floor so now they've kind of
gone with a four one split and they've also brought more micro cells too so they've got three
nitro cells j90 nil is involved so i wouldn't be surprised if dark seratron played a little bit
further back keep in mind the late game defending the site probably in the last minute of the round
within walking on nesta had to be working on the nook over wards bridge but almost
it's not going to be enough because he doesn't land his shot to milley elsewhere goes down to njr
Over the woods, Buntz on that side, Nesta, Headshot, Ontakino, Veronix get through to do it, so now we're starting to get a decent clear on this top field from Outlast.
Pistol will not work though, against J90. Confirms the kill, but Trev comes in, gets the trade, and then it's still good Outlast as they get the reply.
Nevermind, NJR with the impact and certainly makes an impact getting that kill onto Logger. 2v2 into the final 40 seconds, still anyone's round to win.
They sent some really good U2 usage from NJR and that just throw a spanner in the works one less body to throw in towards side here for outlast and if it does come down to it
the plan will essentially transform into a 1 vs 2 now limited U2 for DZ but the extra gun up is going to make this path and vault has looked back to Sky Breeze and there's the shotgun
again devastating over towards green and Trev back with no diffuser, no time and DZ finds success on Bunks
very good round from ducks here I love the way that they adapted from the first
round they changed up their lineup they brought different operators they had a
different mentality in terms of where they wanted to position people more
importantly the change up to with NJR playing site on the Izami he finds a
kill in that round middle portion of the round just when everything was kind of
popping off and so that keeps site control with the defense whereas last
time out opening round five stacked top floor they kind of then lost a couple
players and then the site was vulnerable. So a big adaptation from Dark Zero
nets them that round went three rounds straight take a three one lead and now
it's nervous times for Outlast because they kind of started well. They won the
first round second round came down to the wire couldn't get the plant down
successfully had they done that may have been able to win basement. Maze and
kudos and shooters so do not exist and right now the reality is Dark Zero with
the two-round advantage.
Yeah, it was probably feeling to an extent a little bit hard done by a lot of these rounds have actually
Been rather close margins, but it's in the key moments
It in some of those 50-50s where we're seeing the the experience and the skill from Doug zero really excelled
Several of these rounds, I mean right here a minute ago. They've got the tempo. They're trading into board site
They had a man advantage for a moment there, but then we see a big moment from NJR, the
impact down below to disrupt the rez attempts, then we see the fight up above from Foltz
and that retake of the top four.
Little moments like that going the way of DZ compounding into a round win and it's really
starting to establish this trend now where the early to mid round from Outlast is actually
in my opinion looked quite strong.
DZ their ability to close out rounds and to bring back a small disadvantage for instance has been quite impressive
Yeah, I mean and that's the round in a nutshell right and Jeff finds his kill bunks
And then as you mentioned the impact to the night of res otherwise
It would have been a 3v2 and a 1-1 split for the DZ defenders and things could have then
Go on the wrong way
So some big power plays really from a couple of individual
highlights of Dark Zero Kino in the previous round, NJR in that round, and then
Foltz, Neweas and Jen and I have been very consistent.
I don't know that they've got two rounds to probably find.
That's not going to work that way. Good aggression again from Darkster at these entry positions,
and this is a slaughter in the pit. Three down early.
No quick entries allowed as Outlast are going to fall right into the Dark Zero trap.
The only one left and there's still two minutes and ten seconds and the round's done a 50 second beat down from dark zero
Well, if you thought it was close, it certainly isn't now. It's a four to one lead
Well a quick rounds good round especially if you're a dark zero fan
Just leaning into the util layering on the exterior of the building there pretty straightforward battles
Not really much of a contest there from out last you were
But yeah, split on their attack and then obviously presented no real tradable opportunities
for them.
And so their worries on the primary sites continue.
And if they are to now establish a respectable half-time scoreline of a 2-4, they'll need
to try and find success top-floor.
And we saw that stack against the Kino shotgun was unsuccessful last time out.
So perhaps our last will go for a different attacking pattern in the next round.
I expect the highlight package for round number 5 to be pretty snappy.
These are just so sharp around the map.
Our last not looking close to winning a single battle.
And so one real round that we've had, that was incredibly one-sided.
I think all of the others have been in the contest.
And you can see that in the survivability guys to a lie to a lie to a lie, and then there was a three alive
But I was the round that Kino got the 4k
That round was obviously quite one-sided in the cell courtesy of a big cow play from Kino that that flawless round
Within 50 seconds. We hadn't seen something like that in the first half and that's demoralizing for our loss
Yeah, one last chance one last opportunity got to get his second round. It's
They're still going to be a tricky spot because as much as we've been talking about Dark Zero and Lair getting these four defensive rounds every single time so far, they've also been getting three attacking rounds too.
So they've been able to do the job on the attack. It set them up nicely.
Now without us having got three attacking rounds, this could have been really game on. That's no longer possible.
possible. So you turn around six then with the demos found out that Kino's a dead man.
A different approach but it's Kino on a different part of the map. Oh why not a jump down the
follow up Kino! Absolutely insane right now with the shotgun in hand this man cannot be
stopped. Eight kills now for Kino. Six of them are coming two rounds and he's not done
yet but this round is almost done. Two feet five Trev and Baronex they've got ten kills
between them. They've been the best braggers for outlasts. Surely this is gonna be too much,
clash on the board, lots of utility for Dark Zero still remaining, no trophy Kino, the
Shumiko launch, you've got four Kiva Barriers in the pocket for Jane I know. It's looking
like a 5-1 half is on the cards for Dark Zero, Kino being a big opponent.
Outlast produce something special here though 2v5 the expectation is for dark zero to be very disciplined play into the clash
Layer utility with the tachanka not take any
Unnecessary risk close out this round and enter the second half a five one lead and the opportunity to dominate
here on black
Just under 50 seconds remaining
have not been given a chance.
Dark Serif playing this really nicely in the sense that they're just not giving any free picks, any free looks.
It's forcing this push in, not going to work.
Flames of the beat.
J-No-No has gotten off as well.
Please, Ron, next year as we enter the half, it's a 5-1 beatdown for DZ.
Yep, DZ will be absolutely thrilled with that halftime result.
as we now enter the Roll Swap timeout.
Well, Laxing, we've seen some round defining moments so far.
What has jumped out to you at this point?
I mean, I will say round one was a great setup.
It was a great post plan.
It was a great execute from Outlast.
But again, this is what we see time and time again with these newer teams
is they have the rights to just be able to this unknown entity
and they just get taken over when a team understands what they're doing.
what's they're doing. Dark Shield has done really good, but I really want to take a look at round two,
in particular, and I have immediately following up with another round. That round two with the Ella
Grishmont, I mean that literally saved them. That could have maybe changed, you know, shifts in mental
anything. The fact that this Grishmont comes in at the very last second, I mean it was a beautiful
play from NGR to have this pop and secure this round was insane. And then pushing that past even
further into round four. I mean, if there's one player that you don't want to go toe to toe with
shotgun for shotgun, it's going to be Kino every single time. I don't know how he does it. He makes
this shotgun almost feel as if it's a sniper rifle at this point with the way that he plays it. And
Kino just looks like he's back to 18 year old Kino. Grandi, he looks like he's 18 and kid doesn't age
today in his life. But fact of the matter is Kino is looking like a key piece of this
DZ transfer.
And we're watching these rounds saying how can so many highlight plays come from just
individual players. And yes, it is great players being put in these positions, but a lot of
it comes down to the strategy. And that's what we're seeing happen. It's just a strategy
difference. Outlast is coming into it with good game plans. They understand what they
want to go for, but DarkZero adapts, they also understand what Outlast is going for.
They'll have countermeasures prepared, NJR being able to stay alive.
Yes, there's not many scenarios where he can get a Grisma to be able to stop the plant,
but if that case occurs, he's in the position, he's on Ella for that reason.
These players are put in situations to thrive, and Outlast hasn't thought past that initial first start.
And that is just an experience difference, and I'm sure Outlast, again, is going to go back
back and be able to understand where their attacks went wrong. Now they're going to defense.
I would love to see Outlast adapt a little more. Don't be so hard stuck onto the game
plan because they came into it with a good game plan, but we all know once you're in
the server, situations change.
Well, four rounds down for Outlast. Dark Zero on the other hand, clearly still thriving.
guys, Zenex, back to you.
Thank you very much, boys, as we
headed to the second half.
It's a big task now set out for Outlast.
Essentially, you want to probably get off
to maybe three, four round win streak at that scoreboard
back into a repairable position.
5-1 lead to Dark Zero.
And as spoken before, they've already
played this map two times prior, guys,
and three attacking rounds in both of those instances.
They only need two.
now, which puts them in a very solid position and will continue to put them at the top of
they've been.
Yes, only commanding and it's very tricky to envision an outlast comeback barring some
big adaptations from them in the mid-round as POTS was alluding to at the end of his
point there.
Outlast's fundamental game plan has actually looked pretty decent and they all look to
mid-grounds have affected that, but when DZ, a phono-spanner in the works, have been in
right positions for the clutch, etc, and extra power positions late round. That's where Outlast
have just looked a little short of the bike, and it's only fine margins. Again, I don't think the
rift has probably been as big as even I expected heading into this matchup, but small differences
at this level, NALs, so, so competitive domestically, they can make a big, big difference. So hopefully
we can see a little bit more of that here defensively on there. Perhaps they'll feel a little bit more
comfortable. Hopefully, though, they don't feel too demoralized after that first halfway. Again,
They got off to a strong start, but easy but then able to flex their muscles
Now I was play cloud nine and then SSG with their last two playdays
They'll need to find wins and most importantly probably against cloud nine
Really had their bite. They had that actually for playday two is our last play took a day off and here
They are again that had that time
to find a respawn
But it's all Dark Zero on lead, J90 opening pick, viewers follow up on to Nestor, sorry
on to Millie, Nestor falling first.
And it's a two player advantage again.
And you have to wonder where the shift has really come from, it seems to be from Dark
Zero's side, they've gotten far more aggressive as the game has progressed.
The first couple of rounds they were certainly a bit more sitting back and allowing Outlast
to take space.
Picks back though for Outlast. On the defense, they too look for a bit of counter aggression and it worked.
Pays dividends. They got on the front foot, found two picks back after Dark Zero wanted to get aggressive early in the first round of the second half.
Now suddenly 90 seconds left, 3v3. Good position to be in right now. Outlast, hand stabilised.
Absolutely, NJR. There isn't a position to look through over towards Mez. Almost caught a timing there.
They do have time on their side. 70 seconds to work with here. Newers with a couple of targets available as well on death mark.
And now control over towards mezz.
Can DarkZero now connect the thoughts and try and think about positioning potentially for a plant?
Or maybe even consider flooding Dean with a halogen.
And they have time as well like you mentioned. Keep a barrier for the Dronix holding deep master.
You've still got two gaspades of trap. Those are gonna be super important.
Just to be able to try and buy some more time for our last throw those at the doorway positions, you could save them for a potential plant towards Mars as well.
Veronica is moving around nicely, that plant going down inside of Mars, this is where Chav's going to get those gaspaves over if possible.
So much pressure though going out from both, the plant will go down successfully but Dark Zero is still not using those gaspaves.
Not being able to find a good angle to get usage out of that utility, Nua's is going to go down.
Now, it's a start over towards Opps and Mez for DZ.
NJ with a tight angle, Fox a little wide up.
We'll see if Outlast can hit these trades.
They need to push forward as 18, as 3.
Oh, good.
He's got a gas babe, actually, for the retake.
Volz is going to go down because of it.
Now, holding by himself is NJR.
He just sits inside of the gas.
Trev has played this perfectly.
Instead of using those gas babes to deny the plant,
he uses it for the retake.
he goes eight four saves the
round for outlast. A solid
close to the realm as they are
back in the winner position for
the first time since the opening
round of this match. Two to five
a long way back, but a good sign
of life for outlast. Yeah, they
got themselves in a little bit of
a tricky position there. Had it
not been for the gas baby could
have played out quite differently.
Surely had afforded themselves
the man advantage, but those
And so whilst maybe the smokes could have been used for plants and all they still provided really good value in
That round for the retake as you mentioned
Trapping DZ over towards that ops slash mez position
And akin to the first half outlast dude claimed that first round. It's now about rolling that
Moment of course easy got off to a decent start. I don't know with this particular look and
Of course they did eventually get that plant down able to negate the goyos for instance that were on side
They were able to get the hard bridge to work before that
But unfortunately, yeah that gas pipe was very very effective in the post
I'm just going to have about one round at a time mentality if you're out last you've won
Definitely one of the more comfortable defensive sites on let
There you go be pressured elsewhere though, but so far it's been a really good game from
Jeff Mark VIII and IV, but even just outside of the numbers, positioning, utility usage,
gunfong subgrouping for the 8th round, now last election to not go basement, and it was
on to the solid state.
So we didn't get time to talk about the fans, but triple shield band with the Blackbeard
Monty Clash all taken off the board in the mirror as well.
Yeah, so it does leave the wall denial available here for our last, but they elected not to lean
into that route for this particular round. It's rather trap-heavy, then you have the ward
into counteracts, some of the more common smoke deployments and flash dumps that can occur on
this particular site. It can also be layered on the top floor and that's where it wouldn't be
be situated at least at the opening portion here off of round number eight. As you can
see, a lot of blue outlines here on the top floor currently. In fact, every single player
from the outlast defense situated above, that's easy, we'll back themselves in to go for this
map. Clear to have good information gathering potential with the solid snake and the doc
can be duo. Double specialist brings here to clear a lot of this utility as well.
The logic bomb rings out from Kino, that's being slower paced around.
But that's good news if you're outlasted, you're happy with this pace that's being
set.
Foxy have not really been able to fully dislodge this top floor, it might now opt to go a little
bit more horizontally, put pressure over the ward's bunks of briefing Kino and start that
corridor.
You know, it's just the opt to slip through from Maser to Master and NJR now on the move
as well, but still disagrees with what Mayan loses his life to Logger.
You know, Jada, I don't know if I can kill Zell when DarkZero out just cleaned up, they've
just pushed right into Outlast.
Aggression, best serve called by DarkZero, and they've got multiple match points now.
Now, I think that round is well really demonstrating that Solid Snake isn't just a one-trick podium
In terms of solo lurk, entry potential, it can be a really effective tool at gathering
a lot of information and provided that your communication skills are good enough, you
can relay that really quickly and effectively, essentially live pinging them to the rest
of the team.
And when you're going for counter-attacks like that or split pushes where it's two angles,
looking to meet in the middle and you have that set information kind of in the middle
of the sandwich, it could be really, really effective when we saw that play out there
really nicely from DZ. Sure, early round and the pacing of the momentum may have been a
little bit slower, but it doesn't matter when you're building up to an attack like that.
And with it, they now have four opportunities to close this out in regulation.
I've been the better team. Dark Zero wants to get a really strong on-layer.
I wonder what point teams will just bend about that question mark, to be certainly for Outlast
allowing there to be the best that we go through at the best of one, but we kind of spoke about
before I think you touched on it in terms of counter-strattling and you know they had
the playday off, they probably would have hazarded the guests, Dark Zero would be obviously
warm and happy to go to Lair again, you put the work in, you try and figure out how can
We stopped them on this map and we give it a go
Hasn't quite worked out all rounds down
From outlast overall the scoreboard very reflective of the game darks here
That means to be
Teamwork and synergy Kino's put in a superstar performance 11 and 5
4k back in third round
He's also going 4-0 on entry, a smile which is incredibly impressive and that's put him
up currently to a 149 EPS and Kino hasn't you know typically been known as the player
to post big numbers, can have good moments, don't get it twisted, certainly internationally
he has had some but you know to put in a performance like this in a matchup that should
I'll take the pick quite one-sided, will be a nice sort of confidence boost, of course.
Logger goes down earlier to J90, who himself is having a very good game, 9-3 open with Gilt.
Guessing his second, he's now 2-0 on entry as well, and that's where it's been really dominant.
Entries 1 for Dark Zero since round 3, all the way now to this match point,
Nights round that had every opening kill double down on to Veronica walking around the doorway
Unsuspecting J90 losing this battle though to Nesta much needed kill from the thorn
Keeps the round alive and in the match we're outlast 3v4. Docs are still with the extra player advantage
Split looking defense right now for outlasts merely just gonna fall back plate blue stairs and hold this position with the keeper barriers
They're likely to try and play for life and that will help the nitro come down below.
Treadback on to Nurez, takes the snake off the board and gets some of the 8th probe gathering potential now for DZ.
We could come into question.
They may have a couple of drones still remaining though. Strong Verts playoff.
Three candellas critically. They'll be able to lay a utility into site, take space.
And I think Milly's sensing that it's fallen back.
Nester in the meantime though has made himself into bunks.
So there is now potential pressure up above with the mid-ground retake.
Three flashes too, between Folds and NJR.
Two of those Kandellas were just thrown from Keynote.
25 seconds, still a decent amount of time.
And even with next to potentially going up above, NJR watching beautifully on the blank.
Why is the easy angle ultimately from above?
It's all too easy in the end for Darkseer, or it's down to Treven.
He's been sensational for Outlast so far in this match.
Eight seconds to goal to the 19-0 from getting this plant down successfully.
Gets one on to NJR, can't beat out Fultz though as Dark Zero.
Cleanhouse on land.
7-2 results against Outlast, which keeps Outlast in that unfortunate fifth place position for Dark Zero, though.
Top spot still there.
Yeah, absolutely. They continue their march forward here.
And as you alluded to before, I do wonder from this point onwards, how many times do we see DZ
play layer here in kickoff because it looks so strong for them and that has a really,
really clean shake. And it certainly has. Well, the first map of the day goes the way of DZ for us to
go the way of the break.
I
Well, DarkZero, it is very clear that they are content to just keep on rolling through
some of these newer teams. No problem at all taking down Outlast, a 7-2 absolute statement
that DarkZero are continuing to make. Lax, we talked a lot about Outlast, right? Hoping that
they would maybe start to get their feet under them here, but it was clear that DarkZero were
just too tall of a task for them to overcome. Yeah, definitely. I mean, for one, I do have to
start being a little more critical of the newer teams and their choices, the decisions that they
they make and I think honestly going to layer three times in a row allowing Darkseod to find
comfort. I mean that's really the last thing you want to do as a newer team is giving these
more experienced teams comfort. You know you shouldn't allow them that opportunity to really
get an understanding. Me and Fox already know game days are the best days to work on maps
even if Lair wasn't DZ's one of the best maps. Two times in a row now they've shown why they
beat these teams and for it to go to a third and they look even more dominant than they
did the others. It really begs the question of me without last. What was the real prep
going into this matchup? What did they see differently? I will say I did like the bands
that did come from them in comparison to the other two teams that challenged easy, but
still it does lead me to question really why was the choice and was it just because that
they had two days to go over and try to extract from and then implement that just ended up
again just looking worse than the other two opponents previous.
I mean, it gives you confidence when you have that footage to be able to go off of.
But you saw it.
DZ didn't really change much from what they showed in the layer of the previous two days.
We still saw Kino on those famous stairs where he got his first ace.
We saw NJR playing the same spots.
They're very comfortable on that map.
They know that they didn't need to change too much because Outlast was going to make
the mixtakes themselves.
And that was really all it took when it came to the late rounds of those halves.
Outlast was just dying left, right, and center.
The way that Dizzy would explode onto the site from every angle, Outlast just got overwhelmed
and that was the biggest downfall.
The bands were good.
I do like the audiology that they came into it and they had about two decent rounds.
It's not much for Outlast, but that being said, it's more than none.
And that's one step after the other that they have to keep taking and go back into the lab
and focus up on that.
Well, I think we're reaching for some trust now.
It is really not much to say DZ beat up on a bad team.
Yes, and I don't want to play DZ.
Yeah, DZ did their job another day in the office, out last.
Sure.
Also did their job.
They lost.
They're learning.
It's really as simple as that.
There were some bright spots if you really
wanted to pick it apart, right?
We complimented TrevMax performance, right?
As an IGL, also being able to put up some good numbers.
And he was at least present throughout this game.
But like you said, without going overboard on the praise of DarkZero because they are
continuing to beat up on these younger teams, I mean, they did play another good layer,
another day, another successful win on the very same map.
Listen, at the end of the day, even for TrevMax's performance, to still have a really good game
against a top team, at the end of the day when push comes to shove, the team makes roster
changes, it does put Trev in a very good spot of being like, okay, you know, he can go
go to show each and every single game these players should strive to be their
best which I'm sure they are not discrediting saying that they aren't
but again it's it is a learning curve it is an experience versus an experience
but things do have to change at a rapid pace especially more than ever that we
are in an accelerated stage now that everything is going to be faster pace
so it is going to be a lot more pressure and these players can't succumb to the
pressure so I don't want to harp on them too much I just want to see what the
the next day will look like for them and kind of really get behind something that is more
tangible than what we've seen from day one to day two of their players.
I couldn't agree more.
I mean, I do like that we highlight a Tremac.
He is a great player.
He's been in the scene for a while to be having such good performances while also being the
IGL of a brand new team to the league.
It's a very difficult task to be able to juggle all of these options.
So that being said, him just showing up and doing the best.
That's the first step in the right direction for Outlast.
If you look at the rest of our schedule, it really does get a little bit easier.
They're playing also brand new built teams.
They got C9 and SSG coming up.
So they had to go through the gauntlet at first and lose those difficult games
and learn from it.
And now they're in a great position to be able to go up against C9 and SSG.
As for Dark Zero again, another day in the office, I'm excited to see them
continue their reign of terror as they play.
Oh, they look like a weaker wild card.
Let me not on land either.
Yeah, I mean, it only helps Dark Zero.
It only helps Dark Zero.
If they just keep playing Lair, then they
get to the bracket playoffs to be able to make Salt Lake City,
and you have no information on them,
that's a scary Dark Zero to go up against.
And someone's going to have to start
to vary out the map pick, at least against Dark Zero.
But we were talking about this lack.
There was a moment you wanted to point out in round 7
of this game to kind of showcase how things were playing out
for both of these teams.
Yeah, both myself and Fox really kind of like
something about a hoddable awe of what was going on here.
We really wanted to see how they were going to be able to play this retake.
And Trev, again, did a very good job at isolating these players,
forcing them out of position, choking them with these smokes,
and they played it really well for that post plan
and being able to go for that retake.
That is stuff that I do like to see as much as we did say.
We don't want to glaze DZ too much.
We do want to give outlasts some sort of respect.
And I really think that round in particular
showcased what this team has potential of
and what it can slowly manifest and turn into.
Of course, being able to isolate the three remaining GZ players with the smoke canisters,
clearly he's got a brain on him, he's able to hit those shots, and that's that instills confidence.
You're able to keep up that performance against these teams.
Outlasts as a whole can slowly get better, but for TREVMAC, it just shows this guy's the limit,
especially when the NAAL has a very limited IGL pool, especially rookie IGL pool.
So him showing that it only increases his stock as a player as well.
Well, the second team that made it through the Challenger series just a couple of weeks ago,
one of 30, they're going to be playing in our next game as they take on 100 Thieves,
a battle of two teams that, well, we could see a very competitive matchup.
Don't go anywhere, it's one of 30, 100 Thieves when we come back.
I'm breaking next and I'm riding out.
Gonna get all the stuff in my running out.
Cause I can't get down from the ground enough.
I'ma keep it going till I ain't one left.
I'ma keep it going, I'ma keep it going,
I'ma keep it going for it.
of 30. Take on 100 thieves in
our second matchup of the
third day of kickoff. I guess
this one is technically the
last match before we are
officially halfway through the
group stage. But as we talked
about this one of 30 team,
maybe we didn't have the highest
expectations coming in, but lacks day one match number one against Shopify Rebellion.
This team impressed us highly going all the way to overtime and making it look like they
are going to be a fierce competitor all stage long.
Yeah, absolutely.
They've really been delivering on all fronts.
I've been impressed with every single player on this team, especially the newer guys from
Mike W. Volsper and Sylo.
Even in their match yesterday versus M80, I said in the early bits of this that I was
really impressed with the game plan that they had.
It was to get aggressive, get those early picks in the favor, fall back onto those layers.
And individually, it's always easy to look at these new players and focus on who's getting
the most kills, who's making these plays happen.
I'm more fixated on the fact of what are these players doing in these moments?
What's the decisions that they're making?
I highlighted even that first clutch from Sylo, that 3K.
It was his split second decision making.
That's things that I'm looking at whenever I'm watching these new players.
Yes, if they frag and get a ton of kills, that's great.
But I really want to see the little intricacies that these players bring to the table.
So far, I have been impressed.
However, as I said, I do have to be far more critical.
I can't just focus on yes, they're going toe to toe
with some of these teams.
Yes, they're getting some rounds underneath their belt.
I need to see adaptations happen.
I need to see Bino really fall into his IGL role
and lead these players.
I need to see mid to late rounds and understanding
and a direction of, OK, here's the hurdle.
Here's the obstacle that's in front of them.
What are we doing to put that into our favor?
What are we doing to get these rounds underneath our belt
so we can close out these games.
That's what I want to see going into this game.
I can't hold on to two or three rounds where it looked great
and then immediately collapsing the next five rounds.
I mean, we can highlight the good individual players.
And when they have a brain, that's
what sets aside a player that can be in T2 to T1.
And clearly, the one of 30 players absolutely have.
And we're not holding them in the same light
that we're holding out last because they have Packer
and Bino.
They have that experience.
They have players that have been in T1
for a little bit bouncing in and out.
So they should be able to get on the right track
when it comes to the adaptation,
especially when it comes to losing opening kills.
You shouldn't have to rely on brand new rookies
to be put in these clutch situations,
especially when you're having rounds
where you win so flawlessly.
Consistency is the next target of attack
for one of 30 that we'd love to see
when it comes to the individuals.
We know that they're going to show up,
but the strategy and the consistency,
and I think it's safe to say that we need
to see some type of wins,
because I'm sure we're in the same boat lax
where regardless of, it doesn't matter how close they keep it.
If they lose today, let alone continuously keep losing,
we're not gonna be seeing them much further
because if they lose against 100 Thieves,
I can't imagine them beating any of the other teams
left in their way to get some points under their belt.
I completely agree.
Right, as you mentioned, this is kind of that real test,
right, they had good games against two very good teams,
but against 100 Thieves now,
a team that has looked a little bit weaker.
This is where you really want to see one of 30 step it up.
But speaking of 100 Thieves, right?
This is a team that also needs to step it up.
We know they can do it.
I mean, all of these guys, Fox, they've got this experience.
You have this OXG core that performed pretty well
in the back half of 2025,
but they still haven't found their stride yet,
at least here in kickoff.
They have not, they have not met expectations,
but something about 100 Thieves is the potential.
We were worried and had some concerns about Pamba.
He's been playing exceptionally well.
Adam, on the later half of OXG, was struggling.
He's been waking up on the entry.
Everybody from the team individually
has been doing really good.
And when it comes to their entry magic
that was working on OXG that got them all the way to invite,
we started to see it in that matchup against SR.
They were getting those opening kills,
but the biggest issue for 100 Thieves,
not only the pressure of getting to match point,
but it's losing these rounds
that should have so easily been won.
When they're in situations where they're in 3D5s,
this series, round three and round four,
easily could have put 100 thieves into a 4-0 against SR.
They have the 3D5, but look at every single one
of these gunfights, individual fight
after individual's fight.
This is not an 100 thieves roster,
a tournament winning roster that we should expect
from 100 thieves.
They have great individual players
and they're doing the hard part first.
They're getting not just one, but two picks
in both of these rounds,
And then they just let it bleed away, individual pick after individual pick.
And these are the two most notable rounds that we saw in yesterday's match.
But you could see it in every single one of the rounds leading up to match point
and an after match point that allowed them to lose the SR.
They just hemorrhage individual gunfights.
The pressure gets onto their shoulders and they stop playing like the hundred
these early, early round of these games.
You know, and this is, oh, sorry.
No, I was going to say this isn't just on the IGL either to be able to reel that in.
That's on every single player individually, especially on the defensive half, to be able
to realize the position that they're in, who they're next to.
They know who can play that trade or to even just fall back and force teams to go into
crossfire.
So that's what I really want to see going into this.
They did show a lot more improvement from game day one to two.
Today I need to see it even better and more amplified at a faster pace.
Well, hopefully they can go to a map that sets themselves up for success at the very
We talk a lot about right the shield play from spirits in the new system that he's gonna be running as the IGL of this team lacks
When you look at the maps, maybe they can head somewhere that leans into that strategy
Yeah, I think they want to play into their own individual prowess and their strengths
You know a lot of maps that are very gunfight oriented
We already know a team like the old oxygen roster and I'm you know speaking of this an old oxygen roster
They like taking those gunfights
They like being in those engagements and looking at a map like border. This makes perfect sense that they're allowing this to go through
I think it really plays into their style. They're gonna be starting on defense love that already
But once they transition an attack, that's where I want to see that teamwork
You know, this is a map where shields can really excel you can push through top east you can push through break
You can push through any of the balconies to get into the site towards armory or towards archives
So spirits should have a field day and then even for Gomez and Adam
We already highlighted them.
They were the spearhead for this team in the early days.
Border was the map where we actually
started to see a resurgence from this team.
So I want to see them take initiative, take charge,
and then get these opening picks.
So then that way, the mid to late round
can be a much smoother execute.
And we can actually see the coordination and teamwork
really come to fruition.
And that's something we know 100 Thieves can do.
I mean, they showed it on Chalet.
Similar playstyle of a map instantly looked way better
than they did on day one.
And getting those opening tells us something they thrived.
and they actually dominated yesterday in the open kills department.
So they can continue to do that on board, especially amplifying spirits,
being able to bring the shield or the ying, whatever the case may be,
to get that first pick on the attack.
But it's about slowing down afterwards and maintaining that man advantage.
That is the key characteristic that I want to be able to see,
because we know one of 30, even though they are a brand new team, so to say,
they can't clutch up in those situations.
Do they have the same caliber of players of SR?
No, but they have the potential of the individual plays that we've seen them do against a team like M80
Which we could agree maybe that M80 is currently playing a little bit better than 100th
So it's a scary position to find yourself in if you're losing those opening kills for a 1 of 30
Especially on a map like border. There's not many areas you can back up to so I'm hoping to see gunfights very early on
That will dictate the rest of the round and it'll be good practice for 100
these once they get those opening kills, just slow it down and focus on the objective, use
spirits on the entry and then use his brain for the post plans.
Yeah, and then for the side of our outlast, I mean an outlast, for the side of one and
thirty don't want to keep only talking about a hundred thieves here.
What I want to see more than anything is them to have a solid defensive half, but again,
on that attacking half, I want to see adaptation.
I want to see players moving in and around the map to find an opening, to see where they
can push, see where they can go for these excuse, because that for me will really show me, okay,
From game one to game two, we know where things went wrong.
We know what we need to look at.
We know how we need to approach it.
That's where I'm going to be looking at this one of 30 and see if they are really making
those adaptations.
Cause there's no more hand holding at this point.
It's no more given praise for the small things.
We need to see the big things cause that's what's going to allow them to make a make,
make a name for this house to make their mark is being able to adapt and be the better team
outside of maybe a team giving you round after round.
I want to see something from these guys,
more so specifically from Beano.
I couldn't agree more and let's paint the picture.
100 Thieves looked very good early on in that SR matchup.
They get to match point and the pressure
that has always held OXG back
and now the 100 Thieves roster got onto them,
they lose four rounds straight.
Now they're in a situation where this is quote on quote,
the easiest team that they could face in group A,
tied with one of 30 for one point.
Next, they have to go up against M80.
So again, the pressure has only amounted even greater today
because a hundred thieves has to get some points
under their belt or else they have to go up against a tide
and to save their life from that elimination spot.
So it's a very, very scary situation for a hundred thieves
to be in given that we know that they struggle
under that hidden pressure.
My one team from both of these groups
will not be making the double elimination bracket
and their chances at making the Salt Lake City major
will end before the playoffs at the end of the month.
So a lot of pressure on both hundred thieves
and one of 30s shoulders.
Our players are still trickling into the lobby,
so we're gonna step aside briefly,
but we will have a battle on boarder
between one of 30 and hundred thieves,
Xenox and Guz will have the call when we come back.
I
the game. Welcome back to NL
kickoff. We're heading into our
second match of the day, one of
30 versus 100 thieves, because we
had to border for this one should
be fun. Hopefully full of
frenetic fighting as border
usually does present an important
game as well for both of these
I think it's just potentially the most competitive across all four games this afternoon. So it should be a lot of fun. I can't think of a better stage than border where chaos reigns the Supreme, you know, both of these two teams and play one more game after today under thieves will take on M 80, one 30 will take on five
to win the game. Both of these
two teams only play one more
game after today under thieves
will take on M 80. One 30 will
take on five years, so they've
only got one more chance after
this. The winner of this very
likely should escape at least
that fifth spot in the group. You
would imagine firing other
circumstances that can change
based on the results, but. Yeah,
you lose this. It's going to be
the next game. For 100 days
that much difficult against the
likes of m 80. 100 days will
begin on the defense first up on
border as we go into the van
phase. It is a zombie and
glass that kick things off. I
must say the sound type to
cheer for an a lot of those
computer computer can say
mentioning no shields taken off the board for this first half but of course to be a big talking point
heading into the second half where spirits will likely want to lead the charge on the shields for
hundredthies attacks. Territory again. It's out of the first side of the election. NAL locked the
tertiary sites off the bat rather than the primal. That's fine. We do see it every now and then in
APL where teams will flip off the order in which the sites are chosen. There's nothing wrong with
starting on the tertiary we can pinch one early in the opening round and then fall back to your primary
site so it's a good chance you could start three or nothing on the defense for 100 thieves but it
does put the test now to 130 and to be fair the ways you can look at it is based on preparation
100 thieves are prepared and ready to go straight into tertiary so we go back workshop to begin
rather than you know armory archives which is typically where you would go for border
i want to want a 30 walled up and ready to go to go straight into the tertiary site rather than kind
kind of getting the 3D past one of the more difficult sites to attack into, you know, getting to Walmart.
So I don't mind it from the mental side of things as well, but again putting emphasis on this game for those watching as we, you know,
kind of halfway through the group stage, certainly these two teams who have not had their buy yet, you know, it's a must win game for both of them.
Yep. The bar 4 is kind of very tricky from here.
need to scrap some points try to make it into that bracket run where either of
these teams could potentially have the impact and who knows maybe could then go
on to make the Salt Lake City major four spots on offer of course here in North
America.
We're gonna jump right early here from one of 30 looking to gather information and
scout out this floor hold from 100thies. All five defenders on second floor currently
looking to lean heavily into the traps on offer. And nearly the solace as well. GOMAs
in this round will play a key role in gaining information and potentially being a threat
for Plantano if he goes undisrupted. And even though it's bent workshop, predominantly
100thies playing this as if it is almost like top floor anyway. A lot of pressure towards
security trying to deny a lot of the entry positions of 130 forced them to
maybe go for this top-down cleave rather than direct here so both forces on the
solid state can help get a little bit of information but it's somewhat limited use
in terms of that radar because you can kind of have an idea as to where a
hundred days of flying on board or anyway
you might w through office and just step through that barbed wire
Who's he going to be aware of this? He is swinging the corner cautiously, but headshot has been acquired for Mike.
The two player kill start for 1 of 30, a spirit's falling elsewhere. Gomez gets involved, he's lost another teammate in Adam, and that is a two kill start for Mike W.
That is a wonderful start for 1 of 30 in the top four clear, and they've got 50 seconds as well to turn their attention to the site.
Now, the Solas above does continue to offer threat if 1 of 30 looked to now go straight
towards the site.
The Gomez is, you have a plate going down perhaps, yes, drops down, pushes forward, taken down,
pack a sharp shot, and you'll go to 1 versus 4.
Well, it's fallen apart at the seams for 100 thies.
1 of 30 though, off to a very strong start.
Yeah, the similarities are striking through our first match of the day.
site choice by the defense which was dark zero back on layer and the opposing team on
the attack taking out the tertiary site.
So a good start for 1-30.
Obviously a bent workshop probably a side I think which is far more winnable on board
compared to some others.
Tech pause after the first round has played out.
Ultimately though the battle was won really on that top floor and that's the best sign
for 1 of 30 and the concerning side probably for 100 thieves is likely you're going to
go Armory next and it's going to play out rather similar and so if 1 of 30 can kind
of have the same entry positions, hit the same shots, take space, especially towards
the likes of security and clear out East Stairs, get office control, that's going to go a
long way in being able to win that particular side objective as well.
It's a really good start for 1 of 30, 100 thieves will be disappointed, they couldn't
really get the soul aside the
later on because at that point
you haven't got the numbers
anyway, you know, it's it's
essentially a 2v4 the solace
can't just run around freely
trying to find that good kit
for pressure with the scanner.
It could start and again the
nurse would probably be there
for both teams, but certainly
100 thieves. A new organization
of course large remnants of
oxygen and then spirits and
Pamir's who from dark zero days
It's a very high quality players joining a high quality organization.
You don't want kickoff to end with being grouped and they potentially be in that position
if they lose this game.
Yeah, that would be a remarkable storyline, a team that is looking to crack in and make
the top four and make it to the major if they're unable to even take the first step and not
different propel themselves into the bracket that would be a damper on the
beginning of their 2026 campaign. Also there's quite a long campaign and the
kickoff format is incredibly unforgiving. Not to mention we're only one
round into board here and the world is still their oyster.
Ah, fine, please.
Hey, it's still 9.20 local time, but I'm still going to hang and string together a sentence in the morning.
Hey, you said it right about this brutal, and it certainly is.
You look at APL, though, and they don't even have a group stage.
It's just the Aos only.
You know, two best threes in your ally.
But even though there is a group stage for NAL here,
and that's the ones you can get groups if you finish fourth in your group you're
starting in the log bracket anyway so yeah in theory yes it's still very
brutal though even with the group stage I could start for one of 30s we end this
tech pause and get back on the way into the second round will be armory and
archive so surprise selected fly a hundred days primary site on border and
And they've brought essentially the same line-up because the only difference being they've dropped
the warden for the Kaeyi.
So again, expecting 100-2 is to play this very similar to the previous round, just with
a bit added reinforcement with the Kaeyi clause.
Well, they've got the tube around as well, right?
So that may be potentially expectation of the Daemons that could be good counter-toolage
outside of obviously a hard breach denial as well.
So I'm intrigued to see how Yoga looks to implement that utility in the round.
We'll stack over to East Stairs though, early here from 1 of 30.
This is an intriguing belt of utility.
As I open in through Passport Ward, trying to expose this stairs position,
it's spirits to hold down the lane currently on the smoke.
He's looking to hold this Gas Babe Util for as long as possible to extract maximum value.
Of course, with that Util, he can no longer push down the stairs,
and escaping will be a challenge.
Atom elsewhere though, will provide support.
Clean work from that office position to deny down below and Gomez with an SMG of his own will find a pick as well
100 days doing a better job in denying a map entry
Yeah, I just think it's that pointed around I mean a minute and a half kind of went by really quick not much happened
I'm one of 30 struggled to
Really make contact and take some of these fights hundred days got to a point in the round where they're like well
We can kind of push back and get aggressive ourselves as you told before
very low on health 5v200 these are gonna make pretty quick work of this primary sight never even really being tested on
The site itself
That's just why you want a 30 because they did a good job of actually clearing a very similar hold in the previous round
It's bringing that back to back proving to be difficult
This route has already used all of these gaspays
Shotgun looking to swing over the wall. It's top of these stairs
is. He hasn't quite been
successful until just at the
very end. Drop shot will work.
Get both of them. And 100 days
on the board as they take
round two. No, that's two
rather one sided rounds so far.
One a piece that can sometimes
be the nature and honestly, it's
probably typically the nature
of border. Snowball style
rounds are fairly common. If
you're able to find the entry
of defense. It's then incredibly challenging to fight in towards the map from the exterior
because of the nature of border structure and on the flip side of attack. If you get
into the building, find the opening kill. You can snow ball. We saw that back in round number one.
So I don't think we're seeing too many massive surprises in the opening couple of rounds here,
really from either team outside of, I guess, the quote unquote tertiary being selected,
but even that wasn't too far fetched. But that's exciting because it's setting us up for hopefully
this to culminate into a really close contest. That's how it looks on paper. You then combine
that with the stakes when you consider the position in which these two teams find themselves in.
Essentially a must-win position to stay alive here for kickoff.
It just feels like it's building into a big game.
Yeah, what kind of stake though? Is it well done or is it medium-rare?
Ah, it depends if you lose. If you lose, it's going to be very well done and overcooked.
Oh, Alex will like that then.
Yeah, I mean, you kind of said it best in the sense that it's 1-1 in both rounds, one convincingly out of the way.
Four on live in both of the rounds, but the respective teams open and kill as well.
When we have Mike in the opening round, Adam in the second round.
So it's just gone two rounds in, and both have kind of landed a blow each.
So we head over to customs and fly down in the third round.
Back onto the solid snake for the false spot, which I think especially on this particular
site customer supply there's a little bit more movement around the map for the defense
so having that radar to be able to help facilitate entry will be very valuable for 1 of 30.
We saw a drone work here from one of 30, we saw Mike W as well getting some nice value from the club during the early and disrupting some of the U2 laid out here by the defensive front thieves and it's first pick to the attack.
Can they now snowball this advantage?
It's Gomez on the ground, you two are likely already dispersed but does snatch that potential
nitro away if it wasn't used prior and of course it's one player down one less gun inside
of the server for the defense.
That's the drone work that you mentioned, they found that pick on the Gomez so they
got rewarded for that drone work and Adam does find the kill of the Nitro star on to
Silo, gets rid of the Dockovic, same time IW able to get rid of Pambazook giving still
the advantage to 1 of 30 and closer towards the last minute of the round.
He got yoghurt towards Armory still but he will draw straight into the arms of
Packer, waiting patiently for that drop.
Yoghurt completely unaware.
A minute on the clock Packer's under a little bit of pressure here the nitro
settle taking down to one HP finish off by the second person.
Now, Spirits plays isolated, he's caught, and he's down and out, 1 of 30 with another clean attack.
I mean, really good drum work early on, good patience, they didn't really worry about trying to just get into positions early,
took their time, rewarded them with that opening kill on to Gomez, and then from there, just started to kind of sweep around the map.
A solid round from 1 of 30, 100 thieves actually just, as the round opened up and we started to see 1 of 30 infiltrate into the building,
These just looked a little bit staggered around the map defensively and border content to do that and certainly on these first-floor sites
Where you want to try and have control second floor and first floor you do end up kind of spread defensively
So let's say gets banned out so does the tuber out
We actually discussed this on APO the other day where you know
We've kind of looked at the region by region breakdown as to how solid snake is being utilized and
And it's kind of a region by region preference at the moment in terms of some regions are banning it and certainly playing it
I think they're all playing it, but some regions are banning it way more than others
Yeah, absolutely been the case and we'll see what kind of freedom that may now be able to afford
this defense and maybe just enable a little bit more like potential 400
thieves not necessarily having to deal with the threat of being pinged down and
it's not just even the early round we saw it in the last game we've seen
glimpses of it here already on board of us the ability from the mid to late
round transition and finding really specific information especially on
on-site positions like as well if you have the strong communication skills to
relay that for the execute. It makes it so damn tough for the defense to anchor, especially
if you're playing a slightly off position. So we'll see what that translates to now as
we head into round four. We'll see if 100 thieves can maintain this sea stall between
the two teams.
Yeah, and same lineup again on the side for 100 thieves. It's just the form instead of
the goya. So you're trying to keep their lineups as similar as possible and then maybe just
switching out a little bit on the fly based on the info that they're getting from the prior rounds.
So I like to not bring vaulting canisters of the gun, instead they want the razor bloom shells
off the thorn. As the drone work right now from 1.30, that's really impressing this first half,
they're getting themselves information and on board. That's so vital, so important, especially
just entering the building can be so difficult at the best of times, the way the defense would
typically play at these window and doorway positions trying to take fights against those
outside on the balcony.
Well, you know what you're pulling from silo, so one or 30, one or 20, can't as much space
as they possibly can obtain.
And this is actually something Mike's done very well.
He's 4-1 and he keeps going.
This East airs into office lurk position.
And it's been very successful outside of one round, which was the second round.
It's his second open kill all the half so far for Mike.
And that now ramps up the pressure quite quickly onto the rest of this defense of 100 views.
He will spring into action and try to find some space back, but Yoga now deathmarked.
So he too under the pump and can't push forward now to refill that space that's being created.
And Mike W continues to use the rampage. Yoga needs to win this fight. He does.
But unfortunately for him, Pamba drops elsewhere.
3 vs 2 in favour of 1 vs 30 as Mike W's rampage continues.
Yeah, it's the classic border where it's just fight after fight.
Yoga, nice shot in the back on a silo, plank on down from Bino towards server.
Nothing Yoga can do about that, he ends his 1v2 post-plant.
Have the yellow ping intel on Mike W's position, he's going to drop the bathroom.
We'll play with Bino.
Yoga's got 30 seconds to try and salvage this round for 100 feet.
I stand down to barrel with a 3-1 deficit.
You're going to try and play quick.
This is going to come barrel, he did last second.
He's played this well in terms of his positioning,
but Mike W. as well plays it better.
And what a round from Mikey Boy.
Solid.
As 1-30, take a 3-1 lead.
He's at the head of that.
His entries have been really good for 1-30.
Yeah, there's no doubt at the moment
that DMRs are very strong in Siege,
but you need to leverage that correctly.
Positioning is critical and drone work as well
to facilitate finding that point of least resistance.
And Mike W was able to exploit that really nicely.
Hundred Thieves call a tactical time out in response,
not particularly pleased with how things have played out thus far.
We can now see a definitive lead in this map.
And the entry battle continues to be defining
as is typical to lead the case on border.
It's four out of four conversions.
three of those in favor of one of 30 and they've been working really hard that due diligence on attack entry has looked so strong the combination of drone work and then finding the point of least resistance for map entry, finding that pocket of space that 100 these are leaving has been really cool to watch.
And so 100 these needs to tidy that up and make it more challenging to enter the map.
Yeah, I mean, it is border attacks will typically be at the best of times quite strong and successful
I don't think 100T's will be sweating just yet.
But just yet is the wording because it can get ugly really quickly if you don't rectify
some of the issues.
And this is an issue right now.
Stopping my W with these entries, he's just kind of doing what he likes.
Just a single round went and hasn't worked and funnily enough that was actually a round
in which 100T's won.
So that they actually stopped his entry in that second round and from there went on and won pretty comfortably
And in all the other three rounds, he's just been so dominant two out of three attack
So opening kills for one of 30 pack again. I wanted a third round
Seven and one two one on the entry
183 EPS he's been the standout for one of thirty two rats to go in the heart. We'll see if hundred teams can bounce back
So it's the Kali in play for Mike W who's had enough of the TMRs going to jump onto the sniper for the fifth round and so maybe that's indicative of some kind of set play formulated here by one of thirty.
I mean quite intriguing to see if this is potentially for utility as it should be able to fortify longer lines of sight with a combination of both.
maybe indicating something a little bit more archived side that keeps on the opposing side of that
finally. I'm quite excited to see what kind of tactic I'm going to put to formulate here
then how the 100 thieves try and formulate a response. It's going as initially over the
woods, play for him, favoring this position once again as the G up close, tricky to clear.
As the Rateros get sent out, the Vino drone work elsewhere from the lights of Stilo and
Mike W's are very drone heavy again here from the attack. Trying their best to gain information
but that even is being stalled out by the mute of Yobo. And again I've spoken about this a couple
of times guys with the drone work from 1 of 30 has been really successful for them in their first
half. It's going to be the test now I guess. They're very much aware of his position.
Rals was certainly was aware but they've been better. Good trades they brought numbers to the
battle so they play that trade game early into the round silo makes it a third straight now for
one of thirty and they take the numbers advantage natural miss from jogger as Adam still has one
but he goes down in archives it's a 3v1 if you just walk through the front door and take him to
the firefight straight to hundred thieves now it's a archives packer can plant jogger can't do anything
about it that plant will be successful and can't even cross top of main stairs
to the back of the car. It's
like they know exactly where
he's going to be coming from,
which is over towards office.
Oh, great. Tap through onto
pack up. I should fall silo
into action. He makes his way
up main stairs down to try and
shoot yoga in the back, which
may just happen at any moment.
It gets on the kid. That will
to one. Wow. One of thirty really is starting to make a statement here on
board up. Good trade out over the woods break. But another key moment that we
didn't catch on camera necessarily but we saw it on the kill feed. It was once
again Mike W. He got value from the Kali from that long outside position
over the woods archives. That was a that was a particular position that was near
impossible to trade. We saw the trade work elsewhere actually be okay for the most part. 400
these, but just prior to that, just during that particular fight, Mike W, right there,
was I couldn't find that kill, so I could catch that from the obbs. That rotation over
was hoppy. There's no one in which that's getting traded. It then gave them a permanent
advantage going forward, Archive's plant. Again, enabled by the Kali who could see outside long
angle and would have been in a position to help in terms of their kind of defensive denial.
So big shout out to the Kali pick that worked out really well and then the drone work and the flood work over towards break
Was clean as well 130 dead game plan at the moment
It's looking really really clean hundreds these need to step it up and find a way to shut this down
Get info
Play off each other get into tradable positions and
The fundamentals have been really good
I think this is certainly a game where it's not so much like a hundred thieves doing a whole lot wrong
130 is playing really really well
and spirits over the walls talus is almost dead
mine has been the mvp so far
the mental warfare has come out as well
Come as though it gets the opening kill and a 4-2 half wouldn't be awful really for 100
thieves as they would then get to go on the attack themselves in the second half.
That's like border typically can be the stronger side.
Pack of descendant 4 then on the blitz and of course post nerf requiring the sling.
to help facilitate that quick entry, but it is being denied nicely.
100 days from the live from the final round over the half
to potentially set themselves up to post a respectable school line,
an indescendable school line heading into the second half.
The aggression continues and the attack continues to fall into 2v4.
Plenty of time, but not a lot of bodies now that can be thrown at this defence.
Had a very fortunate down on the balls, because that air jab left him vulnerable.
This is one thing that Hundred Thieves have done better though. That's a really good instance where
they're taking fights where the trade ability is not there for one of 30. Hundred Thieves are
being more proactive on the defense. They're pushing, taking these 1v1s, winning it, and then
1 of 30 can't get that flood game going and that trade game going because they're not the ones
initiating the contact. Still over a minute remaining in the round. My W is only that.
the one time come to the close of the half very briefly this way you can maintain that and if
he does it might be because one of 30 can somehow bring this back but it's going to be difficult
and still a nice very far available. Gotta find this you gotta find a pick really in the next 20
seconds gotta get lucky from above and that's what Mike's trying to do. Oh that's actually
I mean stairs with the pistol 40 seconds to be three
I think some of the decent amount of information they can do to actually play up to the belt still half archives waiting both being monitored packer under pressure
30 second wall time now becoming a big concern and that pick up above the mic could have been big but it does not
Land compromising the final push of this attack
Yeah, probably needed that one now you down a player can't just flood trade
the game. He's got a lot of
time. He's got a lot of time
to lead. Overward site. It does
have to keep running low on time
in the last 10 seconds of this
round. Go man will shut down the
blitz. Mike does get another one.
He goes to double digit kills.
The time will run out. It will
expire. 100 Thieves will get
their second round to close the
half. Yeah, four to half 100
Thieves probably walking away
feeling pretty content. There
in the 6th.
Well, we go into roll swap, half time break.
Let's see what the desk has to say.
Thanks guys. A good start for one of 30, Lax.
We said they needed to show up here and tell us that they could take down a team like 100 Thieves on the attack.
One of 30 made it work.
Yeah, they absolutely did. And I said this, starting on their attacking app, I wanted to see adaptation.
I wanted to clearly see a sense of direction a sense of urgency being changed from one round to the next or even into the mid late round
And that's exactly what we saw even from round two where they end up losing the round me and Fox were talking about it
A shield would have made that attack so much easier
They ended up losing a lot of bodies due to the fact that they just couldn't enter the building
What was the problem? So what was the solution immediately the next round? They bring a shield
They use that black here from bino. They get into the site. They get into the map
They force players they course players into line of sight and they would just slowly collapse and constrict that defensive half
That that a hundred thieves was trying to go for overall
They've been very strong on their attacking half and Mike W has been playing exceptionally well
Yeah, I mean Mike W has been getting the trade almost every single time
I think that's been the name of the game when it comes to one of 30. Yes very creative operators
I mean we saw Mike W on the Cali. I didn't think we would see a Cali on Cali's border
But that being said, not only the operators very creative, they're constantly adapting,
but Mike W is always there for the trade.
And some of those rounds were make or break where he's consistently just out trading his
teammates that are dying, and it puts one of 30 in winnable situations.
And if we talk about trades, I think we have to mention that 100 Thieves is doing very
bad on the trades.
Every single one of their defenses, it's 1v1 after 1v1, even when they're all grouped up
in CCTV.
We were talking about a lax sometimes one of 30 is just walking through the breakdoor and the Yogg is in the CCTV
By the windows and not open
Situations that shouldn't happen
And I think that's the biggest thing going into attack that a hundred thieves needs to make sure worse comes to worse
Just trade each other this basics. I'm holding a hundred these right now in the same realm as I talk about outlast
One of 30 I've shown us that they have that
adaptability right there changing it up on the attack now for a hundred thieves
we're gonna have to see the same thing back to you guys
we head into the second half and this best of one matchup it's tense now for
hundred thieves we spoke about a pre-match guys in terms of the story
lines developing for both of these two teams so far through a kickoff must win
this match for both one of thirty three rounds away under these go into the attack
Now, see if they can bring the same firepower that we saw with 1.30 in the first half, they're
going to need to.
Otherwise, you're staring down the bottom of the barrel, being in the last place position,
which will get you grouped, and not even a chance at playoffs.
So, the band's come through then.
It's Glass, Blackbeard, Azami, and Goyo.
And the question now posed how heavy into shields the spirits wish to lean into for the
second half with both the Blitz and the Monty up and available and on a map like
Border that those shits can really get to work they can be quite useful in
gaining the initial control, protesting the likes of Top B still break. At least
that first glance it didn't seem like that was going to be the selection of choice
here though for the opening attack. We'll see though if that ends up being changed.
But we've got to see the trade game specifically for 100 thieves to step up here into the second half.
It's been a big strength for one of 30.
If they can continue that and have flowed into few things, the path forward for 100 thieves does look pretty rocky.
Equally though, there's an opportunity if they're able to refine things to get back into this map and look very competitive.
We did our podcast the other day, actually, we were talking about 100 thieves.
100 thieves and we didn't have them in certainly a major qualifying position in NAL. There's
just quite a few other teams I think that are above them but I certainly wouldn't have
them in last place. Oh, I shot through the parry headshot on the pack up, onto the smoke
as well. That's a great start to the 100 thieves looking to get out of that last place.
Looting the magazine!
Yeah, I think, yeah, it's only heading into kickoff, probably not quite in that top four,
but Hunter Thieves, if they can link it at the right time and find form at the right
moment, provided they make the playoff bracket, it's not otherworldly for them to crack into
that top four, it is just as you mentioned, and kind of looting to very, very competitive.
And we haven't quite seen them at their best just yet, but very early days for this project.
the two-minute break, just being able to collect their thoughts, and figure things out to go
into the second half, and boy, that is the response so desperately needed after being
down 4-1. 4-1, gone and strung together two rounds in a row, closed out the first half
in bathroom towers, and then attacking into armory archives flawlessly, and now it's
Now it's game on, now it gets really tense for both of these two teams.
Packer a little bit unfortunate but it's the risk you run when sitting right at the window.
Attack as a times we want to just shoot through it and you can cop a straight bullet.
So into the eighth round and it's workshop.
the objective of choice for 1 of 30 in a similar vein to their opponents they'll
elect to bring the solos packer this time around to fulfill that role
kind of cut down information through the early to mid round and then position dependent can maybe
look to disrupt plant from above or relay that information to any other remaining defenders
as well. On the side of the attack we do now see the shield play activated from Spirit to jump
onto the blitz for this round. Of course they didn't ultimately need a shield at all to help facilitate
the entry last time out but that was a little bit more of a off-matter opportunity I suppose
in a bit of an extraneous circumstance so with a more standard defense lineup here in terms of
transition, we'll see if they can try and leverage that blitz for the initial map entry.
And a big change up when it comes to the lineup for 1-0-30, only keeping the Irini from the opening
round, but they look a little bit more active though with this lineup. Now obviously Packron,
the solos is going to need to stay alive, he'll be important. I'm trying to help locate that kit.
I like Volsper on the thorn, I'll gov you as well on the warden to help deny some of the quicker
Entries towards the spot floor, might have thrown out from Bino, doesn't connect.
There is might W, he's got a kill on the pantheon, but trade doesn't come through swiftly.
100 Thieves are bringing the heat on boarder, the kickstart bear attacking half.
It's been an onslaught, wonderful clear on the top floor.
Spirit knows exactly where Packer is, good use of all the impact to just dislodge spirits.
Finish him off with the S of G, but now in the 1v3, bottom of the main stairs.
I know exactly where Packer is. Here comes Adam from above. Make it three straight for 100 Thieves and we are tied here on border.
Okay, they're bringing some flare now. I'm liking what we've seen so far from 100 Thieves. The intensity of their attacks has been really quite astounding when they work really hard and they're grind away and find that opening kill.
they snap immediately into action, they're leveraging that blitz really nicely, they're
then pushing the defense into preoccupied positions around the map for pretty easy and
straightforward picks. They're layering enough utility where they're not overly aligned on
it, but again it's dislodging this defense really nicely and you culminate all that together.
I wish we had some kind of weight to measure it, like a pressure gauge for instance, because
It feels like 100 thieves if that were to be the case, would be close to 100 at the moment, these first couple of rounds and not giving any breathing room at all to the defence, not allowing any repositions, not allowing any counter utility.
It's been really, really quite clean for watch so far.
And so now with the 4-4 scoreline, it's just about maintaining that, being able to provide that momentum and continue forward.
So back to Humrye Archives, and again it seems like the good news for 1 of 30s, they're pretty much aware of the fact they're going to have to adapt.
They know 100Ds are playing pretty quick, they're flooding, their aggression is through the roof, and they're just committing.
or whatever happens if one or two players go down for a hundred thieves doesn't matter they'll push forward so that brings silo
On the Allah the Griswap minds just you know add in with the thorn and the malusia ban
She's like you've got so much more trap utility that's been brought in this round
And it's in response to how hundred thieves have been playing
Yeah, absolutely
I was going to note it if you if you didn't it's all about trying to slow down this attack and disrupt it as much
It's possible to not allow any kind of tempo building throughout the round even if 100 Thieves were to get up here
Go get some ground then being able to stall them out and not allowing them
Just snowball and roll forward as quickly through these rounds and find as much map position as they have
Across the last couple of occasions. We'll see if they're able to lean into that utility
How effective it may be and what 100 Thieves now do in response early night show from my W
That doesn't quite land at the mark inside of our place currently
Already they're doing a little better and withstanding this pressure
That being said hundred these more so groundwork. It's during heavy activating the twitch
Posturing maybe for archives
Suggests that we see something a little more direct as opposed to the map clears that one of 30 have now become accustomed to
One of seconds has already elapsed better for one of 30 that's a win for them
These rounds have been typically over by this point, so he did take some damage.
Volsper wants to get aggressive, times it nicely, runs right in to Gomez.
Gomez was not expecting that swing, out of break, opening kill goes the way of 1-30.
Not your bomb activated from Spirits and he makes his way up main stairs, but the nuisance
of the trap utility clearly playing a factor, but yet gets up anyway and shoots Mike W in
In the back, Spirit has taken control towards Lockers, does not matter though, three of
his teammates fall at the same time as one of thirty should now make this five to four.
Wow.
Big blow landed then from one of thirty Spirit's left with Lidl in the tank.
Not really any wind conditions now presenting themselves.
He tries to be patient, he tries to wait for the push, the one by one, but it's not coming
his way.
One of thirty is staring down the barrel now, we're returning to a lead position.
And we'll also mean that neither team's been able to net four rounds in a row.
Ten seconds on the clock, the spirit knows it's round over.
Good discipline, really good discipline.
I mean, you're not really going to lose that 4v1.
It's where it's so low on health.
I understand that, but just the discipline of just saying,
hey, yeah, we got this round wrapped up,
but we all don't have to run around and do silly things.
Hold our positions, stay tucked in, and just close it out.
Five to four.
So the run of 100 thieves comes to an end at three rounds
straight, 130 bounce back.
And again, it's on that adaptation,
where they're figuring things out as the rounds play out.
What's the issue?
100 thieves are just able to rush into us
with bring trap utility and it works.
You even just saw the push up main stairs for spirits
and he was successful actually in still getting up,
getting in and getting the kill into my W.
But it's delayed, it's not as clean, it's not as easy
and certainly others having issued too
and that gives one of 30 a better chance to find kills.
Number one, Paul from Volsper.
He gets aggressive on the defense, swing down, right?
And here his spirit's pushing up.
And again, he's getting shot at, he has the deal with utility, even though he's still got that kill on to Mike W, it's not clean, he's not able to go and get more from that position, and he was then wielded heavily.
Two rounds to go for 1 of 30 on the defense, they take out the primary site of Armory Archives, and we go towards the 1 shot for the 10th round.
So that breaks the momentum of 100 Thieves now, once again put in a position of pressure
and we'll see how they look to respond.
On this workshop site, Solid Snake selected for 100 Thieves, it's a little bit of an
unorthodox composition here from the attack.
once again see Carly in play. The boys on the desk during the roll swap timeout a little surprised
that we saw Carly on one occasion from 1 of 30. Well we'll see it for a second time this time in
the hands of 100 thieves. It's Spirits trading out his typical shield play for the sniper in hand
trying to establish some long-angle dominance could actually be quite a useful tool for clearing
this pillar position over what security will need some accompanying pressure to dislodge the silo.
the spirits will be able to win this fight he is in the favorite position with
that sniper and the long-sighted company now it's interesting though utility is
off
Carly is not exactly a staple pick by any means but it certainly has been used on
this map many times before and that these kind of positions finally enough
that Adam is actually sitting in right now you think about that pushing towards
archives where you try and get that quick plant down the colony can be very useful
and just sort of holding the angle they can cut off a lot of angles towards
the window position from balcony certainly has uses on border. Now border is there's a small
map but there's definitely a collection of niche one angles where the kali could be useful as
Gomez in the meantime pushes forward great pressure here from 100 things but again early round
good up close adds the sniper that we've been talking up off the board in the grave 5v4 in favor
of the defense spirit in that position towards 90 though calling the carly that's questionable
the trade elsewhere those anime is able to even up the numbers the deal is possible towards
fountain lovely drop shot from mic w the panthers who completely outplays the solid snake
logic bomb rings out from gomez desperate times now for 100 fees
swinging towards main the timing though is not caught by gomez
a second hero there and maybe finds that kill from top main stairs, but is unable to yellow pink in cell
They want to go hunting on to my W and they do collect he was stuck towards armory 3v3 under a minute remaining
So I love this position from being I just aggressive here against the job will win this fight if it goes unchecked by the attack
So the things do have a decent pocket of time by 40 seconds
Do they have the information required though drone late here from the I go to quite a distance away from the site
This will take time for Ghana. This is a calculated risk from hundred thieves to get good late animation and it's disrupted
It gets a little bit, but it's not much
That's the one only plan. They've got available. No, you got early, but it's traded immediately by pack up
One of the more crucial rounds playing out here in the 10th
15 seconds hundred thieves need to win this or one of 30 will have two
match points as Adam will go for the plate and side of service Gomez caught in the flank from silo packer up close
Well the nail is in the coffin. The question is can one or 30 have a shot?
Wow that was a massive round there was so many close moments for both teams there
But one of 30 just with a little more polish a little more refinement and able to win out that round
They're able to leverage the clock nicely in the late round, eventually able to force
that plant down, then converge on the plant position with some good timing, some good
teamwork.
It's been a tantalizing tug of war between these two so far as we look back at the highlight
package.
Spirit's the push down 90, high risk, and unfortunately Hunter 3 is at a low reward.
a 3 vs 3 to winnable position with Jogger getting a little fortunate but the trade
work it's been a big storyline of this map so far the trade ability from 1 of 30 has
been quite good serves them well there now with match point and a couple of
opportunities to close this one out in regulation and if 100 things fall and walk
away with no points as the DC DC it makes that path forward to the kickoff
playoff bracket
very, very tough
That's gonna give us a little bit more time
To dissect things heading into two match point opportunities
Yeah, and I was just looking at some of the statistics at 6-4 lead
It's only two rounds, but it's deserved. You look at the opening kills
It's six to four in favor of one of 30 so they've won that department
in terms of multi kills, one a piece each,
Mike W got a 4k, Gomez got a 3k, that's it.
From that plate border, actually the multi kill category
is quite empty.
Typically you can see individuals get
three or four kills in rounds often enough.
Only the one flawless round,
which was midway through that three round win streak
for 100 thieves.
And then you kind of look at plants.
And this is actually the most one-sided statistic.
three plants in the first half for one of 30, and they won those three rounds as well.
Zero for 100 thieves through four attempts. Now they have one to attack around, so not
the end of the world, but that is quite a stark difference. And in favor of one of 30,
with two opportunities to close out, they're definitely looking like the more likely of the
two to win this map. But 100 thieves have shown their ability to string rounds together quickly.
When they were 4-1 down, they won 3 in a row.
With 6-4 down, can you win 2 in a row?
It's certainly doable.
Yeah, this kind of position they now find themselves in, disrupted a little bit by the technical
pause.
It's going to test their ability to close out, a very winnable position.
They haven't been able to do that so far.
The result against Shopify Rebellion back in playday 1 was very, very close, and 8-7
loss on that occasion, they made it, they were never in a position to win, it was a 7-3 loss,
so they'll be looking to try and flip their fortune from that first playday, where they
weren't able to quite get the job done, unfortunately that was actually on comp house and in overtime
they weren't able to obtain the defensive round, but quite, required finally enough.
So let's see if they can do it here on boarder, it's not got a commanding position, I think
would be very unfair to frame it in that, in that way, but I think it certainly can
be described as strong that they are playing like the better.
But they're being the better team. Yeah, that's the thing. They've been the better team and
that's where the concern is for 100 thieves. Sometimes you can actually lose a game where
you think, oh, we've done a lot right. And to be fair, there has been a lot done right
by 100 thieves. You think about the last two rounds as a good example. It's because 100
thieves won three in a row in the way they certainly started the attacking half in the
the second half, that caused 1 of 30 to change up the way that they wanted to play in terms
of operator line-up or even more trap-utility, that's off the back of what Hunter Thieves
was doing.
So it's not domination in the usual sense where you see like 7-1 or 7-2 results because
one team's just so much better, it's kind of been a little bit back and forth.
At the end of the day, 1 of 30 started hot, that forced Hunter Thieves to change things
up, it worked, then that forced 1 of 30 to change things up, that's worked.
And so we're kind of now into what will be the final stage of this, which is seeing whether
or not we can see 100 Thieves change it up once again.
It seems like this tech pause is taking a little bit longer than we had anticipated.
Unfortunately, it's never a good sign when we see players get off the chairs.
We'll take a very short break here for NAO kickoff.
Big game.
Don't go too far.
one of thirty
of 30 against 100 Thieves to a teams that have not found a win so far for NAL kickoff.
Well the 30 now on the verge of binding their first win and that would cement 100 Thieves
at the bottom of the group heading to what would then be their last game against M80.
That would not be a comfortable position.
And even if they go on to potentially push OT in this matchup, that too will compromise
the total number of points that they can gain as well.
But it would still be to the selfish effort that they have to do it.
Yeah, absolutely.
It's the lesser of two evils really at this point, 400 thies.
They've come against some stiff competition, though, this afternoon.
I think it could be said that I'm sure they haven't had the greatest game of Siege ever played, but I think it would be very fair to frame this matchmode scene so far as one of thirty playing some really good board overall.
It's been really interesting to watch. I think that some of the early entry play from my W was great. Some of the team play that we've seen develop over the course of the last couple of rounds, especially has been good.
The ability to break the three round streak that we saw as well from 100th ease and it felt like they were maybe building towards a map win as well was really impressive.
So if I had to choose, it's a combination of a lot of things not quite going their way
but of course they themselves will probably be the first to put the hand up and say they
haven't played to the best of their ability either.
There's still an opportunity here.
The pushers came to overtime, they put spirits on them once you try to find some comfortability.
Let's see if they can combine and make it work but VW will find yet another opening
kill.
This guy has been absolutely on fire.
Yeah, he's been a difference. He's been a big factor for one or thirty that
a hundred dudes haven't had something similar.
Now it's not done. Long way to go.
Without Gomez, without that doc could be less information acquired.
A hundred dudes, a bunch of larger bombs.
I mean, thirteen and six now, but Mike W, more importantly, pull one on the entry.
I've lost my shrine with the nitrosol to Disloss Spirits, that one just falls short of the mark
and leaves spirits fully intact.
One of two nitro is used now for one of 30, leaves the other with Beano.
Packer with lost final gaspave.
90 seconds left, no more gaspaves left of Packer.
The pack has been really good here, patient discipline, not exposing himself to the fast forwarding, so it's so difficult for 100 thieves to get in for the fight elsewhere, we'll go their way.
Finally, something goes their way. Minute 20 on the clock, 4v4, and now potentially in a position to start contesting this control up above, flush out those on the second floor.
Packer maybe looking to respond, that's an eager push through waiting, maybe in combination with Beano, but it doesn't quite connect and the drone will force them out.
And forgot to mention his big Gomez was the only one who had the skills for 100 feet.
Packer has just sat still, beautifully good pop-up, let that Monty go by, gets the kill, then off to Pampasoo.
But Spirit does a tremendous job to then win the 1v1 against Packer and brings it back to a even 3 vs 3 in the final 45 seconds in a dual die round for 100 feet.
It's still a 2-1 split here from the defense.
Bino's side, the other two still up above in a position to rotate late.
Try to catch off this attack of 100 thieves, so the clear is not complete.
And there's only 30 seconds on the clock for 100 thieves to try and hit this side.
Drop down from silo. Vols for shot in the back though by Adam, who's having a very good round.
They've got the play advantage.
They don't have a lot of time to work with, but you do still have spirits up on this Monty.
So a chance to get the fuck down is still there as you mentioned the nitrosol available for bino
But he opts to push into bathroom. He has the plan going down nitros thrown out that way too bad
Got shot out
That plate will be successful
And even though Spurist isn't able to get up and play that shield in the post plant. It is still at least the post plant
30 seconds oh
It's not going to make any time it is indeed it is indeed over one of 30 take down 100 these
I think all the points from this is they win it in regulation and 100 these are now sitting
at the bottom of group a with one match left against m80 it's not been a fun time for the
new organization in their debut season. Kickoff is brutal. It is very difficult. And it is
now looking unlikely that 100 Thieves have any chance of making the major. We go to the
break here. We go to the highlights. Big win for one of 30.
Five seconds remaining.
Shackles are acting.
I'm breaking next and I'm out and out, check this out, I'm never signing out, I'ma keep it going till I ain't nothing like
I'm breaking next and I'm out and out, for Elbow stuff, I'm money out, cause I can't make it down from this funny life
I'ma keep it going till I ain't nothing like
Going till I ain't nothing like
of 30. Take down 100 thieves.
We wanted to see both of these
teams perform better. We
definitely saw that for one of
30. We've got Mike W here now
on the other side of this win.
Mike, congrats on this one, man.
This was a big performance from
you guys. Your first win here
in the NAL. How does it feel to
be on the other side of this?
I mean, it feels great.
You know, it's our first.
It's my first win. I mean,
most of our first win in tier one. I'm excited getting to show what we can really do. I mean,
I'm just happy. I mean, we're all taking, I think, a great approach to it. We're all
just enjoying it, you know, being present in the moment. Yeah, I know. Just really enjoying it.
Well, I hope you enjoyed today a little bit more than the other days because not only did you win,
but you had a blowout performance. One of the things that was a big takeaway for me
was you were constantly there to trade your teammates. All those attacks you were always
able to be in connection to each one of your teammates that was dying and instantly get
that trade. Is that something where it's a part of the strategy that you're slowly trying
to be within arm's length of your teammates or is that something that you just noticed
in today's matchup on how you could back up your teammates worst case scenario?
I think it's something I've started to work on recently with our team. I noticed that
Sometimes we have an issue pushing the round or having someone to push the round and so if I'm double up with someone
I'm a player who I mean has the ability to call or you know understand when conditions one needs to be done in the round
So I can one push the round by being with them and two I think
I
Think it's something we sometimes struggle with is making sure we do have someone stacked with us
But if I take the initiative to do that, then I think
Helps that a little bit
Yeah, definitely you did a great job Mike. I want to congratulate you once again you and the boys on your victory
I kind of want to ask a little more in depth question from game day one game day two in the game three game gay three
What have you guys been talking about?
What has been the lessons learned and kind of what have you guys been incorporating to make sure today was gonna go the way that it did?
I think the biggest thing is let's not get down ourselves with the loss, right? We're playing world-class teams
Shopify, I mean
You know they have Troy and so many other players world-class players and all these teams have
And I think
We've just been focused on keeping a positive outlook. We understand those are hard teams. We kept the Shopify game close
I mean without my blunder, you know, we we win that game, right?
And I think the biggest thing is I mean we just
We're not letting those blunders those moments where we're you know feeling the pressure get to us
you know Packer has a reputation of being someone who you know can tilt easily
but we all understand we all have our issues and we all work on it together
and he's made great strides to I mean keep composure I mean you guys you could
see it yesterday after I team killed him just laughing it off right like I've
known Packer for a few years now I don't know if at any other point he would have
left it off. He would have lost his mind, right? And so I think we're just, you know,
keeping a positive outlook on things and that's important.
Well, with the growth in mind, how has life, how has siege, you know, changed for you, changed for
your entire team to go from, you know, Challenger series to now to go from, you know, playing in
the occasional amateur tournament to competing against guys who are doing this for a living
nine to five grinding siege, you know, how has that changed all of your lives in last
couple of weeks?
I mean, honestly, I mean, as in we're not getting paid. I mean, we're still, we're still
or less, you know, we're looking for an organization to represent, you know, get paid like those
other teams. But I guess, I mean, you know, I guess maybe that also brings the drive to
I mean, I don't think it's, it's not changed too much. I don't think I think everyone's still routines fairly similar. Yeah, well, you mentioned Packer having a good time. We actually have some evidence of that that we just wanted to fill you. I mean, like talk to me a little bit more about that, right? How that mindset has changed. I mean, you look at this guy as a leader on your team. I can imagine one of the few players that you've seen.
of that that we just wanted to fill you. I mean, like, talk to me a little bit more about that,
right? How that mindset has changed. I mean, you look at this guy as a leader on your team. I
can imagine one of the few players with that pro league experience. I mean, what is it like to
have him at the helm of his team kind of guiding you guys through? Um, it's great. I mean, I just,
you know, Packers a good friend of mine. I love seeing his growth as a person and as a player.
And that's exactly where those two meet.
And I think Packer's a great leader outside the game,
and qualities that are not identifiable in the game.
I think he's a great leader.
He's also a very, very sort.
I mean, he takes critique well, I think.
And yeah, I don't know.
He's just been a great influence on this team.
and he pushes us to be better every day.
All right, well, thank you so much, Mike W, for your insight.
And congrats on the win.
Look forward to talking with you a lot more
over the coast of the year.
Thank you, thank you.
All right, well, a fantastic win here for one of 30 guys.
I mean, it was that turn up that we
wanted to see from them last.
It was that difference, right?
They did face a little bit of adversity there, 100th.
I mean, they did play a decent game,
especially through the middle of this map.
But the adaptability that we've talked about, one of 30,
just outplayed them at the end of the day.
Absolutely, and it's what we needed to see,
and I am really glad to hear, you know,
what they were taking from game one to game two,
and it's really just about keeping composure,
staying on track, having the same goal in mind,
and that's what I'm talking about.
Just being able to set up those trades,
with him also acknowledging, you know,
something that he's been working on,
it's clearly paying off.
These are the strides that we wanna see
these newer players, newer teams,
be able to make early on,
and they really have been going toe to toe
with these bigger teams,
and I am glad to see that things are paying off.
It can really be detrimental when you lose game after game, when you're so close to a
win, when you know you had it, you end up losing to yourself.
That can play a big factor on some players overall mentalities.
It can play a factor in terms of just overall team success.
But they aren't letting it get down on themselves.
They aren't getting down on themselves.
They're focusing still on what's necessary to win.
And today was a great showing of that.
Yeah, I think it was a nine day difference in the way each team was winning rounds.
100 themes.
When they were winning rounds.
It felt like they were just outgunning their opponent,
whereas the trade game was so important
when it came from the side of 1-30, constantly there,
especially on a map like Border,
where sometimes it limits you to certain areas of the map.
Mike W and the rest of the team were always there
for the trade, the retakes that they were doing,
great calling from Bino,
but I really, really, really wanna highlight Mike W
because to come in, to have your first,
essentially, NAL season, and to say qualities like that,
oh, in practice, I've just noticed
we've had an issue and you not necessarily being the IGL or someone who has to think about that to
take it upon himself we've been impressed by individual plays you know silos 1v3 against
m80 individual plays from these new stars being able to highlight them and say wow this is the
makings of a great player and i think today was a good example for mike w and how he has those
little things that can slowly transition him into being a great player that we see hopefully
more than just this stage.
On the 100th these side of the corn fox
before the match we talked about seeing if they would be able
to stop dying individually, right?
Playing a little bit more unified.
It was something they struggled with on the attacks.
Did you see the change you needed to see from that team
to have at least high hopes of them going forward?
Nope.
No, not at all.
I think a lot of the gunfights that 100th was playing,
Their defenses, we saw it, you're supposed to have an easier time trading on defense because everyone's next to each other and still somehow they weren't trading on attack was where the more glaring issue was specifically round 10 shows exactly what I'm talking about where they have the opening picks they understand what they need to do to go for the site.
But they just lose pick after pick and look at the worst part about it is there's nobody there to go for a trade
In what part of the strat is Pamba supposed to go for a 1v1 here?
Okay, now you're a man down they get the pick back and then they decide we're gonna go for the site
Hey, y'all dropping with no teammates around them in what part of the strat is this here?
He's a great player so he gets one but boom trade from one of 30 and then they retake the site and again
The last two remaining hundred D.S. players once planning unfortunately, but it's just start to finish
One view, one view, one view, one view, one view, one view, one view, one view, one view.
At a certain point, a hundred views has to be able to realize, like my W has, if I just
play up all my teammate, or if I just play back and tell my teammate to come with me,
maybe we win most of these rounds.
We won't see that here today, and they have one more opportunity, because now they're
in death last in their group, and it's up against the M80, so they have to really wake
up fast.
Well, speaking of waking up, we're trying to see the resurgence of these young teams
And what they're capable of our next matchup is two teams looking to do exactly that SSG and cloud nine SSG
Hot off the heels of a fantastic victory in that second game of kickoff
That's exactly how they wanted to evolve as a unit lacks. We've talked a lot about the leadership of dream
We've talked a lot about this team and what they've been able to do, but just over the first two days
It's clear we can start to have higher expectations for what this team can do
Yeah, definitely. And yesterday was a big contribution to that.
You know, going against a team like Wildcard is already going to be very hard.
And from the maps that we saw versus DarkZero, we didn't really get to see too much success on their attack.
They looked a little disjointed. They looked a little lost in terms of their understanding of how they wanted to get to step one, step two, to step three.
But ultimately, that match specifically against Wildcard, we would see them come together in sync perfectly,
Perfectly forcing wild cards and forcing them into unwinnable gunfights and playing a magnificent trade game through and through cut clean and concise
Oh, yeah, we've been talking all day about how trades are so important SSG
The way that they were setting up their executes was phenomenal
Altogether being able to put in their pinhold players to cut off the middles of the site
And then they would have their entries of Aiden and Ray to be able to go in they get the first pick
And this is the hardest part
SSG would slow down.
It's that simple, but SSG made it look so good. They would slow down and wait.
They used the whole time that they could because they had that advantage and
What did wildcard do? They over extended and SSG was set up to catch them and that's why so many of those rounds
It was one pick and it snowballed into SSG dominating wildcard, especially on the attack of clubhouse
You would have thought it would have been on defense
You would have thought a lot card would have had some responses
but SSG because they set up, they took their time.
And it's a very mature strategy to go for.
And that's what dreams been bringing is the ideology from old years of Siege
with new players.
You set up the old guys, giddy dream, holding angles
or they're droning into their players in the position.
And then you have Raiden Aiden able to go in and man,
they have an amazing performance yesterday as well.
Well, yesterday was also our first opportunity
to see the new cloud nine roster, three rookies coming in trying to see what they can do as
this entire kickoff field continues to take shape lacks. It was clear that they showed
us some moments of promise. Yes, they didn't take the win, but that's not necessarily what
we expected out of a young team like this. No, absolutely not. And to be fair, the first
two attacking rounds, I was honestly impressed. It already looked like a completely different
team, especially with we already talked about the more experienced players coming from any
the end of the side of Kickswell.
I wasn't expecting a hold up, but again,
the first initial attack, the push that they had in mind,
the play from below from Focal,
forcing players out of position, disrupting the setup,
to then center, doing a very good job on this Blackbeard,
taking a lot of the brunt,
taking a lot of the distraction away,
getting into sight to be eventually able to go for a plant,
and then they played the post-pant perfectly.
I loved this from center,
constantly in the Lynch pin right here,
getting it done through and through,
But this is where again slowly then fell apart for Cloud9 and as we've talked about with newer teams is again
These older teams aren't going to expect anything crazy from you
They're just going to try to figure out what your game plan is and sure in round two
Yes, Cloud9 does get these wins because DarkZero is slowly
Understanding what the approach is going to be how they're going to facilitate these rounds and what it's going to look like from mid round
To late round and that's where things immediately then would start to slow down for the likes of Cloud9
And it's similar to what we were just talking about in this last matchup with one of 30 is the ability to be able to adapt
Yes, you're gonna get some rounds underneath your belt. Yes, it's gonna be important
But it's always gonna come down to being able to adapt
You can't just rely on the prep that goes into the game things never really go according to plan a hundred percent of time
Something has to change something has to give and that really is gonna come from the IGL being able to understand
What's in front of them and what the next objective is gonna be to get them one step closer to getting these rounds into their favor
And you mentioned that preparedness a lot of that comes down to what map are you ready to play on that given day?
And what maybe are you learning about your opponents before you get there Fox? Take us through the map here
What do we expect to see from these two teams? I mean when you're looking at the map picks
It's going to be fortress with the decider. I mean SS. She's banding out lab
So cloud nine, you know eventually just inevitably has to play on a map like fortress. It's a new map
There's obviously going to be a lot of things that have been untested with two new teams.
The strength of Fortress that we've slowly seen in the meta try to
in the meta grow is the entry game. You're always going to have your shield. You're always going to
have two players walking behind the shield to get positioned very early on. That's something that we
saw from C9. Even though Eddie is there IGL, I really did love center. I cannot praise him enough
with how quickly he was able to take position with the Blackbeard, be able to pinhold positions for
the rest of his team. He allows so much grace for the rest of his players to be able to play
around him. We haven't really seen a shield player come out of SSG, which will be the big question.
But man, do they have two amazing entries? So if we get a drone, I was going to say if we get a
dream, if we get a drone in front of Raid and Aiden, I could imagine they can do the exact same thing
with taking those quote unquote shield areas without a shield. Well, we'll definitely see that drone
and we'll definitely see that
dream SSG and cloud nine. Take
the stage on Fortress goes and
then acts over to you. Well, two
big organizations going heads
ahead in a pretty big game as
well. SSG the new look roster
goes so far has started very
nicely after they were able to
get their first win on the
board. The same can't be said
But in terms of the players within both teams still largely untested at this kind of level
I think I'm very intrigued to approach this match from the SSG angle of dream of the kind of old-school flair
That he may be able to reject into this matchup, but it's fortress
It's a new map in the pool as Fox was alluded to so many untested ideas here on this map
So will that be a strength will appear to their detriment. Let's wait and see SSG though firm favorites
in terms of the importance
within this game. Top spot, very unlikely. Both of these two have already lost to Dark
Zero who sit atop the group for Group B. Both play outlast as well, who currently sit last.
So if I'm going to be completely brutally honest, it's not the most duo die clash,
but it may actually end up determining who finishes fourth. If SSG wins this, there we
go to six points, we imagine Wildcat of course is going to pick up a few more points to come.
They actually have to date off, Wildcard still playing Dark Zero and then Cloud Dying as well.
So there is emphasis on certainly getting the result here, but it may not be the duo
Dying nature of say trying to top your group or potentially avoid last place.
What it does do though is it determines your seeding going into playoffs and certainly
your form as well.
Yeah, that's absolutely right.
For clarity in terms of the main bracket here for the NAL kickoff, if you finish fourth
your respective group. You are automatically seated in that lower bracket quarterfinal. You will not get
a second chance when we enter the best of three portion of this particular tournament. So finishing
second or third is a significant leg up and giving yourself that opportunity to maybe go one game
down. I guess just for further emphasis, if you do actually go into finish first, you get a one
match advantage in the upper bracket semi-final, but not really in the realm of discussion for these
two rosters, maybe SSG, like that's the thing. Yeah, that is true in a win. They beat Wildcup,
that's a huge result. Now they win this and then they win against that last, they would still have
to vote that Dark Zero was their remaining game, which would be against Wildcup, not totally out
of the runs of possibility. SSG maybe having a little bit more on the line in terms of what they
they can achieve in this group in comparison to Cloud9 is making sure that they don't finish in that fourth flight.
Can they get that third or second spot, for instance?
So a big game for both teams, ramifications on the cards as we get underway.
Fortress the map of choice.
SSG kind of had a choice actually between Labs and Fortress.
Opting for Ben Labs instead, and they go on the attack first up.
The bands for this first half initially will be Alaphorn.
So, double trap from SSG, and then from the side of Cloud9, they respond with glass, and Monty's shields are becoming increasingly impactful on this map.
They're shifting towards that kind of in a border-centric manner. A lot of really tight corridors where there's multiple angles of shields,
and don't get from that, you can gain information and begin layering utility, et cetera, at those trick points.
And so, with the Monty stripped away, Cloud9 will need to, pardon me, SSG will need to adapt accordingly.
Having the line and the grim for this opening round so info gathering potential bit of hard
breach the range from Giddy, Aiden as well, all in a few.
One of his Racheros to counteract namely the Vasani on the opposing side and as expected
it mapped the sweep across called by Dream.
Let's command bathroom the first site choice here on the opening round, go to cloud nine,
while positions are going to be important to keep intact for the defense.
Made on the roam through games and a briefing.
On the Deimos.
They're pulling a drone.
Fortress typically the way that it's played thus far since coming into the map is very
much on the slower paced side of things.
90 seconds gone, not really as much happened.
Focke was able to keep that wall reinforced.
No more Salmas remaining either for getting.
with no secondary heart reaches available, that wall is going to stay reinforced.
And all that's going to do is just increase the strength of these choke points for the
defense of Cloud9, so we need to see SFG at that try and maybe find an alternate angle,
that can be played down below, for instance, the burst can be impactful here, but it does
limit their option significantly by pressuring that bathroom position, so there's an emphasis
on raid here, trying to find value, instead of pressuring, it doesn't land shots, but
At least also Aiden does net a kill, focal in the grave.
This is where Cloud9 now need to be careful
of a potential collapse into the side
with the extra player advantage for SSG.
Finding that opening pick on the focal has set up.
Space station, potentially steal this round up there.
Oh, it's been rather slow, pacing.
Well, rivals did at least get center.
Aiden though, and rival, now I've gotten one of these,
keeps this advantage for SSG from that opening kill.
heading over to Ward's town stairs as Uzi is going to shut down Aiden, brings it back to a 2v2 and, most importantly,
time becomes a factor. Good shot in the back, rival on the move, slips into Ward's side. I don't have the kit.
Uzi, though, just had to hide. Little did he know the kit was not really fully acquired, low time running out.
Yeah, I got it. It really does show how quickly it can get messy on a map like Fortress.
We saw SSG spring into action immediately in response to not being able to open up that
bathroom wall. I think that their ability to quickly adapt and shift their gameplay instead
of just kind of standing there getting stored out and contemplating things, they immediately
sprung into the backup plan and I think that served him well being able to continually apply pressure
to this defense, good fears over towards the horse section of the map as well.
2 vs 2, 10 seconds and he got isolated too.
Who's he went searching, perhaps a little difficult for him to have a read on the state of the game
comparatively to the information of course that we have available from our perspective.
There's some clean shots landing there from SSG.
And I think a good example of when an attack doesn't quite go as well as you would expect
in the mid-round, showing good ability to adapt.
And that's further emphasised on a map like Fortress, where typically newer maps are much
harder to attack into and finding Plan B and Plan C and actioning that appropriately is
even more difficult.
I think they definitely deserve props for that round.
solid round from the Spice Station gaming. It's got on the move, started to get active,
not even midway through, kind of just under a minute remaining is when we saw the first kill.
And the fortress can play like that. And the center going on to the clash.
I spoke about the shield, the lack of Monty available for SS shield. Well this just kind
of doubles down then for Cloud9. They don't even have to worry about the Monty, bring the clash.
shore up the defense certainly a lot of heavy focus on the defense with the
operator selections the tube around the Goyo, Kaid as well for the wall
reinforcements, games, it's like choice for the second round.
So another hand clear being set up here by SSG, again very typical on these top floor
attacks in De Fortress, sweep across, typically largely uncontested by the defence until you
reach the toad point at the big point of the map, and seemingly the case, largely here
from C9 that being said, centre was working a little bit initially on that clash and in
Getting back from inside of Arthur has support from Focal, but they'll peel back, no point taking massive risk at the midpoint of the round here for the defence when they can establish this utility.
They can play into the Goyolate, the Tubervou, they've got double Nitro. There's no reason really to play super aggressive when he plays inside on the map when they can fall back into this utility.
I can just don't have a minute remaining.
Nitro cells available for cloud 9 on the defense.
One thrown out by a kicks for it.
They essentially won the first round but did struggle with the walls, making their time
again here in the second.
Nitro prepped from Uzi.
They're essentially just going to bash themselves in though on their preparation setup.
The airjacks in for Dream eventually looked to flood in towards the site.
I hear the Boltz guy out now from Aiden on the capitol as well, just trying to dislodge
Santa's position.
Logic Bomb activated from right, this seems to be the go time now for SSG going in for
the plant, in through dorms, so far successful, no denial opportunity really for Cloud9, it's
as easy as you like for Dream.
And Cloud9 never even looked likely in being able to deny this plant, it's been a wonderful
setup attack from SSG once again.
and the retake is going to be really tough. Can they leverage the clash?
Centres being able to cross. What can SSG do now to hold on to this advantage?
Oh, they've just lost Ouz again for a call at the same time.
And he was able to get one back onto Giddy because I'm falling apart here on the defense.
It's been a wonderful start from SSG. The time is very much expiring.
Centres just going to have to stick it. He gets knifed in the back from Aiden.
Two nothing to start for SSG.
Yeah. Lovely attack. Really like the U2 layering there of the capital to help transition for
what was a pretty simplified plant in the end, but sometimes simple stage is good stage
and kind of ties into the storyline that the desk was chatting about, you know, the dream-esque
play style, you know, injecting some of that older mentality. And most of times that may
be considered outdated. I think that's a good example of where it could work really, really
while there was kind of one key piece to the puzzle that C9 weren't able to activate in that particular round.
That was probably Uzi. He was the only one with the nitro cell still available late round for any kind of denial potential.
And that kind of lob denial, plant denial utility was probably their best bet because getting one of Cyclones of Plante was near impossible.
But unfortunately, he was isolated over the wards, the briefing position, and with the crosses established, the breach is opened by the attack.
He was never able to really navigate into a place where he could lob that nitro.
And so again, that's good play from SSG to perhaps consider that kind of plant an awful
range and to have the systems imposed to deny that.
And even in the first set, they played it well.
There was maybe a brief moment there where I was getting a little concerned that maybe
there's a world where you just had to get that shield on the deck a little earlier and
that facilitates the pickle too and it begins to unravel and maybe they can go for some kind
of cheeky counter-diffusal as we saw the attempt there late.
Again, they switched on, they had those crosses established, the breachers opened up, they
played those positions correctly, their timing was on point, and they looked like a well-oiled
machine so far in these first couple of rounds.
Yeah, Fortress is going to be a map that evolves over time as it's made its way into the map
pool at the start of the year, but you kind of look at the numbers since the start of
the year, it's been played 18 times across all competitions, including of course 6 Invitational,
it's the second most dependent map in that time frame.
It's been spoken about, I know we've spoken about it,
typically when maps come into the map,
Paul Defense will kind of have the edges,
teams figure things out.
It's actually trending in that fashion.
It's gone down 5% from the 61% total figure of the year
to just the current stage of kickoff across all regions,
down to 56, but it is still largely in favor of defense.
And so two nothings for SSG on the attack.
Well, pun intended, but it's a dream start.
I don't suppose you have the stats for the tertiary stuff because we're hitting our next waiting room cafe. Does that deviate?
Much from the primaries or is it actually the most defender sided site?
Let me add an extra font back to that it's the most defender sided site with the highest plant percentage though a weapon 33%
for
I'm on and sitting right away, which is the old trip tertiary is going to be in play twice
Nice, the map has gone in.
Did I go there?
50% win rate.
That's a certified meme site until I see other ways.
Saves around 3 then.
I like that you've highlighted the plant stat here.
33% quite large but
you combine that with the
win stat for defense, perhaps indicative that
getting the plant down may not be
the most challenging part of the round
of the round, but holding on to the post oddly enough could be a threat given the nature of the
side of the way it plays out, the ability for the defense to try and recontest not a problem.
At the moment though, it's all tower focus here from SSG, vert to follow, the sledge to be deployed.
Well the concern right now for Cloud9 is probably in the mid and early portion of this round,
they're just not active on defense fortress, it doesn't really give you a lot of freedom,
similar to like the border to be able to go and get early kills on defense, you stay far more
close to the site far more compact it's more of a way than going through the pack.
You're talking about a 52 second opening kill in the first round, an 8 second opening kill in
the second round. Those both came from SSG so you kind of just because you're sitting back waiting
it allows the attack to formulate the attack and so they're more likely to then get those opening
kills out of the numbers cleft rake and here is that plant sent now from dream inside a cafeteria
in 50 seconds on the clock spoke about that plant percentage it's going to be increased as dream gets
that down successfully and they found two kills as well to go alongside it so it's not like they just
lost plant lost numbers they got both it's a two for one for ssg and they've been able to escape the
site it's completely vacant they can lean into the vert this round is all but over the c9 is
another player falls it's focal and center to try and salvage but it's looking like it may be
flawless until that kill comes through, sent the trove. Best, it's an all-in-one in the chat,
and it's three rounds in a row for SSG. Yeah, and the concern is clearly right now
with Cloud9, because again, they're just sitting back, they're waiting, they're playing the map,
don't get it twisted, like they're playing rather how Fortress has been kind of playing,
you sit back, play site, wait, you know, but you have to be far more prepared for when that push
is actually happening and that's where SSG have just looked so good when it comes to the site
executions. They have not made a single mistake. They're drone, they practically used the utility,
they go for the plant too in a row now. Dream has been able to get the plant down successfully.
And so those are real big concerns for Cloud9. It's one thing to lose rounds, it's another thing
though where you're just getting absolutely decimated. Plant plus four alive in the second
round on dawn's games and then you get plant and pretty similar as well in terms of players alive
in the third round so it's back to back grounds that SSG has just looked absolutely switched on
no mistakes clean attacking siege and on a map where defense does typically prevail
that just puts a further dampener for cloud nine.
Yeah that's a rough one for c9 there was maybe a small opportunity there for Eddy to actually find
Platinol inside of the smoke. I think he shot a couple of times near the hit and kind of
gave up on that and tried to push forwards in front of the kill and got caught in the cross.
There was potential there maybe for a Platinol but perhaps a little low percentage and could have
played out quite differently. I wonder what the plan may have been there for SSG if that
man gets denied it and then spring into action and flood or was it a full reset? I guess we will
as we prepare for round number 4, SSG looking to keep this streak going for as long as possible.
The more rounds that they're able to accumulate, especially from this point onwards, it makes
it very, very, very difficult to see a path forward for C9 to win this map.
I mean, they're already backs up against the wall. Three opening kills straight for SSG,
points down in the last two rounds, four alive in the last two rounds. No multi-kills,
which is actually a very good thing for SSJ. It just means that it's being spread evenly.
Aiden's got five, Rob has got four, Giddy's got three, Dream has two and one, but he's playing also the support role,
and so he's also getting plants down. Yeah, that's a penalty you can't really see in the game.
Finally, a potential opening kill. Not converted just yet, and it will be now from the gaspade of Sensor.
Cloud9 on the board with the first kill for the first time in this half.
Yeah, well played there by Santa
He held his nerve against the frag grenade from rain then catches him out of position
Critically was able to dash away and avoid the trade attempt as well from dream doesn't move to stay his welcome
And on top of that was able to confirm the kill
Best buy credit from dream eight and actually able to get rid of stumper though and the SSG retake the numbers advantage
and this is the round though that's open dump things a bit more glad I'm probably
sensing they have to get a little bit more proactive on the defense
don't worry for the face of that black beard in the meantime kick-brake does
find a response oh that's disgusting sometimes the spray in the
The prayers get answered. Three to two now.
Hanna focal and Uzi.
So much smoke.
SSG, they have double smoke to play with.
On top of the util here from Giddy Dream, we'll just tell them to wait, relax.
Let's set up this utility, layer it correctly, and then think about getting this plant down with coverage.
And this is where they've been really good as well as the first three rounds, SSG.
It's this actual side execution.
There's the...
There's nothing Focal could do, he's just completely flamed down from Giddy.
Uzi does get the trade, but now he's got a deal with the Blackbeard and Aiden.
Trin wants to go for this plant as soon as possible.
Force Goose, yeah, gets off.
They've got 25 seconds, so Trin's aware of the time he knows he can get off the plant.
Blackbeard, get, start with, Uzi wins the one, he won't have been Aiden there for the trade.
And Trin is very happy about that one.
Uzi gave it, he's all, almost able to pull off a huge clutch.
but it's for nothing to space station. Dream dies there but he does enough he
stays alive for just a fraction of a second longer than probably they looked
like it was going to be on paper and that fraction of a second opened up that
trade window for SSG. They had to fight so hard to get control
over towards this tower of the way position but once they did the flush
out into focal was so clean they then set themselves up the platform in the
three versus one to trade these picks out easy try these finest drink is
dashing enough to give Aiden that trade window a valiant attempt not quite
enough and with that SSG for attacking rounds in a row on fortress looking very
challenging for C9 to now get themselves back into this map and that's the round
I'm the most concerned with now for cloud 9's hopes because that's the first round they got an opening kill
It's the second round
Since the first where they denied the plan even though dream probably had a chance to really get that down anyway
He could have stuck that if he really wanted to but I think you made the better option instead of leaving it a
Chance that who's you can swing that maybe get the kill then the kids in a bad spot
And then if the trade is not imminent that it's a straight 1v1 time running out Aiden gets a 3k
8 wins the 1v1, he's 8 and 2, he's been sensational and so is his team.
4-0 on the attack of Fortress was not what I was expecting.
Something that would have had SSG as the favourites going into this game, just not in this kind of fashion.
Yeah, absolutely. They've looked really polished across the board.
They've kept the pretty standardised in terms of the map sweep approach, but then I think
Dream has been commanding the tricks lately and has done a really phenomenal job in just
The true positioning is correct, their timing has been on point, they've leveraged the likes of the Capitao really nicely so far in late utility well.
I like the push-band that they introduced as well just to help in alleviating some of that stall-out potential on or far from C9.
This has been a really nice display of fortress so far from them.
A long way back now for Cloud9, but you've got to keep the mental in check.
Two rounds still to go in this half.
You put two on the board, you stop this onslaught, you get the scoreboard looking a little cleaner.
Still a lot of opportunities for Cloud9, but it has to start now.
It's kick-straight.
Play close against Dream.
Dream will keep himself typed in.
He's got company on the way, but it's Giddy.
and lost his life.
Opening pick for Cloud9, Dream was able to get the trade, but they also lost rival elsewhere.
So, Cloud9 with the advantage.
Can they capitalize on that advantage? We're unable to do so in the previous round.
Dream is now also incredibly low on that Blackbeard.
Yeah, one breath of a gasp, and he's down an hour.
This round looks very difficult.
It's relying on dream finding something at range and finding value at range on Blackbeard, which is easier said than done
And then I did on Rageage with the ones to try and find
1v1s that are favourable. In the meantime, crowd none of reposition, couple of top anchor positions available for them now defensively
Rage the one though. He's got the logic bomb, two flashes
Yeah, he's gonna have to be a facilitator in the last 40 seconds. This is said, you got to win you 1v1s.
Oh, that doesn't help. Dream gets caught. Again, it wasn't gonna take much for him to go down
He didn't has been able to win one and then two
low on health and the shot from Uzi
Brings it down to raid who did bring out that logic bomb used a flash as well and has one left
B2 you win this round. Oh my goodness
It would very much
Dispel any kind of hope for cloud nine if raid is able to clutch this up has acquired the kit runs into dorm ten seconds
And this is where you've got to think your way through this plant will go for the kill
He also the plant gets off now. He's got to commit you cannot get back on this plant
Otherwise then so we'll get the three is kill rate doesn't even get a chance
Cloud nine will get that first round
Went for the cat and mouse approach
But center able to hold he's nerve and with that C9 finally able to have impact on the scoreboard
credit still to SSG to keep that round close when you consider how low on HP dream was
in the kind of position they found themselves in up against the utility from the smoke as
well mind you it was tough. They showed pretty good resilience but C9 were rewarded they
did a better job through the early round in denying the map sweep especially in the face
of the black bit this moment right here was quite good minute 30 in the ground dream was
just taken really low on HP, I had to pull B3 to B2,
throw towards every position, drops the Blackbeard.
And whilst the overswing there was well shut down,
I lifted into 1 vs 1,
but Ray ultimately had to try and get the kill
and didn't have enough time,
maybe give him half a second more
and he perhaps would have been able to net the kill,
but in you get three minutes to work with.
Yeah, and a much needed round win for Cloud9.
I'd be happy to have been able to get some reward for effort
in the previous round in a sense of getting that opening pig. They were certainly more alive,
more lively on the defense. But in the end, as the sort of mid-round fights continued to play
out, SSG just got on top. And then this time, Cloud9 was able to stay on top throughout the vast
majority of that round. Yes, it comes down to a 1v1, but low on time, not in a post plan,
and it just gives sense of the chance to be able to win. And he played that really nicely,
didn't rush, didn't panic, didn't over invest when that kit was going down initially, could have started to run around.
Good plays, cloud time. If you get one more, 4-2 is not the end of the world. You can bring it back to the second half.
8-0 continues to be on the heater. 10 and 3 double digits first to do so in the lobby.
Yeah, 8-0 certainly has been impressive to watch. Decent operator pull so far is doubled in the floors
in the capitol, monetization each, the grim, this is now a second appearance and we sort of
switch back in rounds four and five, so pretty deep pool, couple of different roles being achieved.
And look to him to have impact here in the final round of the half, such a strong opportunity here
for SSG to put themselves in not quite an unloosable position, but not far off it.
But I'll link heavily into this ex-Util again with me being in the cap of tower and it's
Aiden answering the call once more, you know?
Wow!
Usually it's the caster cast, in this case it's the caster blessing, Aiden just cannot
be stopped right now.
He's 3-0 on the entry, he's 12-3 with the KDA, he's Ketro, we'll fall, Aiden is looking
for the ace at this point, he's got 3-2 to go, why not give it to him, this will put
And then to this half with a 5-1 lead to SSG, because there is no stopping Aiden.
Sensor and Focal, the last two alive for Cloud9 and have not been able to get involved at all.
Just watching as their teammates get absolutely decimated by a single plate.
Well they shut him down, Aiden went for it, and hang on, Sensor finds Raider's well.
Sharp reaction, keeps this round alive. 2v3, 50 seconds.
Flash to go out. Sensor holds his position as Dream starts to make his way through the
Firmary, but it's Sensor that's up close. They've got the ping in, Talbot Dream hits
the shot onto Vokul.
Surely from here Sentar can't get the job done. Three members of SSG standing for 30
seconds.
Oh, shot the back, itty on the boom. It's SSG that two closed it out, Aiden kick-started
at all. A 5-1 attacking half and fortress was not surely on the cards, but it's delivered
by space station nevertheless, and it puts Cloud9 in an awful, awful position, heading
into the Roll Swap halftime coming up.
For a map that has skewed Defender sided up to this point, as Xenox was saying, lax
SSG has made a statement here, 5-1 on the first half.
Yeah, honestly, I really enjoy what we're seeing here.
It kind of reminds me of the old iterations of the Dark Zero and SSG's roster back in the day
and how they played. It was very methodical. It was very slow. It was very textbook.
And you can see with each and every single attack, they have an idea of where they want to approach.
They're looking at the setups and they're slowly picking it apart.
They're slowly making their way, taking control, playing these trades.
And then it comes down to that mid to late run execute where when you're all of Cloud9,
you're pretty much a fish in a barrel at this point.
point. There's not a lot of room for you to move. You feel you're being constricted,
so you force a movement, and then you just walk into a line of sight from SSG. And I
really like this play from them. It really is a night and day difference from what we
saw from Play Day 1. And now we're just seeing the exact same thing what we're seeing from
Play Day 2 now being implemented here. I mean, this is really, really strong from their attack.
And for Cloud9, I mean, they kind of just look lost. They don't really look like they trust
each other fully on how they want to thwart off these attacks.
Yeah, I mean every one of the last three or four clips that we're seeing and we talked about it before the series started
What is the strength of fortress you get a shield you have somebody behind?
I didn't think dream was gonna get on the shield
But he's been doing a great job on the black beard and just consistently having someone behind him to get that trade
SSG that's their bread and butter right now. They take their time just like you said
It's like a snake slowly wrapping around taking their time and they go for the execute and they hit it in cloud nine
They're kind of just giving it to them.
They're letting them take the control,
sitting in sides, sitting in corners,
and then their gunfights seem very lackluster.
They have no utility.
They've already used it all to give up,
positioning to fall back,
and they're left in sight with nothing.
Now on the attack, I like to see Cloud9
just get really aggressive.
I'd like to see them shake something up here,
because from what we've been seeing of them,
slowly letting SSG take control,
now since she's on defense,
they're gonna have the control.
Cloud9 can't just be passive aggressive and let things happen.
They need to spearhead a push.
I'd love to see center on that BB himself
if it doesn't get banned.
My SSG clearly looking good.
Aiden, we's heard from him yesterday.
Got to imagine he's feeling good as well.
It goes, Xenax, all you.
SSG now onto the defense and you'd imagine from here
it's likely that they'll be able to get the job done.
And if that does transpire in that direction because it puts cloud nine in a well awful position moving forward here for kickoff stage of NAL
The good news is they play outlast decks playday for play day for the bad news
Those if they lose that you get grouped that becomes a do or die must win for both of those two
Unless of course that dying can or having attacking half akin to
Look, I suddenly wouldn't rule it out. I did not anticipate SSG to get off to such a strong
lead on the attacking half and that's no slight on them as a team with a Rostov in their
highly skilled and well-led by a dream, but it's also the nature of this map and what
we have seen throughout competitions so far, whether it be at SI or kickoff globally, it's
a really tough map to break down. But I think that they've been well served as the lads
in the desperate, breaking down and being really slow and calculated and that's not to be
confused with being stored out. Two very very different things in Siege especially on attack,
it was calculated as constricting, it was drawing out utility from Cloud9. So I do wonder,
do we see a similar approach now from Cloud9 or do they just feel aggression as Fox was kind of
alluding to trying to pick up the pacing, trying to throw it off, SSG in their timings.
That's why I didn't say they do bring a menu operators to maybe suggest that they address right you've got solid snake
You've got the infographic of the daemons as well. You can play at the utility as well with the other three operators
The thing is you can't bring back four round
deficit in one round you don't want to put too much focus on
The deficit you find yourself in and more so just play your game and play how you would have played this half regardless of the scoreline
You got a back-end your system back in your fundamentals
So whether they potentially moved away from that, I don't imagine that would be the case.
These Operator selections aren't really all that I've seen, but from a playstyle sense
it really can't feel rushed, the center just gets caught, now a wonderful shot from right.
They've easily been the better team so far for SSG's sake and they kickstart the second
half really right where they left off.
but Diffuser grounded as well, so a really, really rough start for Cloud9 in this round.
They're looking to respond with some new two-layering elsewhere.
But SSG will look to consolidate this advantage midpoint of the round.
And not much of a full-hold established here with the Solid Utility from the Goyo.
You combine that with the Gas Babes from Gene now using his last.
And there'll be no doubt the second layer of Capitility. It's gonna be really rough.
Yeah, it is a big death mark and it does facilitate, of course, the diffuser recollection, so that's one job on that checklist ticked off, and so it looks like they're getting it free down below as well.
I would go just hunt to you. I mean, there's a minute left, but Kixar and Uzi can combine, get rid of Ray, bring it back to a 4v4, then turn the focus towards the site. You have to do it kind of quick.
Ray's playing this perfectly. It's 4-1 split where he's just playing the solo Roma on that first floor. He's just giving that sort of down to the back of mines of Cloud9.
Very much now turning attention towards the site and it has worked a double kill to open things up
But it comes eight in the man of the hour the man of this map for the man of SSG's dreams
Gideon rival of a 2v1 against solid state who's he's got some information courtesy of that radar 30 seconds remaining as well
As he clears it through Gideon rival not making a move
Trying to make this as difficult as possible
possible. Clear in towards
bathroom, but get is ready for
it. Six one lead for SSG.
Aiden continues to be the hero.
Big hero play. C9 the March
down kind of it initially looked
quite threatening. I think it
was probably one of the few win
conditions that they had remaining
in the round to try and overload
that position trying flush out.
That particular power position
and. Aiden had to step up. That
a big individual play and he was able to deliver. This march forward with dangers. Bam! First kill
Uncontested. The immediate trade attempt didn't quite land. But I don't know because Aiden was
kind of preoccupied by trying to find the initial target. He quickly followed it up onto the second,
then laid it in for the third. Uzi gets left in the 1v2 even if he finds that first kill bathroom.
He immediately dies for the trade anyway. Good sisters from SSG. They have looked really clean
here on fortress and honestly based on what we're seeing at least in this matchup take away from
if what you will given the strength of 9 but I do wonder if teams are looking at this particular
map for SSG and like hmm maybe second guessing it for future matchups.
And so far the map for SSG they've lost 7-4 on lair against Diceo but from the opening playday
they beat our car on Clubhouse and on the verge of dismantling Cloud9 on Fortress.
Three games, three different maps, two wins, so you can start to kick off the new look
Spacestation roster. 16 and 5, 4, 8 and 3-0 in the entry of 100% cost as well. He's a whopping 219 EPS.
He looks like there's a clutch in there as well and three multi-kill rounds.
If there's an MVP for the day, he's in the box seat.
It probably takes that to be pretty big in the final matchup, I think, to be knocked off that pedestal at the moment.
Hasn't just been Aiden though, it's been a really good 5-man effort led by Dream.
Some of the calls and the comms and the U-tools have been really, really impressive from SSG in this matchup,
in this matchup, giving so many wing conditions. Also few wing conditions I should say to Cloud
9 throughout this particular map. Peel back from SSG after the LA contest, looking pretty
comfy. Cloud 9 leaning into the Blackbeard for this round to see if that can aid in some of this clearance.
Unfortunately for Cloud9, there just hasn't really been a lot of hope in this match.
The so-round that they did win was a 1v1.
The majority of the rounds that they've lost have been pretty convincing, or not ever really
getting a winning position, but then they subsequently lost.
Therefore, the 6-on-Score light is very deserved for Space Station.
Radar activated from Uzi, certainly giving a lot of information for his team.
Minute remaining in the round.
There's Kitsura coming, look at Pusha Bar crew, open up this wall with the Salmas.
And we'll get the job done and an impact to Denai.
Giddy will deny once again. Now to Salmas.
And with no secondary hard breaches, that wall's not opening up.
They do have a sight line, but that's all I mean positionally the hill back is somewhat similar to what we saw from cloud nine
But the big difference is the sheer amount of utilities still remaining especially if this little goyos
Remaining in combination with the Fenrir you still raise blitz etc. This is going to be a rough final push
Impact into the shield center and then pull back to the barrier raid funds the open kill on to ad focal goes down as well
5 vs 3 favorite SSG's Aiden at the forefront of the action. Never really got a shot but what he
did do was actually keep sent or shield up stuck in the corner. Gives his life away for the team.
4v2, 10 seconds, time runs out for Cloud9 as the map is very much on the verge of coming to an end
and an SSG will pick up all three points. Dream cleared by Uzi, 2 seconds left, no time, it's a 7-1
demolition job for space station against cloud nine. It does mean now for cloud nine
their next match on planet four against outlast is a do or die. They will need to win that
or they face getting grouped here for kickoff. Yeah, pure domination from SSG. Well deserved.
Those attacks on fortress probably some of the best I've seen. And again, I'm curious going
forward. Other teams going to take the gamble of sending SSG to this map. Well, we keep the
speed, the pacing of playday 3 kickoff here for NAO at a high tempo.
Our third match of the day is done, a short break and the boys will break it down on the other side.
A strong 7-1 win for SSG as they keep the momentum rolling off of their win yesterday.
We've got Dream with us now to talk this one over.
Dream, what a win.
7-1 is dominant.
We heard from Aiden yesterday, his perspective on the energy and kind of what the vibe of
your team is like.
You though are the daddy of this team basically.
So what is your perspective like?
you know, like how has it been with these youngsters,
with this new core, with this new roster,
trying to take shape into what it is right now?
Well, real quick, I just want to say happy birthday to Aiden.
He just turned 19, part two.
So I'm really happy for the kid, turn 19.
What about you?
Yeah, I mean, it's been, yeah, part two, part two.
It's been a lot of fun.
I mean, playing with a lot of young guys
was a lot for them to learn.
And I don't know, I enjoy like everything
that comes with that, like all the challenges.
I mean, they're incredibly mechanically gifted
and they just need to know like the actual core
of the game itself and that's why I'm here.
Well, dream or daddy as Jonah would call you.
Congratulations on the two wins recently.
I mean, they've been beautiful.
I kind of want to talk about raid in particular,
especially in this map now on the scoreboard.
It wasn't like super pretty,
but in terms of the versatility and flexibility
that he brings in terms of the operators,
whether it was Deimos in this game,
whether it was the Dokeby, whether it was the Ying,
How much impact does he have in these rounds
that kind of sets up the tempo and the executes
for you guys to have such a flawless looking ending half?
I mean, honestly, when we first got Raid,
I didn't really know what to expect.
I knew he was like really mechanically gifted,
but like I didn't expect him to be as dominant
and as good as he is.
And now in these rounds, like,
I know Aiden said in the previous interview,
but some rounds he can't get this guy to shut up.
Like he just got one the whole time.
So it's, I love the energy from the kid.
And honestly, he does he does help a lot with his flexibility and all the different combinations
and styles.
He can run.
He could play fast.
He could play slow.
He could play cheese.
He can just pick a gun and run at them like it's it's beautiful out of him really love
it.
It sounds quite good.
Daddy dream.
That being said, you guys are off to a hot start, right?
Your next game, I believe, is just against outlast.
So you guys are sitting pretty going into the next phase.
That being said, what everyone knows that the hardest thing about siege is being consistent.
So what is some of the things you are telling your players, even though they are fairly new,
to keep them grounded or things to focus on to continuously keep playing well?
Honestly, I mean, you know, Fox, it all starts at practice.
Like you have to keep a level head, treat every single rep in practice.
Like it's going to be on a game day.
You shouldn't be doing stuff that you wouldn't do on game day in scrims.
Like don't be trolling rounds.
If we're if I see you TK a teammate after he plants the bomb and you want you just to be funny or whatever like
That's a standard check, buddy. I won't say that happened, but maybe it did
No, it's just yeah keeping a level head through scrims and treating everything super serious and they're having a good time
I mean
You were saying that in practice, you know, if they do something you keep them in check
Are they malleable like they understand and they listen to you because they all they all are rookie
So that's the biggest thing is like having that team culture right and they have to believe in their leader
And at least so far it feels like they believe in me and they respect me and it's a it's a good system
We've built that to be what's the punishment that you would give if they weren't listening to just curious
It's purely spanking like they're I just put them over my knee and I just tap that ass
My final question dream is Aiden tweeted out today that she was a lefty
So I just wanted to know if that was something that happened.
You know, you guys decided to replace him right
before the game day or what's going on.
I'm not sure how much I could say, but let's just say, yeah,
no, I actually don't know how much I could say on that.
Yeah, I didn't want to be leaking.
That's part three.
Well, you're going to have to show them the old OXE
etiquette of all of us.
You know, how we were when we were a little bit in the house.
You got to teach them.
Oh, yeah.
I've been teaching them a lot of different tricks,
to be honest, so I know Aiden's talking with you.
We've been doing tricks on it, so it's been nice.
Tricks on.
Well, Dream, it is always a pleasure to talk with you,
man.
Congratulations on the win.
You got to buy next Play Day.
We'll see you again as you play outlast
to wrap up the group stage.
Thanks so much, man.
Thank you, guys.
Well, what a win for SSG.
It is always good to talk to Dream.
He's feeling good.
This team, we heard it from Aiden yesterday.
They are clearly feeling good.
7-1 lacks.
That is the way to make a statement
against an up-and-coming roster.
We got 5-1 on their attacking half.
I said this in the halftime.
If they play similar to how the old DZ and old SSG played,
where like I said, it's slow and methodical,
they are going to be one of the most annoying teams
to play against.
Because back in those days, if you let those teams set up,
you let them get map control,
you were going to get punished through and through,
and I would believe a 5-1 half on that attacking
really goes to showcase how punishing it is
if you let this roster get set up,
give them map control that they need.
They are going to dismantle your entire setup.
Yeah, everybody on SSG looks to fit their role perfectly.
I mean, you got Dream and Giddy that can flex
to any operator that they must need.
And then you have your classic two entries
and you have old styles of siege,
which is just put a drone in front of your gunners
and go shooting.
But then they also are using the new methods of siege,
running the shields,
being able to get past each layer of traps.
They're constantly evolving as a team.
I think that just goes with Dream being able to teach everyone and everyone on the team being teachable and coachable and learning
And I think we're seeing it that hopefully it continues because we all agree that consistency is the hardest thing
So this
Standard for us as she is what I can't wait to see and hopefully we'll see against higher tier level teams
I'm talking about the standard of play here
16 kills for Aiden after we heard from him yesterday. He has great performance yesterday
We talked a little bit about Raid when we were chatting with Dream.
Obviously, the numbers aren't necessarily there in terms of the KD,
but the versatility that he's been able to bring,
you have to imagine that is so much value that everyone on this SSG roster can benefit from.
Yeah, absolutely. It's not always about kills.
It's not always about putting up big numbers.
It's about what you're leveraging within those rounds.
And as I said, Raid being able to flex between multiple operators,
multiple different play styles as Dream was talking about,
I mean that's gonna be far more important than just getting a few more frags on the board
I mean it really enables the rest of the team to find success to be able to go for these executes
And I think it really speaks dividends just for the overall success of today's match in these attacks and Aiden again
I mean the birthday boy dropping 16 kills. That's that's an impressive feat already
Yeah, happy birthday to Aiden I suppose here on any broadcast we saw yesterday's his birthday's tomorrow
So I believe him although I don't have no idea what part two means or this eventual part three means
that's what we're going to
do. We're going to do it. We
can't see it. Or this is
exactly the eventual part three
but our fourth part to our
third day here of kickoff
will be taken another look at
M 80 and five fears. Yesterday
was our first look at this M
80 roster and what they could
bring to the table and Fox. It
seemed clear that with action
in place of keynote, it was a
positive change and they were
a couple of rounds that got a little scary.
But that being said,
I don't really have a full opinion on M80 just yet.
They only played one game.
I'm looking forward to seeing them play more,
but there's a couple of pros and cons
that I've kind of written down after watching their game.
The pros is Gunner on support.
I was worried about it.
He was looking pretty good, pretty comfortable.
Not a role that I would imagine him being on,
but he has had experience being on it
for the old Sonic's roster.
They had a lot of very flexible operators.
Ashen was joining in on that flexibility.
I mean, he was playing game, he was playing blitz.
There was a lot of rounds where Ashen was joining in
to this ideology that M80 has,
which is more utility, more utility.
Hotten, he has an easier ability to call on his new roles
of being able to be a flex as opposed to being on hard support
or being on that shield.
So that seems like the pros.
The cons are, it's a worry for me
that Ashen may not be used to his full potential
because we all know that Gavini is an amazing entry
he's going to be the main entry for MAD. So I'm worried a little bit for Ash and how that will
impact him. And I also have worries for Hot and Cold. If he gets overwhelmed on this new role or
with having so much talent, one of the main things for an IGL is you always have one back
when you know where he's going to be. You know what to rely on. On this team, you don't really
have that. I guess Gunner's holding that torch and being that support that he's going to be the
person that's always going to be in that position. But that is a worry that Hot and Cold may have
difficulties keeping track of everybody. And again, done our own support. I wanted to have
more sample size to be able before I form an opinion, but those are my pros and cons for the
semi-digro roster. Yeah, thankfully we already had their buy, so we'll be able to see them every
single playday from here until the playoffs. Fox, though, quickly, obviously you've got that pro
con list. Where do you think it falls for you kind of in the overall balance? Like, end of last year
did not finish the way they wanted to, right?
Great domestic performances, not so good at SI.
Does it feel like this team has the potential to outshine
last year's MAD as this heading in the right direction for them?
That is a great question. On paper, talent-wise,
you'd imagine that they would be able to reach the same highs, win a major,
win an invite potentially. I don't know. I don't think I believe in this
and made a version just yet because there's just only seen one game though right you've only seen
one game so it's hard to predict but we know that when super teams are made they don't really
succeed because somebody has to be the getting the short end of the stick so I don't know I need to
see more from it but they have a lot of entry power and if they can just steamroll their way to
a title I mean why not I could see it happening well this is a great chance to see them in full
form again because the team they're playing against here five fears. We didn't quite know what to
expect coming out of the gate but lax they walked in here with incredible energy with some wild plays
and they took a win to open the stage now obviously a very different caliber of opponent.
Yeah absolutely but before we've been jumping to the whole team thing I also want to just
more focus on the interview of what JJ was even talking about because it really spoke to me. He
He said after the time on Envy and when the team fell apart, he really took time to develop
as a player, develop as an IGL.
Now he's putting in 10 hours a day, they bring on Forrest.
He's now becoming, Forrest is now his mentor, he's learning from him, he's taking from that.
And then he also, which I think is a big thing that really stuck out as well, he said all
of the players are contributing in adding their input, whether it's in practice, whether
it's in scrims, whether it's in dry runs.
And that's just something that clearly wasn't present during his time on Envy.
So, it really is good to see that every single player on this team is putting in the work,
putting in the effort to achieve these goals.
Now granted, it was only one game, it still was a great display, but there's still a lot more seeds from this team
that we have to see and to start really get behind and say,
okay, everything is coming to an end goal of being one of the best, if not the best.
But again, that really is going to be decided on how this match is going to look and everything going forward.
Well, you mentioned that Envy Core who's come over now to this five-fierce roster through
the first game.
What do you make of this potential and where they can go from here?
Yeah, I love to see the core still be able to work together, it shows the trust, it shows
the confidence that they have within one another.
I know Snake changing his name to captain.
Hopefully it's not captain this time around, but I mean, Snake did a phenomenal job going
12 and 5, JJ's 13 and 7, rival 10 and 4, and again, when your IGL is performing above
the rest. It does amplify everyone else's performance. Everyone else wants to step up.
Everyone else is having a good time. We saw multiple times in the cameras whenever it swapped
to them. Everyone's laughing. JJ's jumping up, air humping, doing all the things that we're used
to seeing them do. That's the energy and vibes that you need to be able to thrive and have success
and have fun because when you're having fun, it usually is an indication that things are going
well. So I want to continue to see the exact same attitude and the exact same approach and
animatedness that they have within one another and have it just speak through into their gameplay.
Well, Fox, let's talk maps here. Five Fears, M80, both of them playing their second best of
one here of kickoff. They already both had their buy and we go to Fortress as the decider here.
Yeah. I mean, it makes a lot of sense to go to a map like Fortress just because Five Fears,
I mean, we just saw exactly what SSG can do on it with running that Blackbeard.
I mean, we got Forest, we got JJ that can both equally run those shields.
So that's something that I'm expecting them to feel comfortable on it.
We saw five years beat 100 Thieves on Fortress,
and they looked pretty decisive with getting those opening picks,
being able to get position, taking that main staircase with the Blackbeard.
If you're at M80 though, you've got to assume that Fabian has done that prep work, right?
If this isn't a situation where it's dark zero running lair for three times in a row
This is five years. How much do they have in the tank since picking up force?
It'll be a good limits test to see that question answered
Yeah, I love that you talk about limit test because I think obviously in their matchup versus 100 things
I don't really think it was a limit test at all the rounds
They did lose it was really just them getting too antsy getting too cocky and losing some of those fights or in
Or just losing the round in general and for me when I'm looking at this five fears roster
The biggest thing is what I want to see is those mid to late run adaptations
We did see that however in their games versus 100 thieves notably in that round of round 8
We're all 103s was holding museum. They were holding bathroom
They were holding off that initial attack and you would see rival just come up from the back
Entering the games and immediately make that call and say let's switch. Let's go for this rotate
We aren't gonna be met by anything and let's take the site and you would see everyone
You could clearly see the connection that was made from there everyone rotates
Everyone did such a good job at collapsing and taking control of the site. That's what I want to see in this now
It is going to be harder. They are going to be tested here
It's not going to be cut clean like how it was versus 100 thieves and then on that other end
I also want to see forest find far more success again on the shields box both me and you saw numerous times
We're first died on that initial entry of shield where he shouldn't have whether he overstepped whether he didn't look in a direction
Of a player where a line of sight was being held
I want to see a little more coming out of a forest and getting far more utilization from those shields that then will
will amplify everyone else's performance behind it.
Well, we've talked a little bit more
about JJ and Forest Fox.
This is kind of this dynamic that
is starting to emerge on this five-thirs roster.
I mean, you've been on teams as the dynamic has shifted.
How difficult is it for an entire team
to kind of change who they look to as a leader,
or at least have somebody else as that second voice?
What is that dynamic like as new teams have
to welcome players with lots of experience.
Well, usually there's going to be a little bit of a risk back
to aspects of force.
Of course, he's joining the team.
You're going to want to listen to the ideas he brings
because he has reached heights that you've watched him reach
that you hope to then reach.
So you're going to listen to him.
You're going to listen to what the information he brings,
but it's not too much of a shift.
I mean, when you're in a series,
you're going to trust your teammates.
It doesn't necessarily need to be the IGL
that's going to make a game winning call.
Whoever sees it and has that ability to visualize it
and communicate it to the team needs to be able to have
that reign to be able to call it.
So if anything, it's a learning experience for JJ
to have to share that spotlight
or to understand that sometimes somebody else
will have the right answer.
And I think he's been doing that exceptionally well,
especially with being able to give force
a lot more power within calling and trusting his vision.
And so far we've seen that trust pay off.
It's just a matter of time
before it continuously gets better
and it's something that everybody on the team
should have the ability to do is call a game winning play
if you see it in front of your eyes.
But it's a skill that not many players actually can grasp.
Yeah, that's great insight to get some more insight
on this game before we dive in.
We're going to pass it over to Gus and then Ox
for one more time today.
Thank you, boys.
Yes, last game of the day already.
It's been a quick one here for NAL kickoff play day three,
M80 versus five beers on a fortress we go again, Gus.
These two teams have both played at once since its introduction to the map pool for M80.
It was against G2, but they lost that one for five years back on playday one.
They got a successful result against 100 thieves and 7-4 victory on Fortress.
But as is the case through the social predictions, M80 heavy favourites coming in this match.
Yeah, understandably so. They have such strong category on that roster and they go in with
the expectation to do well here on Fortress. I think the desk has outlined this map quite nicely
for this map, just specifically a lot of big focus around the shield plague, both respective
rosters, probably a little bit more so for five years given some of the strengths in that department
for them. But then on the side of M80, I'm probably anticipating some performance in the
Simulvane to what we just saw from SHG where their systems and their structure and the IGL
capabilities of hot and cold and the adaptability that they really have on offer now. It's one of
their big strengths and versatility in terms of the roll shuffle that they've been able to undertake.
That for me should overwhelm their opposition and thankfully we get to see them attack first.
A really good opportunity for them to display that again similarly to what we saw from SSG.
And probably thankfully for 5p is they're very happy to start on the defense first and just try
and navigate their way through the opening half trying to pick up three to four defensive rounds
and then see where they're actually going into the second half on their own attack.
Into the band phase we go, Ditty gonna drop down, so we might have a temporary pause at the end of
this band phase. Oh Snakeheads, banned away, so does the Kaedalong with his army ending.
And that means that critically all the shields are going to be available in this opening half, so
opens love off for M80, they can lean into the black beard, of course, they may even look to
combine that with the aggression of the Blitz, sort of a bit more safe, even with the Monty helping
that we have to be able to
play in a way that is
really important. We have to
be able to play in a way that
is really, uh, leaning into
that to gain that control and
provide protection at those key
trade points here that we have
seen developed on fortress. So
quite an intriguing approach
there. We'll see what five years
have to offer there. The ones
of course on defense looking to
counteract that inevitable
I gotta say, it feels weird seeing Ashton in a M80 jersey.
You haven't played in just yet for me, but now this is our first day for NAL.
I don't know, I just felt like Ashton and SSG were just like this combination.
But I think going back to Sixth Invitational and Ashton's performance then, I thought he
was just outstanding.
And, you know, it's a strange one to probably see that SSG roster break up and Ashton makes
his way over to M80.
But I think it's a big step up in his career that he can now be on a roster that will
be fighting for trophies certainly it almost seems like it has to be a certainty that they
make the international events but then they also have the strength to be able to go and
win those trophies like we saw back in Munich especially with Fabian at the helm so it joins
a very strong competitive outfit. In saying that I think you know the I think it was what
Fox was saying on the desk he's not quite sure about M80 moving forward I still think
that they're a danger in any tournament that they participate in and it'll just come down
to the events on the days themselves.
Yeah, I think it's completely understandable to have some trepidation.
We've only seen them play on one occasion so far.
It was a 7-3 victory, one of 30, pretty straightforward result for them there.
We'll probably only get a really strong indication as to where they're at in the bracket,
maybe prior to that, if we want to take those two ones somewhat seriously in the final playday.
They'll take on Shopify rebellion.
that could be quite a good test of their maybe to maybe get a better indication is to be
really up squad. Yeah, that could be a massive game for a finished top spot. You get that
advantage of playing one less game to start in the upper bracket in the semi final position
as opposed to the quarters. Fortunately, Ghana has returned to serve all 10 players
We're ready, let's jump in.
Oh, and the way we go. Last match of the day.
We've played A3.
And for those that missed some of the results we saw,
it's pretty good.
Results, honestly, that we probably expected.
Dark Zero far too good in their early pretty matchup.
Obviously, we just had SSG Cloud9,
where SSG worked way too good.
And maybe, I wouldn't say upset at that.
I mean technically tech has to be considered offset of the day one of 30 over 100 days
Considering SSG over cloud nine and start zero over how last were probably more closer to the expert tated results
That's one of 30 in second place in group A which is the group we come back to now. They may be versus five beers
They must employee from action
I'll still stay in the way, but it's usually useful in the previous time.
That's really the big takeaway for me is at least in this initial opening round we're
not going to see the shields deployed here from M80, will that be a trend throughout
the half?
Potentially.
I mean there's a lot of talk on the desk, understandably so, because of all the data
that backs it up from the amount of play fortress it's gotten since it's entered the pool.
It's been so shield heavy, the choke points are so critical and the shields of course
are a perfect counterplay to that.
and maybe they're looking to take a different approach here looking to stack U2
the braver as well is an intriguing addition obviously a good counter onto the likes of the
trap utility on offer here so we'll see how much value Gav's after the big strats done as well on
the twitch and the shock drones so it looks like a mate you're trying to cook here
Straight past the racer plume, hot and cold, not gonna be wasting any time for my old tower
into games.
I'm gonna get this top floor battle, it's only one player, defo and gun on that first
floor, otherwise four stack four, five fears on the top floor.
and one-for-one trade kicks things off it is actually that technically gets the
opening kill it loses life immediately after that get through the water
mode job done just over a minute remaining and so far difficult to
probably gauge who's in the better position heading into the final minute
yeah force smoke still available here for m80s of the bottom of the board that
But he's now arguably strengthened in terms of being able to deny angles and create pockets
of space for the attack potentially even be used to mask a plant attempt later in the
round.
I say later, but we've only got 40 seconds to go, so maybe need to kick into gear here.
A similar pace into what we saw in the first half of our last game, as that's due to Cloud's
One more gas pipe available for rival.
Maybe they're happy to just take their time though, they're not panicking, they're not forcing something that isn't there.
They've just lost two in quick succession.
The fuser and Haughton-Coll go down leaving it just down to Gavin and Gunner.
Outnumbered and low on time.
Gunner finds the kill, swinging around the corner for Gavin is successful.
Seven seconds though, that's where you've got to keep the attention at which is now the time.
through the plank and go down on fence to try and make the push easy kill and it
gets the second as well of a good measure as five years will take the
opening round and I saw a confidence boost that they're very strong defensive
round and that's my assessment on paper based on the personnel on this team the
kind of playstyle that they look to deploy it can definitely be vibes based
and very momentum based at times so being able to find that stability early is
nice yes of course you take it with a grain of soul it's fortress primary
defensive side. They should arguably be winning that out. Don't get twisted, but the way they've
done it has been really, really good. They'll be fighting to necessarily go their way,
but some good resilience from the forest. And we see that roll that momentum forward by
stalling up the clock really, really nicely, not giving away any of these end positions for
free on site, and not giving M80 a proper opportunity to layer any kind of utility,
and actually then flush out that objective.
Yeah, that's all it's thought. I made it a little bit slower in the case, but that's to be expected on fortress
Especially if I fierce defensively aren't going to really offer too much. You know, it's interesting in contrast
This is always the the fun nature of kind of getting the same map back to back as you can compare it directly to the game before
And we saw at times when cloud nine were on the defense
You know, it was I think it was lacks that we're talking about the constriction and being kind of stuck on site
And in theory, M80 will obviously try to do the same kind of thing against Fire Fiers,
but just when it came towards that execution time, Fire Fiers looked far more switched on,
looked far more ready for those fights, and even aggressing themselves, sort of at the moment of
impact. So they take the first round, and it's the dorms games for the second, and that's really
what you kind of need here in your Fire Fiers. These first couple of rounds are so important,
just builds the confidence you're on defense you need to be winning these
kind of sites in this half. Expectations all with their mating so if my fears get
off to a good start that'll be a big boost. JJ about to be under the palm
but to snack. Over the world's old tower speed headed by the Monty so we see the
shields now in play the glass of action layering that smoke utility in an attempt
to maybe help garner some map control. Doesn't seem to have initially been super successful.
As M80 takes another pause, gain additional information, they want to tankwatch down below
and so it diffuses position in set position. Drop still hasn't come into fruition. Gas
babes in retaliation from JJ. M80 drawing out quite a bit of utility, having to expend
some of themselves so it's a bit of an even trade at the moment, but now it's booted officially
on the ground on the second floor, hot and cold, getting up close and personal, relaying
this information to the rest of their matey who will no doubt drop once this next gas
babe diffuses.
JJ gets the reinforcement off, it's gonna get to the opening kill of the rail, fends
the trade onto Gaman, gets through the DMs and so they don't have any way to actually
open up any of these walls now. One secondary hard breach.
It's half the trade, it's five years, and being able to get rid of the Yaze just for the Aruni.
Now, she's trying to play off of this smoke, of which, by the way, there are none left.
This is the last power play, if you will, for the Glazz, and at least Asher makes the most of it.
Gets rid of JJ. Scouts and Jack will fall to the pistol of Holt and Cole.
and poor old Forrest now by himself and won't be for us M80 have systematically been able to break down this defense bar better in
This second round then in the opening
So I was trying to navigate over to war Tottenham Cole taking his time
And time will expire for him as action against the final kill M80 on the board a
big bounce back in the second round from M80 a
Yeah, a very calculated attack. It was quite a lengthy standoff,
everywhere towards Old Tower initially, where we saw some of the youths drawn out from the smoker, JJ.
And then eventually, once that was able to be fully expended or drawn out by the attack,
we eventually saw the push to follow. The smoke layering was pretty clean.
Good work outside on breach as well to net a kill.
And then Ashton was able to get to work on that glass in combination with that Monty,
which is a really tricky combination to counter here if you are the side of Five Fears.
So now it's an even score, I want a piece to head down below to waiting, and the warding
now finally to be brought in to this comp for the defense likely to be sponsored.
that we saw last time out, no guarantee that that will be consistent though, that it doesn't seem to be the case with the others.
Well, I do want to add in more of the narratives for this game, than what we spoke about before.
One extra narrative to attach to this is if animated were to lose these guys, if is the key word.
We're a long way to go in this.
They would play a hundred thieves, which if they were to lose that would then find themselves
lost in the group going into their match against Shopify Rebellion.
So it's a lot of ifs, and I still think that they'll probably get the job done here, and
they certainly should have the better of a hundred thieves.
They just got to make sure that they don't have any stumbles, these are the best of ones.
Funny things can happen, you don't get that chance of a second map and then potentially
a third.
Five years have started well. I mean, Eddie win the previous round and certainly comfortably.
Five years are not just going to be a walkover.
I'm going to work here initially from M80.
I mean, they have a good read on this horizontal spread from five years,
who are heavily into this mom side of the map at the moment.
M80 looking to feed into that, though, directly, and then start pressuring the side platforms.
The first and the second may well follow in a moment's time, but somehow Snake has actually been able to net a kill from that position.
Ah, Ashen is so good.
Yeah.
Well, they finally break it down. They got a little messy there for a moment, but M80.
Really clean read, good drone work, good conversion, and really in the blink of an eye, it's left in 1v4.
I think he was running into the wall while he was completely blinded, but he found that
kill made it a 1v2 and hot and cold as per usual little to no expression.
Well I had that round I think wrapped up well and truly the 1v4 until it did get a little dicey.
The M80 make it two rounds straight to take the lead here on Fortress so far so good. Three
3 attacking rounds from M80, 3 opening kills, they got plant down in the second round.
The only blemish really was that first round.
Other than that, it's been 2 consecutive dominant performances from M80s.
We had back over to bathroom and command, which was 1 successfully by 5 players in the
everyone. Yeah it's a very aggressive horizontal stage there from the defense
but NAD off the back of some grid drone work by activating Ashen at the correct
time in the black period having that trade potential in place we're able to
flood it rather effectively but a bit dicey there at the end but well they
fouled for NAD.
So to the additional bands then for the remainder of this first half to Nari
taken out by M80 and five years committing to leaving all the shirts up. They'll take off the
glass which was used in both rounds. I was going to say two and three but it was actually just on
the second round. Ashen did have a big impact on that particular operator and so that will be
stripped away here for the next time. I'm also just the operator called for M80. Three rounds
played and every single player on the team has played three different
operators. Now we're seeing the same operators in different rounds like
the Grimm for example has been played by the Fuser and Gunner etc but in terms of
the individual player they've all played three different operators in the first
round that is super that is a super super thing for this team to have the
operator that you see there in that instance it's not something that you see
in other regions like APR the teams will have players that typically might only play one to two ops.
Yeah just give you all the versatility and comfortability maybe
feel more comfortable playing a particular operator for a particular strat or a particular
side or in response to whatever the team wants to do or the opposing team is wanting to do.
And that depth won't just serve them well potentially domestically but also if and
and when they are to qualify internationally as well, so it's only a good observation.
And as you can see, we're going to go and...
Yes.
Yeah, they're definitely mixing it up.
So I cut off position there from gun along range, in the meantime,
Ashen's being able to find five potential deathmark victims,
And hot and colds now spearheading the attack cold old tower side
Was some util layering so fire fears will well and truly be aware of this has hot cold cleared hard right here
As Naked inside of game down pops up, but the deathmove away his position forced to fight taken down good clear from M80
Yeah, I mean a good start for sure. It's another opening kill for M80. That's four straight
They did lose the fuse that don't have the Kwanheim launcher for the
counterpart of this round.
For us on the clash was absolutely needed to bring this operator in this
round. It's an already got banned away. The Monty's now starting to be utilized.
Double kill for five beers. JJ and Fenn's combined.
fashion and gonna will fall it's looking like once again this site seems to be
the tricky one for M80
two versus four the cotton cold having to go pistol outfends with the drive by
he's 8 and 2 he's been really good for five beers his guns by himself airjab
to try and push back this clash 20 seconds no care it's looking like a
two-two score lines on the cards this has been a difficult site for M80 as JJ
puts an end to the round. Fans is pumped and they know that they're in this game. There
are a lot of statistical factors where you go, well, yeah, it's four straight for M80
in terms of opening kills. They got the plant down in the second round. They've certainly
been the better team, but ultimately it's a 2-2 scoreline. So it's just a case of four
or five years just hanging on, trying to take each round one at a time.
initial clear was quite snappy and good work off the death mark there for the M80 but it was the
immediate trade back onto diffuser who now finds himself 0-3 that kind of staged this round it
perhaps prompted the split attack attempt there from M80 which again was dismissed and shut down
from five fears rather cleanly as well instead of committing maybe all bodies to flushing out
some of those choke points and then he went through a slightly different approach
didn't quite work out and so at least on command and fire from five years they've
been rather successful and they now find that on one of these other sides but
there'll be dorms games up next or perhaps down below waiting to pay they
do that now I tell you what they look like a serious shot to me as my very
very competitive heading into the second half I wouldn't be too convinced if they
maybe walk away from this for two that five years can show enough on attack
but all it takes is one of these objectives to go the way of defense here and it starts to get pretty serious for a matey
I definitely feel like the fire fears but I need at least three minimum
and the ball would put them in the position where they could very much cause an upstack
and I think they look really switched on in the mid late rounds it's just the early round
that's maybe one of the more concerning side giving up four opening kills to the attack on Fortress
just gotta try and be a little bit more compact early on.
There you go.
JJ flips the script.
He finds the first kill of the round.
That's the first time that Five Fears
are gonna have a five on four advantage
and it's onto the Capitao.
On goal eliminated.
There's a big operator to take off the board
in terms of utility provided to the attacking team.
This very well could be two rounds straight from Five Fears
if they can just capitalize now on this early advantage.
And they will lock in.
They know they're down a player that lost hotly called, they've lost the Capitao and
others are going to have to step up now to bring this round back.
Yeah, I mean, obviously not down and out, but that's a massive drain on their probability
of being able to win out this round.
A player down so early, so little map control takes away a lot of the XT utility as well.
When you think about the likes of the clash on board where spacing that particular operator
up can be so important.
is a difficult and now there's a like a frag grenade and of course flames
not that kill starts to look really dire for m80 in this round so we'll see how they
were to pull themselves their way out of this position but if five fears play it correctly
don't give away low percentage ones there's very few paths forward here for m80
Gaspave is remaining from JJ on the smoke in terms of utility for the defense. They've
expended everything. They're now to the M80s turn heading into the final minute. Two B canisters
left to get the cannon on the Kauai Launcher. Oh, the swing is unsuccessful though from
Asher and JJ just a little bit more clean. JJ may be thinking about going for more as
I'm gonna try and deal with him from below and we'll do some of the bailiff
That's gonna be two kills back quickly for M80 counter Jack
Those steps up gets rid of gunner keeps the advantage with fire fears
Heading into the dire stages of this fifth round the co-op
High-launcher is pinging Boris and Gavin catches him on the cross. That's a huge pig from Gavin
And now a 2v2
In the world in which Diffuser can get into site, get this plant down and gather able to cover what will effectively be a 1v2.
It's stressful, it's frenetic, but the plant will go down for M80 to cover.
Oh, rival bits win kill, Diffuser's off kit, rival got them both as five fears will make it two rounds straight.
You can see the reaction from Forrest that was on the clash to that round and in some
ways, pride the round open for him, he got trapped out of position, but then the denial
and the pair con to Gav, the drive by as you described it, was massive.
Gav was in a good position, but naturally is the case.
Late in the round, when the second player has to commit to the plant, it's a 1v2, a
strong mechanical skill or opening up the window for a trade.
always keeps the defense in a strong position. Rewind the clock all the way
from the beginning, it's not a part of the replay package but hot and cold
side for free. Without that Capitale utility late a lot of these flashes
required big effort from M80 and while some of that was gifted across the
likes of the Dash across from Frosting an example it was still difficult with
the manpower that they had on the time of the clock to code for a serious
how win condition there at the end. Credit to Five Fears. They get that third round and they now
enter the realm of being a realistic cost after making a very very competitive fear in Fortress.
First round that they get the opening kill,
little bit back and forth, certainly the fact that it comes down on 2v2 in the end, but
But, yeah, five fears take the lead for the first time since the opening round.
Just puts the pressure well and truly down on M80 as we come to the close of the half
into the sixth and final round.
All too hard to fly fears.
We're typically on fortress, you know, kind of be par for the course, but I think in a
matchup like this and against an opponent like M80, it's a great result if they can
achieve it.
The captain jack gets another opening pick four fly fears this time on to the fuser
so no flores for the remainder of this round.
feels akin to the last round where it's an early pick, uncontested, untreated, no kind
of counter value on offer for M80 that haven't really taken much as a result of that. They
lose key utility clearance against the traps and barbed wire, three operas in which have
that available for five beers. That's a big loss. And also maybe a bit of a dent in the
the confidence of diffuser who hasn't really been given much of an opportunity to get going
in this matchup.
It's a much like the last one, it's not that I'm able to try and isolate these
perfectly inclined conditions back into the ground and into the site for the potential
plant attempts but if it's anything like the last one I'm expecting some really good
good ankle work from 5-T is to make this a challenge.
The problem with being in a 4v5 is this kind of playstyle approach from MA,
where they're taking things a little bit more slowly, trying to just work the site,
work around the site, that's fine, but then if you've got 30 seconds left, 4v5,
you don't have that ability to flood site use numbers over take.
important is can find a pick from above to slug someone and force the defender out of
position. Five beers will stay tucked inside, play behind the clash. This is important now
for Boris to be that point of contact for the defense. A lot of colts are trying to send
that through the smoke. Go deep, try and get plant down successfully in the smoke. He does
get this down, which it looks like he will. Oh, denied it last second. Shut down. A combination
of JJ and Fens. Fens will get the kill. This should be the round. It will be a 4-2 half in favor
and the first round of five
beers. M 80. Not going to be
happy with the weight of close
this half out as she gets killed
to the night of flawless. It
won't deny the round win. Five
beers go for two up. And they're
pumped up rightly so M 80 only
two rounds in the half. Five
fears have set themselves up
nicely for this second half
a word in from the boys very, very shortly.
Well, thanks guys. This is turning into quite a game here.
Five Fears, maybe not the first couple of rounds
they were looking for.
Now they hold a four-two lead, Fox.
What stood out to you so far?
I mean, I don't want to,
I can't take anything away from Five Fears.
M80 is playing very good.
All of the concerns that I had for them,
I mean, yeah, questions are still there,
but M80's doing their job,
but we have to look at Fortress as a whole.
This map is defender sided, five fears is playing the defensive side very good, running
layer after layer, running these traps ops, forcing MAD to have to bring so much utility
that the only real player that's able to sit comfortably on MAD is Gavin when he's going
in for some type of an entry.
But five fears is set up very well, they're forcing MAD to execute and even in that last
round it was a beautiful example of how five fears since bringing on Forrest understands
what to do at a top level at approaching against, you know, an opposing attacking team. But now is
that hard part. They're swapping over to attack. This really will be the test to how smart five
fears are. Are they going to be running the double shields? We'll maybe take the shields off of the
board. And also it goes without saying we have to commend Fens because it seems like we've talked
about everybody on five fears here and there. But we haven't commented on Fens at all and he is
really doing his absolute most playing these trap operators always
constantly trying to be the thorn in MAD side.
Yeah, I have to agree with what you're saying.
And I do want to focus more so on five fears here rather than MAD.
Granted, they are up.
But again, now you have to attack.
This is going to be the harder bit.
You're going to have to be using the communication.
You're going to have to be setting up to go for these executes.
And again, that's what we saw them versus a hundred thieves.
Granted, they did get those rounds, but a lot of it was also a hundred
they weren't really challenging a lot of five fears in certain areas and then again for us being that shield player not finding a lot of success to open up these rounds.
I want to see a lot more from them and as you said I am curious to see what those bands look like but they are removing the glass so kind of still leaves up the question shield play is going to be there.
But as for us going to be there on those shields to be able to open up a round and then let the others follow suit.
Yes, we'll find out five fears they shift over to the attack.
As you guys said, this is where the real test begins.
Back to you guys.
It certainly does. M80 won't be too happy with that first half,
but now I get to go on to the defense where they'll feel more confident, more comfortable.
But to me, five fears just look really amped.
They're really looking locked in for this game.
And they know that while M80's not on the ropes, win this next round,
and that will be four straight with a 5-2 lead and yeah the ropes are probably where M80 will then be
Maybe maybe it's so difficult though to predict where this goes forward. It's still attacking into fortress
It's tricky to
Difficult to overstate really how difficult this may end up being for them. It's such a tough map
Under the right conditions for the defense. So let's see
Obviously they're up and about their confidence is flowing
So if that can maybe help generate some round winning plays for the middle side of the attack
where you need to show initiation, you need to be confident and you need to back yourself
in to make at times risky plays.
The Bands of course have come through and it's a glass and solid snake off the board.
So again, at least for the attacking side, all shields available.
And so we see immediately the Blackbeard off the rep, defensively, Kai Band out so to alleviate
some of the hard reach denial.
and a clash which is so strong and we have seen time and time again here on fortress
and there's choke points. I think this looks pretty favourable for Firefieres if they're
able to activate the shields which we've seen from them already and kick off and do it again
here against M80 that can definitely pose problems for the defense.
Firefieres getting the last two opening kills to close the half as well along with three
round straight. I have all the momentum coming into this second half now.
That's how to gather the National hasn't been a lot of firepower from M.A.D.I. though.
I'm gonna throw us under a bit of pressure on the Blackbeard,
come on up and hit the headshot onto the Fuser. Forrest winds back the clock, hits the shot.
The Fuser 1 and 6 has not been able to have any involvement in this match.
And that is the Azami taken down relatively early timescale-wise for a map like Fortress.
Minute 40 is a load of time.
Forest very low, so too fens. Both will be susceptible to hot and cold here.
Those gaspankings have landed right on cue. There's the first.
Not placed utility, but awkwardly, fens actually survives and will be in a position to be revived.
And it's not every day of the week you get downed in a smoke and can be picked up,
But as I say that the shotgun will net the final blow and so a four versus four again with four is
Still low on HP and holding cold with one more gas bag and meantime rival finds one gun
I read response of the trades come through leaving it all up
To snake slash captain Jack and one versus three. Yeah the captain Jack
Yeah, I mean
It was difficult to kind of mention forest low on health fans low on health even though they had numbers
M80 were probably still in the better position. They closed it out in the end. That stops the
run of three straight for five fears as M80 find themselves back in the winner's corner.
3-4 scoreline fence was pumped up going into the halftime break. Looks a little bit more
mellowed out now after that one. I don't think you could be too disappointed though with five
fears. I mean they still made the most of that round a good back and forth. They had a decent
and start Boris finding this relatively early kill.
The downside was just they were very wounded
from the initial exchanges.
Yeah, technically, there was a 5v3,
but two players basically one HP,
and then M80, at that moment,
as soon as it even went 5v3, started to fire back,
and then it never really was a proper 5v3.
So M80 switched on defensively,
and rather than opting to fall back,
they kind of ran towards the fire.
I think I may be probably still looking at trying to tidy up the early round.
The last several occasions the infant kill has gone the way of five fears in rounds five,
six and seven and converted on two of those occasions.
That will be a big entrance here on defense, maintaining man advantage and then being able
to stack power positions or choke holds and really force out a lot of U-Tool and high-risk
plays from the attack. Over to dorms and games for round number 8. And the spotlight probably
on defuser in this round. Obviously, I cast him in a bad light for not being a player,
but it's been a rough day for him. We'll see if he can try to get to work here on defense,
some comfort on the tube around, encountering the ace and also can be useful. There's other
canisters in terms of denying these trick points and stalling out the attack. So he has a key role
to play in this round, not to mention a nitro in the pocket as well.
Defuser goes down again
Another opening depth for diffuser. That's three rounds straight where he's been the opening depth for m80
One and seven two brown eliminated another opportunity for five beers
This will be their fourth opening kill in a row
And these are the moments where you get to it
Well, you don't get this opportunity against a team like m80 that often you've got it make the most of it
Exactly, it's not a case of diffuser being able to deploy utility and get value and then maybe dies an unfortunate death
He's just died straight off the rip no response to fire fears map control. Don't have to worry about the Zodo canisters
That's a massive boost for this attack. They've now got 90 seconds to work with it start breaking down this defense
In the meantime keeping our gunner. He goes first floor, so it's high risk for M80 in this round
It's a 3-1 split and gunner in a position to flank
It's over a minute ticking down, it was around this moment, last round, M80 then kind of flipped the script, they may do so again, hot and cold with a shotgun.
Ball vs 4, 5 fears, again not looking like they will be able to capitalize on that early advantage.
M80 not giving them a chance to kind of rattle off a few kills in a row.
Yes, they lose one, but then they stay compact, they stay composed, and then they strike at the right time to find a kill back the other way.
My fears are just holding and waiting, but you're on the attack, you've got 30 seconds, you're gonna have to push in, and as soon as you do,
M80 are lined up and ready and waiting.
Rival to push up on tower, hits the headshot onto Ashton, they go for a pinch attack now between Benz and Rivalz, and Benz will get his kill onto Gavvin.
The round is alive. Keep a barrier to try and be the nuisance of the doorway, especially to block off picking up this kit of which Wipo can not pick it up because of the key to barriers. Breaks them both, grabs the kit, it's a snatch and run.
Fens has to cover, he's gonna watch both, doorways hits the shot onto Honkold, Bigiana slips in, shoots him in the back and they steal the round.
Oh my god, what a chaotic end to the round and Gunner comes up clutch, the multi before
that and then the reposition to deny the plant in the midst of what I can only imagine were
very chaotic comms for both teams.
Restore the snatch and grab and the plant, a tam does all over the place.
high intensity inside of the server and I think as a result, Fabian for M80 has called
attack timeout.
Woah.
Poach is what they need.
Deep breaths.
They know they got away with one towards the end of that round.
They know that Gunners essentially just snatched that one.
That plant goes down.
I just don't see how that's...
Well, I mean to be fair, even if the plant goes down, Gunners always in a position to
get that kill anyway. Then it's a straight B-Line 1v1. It plays a bit differently because
Fendz then has the timer on his side. But I think the timeout is definitely needed because
even though they've won the last two rounds now, guys, both times they gave up the opening
depth. The fuse is really struggling in the early portion of these rounds and he's playing
critical operators as well. Two brownies army, the case point example. You want to keep those
alive for as long as possible and it's just the fact that none of these rounds even one really for
M80 have been all that clean so yeah gunner does get that kill in time so close so close for five
fears you hit the 180 there a little quicker or more so gunner hasn't repositioned in time and
that would have been one of the plays if not be play of the day to cover the potential plant
not to be though so round number nine the final before the additional bands are
introduced it's looking a little shaky for both teams at the moment and I think
the scoreboard reflective of that 4-4 difficult to split the two it's been a
an entertaining matchup being quite competitive as we head into this round
it's double shield from five fears looking to lean even more heavy into the
Monty and the Blackbeard duo.
Yeah man, all tied up 4-4 but it swings the momentum so far in this game.
That's a little bounce of the fray, gonna force it kind of back.
And for us trying to take space gonna try to now get himself into a safer position
It does so successfully with the help of the keeper barrier. It's logic bomb
Activates out from snake
Captain Jack
As the boom goes off and it's really kind of the point of the round right now for five beers is to just navigate through this utility
Without really losing anyone losing a lot of life on the double shield setup
Ah, so far. I'd say job done.
Just chipping away at this map control, full commitment to the horizontal from both teams,
all 10 players, essentially outside of Snake.
On this first floor position, he'll head above for maybe some low-potential ulcer and a logic
bomb to follow. Beautiful look on the overhead there is the
ground that five years have been able to chip away at.
They may have haven't had to take great risk though in defending this. A lot of it
was preset trap utility. Very few gunfights.
70 seconds on the clock and now we start to see some pressure
closer towards the site and defuse on. One and seven in a key position. He needs
to find something here right here right now.
It's got the key to barrier. It's Ash and that's actually going to be the opening.
That's yet another opening kill for five years. It's five rounds straight
but have not been able to capitalise in the last two rounds.
Snake pushed back down main stairs, gets through to Gav'n with two player advantage with no immediate trade
from M80 on the defence. 40 seconds left into the round.
Gunner up close and he gets sliced.
And so does Hot and Cold. This may end up being flawless if not actually for Devuser.
He gets one, but then immediately traded by Rival.
Five beers, retake the lead. Five, four, up.
Worrying signs for M80 who have already used their tactical time out. They cannot win these early round battles.
I wish we had a coach cam right now because I feel like Barbein might be starting to see the little bit. His patience
probably beginning to wear thin. The opening kills are damning. That's now five in a row for five fears.
They haven't even been able to convert all of those opportunities.
Only three out of five have gone their way, but that's enough to be the tiebreaker here
To gain the lead to gain some ascendancy and hopefully for them a bit of confidence heading back to the primary sites
That for me is the one saving grace for M80 is they now get to return and potentially push at least overtime in primary sites
but
At least in terms of the regulation discussion, they'll need to win out this side if they are to return because Hamamori be on
their strategy book I imagine so it's certainly frustrating times for M80
can they reset though heading back to these primary sites most importantly as
well if I fierce even get to six you don't get all points available moving
forward from this match really not ideal considering in this group group a
that top spot is very much achievable.
Shuffle 5 rebellion has picked up two wins,
but both of those were in overtime.
So there is an opportunity still in Group A
to go atop the group right now would be the case,
but even both of these two teams,
if they could win in regulation,
would set them up nicely.
Of course, for both MAD and FireFear,
both of them who played the one game,
won that in regulation.
You win this in regulation, you go top the group.
Well, let's give you a quick lose.
Oh, the bullets, the thinker, the yin.
Straight up, although full wipe into the hold.
Two get the kill onto hold.
Cold, it wasn't goes one, another open and kill, four or five fears.
As fans get through to Ashton looking to re-aggress from down below on tower stairs,
and Boris will just keep the pressure going.
Full steam ahead, but right into gunner.
Diffuses, got one, but gunner goes down, 3v2, buy fears,
want to bring the heat and so far so good.
will fall. Diffuser gets the
trade. That is an absolute onslaughts of around from five beers as they secure at least the point.
Ote at minimum and M 80 have got to win too straight. Well, they're going to drop a huge match here and kick off.
Yes, straight away when I saw that composition, I was like, this is going to be definitive change in tempo. We saw the yin for the first time. We saw the blitz for the first time. We saw the finger for the first time.
for the first time and they stacked snowball and I thought they were pushing into the water
and that's why I was like, oh, this is probably great for MAD. They would have wished, they
would have loved to have had a hot and cold on the warden in this position. They have given
him potentially an opportunity to slow down this push, maybe find a path to disrupt that
was not the case. The pressure was absolutely relentless from Fire Fierce in that round.
So many crossfires established from so many positions so quickly, they were able to leverage
those operators have that utility really well. It's pretty infrequent, we see fast, speedy attacks
like that on fortress, perhaps that was partially why I caught off M80, but even if M80 were ready
for that, I think purely based on execution, it was really, really good and very difficult for them to tame.
To round straight needed for M80 or their face of shock lost to five fears.
Again it would put M80 fourth in the group only ahead of 100 thieves.
Who do they play next on play day four?
Well it's 100 thieves.
So that's talking about pre-match in terms of the narrative for M80s.
If you somehow lose this, then the next game is actually so incredibly important for both
100 thieves at M80, that the loser of that game would be in a grouped position.
M80 play Shopify Rebellion on the final playday.
I thought maybe that would be a match from first place, so that could end up being a
match for M80's survival.
Not done yet.
And again, if there is some solace for M80, if they were to come back and win this, the
So even winning this in overtime would still put M80 in top spot.
As things stand right now, it is FireFuckers looking to go at top the group.
Crusher mounting.
Now it's about conversion and closing out a map.
Two opportunities.
in regulation, the first of which to take place over towards dorms and the games, the
blitz, black bid combination so that shield uses fire heavily being lit into the game.
The user is back!
Oh, he's so back.
It's like 1 in 7, he's now at 6 and 9, Gunner shuts down Fens who's been the best.
Four or five beers, but there was an onslaught from five beers in the previous round.
It's M80 picking up the pace in this one, facing match point, facing the potential loss
here on Fortress.
stepped it up one of two match points seemingly looking like it will be dealt
with rival in the 1v3 on the blackbeard with over a minute left always have to
give these players an opportunity the best chance for rival will be create a
couple of 1v1s first up. Gunner is the one that is solo, Gavin Holy Gold will play
together. Gunner is gonna be able to find the information from below though as to
where this kid is going down.
Well, actually, he's going to move forward.
Yeah, there we go. I think this is the right place.
Oh, the timing and the positioning doesn't get an M80 closed it out as expected.
And we go five to six.
Well, that's one down, one to go for M80.
Tactical timeout for fire fears.
They got one more opportunity.
to try and secure all three points.
Sending one of those circumstances,
we're having the tack time out in the pocket,
ready to go for a match point scenario like this is great.
It gives you a really thorough opportunity
over 60 seconds to discuss what is the schedule
for this next round, put all the chips out of the table,
go all in for this round,
and attempt to get it across the line.
Couple of refinements, I'm sure.
probably going to be a discussion as to whether or not they are committing to the shields as heavily in this round
or if they go for a pivot, and once they come to that determination, it will then be down to how they actually play around that respective strategy.
And this is where the pressure actually is on both teams.
MAD facing the prospect of losing this game, but more important for Fire Fiends, who are the prospect of winning it.
That's pressure in itself, where you think,
There's a lot on the line in this one round for both teams for two completely different
perspectives.
The benefit of the Five Fears, of course, is that they've got at least over time locked
up, but when it's the regulation, it can go such a long way when it comes to the group
stage.
They play Shopify Rebellion, Five Fears, and then one of 30.
I wouldn't discount them in either of those two games for sure.
Shopify Rebellion have only won in over times,
won a 30 of course, one today.
Group A is proving to be a very competitive group.
Group B is the one who had you in the dark,
so I kind of just running rampant,
outlast the struggling, cloud nine of struggling.
This has been the hot group.
And Mady, here we go, match point,
stuck it in last for five years
to see if they can close this in regulation.
Otherwise, points will be split.
And then we'll certainly throw some more permutations in towards the standings of...
No doubt about that.
Compositions for this final round of regulation.
A couple of tracks on offer here from M80.
They'll be looking to get more value from the tube around here in response to the hard breach here from five years of...
I wanted to just go to solo shield this time, they found good success in the black gear thus far.
Playing it in the vast majority of the rounds this half.
I was given that licence to initiate the push all tower side to initiate the map sweep.
Drones dealt with on the opposing side and said M80 should initially have a pretty strong read as to what the push now is.
with no contact on the side side of the map,
it should be map across and if they come to that assessment,
it will, as we can see, be correct.
Ashen gets caught, the Zerdo canister not deployed to counter the Deimos,
and he pays with it, with his life.
And Ashen started 5-1, now 7-10,
so has it really been able to kick on from what was a really good start?
Another opening kill, 5-7.
A 5-5 fierce, sorry.
A 5-7, maybe that's an omen.
Maybe that's a spoiler.
As they've got the extra player, another opening pick.
That's 7 of the last 8 rounds.
So dominant in that category for 5 fierce.
As time starts to dwindle down.
Now, for me, I'm now looking at Forest.
How do they leverage the Blackbeam?
May not even be required.
Fence drops.
Oh my.
Use of walls.
It's falling.
A Retaro.
This game's for M80.
A Retaro.
Oh, that is just going to boil the blood of Fabian.
Right, well what a headshot on that angle.
It's done.
M80 are going to lose this in regulation.
They will be fourth in the group, playing 100 Thieves on the next playday to dry and
avoid being last in the group.
It's five fears, guess what?
They're heading up, baby.
They're going to the top of Group A. They have undefeated six points from two games.
There's no fears for this roster.
They're looking hot for NAL kickoff.
Yeah, honestly, it feels like the sky might be the limit for this roster.
They're a fun team.
They're easy to root for.
They play some really high quality seeds today. So I'm very excited for their prospects here in kickoff
But that's not fun for the day. Jake. It's been an absolute pleasure to join the NAL
Let's throw it back to the desk to break it all down. Have fun. Let's
Thanks guys, what a finish. Oh my goodness five beers
They are locked in for the playoffs the first team to do it out of their group
What a performance, a 2-0 starts and 100 Thieves because they are trailing just that far behind.
Five fears, they are good to go, they're heading to the bracket lax.
I mean this is maybe what these guys expected, but from the outside in, starting this kickoff,
you did not expect this team to be the first team out of this group to solidify that position.
I would have never guessed it and I'm sure for the side of JJ and the boys, I'm sure that they are thrilled.
I mean given how close they got last stage to be able to make playoffs and only lost out at the very end of it
And then now to secure themselves early on with two really convincing victories
I mean one thing I really liked from this matchup in and itself was the change of tempo between both teams
I don't want to discredit M80 by any means but both teams were quick at understanding of what the other was trying to do
M80 was doing a good job understanding the split the I mean the splits and then understanding the aggression that they were going for
five years, one round, one or a couple rounds, rather, wanted to get really aggressive, but
didn't really seem like there was a purpose, then it would fall back and play into their
layers. I mean, it was just a really good fundamentally sound game from both these teams,
quick to adapt, quick to understand what their course of action needed to be. And it really
just came down to five years in the end, just understanding what they needed to do to close
out that last round. And they did it flawlessly.
Yeah, I'm really glad that you're not, you're really painting the picture as it is. It wasn't
and maybe playing bad by no means. Yes, they are trying to shake off getting
Ashen in and being settled in. And I think the new role changes is something
that they are definitely trying to adapt to. But they were playing at what I had
imagined and made his standard is to pass for five years. I think Fortress is
definitely a map that they understand it very well. Just the way that they go
around the map with such confidence and they're always able to find these
pigs, find these openings to all out the rest of them. Maybe I think they just
had such a good understanding and you could just see the confidence out of all of them, especially fans.
Well, listen, we've got our interview ready to go. Rival is standing by as we could chat with him after this victory.
Dude, first team locked in for the playoffs in this group.
Coming out of nowhere, you guys now undefeated to start off the stage.
What is the, I mean, it looks like you guys are having a lot of fun. What is the vibe like right now on this team?
The vibe's insane, man. I think this this team right now, our energy through the roof,
our energy has no limit right now is how we're playing.
I think this game is just a show of it.
We walked into this game with good energy, good vibes
and came out, I think even higher than went into it.
Seriously, it's insane.
The energy's unreal.
Yeah.
I mean, you can see it.
We can see it watching her as his camera
every single time after.
I mean, we've seen some questionable things from JJ,
but obviously you guys got to do what you got to do.
That being said, when it comes to, you know,
congratulations first off on qualifying for the next phase,
but when it comes to getting these wins,
especially against a team like M80.
How much has your guys' transition been amplified
from getting a player like Forrest?
Because sometimes you'll feel that pressure.
Sometimes you'll feel that stress,
but it doesn't seem like that affects you guys at all.
Has Forrest been an impact onto that?
Or is that something that you guys have just
kind of clicked in your minds,
like with the practice that you've been doing?
With any team, I feel like full of us,
one year experienced players,
you would think picking up a vet,
like you have to impress or you have to do this the right,
because you're gonna get like yelled at or nervous.
But I think picking up Forrest was honestly
the least stressful thing that's ever happened in my career.
And I'm sure when everybody else's career on the other,
Forrest makes everything so easy and so easy going.
He's like the best vibes.
I think I've ever been around as a player.
And like, even if you're going 0 and 11 in scrims,
he's the only guy there always talking to you.
Just like, keep playing, head up, head up.
You got to play.
I'm opening a gap for you next round.
Like I'm getting you involved.
He makes everything so easy on us players
and it just shows in game.
Like it's so easy flowing, conversation wise, play wise,
even out of scrims, just talking to him, right?
Makes everything so de-stressed
in anything she's played in.
It's insane.
Well, rival, congratulations on putting yourself
one step closer to Salt Lake City.
I kind of want to go more in personal level
with this question.
I mean, obviously on your time on Envy,
it really started out low.
There wasn't a lot of success there.
Then you go into stage two,
you guys came so close to making playoffs, fell out,
just in your own personal experience,
I just want you to let us know.
I mean, what was going through your own head?
Did you had your own self doubts?
Did you think that you were never going to achieve much?
Did you think everything was always going to be at the bottom?
Or yeah, I mean, just kind of just run me
through what you've gone through mentally as a player.
I think stage one is probably some of the lowest sieges,
like Siege mentally I've ever been at.
I think having, let's just say, like no time
to really put in the game.
Like I think JJ said in his interview on two days ago,
we put in like nine, 10 hour days now,
and we only had max three hours, stage one, right?
We went into stage two then,
we had like the pay to do things,
we had the ability to put in more time,
and it did show.
And individually, coming from me,
I kind of like label stage one as like stage one,
didn't have the time, let's say like not used to it.
Stage two, I think individually,
I underperformed right as a player,
and I walked into the LCQ trying to prove that,
like we've improved as a team, as individuals,
and now I'm walking into this stage, right?
I wanna show I've improved as an individual,
And I want to show this team is where we're at.
We're this high of a standard compared to the rest of the league.
And I think also all the individuals in my team, JJ, Snake,
the people I've been playing with for years, we all want to show we have improved
and we are continuing to do so.
And I think that's done worlds on our mental, our heads right now, so clear.
And then also we can thank Forrest for that and our coaching staff.
Just everything this year is just up and up in levels compared to the other stages.
I love to hear and I'm sure you guys got a lot of fans underneath you guys watching and hoping for the success
But I also then to then further that question
What would you give tips to players that you know want to be where you're at and seeing where you came from?
I mean what are the challenges that you even did yourself to make sure that you could be the best play you could coming into the stage?
I just personally I've always thought I'd never get enough I think I'm playing the games one thing right
But they're going into this year again the lcq this stage coaching staff's been on va va va notes notes weekly goals player meetings
It's like things like that that make you do better, right?
And I know some people don't have the access to those things and it's kind of hard to do that by yourself
But the community our team is great man
Like look at you and Fox and everybody else people
They could go into your Twitter DMs and ask for a one-on-one meeting and you guys are probably generous enough to do it
Right you can reach out to people like Fed or whoever else to do those things and improve
But like with this year specifically like we have a lot of homework with player meetings things that just improve you so much
Without actually even realizing it. It's insane. Seriously. It's not awesome
If there was anything you could put your finger on and say like this has been my personal difference maker from last stage to kick off or this has been the team's biggest shift from last stage to now. What would that be?
My it's just again, it's just really it's just like I think me personally like the role I'm on and what I do for the team
Individually, I need to always just be there and be prepared for the moment
so like again knowing my timings and knowing what I need to do and
Being able to like improve at a steady level with the rest of my team
I think just holding it down holding the four down just being it being
Composed and not panicking in the spots that I need to be composed in is gonna help my team go further and help me go further as player
you. Yeah, we're going to
see you in a couple of weeks.
As you guys continue to
perform looking forward to it.
Thank you, man. Have a good
one, guys. Thanks, arrival.
What a win for five fears. This
is a team. They said it
themselves. The energy. The
vibes are high Fox. They're
playing out of their minds, and
they're able to take down an
MAD roster that we expected to
be able to perform at even
higher level. But I think
But as you mentioned, Fox, right, it wasn't just M80 missing a step.
It was five years taking that extra step every time.
Yeah, I think rival really explained it very well.
I mean, just the amount of effort that they were putting in
throughout last year to now, I mean, going from only being able to
scrim, you know, a little bit during a day into now having the ability
to scrim all throughout the day, essentially swapping their nine to five.
You can drastically see the difference.
And it's not just when it comes into the confidence department, but you can see how much of an impact force has been because you're right.
There are a lot of veteran players that join a team or rookie team.
And if you make a mistake, you know, they're very difficult to work with, just like Lacks was when he joined Parabella.
I'm sure he was hard to work with.
But aside from the fact, I think Forrest is such an easygoing guy and he's given so much confidence to his players on top of that,
being able to put in that amount plus of time into Scrimmage,
you can just see that they're confident.
They know that they're the best players in the server.
Now they're getting the opportunity to show that to us.
Lex, were you difficult when you were on Purbel?
No, but I mean, one thing that really stuck out
that he was talking about without saying the word
is complacency.
I mean, that's something that Fox experienced on his time
on OXG and why he got removed.
But I think it was just important for Rival to acknowledge
that he always can do more, that he feels like he can do more, even if he wasn't able to.
And again, what he said throughout that interview really just showcases the improvement that
not only for himself, but the entire team is showing and putting on display for us again.
And maybe he's a hard opponent by no means.
And even what Fox said, did I think that they were taking it easy on them, that they were
playing bad that day.
I just think five years really has been putting in the time and effort and making sure that
what they do in game and outside of game is all going to be impactful no matter what way.
And they have a bright future. If they can keep this sort of mentality, they can keep this consistency
going. This is what creates and breeds success. And I can't wait to continue to follow the road
and just see what they achieve with this team and kind of what the heights, you know, what's the limit
for them. Well, love that they could be the story here to end the day. I mean, looking back day three,
We are officially halfway through more than halfway through now on the group stage here in kickoff
It was dark zero. I mean, they are continuing to perform
They opened up the day against outlast one of 30 box another one of the big stories here
These young teams performing. Well SSG did the same. I mean quite a day to set things up going into the final week of groups
Yeah, it's making things that much dire also with five years being able to beat M80
that keeps M80 within contention to potentially be battling for the last place seed with 100 thieves.
So that's the importance that five years was able to win.
Because if M81 today, 100 thieves would have been confirmed the last place team that would have gotten eliminated
from getting an opportunity to give us all a city.
So what a way to end the day with five years keeping everything alive to now go to play day four.
I can't wait to watch the rest of the season.
You'll take a look at group A standings after the end of the day here as we mentioned five beers at the top
They cannot be passed by hundred thieves. They're locked in for playoffs hundred thieves on the other hand
They no longer control their own fate
They have one game left because they've already had their they haven't had their buy yet
They'll play M80, but if M80 can get any other points in addition to that
100 thieves will be the one team eliminated from group a group B on the other hand is a little different
You do have one team locked in at the top. That's dark zero
But at the bottom lacks both cloud nine and outlasts have yet to get on the board of any points
So the battle for that last spot that elimination spot is still up for grabs. Yeah, those are also some of the most
Important games for these guys. It's only one shot. You need I mean in this case
They literally just need one point at this point to put them above the other
But it's still you know begs to differ who is going to be that team to make it who is gonna be the one that's gonna
Prosper and then find themselves in playoffs and that's what we're really gonna see teams really kick off because it's gonna be best
Of these there's no more best ones you have a lifeline
So always at the end who does end up clenching that spot is always fun to watch
But again, it also is heartbreaking when you're at that very last moment
And you just can't cross that finish line to continue your race
We're back next week Thursday, April 9th at 5 PM Eastern. That is when we will see day
four of the NAL kickoff. Plenty of exciting stage to watch right here though on Twitch.tv
slash Rambo six between now and then. Thanks so much for watching for Foxy for laxing our
entire crew. I'm Jonas Willinger saying thanks so much. We will see you on Thursday next
week to continue the group's journey. Thank you so much for watching. I'll see you next
We'll see you on Thursday next week
to continue the group stage here in KICK-UP.