I
I'ma keep it going, I'ma keep it going, I'ma keep it going till I ain't got no more.
Okay, so we work from there, and then I think we have everything settled.
Yeah, I think the show's set. And you know what? It's so nice to be back in the studio.
Last week when I missed the ML Play Day, because I had a power cut, it was truly awful.
Actually, I preferred it with Tim. What?
No, not this shit again.
Actually, I got you. I got you.
We are so back! We're in the studio for the EML kickoff playoffs and just a few days
we'll know our EML representatives for the Salt Lake City Major. My name is Anne and
I'm joined in the studio by Alphama and the fresh guys. We're back in the fortress. Must
be feeling very good. And that's light. And that's light, yeah. Now it's so good. It's
so good to be back. We had a couple of online days, but we're back in the studio. It feels
like we're in elegant. It feels like home. It feels like home. We've sent so much time
the team in the studio together with that logo, with EML, with those teams. It feels right. It just feels right.
Unfortunately, we don't have all of our teams with us. In fact, we started with 10 teams last week.
We only have eight of those remaining and put them in a bracket phase, a double elimination bracket phase for shots at the Salt Lake City Major.
We have eight teams remaining in their respective seats right now, but only four can make it to the Major.
Yeah, absolutely. That's the four that will win games, five, six, eight and nine.
today will be focusing on matches one and two of course. These are the teams that finished
in second and third position, which means they want the best, but they certainly want
the worst. That gets them an upper bracket lifeline. So it means they can progress into
the game to qualify for the major, give themselves two spots. But if they happen to lose today,
their benefit for finishing in second and third place is that they do get the extra life,
they will drop down to the lower bracket.
And I think some teams were not expected to have that extra life. If you look at teams
like fnatic, like twisted mines, even like rebels as well, those are teams that we're
expecting still to decide their fate on a very last day of kickoff of the group stage, you know.
So I think for them, they must be really happy about these placements because I don't think many
people were expecting on it. That was really nice that we had all the tension until that final day
to determine the positions inside of those two groups. But that does leave us with two best of
threes forward today. Best of threes, very exciting once we look at the schedule for our two matches
for today. And we always talk about it right with a best of three, the real depth in a team
Yeah, and I think I've been especially expecting this for some teams, Virtus.pro for example, Jack.
What does the best of three allow you to do?
It allows you to expose your map pool or show, or, you know, flex your map pool, Leo.
What was the team that had the smallest map pool of all of the other teams?
That would be that as per...
And what do you think have changed now?
I think they're going to flex it.
Exactly. Now with Neko at their helm, with the roster change they went through,
I'm so excited to see them play even more maps.
You didn't get to see that many maps or different ones either during the group stage show.
stage show. Can I excited to see what they will cook in the VF3 setting?
Yeah, I'll move over to the couches as we get ready for our first day, but before we
start with the bracket phase, I kind of want to look back at the last two weeks in our
group stage shows. What were you doing if you were in Morshing? But we got you covered.
We want to talk about it in three categories, like we normally do, jumping into the panorama,
starting off with the monster. But it felt wrong to just select one monster from five
play days, so we decided to go with an all-star team of monsters.
That's exactly what we did. And we did this completely statistically, by the way.
This wasn't about roles. This wasn't about feelings, about what would be a good team.
We picked the five best players, rated by EPS inside of our league. And you know what?
I actually think this team would absolutely slay. They've got stomping on the back line
in the spot. They've got Jumu linking it up as a bit of a luck and three of the best
entry players in the world. What a lineup. I'm looking at this and I'm thinking,
this may be the biggest nightmare to face in ranks. Actually, looking at that lineup,
I want to see an old star team of EML, facing an old star team of SNL and NAL as well.
Do you know what? I think our team would absolutely slap the SAL team and the NAL team.
Ooh, like with the NAL team putting up JJ Blast, he's going to do nothing against Noah, nothing against Shaco.
Oh, that line up. That line up. I want to see them play against them. I just want to see it happen.
And certain Titans like Faze, for example, dropping down to a lower bracket as well.
So maybe we do have the strongest region back in action again.
with the individual players as
well by when we talk about the
moment, the craziest thing had
happened inside the group stage.
We have to talk about a one
before clutch, which was also an
ace from fascia. Yeah, it was
absolutely crazy. Of course, he
got an ace and the one versus
four was in that playday against
heretics. It all starts off with a
C4 onto glass. This was actually
really good push by heretics
using the glass to try and push
through the top floor. Fascia
shut it down. He does then end up
in a one versus four. Isolates
a kill onto the ventures window.
Key thing about that is that the
Monty has to jump out to try and
get the diffuser to play for a
plant and the diffuser is outside. There was a player bench in the window doing absolutely
nothing and when you give people one-busts, especially a player of Pasha's quality, he's
going to isolate them. Gets another one there, gets it down to one-busts. And then from there,
Heritage nothing, you will say this way, they made the right, the wrong choice to stuff the
plant, but Pasha played it. Yeah, he played it perfectly, but on so many occasions there,
Heritage was doing nothing, like nothing of importance. Though our big bench window for
no reason, you have Rea speaking in with Flores and then the wrong decision of going for the
I think there were many different things they could have done better, but what a play from him.
Beautiful stuff coming out from him there. Now the one match that you should have seen during the group phase is our musty or must have watched in this case.
Quite of a personal one. We got June playing against his former team, former organization, and that organization was there to show, hey, this is what you like.
absolutely team secret in an
absolute roller coaster across
this whole stage. They ended
up finishing in the lower
bracket. But across that across
that group stage, they had a
massive game against the
Falcons as well and showing
this know again, an absolutely
huge quad kill. It was
absolutely crazy, but that's
the highs. That's the lows.
That's what you get for
supporting a team. But what
again? That was on your seat.
But then, we talk about one thing, and we don't talk about it often enough, making sure that you stay well-nutrition, right?
That's why we saw a lot of those, I think, over the group stage as well, snacks, drinks, and we thought we could play a tier list out of them.
Yeah, I think it was important to take a look at some of those player camps, and maybe try to see who's got the better game.
And you came up with this rank, so we've got S here, I assume that's the best, right?
Yeah, great snack, great drink, perfect. Would choose it myself as well. We got healthy, very important.
We got to think of being well nutrition making sure we can perform to our best levels
We got normal just basic basic, but fine, and then we got what is going on
I think people can already come up with a few that they've seen maybe during that all right
I'm interested to see let's take a look at one of the first players
All right, we got J.L.A. drinking from a water bottle, which seems to be like a one liter water bottle
That's fine. It's not enough to be fully dehydrated for the full day, but I think it feels quite
It feels healthy?
It's water after all.
It's healthy.
It's a leader of water.
I think it's fine.
It's probably a good pace as well to drink a leader per day.
So where are we?
Is it normal or is it healthy?
I'd say we put it healthy.
Healthy.
Alright.
Healthy for daylight with the water.
That's fine.
Alright.
Let's take a look at another player.
That's Benja.
Look at that.
Benja is drinking from a protein shaker, which I feel like is a little bit confused because
it misses the cap.
Don't know what's going on there.
It's either a protein shake or water, but I'd say just because it's a protein shake or water, it's not normal, but it's healthy.
If it's a protein shake or water, it's so far, you know it's doing good. Only healthy players.
Wonderful. Who else?
That one is cool. Drinking the tears of your enemies.
Yeah, we will allow us to drink in from a secret cup, a team that we played against, or the former organization that we played against.
I mean, Tchak, I think you agree, this has to go into ST, right?
Yeah, that's called. That's a flag. Just a BM. Yeah, that's called from Alums.
Alright, absolutely. I'd love to see that. Our next clip.
Alright, let's go. Jume. Ooh, what is that?
Ooh, alright. I'd say it's... I would like to put it healthy because it's sugar-free, right?
But maybe that's a little bit too much copium. It's an energy drink, so I'd say we put it in normal, because everybody...
In their life, I've been drinking the energy drink before.
And its water line may be healthy, but...
It's not an energy drink.
Why does the energy drink actually hit though? That's the problem.
Yeah, it's gonna get during the game, shall we? It hits after the game.
It is 100% placebo. I used to play alongside Ryze.
Ryze had a 50-centiliter energy drink every single time.
And he's just buzzing after the game.
Working out the heart. Heartase, yep.
Alright, we've seen it here. Let's take a look at the new one as well.
Oh, uh...
That one is from my personal folder, I just make stuff up.
That is not a consumption.
Let's move on to the next one.
Very quickly, please. Thank you very much.
That one is really good.
Maybe people were thinking about this one when they saw that what is going on in categories.
Why are we drinking from a, well, it seems like a 10-liter bottle during a game.
That is way too much for you to drink during one game.
You're going to drown yourself at that point.
Yeah, that needs to be, that needs to be what...
He took him less than 20 minutes to finish the game
And he still has that huge, huge water bowl.
That one is really weird.
I think we kept the best one for the last one, right?
Yes, we absolutely did.
One more clip, and that is of course the one snack inside here in the consumption list.
We have drinks only, but we of course have Shaco,
eating popcorn, clip farming during the game.
That can't be anything else than S tier.
Thank you.
There has to be S tier.
There should be a tier higher than that.
I mean, dropping casual triple kills and eating popcorn in the middle,
because that was not even at the end of the game,
that was during the game in between rounds.
After a triple kill.
There's plenty of choices I feel like, from water to energy drinks to snacks and maybe some tea as well in this case.
I wonder what Chad thinks about that, but now that we at least have our consumption sorted for the day,
we can get going with our matches, our two best of threes for the day.
As we dive into that first one here, we're gonna look at Virtus Pro going up against Rebels.
And now whilst these two teams have never really played against each other with their current rosters,
It kind of feels like that oil leak that I called from Gen.G last week, right?
That team that now moves into all these different rosters and finds themselves playing against each other.
The French are everywhere.
They are, everyone. They're taking over every single roster.
They used to just live in for 10 minutes to talk about French.
They used to be... Listen, we used to only have one French-speaking roster.
Now we have one, and on top of that we have French leaking everywhere.
Let's take a look at some of the players that were on these rosters, you know?
If you look at Ellens, Assa, they were former teammates.
Yeah, of Neko and obviously it's a special one because they went through, I think, different iterations.
On one side, LMs used to be with ENCE and was dropped.
ASA was one that came later with a certain rookie role.
And looking at this, there's a duo that fares better than the other.
However, Rebels dominated way less than VP and has to do with the roles.
On one side, we've got on the right side, I think, the voice and the vision of one team.
On the left side, really just the backline that seems to overperform compared to the rest of the Firepower.
different rules, Jack, but also different impact.
Yeah, I would say. And also, let's not forget,
Nacro is the best clutch player inside of BML right now.
He's got three 1BX clutches as well,
as well as Argyllum, as well as Plague Shield.
So the stats don't necessarily matter so much,
but it's kind of poetic these guys playing against each other
to go back to try and make the major.
Yeah, Worcester have done better in the crew phase, though,
so I like that we're looking at the backline,
but I want to make sure we look at the frontline of this roster
as well, pulling up all the stats in general.
Two players that pop up.
Yeah, honestly, if we look at the third floor on their side,
You know, guys like Pasha, guys like Rorik,
it's very important that, you know,
you just pay attention to the frags here.
I think that some of them are actually, you know,
were not expected to be hot carries.
I think Rorik especially, you know, he came in,
this was his first season as a professional player.
I think many people had seen him train in tier two
for years, he actually said in six years of experience
to lead to this moment.
I think he really came to fruition
when he joined this roster.
And I'm looking at this and players like Dan,
There's like Pasha as well like the old guard are still putting up the fireballer and the French is there with a vision
So far it seems to mesh really well. Yeah, and the main issue is that they were slow in some of these rounds
Right, I think a big comparison that we could put now with this new kind of eye-gelling style is to look at some of their newer gameplay
Yeah, absolutely, and do you know what Leo? I'm actually just gonna admit it. I'm gonna admit it
I was a little bit of a Virtus.pro hater on their old style
And do you know what actually I'm gonna show you just what their old style was this is Virtus.pro of last year stage one
up against G2 on Consulate. Notice the time, 20 seconds left. Where's Dan? He has two floors above the bomb site.
They're pushing late. They're basically doing nothing. They're actually just going to walk into a doorway and all die.
You see Dan? He's pushing down the stairs here. He's going down yellow stairs. What do you see?
Yellow door is still open. Sorry, that is J-Lad. And then you've also got barbed wire as well.
They just push in and then they die. So what has Virtus.pro done? Well, they've brought Naquo in.
they bring shields onto their roster. So let's review the exact same team that they are against,
the exact same bombsite that they're playing, that's inside of this stage up against you too.
They have a Blackbeard, they have a Dokerby, they have much faster style and the one thing
that they're going to do is they're going to force in all at the same time within 30 seconds.
This player here inside of Tellers, he's going to get targeted by three separate players all at
the same time and this is Newverts Pro. It's fast, it's direct. You've got Fatcher pushing
holding for a refrag. You've got switch, pushing deep, holding for a refrag. Suddenly, within one minute of play, it's a five versus two for Virtus.Pro.
Virtus.Pro of old did not know what this meant. They get the plant down and they secure the round. I am absolutely in love with this version.
This is why they are so good these days.
And whereas, where as for was almost so close to getting first, it's kind of a surprise that we see Rebels here inside this upper bracket as well, but it has to do with some of their mixed results that we're seeing in the group stage.
Yeah, looking at this roster, I just feel like this is the song of ice and fire.
One day they can be ice-cooled, get 7-1 by Foulton, 7-2 by Twisted Minds, and then the
day after, they can go crazy.
They have 7-2 Geekies, 7-4 Secret on the most critical matchup, the very last one of Kick-Off.
You know, it's a team that has potential, we clearly see that, much more than heretics
have showed coming from Challenger series, but at the same time, do they have it in them,
in a pure free setting.
against a team that has beaten G2, for example,
do they really have it to take down a team like VP?
You kind of expect it with a team
that's got free rookie players in that are making the step up.
You kind of expect that inconsistency.
That performance can be secret.
To even get into the upper bracket,
I think it was absolutely monumental.
But what that does is it raises the bar,
it raises the pressure,
because you're now into best of reach,
you're now into upper bracket.
You're now in with these players,
thinking we've got a serious shot at the major here.
So for them, it's about proving it.
It is, and you two hinted towards it before
in the pre-show, the maps, especially for Vrotus Pro.
I'd like to see it, you know, it's really getting tested,
a map pool inside of the Vesta3,
but looking at these three maps selected,
it's nothing too, you know, experimental
as we're looking here.
No clubhouse, Lair and Bank.
Now I will say this, I think the clubhouse pick
makes a lot of sense for VP.
One of the only maps that Rebels showed
at the tier one level that was against Wisted Minds
and they got absolutely smashed, 7-2.
On the side of VP, they haven't shown it yet
and it's the same thing for Lair.
So they're protected by the fact that
Neko came in and reworked entirely their playstyle in a map pool.
Not having shown it at the top level really helps them.
And then Bank has a decider. I think a good one overall.
Neko loves to call that map as well. He used to absolutely love it on Gen.G.
So over looking at this, it's still, I think, heavily at the advantage of VP
if we look at the facts and the previous results.
Yeah, I think so. I think you'd expect them to have a bigger map pool
just because the players have been feeding around a little bit longer.
I'm excited to see them in the clubhouse though,
because obviously that is the map that you would have said.
We've seen everything, we've done everything,
especially the best for you always knew what was coming. It's now going to be very, very different in terms of the new best pro.
So I'm expecting a show of strength from them.
Plus, a good day today. We've got the best of three. We're back in the studio. Another nice thing to add with that is that we actually get to talk
to the casters before the game as we're joined by Nef and Pengu. We saw you two for the last two weeks.
We think it gets a chat with you two. How are you feeling? Maybe starting with you, James? It's like in the middle of the night for you, not?
I don't know. Who cares? It's
like two in the morning, but I
don't care because I'm so
stoked to be here. Also, it's so
nice to see you guys back in the
studio. I got to admit it was
kind of weird seeing you guys
online. I'm just associated you
so much with the Copenhagen
studio, and it looks phenomenal.
It's so great to be back
involved in email and into the
playoffs. It really is, but I
just heard that the game is
You took it, take it away for the first match of the day.
Nice to see you guys.
Do you want to have your moment now, Nick?
You can, you know, respond to them after the VCR.
I, um, I didn't clock for whatever reason that they weren't in studio when we worked EML last week
because it's so normal for you to see them in studio, but you're right, we were online before.
Now we're back on land, if you will. Super excited, super stoked.
And we got some new teams, flash, new rosters.
Obviously, a vote here, favoring VP, and I'm not surprised.
been looking scary in the server. I mean, Fresh broke down and pushes their aggression.
This is a whole new look for LoL's pro.
It's a completely revamped roster for the formerly Russian bears now. They have this
mixed team and as they talked about in the pre-show pick, we have two French boys on
this Virtus.Pro roster that are very familiar with two French boys from the Rebels roster.
Of course, formerly Gen.G last year in the EML. That roster actually performed really
I think they ended up fought the end of the year. They had some pretty deep runs went to a couple of its national tournaments
Yeah, unfortunately didn't continue
I think the kind of spiritual continuity of that roster ended up being this rebels team with the limbs and ass of it
Of course, we have the ex teammates on the other side of it as well in Mako and
Sky so this is gonna be a fantastic showing and an opportunity for the first program really assert themselves and
And there we go, there's a lens.
Man, I'm so keen for this team in Zerda's pro
to see what they can really do after finally making some figures to take us.
I'm also quite keen, and I think the thing that makes me even more excited
is the fact that we're starting on Clubhouse,
because we spoke about Conchlitt and the aggressive push from Virtus Pro,
where it's like how they do like this good theory, that new style of speech.
But Clubhouse is probably one of those maps that speaks the least in Zerda's aggressive playstyle.
Sure, you can have more time on the clock to go for your execute if you're much quicker and successful on the roam clear,
but at the end of the day, Kappa's very commonly won't come down to that bomb site itself.
So, we're gonna have to speed up this pro and the fundamentals, their strategy, their counter adaptations,
and that's something where, if you like, rebels might be quite good at themselves because they have a lynch.
They have an agile, a captain who is playing with that old BDS roster, Slash the current Falcon's roster that cuts the disease,
and he is a person who's been playing for 10 years straight at the highest level in Europe.
Yeah, he was in skill for a little bit, but no, he's back in someone else, so 8 years to get one more in us.
They should have a good idea of how to pick up the point of the zone, so how to stand up or defense.
It doesn't get much more classic than Clubhouse,
either in Rainbow Six, so it's just so great. I mean, this map is so well-rounded, I know that
you're a big fan, I am a massive fan, it's just like the best map to kind of test every different
element of attacking and defencing whether it's roaming, whether it's anchoring, whether it's
hard breaching, whether it's execute utility, there are so many mini games and so many things
going on on this map, one of which is actually an aggressive C4 from a LEMPT. I believe that might
have been actually up through the office hatch onto someone on the route, so goodbye to Skies and
now Virtus.Pro already struggling to execute what they intend to do without a bit of a fight from
Rebels. It's a huge pick. They're only downs to here for Rebels, so they don't really know what
Operator Scott is playing but he is from Hibana leaving only two so much parts left now for the ace
They can get a single or hatch with all the remaining heart destruction and that's it
Obviously Reversal is falling back but that blind will cause it but Elimps is caught on the way down
So Neko finds a pick back to even numbers, but that's gonna be the time where it was before all the way back towards the basement
Loosing one player and trading one player is perfectly okay because they burn a half the cost
I feel like it's the real crux of this, they might not know until you're right, they might
not know it but they might be able to figure it out, even just based on obviously knowing
Skye's very well, Alem's and Asa used to play with him, they might be able to guess from
Vodding that it's probably even though they haven't seen a clubhouse, what maps, what
role they like to play that Skye's might be on the Hibana, but at the moment there is
little bit of aggression. It's Mato in kitchen right now. They spotted him. Nowhere he is.
He will drop all the way down but gets caught on his retreat. That is a dangerous and expensive
loss for Rebels. It's practically that middle line for as long as possible. Stay to get that
one more drone, that one more bit of information, but also fall back fairly enough to put me
don't get caught off. He stayed for five seconds long. He paid the price. Also Rebels, they can
maybe deduct the fact that they killed Dibana, right? They've seen the blitz, they've seen the
the factory in peace they see the summer charges and now the nose heads on
board so they should know that there is in fact no more hungry but these two
summers and fight at night immediately wall bang from dad takes a lingo full
control from vp 20 seconds ago they could drop the hats with the blitz they
got smokes to do this well all that you walk down that means there is a lot of
pressure now the fire what's the explosion under the gas pipe finds
Two kills, Pasha's the last one left!
Asta goes absolutely nuclear with three kills.
Rebels had no right winning that round, but they stole it from VP.
Oh, Heartbreaker, so many things going so well.
They catch the rotations, they catch the guy flanking, they have 25 seconds,
and the hardest thing about that Basement bombs that execute is actually getting into the bombsite.
Either you're dropping down the hatch, or you're stuck in the air,
or you're walking down the bottom main staircase, which we just saw,
you have so many different lights on sight and you're exposed to so many different gunfights.
But when you have a blitz, when you have those spare smoke grenades that I mentioned,
you can just kinda go in the kitchen hatch, smoke off AKs, smoke off that third box towards blue,
and drop down with the blitz shield, almost, and that's it.
This wasn't PAPA, it died so quickly.
That blind bolt was so many things and wrong, I mean...
What is it?
The PIPE bottom main getting a double kill.
That was so funny.
Fall in, guys.
Look at this.
Oh that's the impact we need.
Yeah that could be more perfect. It's funny like if he hadn't got the impact, if he just shot it, it probably would have blown him in time to get the double kill.
So it was actually the perfect play there.
Wow. That's an explosive first round. Pardon the pun for Rebels.
And yeah, great start because it's funny though, really did feel like a tug of war.
like you said in Star Penguin, lose your Hibana up front and even though it becomes a 4v4 rather than a no doubt Tager,
then pick off the pick VP easily the winning team in that round.
It just came down to one impact grenade and the detonation of the gas pipe.
It goes to show you, obviously a lot of people say there's not a lot that has changed in Steejects.
It's still the same old game, but those gas pipes can really move you around.
And it's true, there is a bit of an archery work, you have like a little mini IQ scanner kind of, or a hard-greed sense of the different game and it shows you electronics that are both pre-placed and being tossed in the air.
So he saw you disabling the Medusa Banshee behind the breach, then he saw like a potential climb on the scanner that's gonna be the Kai-Floor.
He catches both, while it's open up successfully, and without a banter, that's just not possible. It has to go downstairs to bird, etc.
I also think that the last round is a good example of you winning the round
Slash the enemy losing the round right?
Virtus.pro didn't want it strategically, man advantage, 4v2, etc.
But they still lost the round. So you can play the round as perfectly as possible on your own end
And they get punished by like one small mispiming, one small magnification, or in that case, the speech x-pipes
This one is interesting to me though because Rebels are throwing their catwalk control for free
Yeah.
And Garage.
They're not playing lounge downstairs, it's playing deeply in the bombsite and then Master
Bedroom and Gym, but this is easy to defend, like this is the bombsite, so they kill everything
for free, maybe hoping the Kite will forget more value than they did.
Oh, nice dodging that C4, it's a very risky place for grapple 3, I'll be giving up so
much for free.
They're looking to try and play for Platinum and Retech, which really puts extra pressure
on Virtus.Pro to get this decision right. Asher going with the platform,
just to go deep and be careful. Down below is C4 could completely unhand the round
and a double kill from Feno.
Virtus.Pro able to find a couple of picks though and maybe make it look possible.
I believe that fire was a goyo that detonated VP getting a little bit too overzealous here.
They didn't respect that. Well, if Rebels are giving us this for free,
then probably there's something that worked down below.
they didn't try and clear this out and they've been punished as a result. Now it's up to Dan and
Neko to look for an execute and Dan makes his way inside to the breach. Misses an opportunity but
finally does take down Linko. Now it's Mato, you know one versus two. He's heard that plant start to
go down. He's gonna be able to revive his buddy in it and go for a retake so this means the diffuser
will go down. Training your post plans for a revive is so worth for VP. They can take catwalk and
breach with two strong positions, no one player is low, they know they have to
win some from defense. Neko surely should kill Liko. Hasn't as of yet.
Liko has a chance, but doesn't land the shots. Neko finds both kills and Virtus
Pro make amends for the errors of their ways and get themselves there first
around on the board. It's again another great example of Virtus Pro. Plan A, we
see the vision, they have the glass, they take catwalk, they take what is given to
them from rebels, right? They say, okay, this is free for the taking. We're gonna take it
and we're gonna use it. The moment the round goes sideways to a C4 and the fire and the
kill speed from both teams, it's not the installing saying, okay, what are you now?
Um, let's think, let's don't know. They say, guys, we're gonna have to push for a kill or two.
We cannot go for a C4 plant. It's a two-year-old and they're covering. So they go in, push in top red
from then, Neko push the Cattle Grafters, and the moment they get the injured, you saw that they
made a very conscious decision, because they go from being the aggressive players pushing
for the kill to sprinting backwards and going for a peaceful plant, because they know that
two things can happen. The first one is that Rebels don't go for the revive, now it's
a 1v2 in Vertice's favor. One guy plant and one guy cover it on rappel, they should win
it every single time. And if Rebels do go for the revive, then it's free plant into
a 2v2 which once again, Vertice Pro should always be winning. So, in specific terms,
a win-win scenario for themselves and a lose-lose for Rebels. It's really well done because it
goes so quickly and so effortlessly.
If you're saying I'm impressed with Rebels, it takes a lot of
Gahonas to go for that kind of a defense.
Scash is a pretty technical side, to be honest, you know, it's funny it's still kind of the primary
I throw a lot of things
Very hard to hold on to rafters with the slew of you till you make your capitao your mom's aim
Ace Hibana makes it really hard to get it on that spot
And so a lot of teams trying to do that and then eventually die
Changing the strap look it was a risky play it almost worked out
But again, I feel like that was VP maybe not giving enough respect to some potential vertical pressure with that C4
But
Anyway, yeah, I mean they didn't have Factor with 4 EMPs or 3 EMPs, no they didn't have 4 EMPs in the pocket
But he was on the bridge rappel covering, so in the perfect world maybe Factor, Aston covering with a gun but as a gacha for the support toss
But then there's some new things I did that I think it was clear, I mean so they didn't have any, so many possibilities
But I think both teams did a pretty good job
Rebels could also play around the mirror and trooper out to get the width they could pay for more tricking off the walls
They didn't, now they could bring out the mirror
He's been up from spawn almost, Neko, and this thing is distracting because he's not pushing, he's not on threat of dying,
he's to enable down on the glass and he can play elsewhere on the map, but he gets from down by a limbsch.
Asher though able to find the one. He gets very active on the top of main stairs, it's likely to find the second one,
but not a lot of ammunition in that then dead of the revolver.
He has six shots, or he has to reload. Good catch though, by Neko.
Mako, Markso goes down, Feno is completely exposed in his position and now they know
exactly where Linko is as well. Nice shot though, makes it a 1v1 with Pashik on the
floor. Revive now by Rorik. The two Russians will try and hold for line but Linko's got
some information here doesn't he? Yellowpings come out. I don't know what camera that is,
it must be a Valkap. Somewhere at the top of Main Stairs that PP haven't found, doesn't
matter though because they'll find the kill and put the round to bed regardless.
It is so crazy watching this round and I'm seeing Virtus Pro, the jersey, the team name
because the playstyle, it is a night and day difference.
Again, there is so much pressure in very small details.
Again, the ying is flashing the entire bomb site from spawn and it's a big difference between
doing it from downstack all the way in spawn that's very safe and being on that massive
bedroom balcony because you're seeing a defender there swing on a CC window, you can get shot
a pre-fight, you're exposed, you're doing something very high in value with essentially zero risk.
And it's not because you're going to make a play, it's setting it up for someone else.
Yes, you have your intro glass go in, then he dies immediately, but the entire team is behind
them. Nobody's making a solo play, nobody's doing something random. Team Bravles, I mean, again,
I gotta praise them. They're fighting back really well. Every single round has been super, super
close you know 2v1s 2v2s and it wasn't because clockhouse is so hard to defend
this could very easily been a very different start from the storyline
because rebels are making the most out of everything around last make who was
getting like every shot by the way he's nasty I give a lot of credit to rebels
they are doing a really good job but VP like you said it's a nine-day difference
to the old furthest pro they are playing with a lot of intelligence and
A lot of methodical plans, they've got a good idea with a lot of it, but they're also just knowing how to get around these
Unideal situations even when things look a little bit rough
Even when rebels go crazy and the Neko's getting a couple kills
Somewhat, you know, Linko that last round, I think it was from now
the CTTV like, the VP are very good at dealing with when Plan A goes wrong, which is the biggest problem that old VP had
Yeah, it's a good old 21 step to perfect siege. Oh, we lost the guy. I guess now we
stole
And then you start struggling
So now there are a lot of
Just be very different for Dan and Pasha because obviously those are the two remaining players like what a what a crazy
Change for them going from that old playstyle. It was Shepard and the OG Empire boys that classic
If the chronicle slows destruction, we have a plan A, we don't need a plan B, because that plan A is so good, and we can't play seeds like that anymore, if we keep on the seeds.
No contrast it would be for those players.
We like how Dennis used to test his Nethatum in these rounds. He's used to me at almost like an IQ, looking for potential C4s that are pre-placed, and the bar chemist up and alive, because that is what we do with action now.
You can just scan it around and see what is actually in the area.
Now, there is no doubt keeping both the sound, for example, but let's see if there was.
You can quite literally use it as a mini IQ and even disable things.
It gets 16 keys, by the way.
All six of spirit pocket.
It's great value.
And I mean, again, I always say this.
When you play clubhouse based on the attack and go for room here,
if you can get full map control, which actually they miss chip block,
but they don't know what, that they think it's clear,
because it's in the back to it,
I think, oh, there's already a gnaw actually with two drones, now they know.
But 1 minute 30, you actually ride on the curve,
if they're slightly ahead of where he's supposed to be.
But now they split playing Strip, they can upholstern the Blitz super quickly
and deal with Fenno as, you know, within the next 10 seconds or so.
Impact as well, that's the last one that Fenno has.
He's just gonna try to delay it at the right time as possible.
This is really smart.
Yes, he's back into a corner, but it doesn't matter.
All that matters is delaying as much time as possible.
He eventually tries to retreat, Rorick will take him down.
Yes, well played by VP, but I wouldn't be that upset if I'm Fenno.
Waste as much time as humanly possible.
I mean, you could argue that you run out to the door and it's going to spawn, and yes, you're as good as dead,
but you are stalling one player out for a bit longer, right?
Because somebody has to answer to you, you're just fighting them for 20 seconds now.
They have dropped on top speed on the main staircase.
Early usage, but again, we're stalling that push that's about to come,
can get us being driven to respawn as well.
This means when it's free, then they go right now, or they won't have those in the net.
Yeah, but the gas is keeping them at bay.
Jager wants to make his way forward! Great usage!
The shot comes from Pasha with the ying and the Blitz goes in as well, Mako takes down a lens and looks to get a defuser planted.
Asa is the last one and he will fall. It's a fiery close to the round from Ferdinand Pro as they go up three to one.
I mean, it's ridiculous and women to touch upon it, but I believe the third operator band there was going to be the Kaid,
so Kaid and Bandit are both removed. This further enables the playstyle from VP to keep up the aggression.
And despite banning both of the Electro bros that are denying the hatches and the walls, they still bring the Thatcher!
But the Thatcher, it stops everything. Think about it, right?
They play Milusie on the door for a Bomb Set Rush, we're disabling it.
They're playing Dark Reak Camps, we can find them, we can disable them.
Preplay C4, we can EMP it.
No matter what kind of stop they have for these pushes, the Thatcher can quite literally stop every single item, besides the Goyo slash the Shankar Fire, or maybe Toxin babes that are tossed out quickly.
It stops the rest.
Even in that round there was an Ella and obviously you don't want to be dropping down the hatch into an Ella mine
Especially if you're the shield right plastic thing as you drop that kitchen hatch with the shield so that you're protected while you drop
And then you look to try and get the plant down the Ella mine could disrupt that the fact you can't as the Ella
Another one which people often forget about is the water the water is obviously one of the only ways they can you can see through
Smokes on the defensive side. We've seen a lot of glass. There's been a lot of smoke played
There's been a lot of ying you could just rub the warden's glasses with the thatcher as well
Now you only see him on the thatcher's kind of visor device when he's actually got the glasses active
But if you know where he is you can be impede him through the wall regardless and even if he's not using them at the time
He'll still get impede it won't be able to use them. I
Love a bit of innovation here
And it's gotta feel fun like you raised the question earlier
How would it feel for passion down to change the place of the strategy?
But it's gotta be fun to relearn a game even playing the same way or most of the same way for such a long time
To get a new kind of appreciation for the creativity in the the possibilities
Maybe get dark as a coach who came from a pack whose who's he seems some shit, right?
Like he seems talking
Yeah, I mean dark when he was with fear X his main rival was CIG and
I've been plenty by playing against those teams.
These own stuff here was RIN.
RIN is the big question mark of Doom
because either you send, like, four kills in a round
or die in the first four seconds.
There's no betweeber player.
So I really feel like Dark has been
the perfect coach for this roster,
given how they've initialized the game.
Yeah, such an exciting team.
Definitely one of the most exciting rosters in the EU at the moment.
Arvort is pro. That's saying a lot,
because we've got Stompin' and Shaka on the same team.
And we've got jude moving over the falcons VP the fact that they have a case with the big dogs
The fact that they've been such an exciting prospect to watch then it just it's a great time to be a
Virtus Pro fan three rounds on a road
Can you as their attacks continue to look so deadly?
Mind you they've actually picked the non EMPable pounder the fastness
EPs have no interaction with this is the gacha so these windows will stop you from jumping on it
Gory of fire popper. Oh my god a Nash jar again.
They're starting from Skies and they're facing him at opening.
That binds you like 15-20 seconds before you gotta go for this bombsite.
Actually good because guys, we have to miss Vantage.
We don't gotta throw our bodies into the grinder but Linko finds a pick.
But again, a trait immediately from Ben.
They're always fighting 2v1.
And you can see now Rebels feel like they need to get aggressive.
And they do.
Got it to Linko. He made a big play.
He was roaming in the base map.
He came up oil pit and that was where he eventually found his kill and was traded back.
But yeah, I mean, you're right. There is a necessity here for rebels to get active Feno and Mato together tried to get aggressive in office before now Feno
almost takes down Rorick, but doesn't fully get that kill. Low HP of Rorick, then we have the Skies, but a good shot from Skies
And the round is almost done. A Lems in a 1v3 quickly makes it a 1v2. This could be massive
It was a 1v4 originally. Rorick is low HP. He gets him on the floor. Skies forced off
but another big kill for the Frenchman as he puts the round in the ground and
Finds a fourth in a row for third is pro
Again team rebels are fighting back and making so many good decisions that I think in that particular round
It comes down to a gunfight where you just miss one bullet, right?
When you watch me that you goose a breach if you check on the thermite then the demos in the window you get two free picks
It's completely free, but you miss the first shot
He dies at the second player and then the round is kind of cooked it literally comes down to those 50 50 gunfights
But I will say this is in Virtus Pro
They always make a play together they two you on the flanker, right?
The solace gets taken out of the equation and then we see Tim Rebels kind of responds guys
We had to get proactive they double swing office
Apaches outside the building holding the tiniest pixel known to man with an ACOG and the moment he gets
met with two enemies, he backs away. He presses S and D in his keyboard and he
surrenders the angle, because he says it's not worth me dying at the chance of
me getting a kill. We already have a very strong position, it's not worth the risk
versus reward.
They went back to their...
Quick!
Great rounds of Skies there from the windows.
The fact that he's down to three kills at the end of it.
Big moments for Skies.
And of course to clutch the 1v1 against his old captain in a Lens.
You can see the energy, you can see what it means to these VP guys.
A lot of excitement in the team.
Such a new roster.
It's funny, I was thinking about this matchup before we started today, Pengo.
It's a tier 1 team, consistent tier 1 team in Virtus.Pro that did information, versus a tier 2 team that's just got promoted into tier 1 in Rebels.
And I thought more about it, and I thought, well actually, Virtus.Pro are a newer team than Rebels, and yes, they retained their tier 1 spell, but you can't deny that like, oh, they've got a tier 2 player in Rorick coming in through.
this is his debut into tier one like on paper if you didn't know anything about how good
Virtus.Pro would be based on the coaching staff and the Calibri's players then honestly
I feel like this could be a fairly even matchup. Once you take into account how much of a glove
this is for Virtus.Pro, how much gas it brings to the roster, how much Roarick is such a
rising star and of course Neko and Sky's founding their new home here on VP it's just it's
match-fighting effort. He goes, Warwick being interviewed last week after victory and he was
asked like, how does it feel to be in tier one? And he goes, ah, I played tier two for so many years.
It's like literally the same thing, but like fighting other enemies. He's like, okay, I mean,
you're not wrong, but usually people have a little emotional response to it, right? But for
humans, it's very much like, I know how people are playing the game. I know how I play the game.
It's just a slightly more elevated level. That's literally it for him. It was so simple
in these times, how it's going to pose these matchups. Despite, like you said, going against
some star players, some star teams, some big names, didn't care too much about it. But I think
having a ton of, yeah, and that experience of me, which is a something, having all that experience
in 1v1 tournaments, he's like the least shaky player in a clutch. He's been in so many more 1v1s
and so many pro players, obviously there's two levels, but still in that console or not, but the
experience, it teaches you what to do in the moment when it gets real, because instincts take over,
rather than emotions.
We go back to this top floor, Cache CCTV defense. Thank you and uh,
not the, not the best bombsite as we've established already and very much a different interpretation of defense. Now from Rebels,
they are extending into Rafters, which does put a lot of pressure on VP to get this right. And the Capitals
primary instrument to achieve that where it would have been if Feno had not just
killed him but yeah wow the fact that he managed to get that fire off and
essentially trade himself back Dan being the one that finds the killing blows
but we cannot discredit Neko in landing that firebolt is what guaranteed Feno
would die. Rebels again they don't give more wall breeze now no mirror windows
they don't play any ADSes or Midas for the Carol grafters it feels like they're
not really fully committed to one thing it's kind of playing around the map but
How do you play bar? How do you flank main door into blue that's almost impossible doesn't met main door from the outside
It has been opened up every single time by VP. There's a gap here. No, it's a bait
There's no gas at all. I'm just watching it and yet they shut down the flanker
Now they know one more play beneath almost at this week
I shot from a lens down below
Doesn't have a C4 but of course beat the smallest is the perfect opportunity to call the plant and then deny it
But I feel like VP have enough bodies to prevent that from happening.
Rebels are together looking to try and peel back and look to play a retake play plan that I could cover from Dan.
He's had a big round on the Kali, and the SMG is great to help out.
But Lemz has a feeling that there's a player down below, he sees that Claymore, he can't go for a full jump out.
He could try and vault and shoot it, but that's very risky when Rorik is there and waiting.
Now it's just Astor, no gas, no Util to speak of, Pasha to find it, and my god, what a half from Virtus.pro.
They are back with their vengeance, and they're making Rebels look like they pale in comparison to the greatness of this new team.
I mean, it's again exceptional. The only small error there is, guys, fights the Limchants that are bobbing.
You can play a little bit further back and lock down the flank beneath.
When they lose that downstair's control, they have to rotate a second player that went blue window and held it.
The desk wouldn't let me talk earlier, but I'll still give them the chance now to talk about what happened in these previous rounds.
As you should be doing Nick, thank you so much for the explanation on that final round there,
but we haven't been able to see a 5-1 half so far on the attack on Globhaus from Frodo's throw.
They're showing us all kinds of innovation.
Yeah, the variety is really what attracts to our eyes.
I think the first and foremost like the one playstyle that we did not expect what is that is new
It's the fast-paced playstyle right there bringing of ying of blitz of demos
I think round four is a perfect example of that the fact that they managed to find a solis go and fight her they combo of the
The demos the blitz someone to trade it ying gets aggressive and flashes everywhere in blue as you can see at the same time
The blitz is pushing you church killing the church player. It's beautiful. It's explosive. It's coordinated Jack
It's great and then whenever they river to default like around six they can still make it work. They've got it all
This this isn't a happy accident. This isn't so indefinite
This is deliberate from birth pro in terms of that style the people they brought in
I just I kind of emphasize how much this team has improved in terms of their chances that they've made
I think everyone when they saw it maybe raised a little bit of an eyebrow for that shown is it and five one attack half
Uncle boss who a week's question. They're going to defense. I mean at this point like it's almost in the bag for the first time
Yeah, it's difficult for girls, right? Because they have the second half still to go and they've already taken that technical time out as well
One round before the half-small. I was that was questionable Jack
It is always a questionable one
But the fact of the matter is they do get this timeout that we're in now to then completely reset and then focus on their attack
So maybe their coach thought that it was absolutely crucial. They got the round of the line
They didn't in the end
But I can see why because I think timeouts mass slightly less now that we have this this mandatory one in the middle of the game
What do we want to see from Rebels into the second half going into that one?
I need a spark of reaction so the main thing is they could not react very well to either the fast-paced, either the default.
I know some of the players, Feno, especially Elend, were fighting back trying to get a little bit aggressive.
Yeah, I need to see a spark of surprise on their own.
I'm not sure I like the default bands right now.
You see that, Jack? If they ban the bandits again, they're just going to be removing the world denial and that's just plain and simple.
What everyone expects, yeah.
Yeah, I think that's the big thing. They get rid of the band, okay?
they've removed the wall denial. In theory, all the breaches are now really, really easy.
They're going to have a problem in the light rounds. You know, these armies that clash
is me raise up the mirrors that you started to see the castle as well. It's going to be difficult
in the light round for them. We'll definitely be. We'll have a look at how the second half goes when it
continues. I would love to see more commitment from the side of Team Rebels because the death
spoke out of this perfectly. It's about how some players are getting provided a server and sometimes
some people were making plays. I want to see them full commit. If you're going to play on
For example, a wall denies strategy. You play the 2-brow and the kaiid and the mirror.
Don't just play one of those three. If you're not playing that aggressive roam game,
I want to see everybody getting on that roam game. When you're in the attack and side, you need to pick enough utility
to full commit to the original plan at hand. So if I let me say, guys, on this base and roam clear,
we're gonna go for a fast blue dirt rush. I want to see people rushing dirt and blow,
and nobody lingering us at the map, drawing through something else that I supposed to be doing.
So kick utility and then utilize it right because that's how you're gonna be by these attacks
It's that it's super fast like we're just brought it was not about how much you have to give it's about how fast we can go
Switching sides puts a lot of pressure on the in-game leadership here for apples no task
Yeah, I mean VP you first round attacking a VP defense and they've got castle mute as army
really creating a fortress on the Rome game and a fortress on the bomb site but
here's something nice. Brand new fellow Snake comes into action and put info he
gains as well onto that Roma on the top floor it's Rorik on the LL and he's got
two Grishmore mines in pocket now thank you Snake you can see again that Rorik
is retreated now the shield of Montier Marzo has spotted Pasha as well on his
run he's gonna try and fall back but no in fact Rorick has come to support bring
those Grishmore mines to play around that Montaig
walk right in there I'm using my top floor those maybe those things won't get
the full picture but look at this man just walks at him come behind him
so we can get on here again where is the WP order in connector is not only one
you can win both of those and almost all things the third this is for this pro not
can close enough together. Yeah, they're trying to have a lot of confidence on their individual ones,
but you're right. They're now getting two behind everywhere. It's pretty much impossible to win a
gunfight against someone who's playing behind a montane because they have the advantage
in every possible way. Close to the catch here. Neko does not have enough bullets to repeat that,
and Feno will take him down. It's now 5v2. It's Dan and Skye's back on the bombsite. Need to decide
Do they play aggressively now? Do they try and re-prize this run?
Or do they sit back on site and just wait to be picked?
That's the issue, right? You stay on the bottom side, you have the Monty's Solisnake
Capitao and every hatch working over by the Hibana. That's fucking up all will.
Wow.
But if you go on the offense and push up the staircase, you're also looking into a Monty and a Solisnake that has the gadget available.
It's so like, you don't really have a way to win on paper.
So now you gotta go off that paper,
Wing a hatch, wing a gunfight, look for a kill.
Just capitalize on small mistakes from your enemy.
But when you're up against five attackers
with just the two defenders,
they should be in a past around to win.
Yeah, there's no way you're still to deal with this Monty.
One gas babe is not going to be enough.
Damn, you're P&M and that's all he's got to work with.
Now, it does back up a serious punch these days,
but there's a lot more damage from a weapon
to win in the 2v5.
This guy has continued to just poke and look for a chance, but the way to play this here for Rebels is just to form up behind this Monty.
Trust Marto to give you all the information you possibly need and threaten these defenders.
Force guys and down back. It does work for the first one. Now, Sky is the last one left.
I'm sticking down. He's found a second kill. Marto needs to force the plant down as things look a little bit sketchy for Rebels,
But, Venno tucked away in the corner of the solid snake, will find the final kill, and
finally, break the streak.
Five rounds on a row for VP, Rebels finally get one back.
Definitely was holding my breath there at the end, a little bit too close for comfort,
but they had it under control, right?
The Monty was planting in a safe position behind Black Box, they had people in various
positions and they did the right thing.
Monty walked in, got the intro on one player, then they pushed in three different angles,
they're gonna get that kill regardless.
And yes, they did lose two members in their process, but that's all they needed.
Because if they didn't want to defend the left and the other end of the bomb site, they
can't deny the planter.
But this opening right here, there were three people there.
Rorik was in construction, right on the office road today, didn't have his teammate.
And then it was, I mean his naked was playing like a master bedroom kind of area, but the
office road was too cold.
Also ran away.
So I felt like maybe they were just gonna surrender, pass chance to hit your own body,
do what you can.
But then Rorik walks back in after he dies and then tries to help it fit after the fact
and that's the mistake in my mind.
Either you're sacrificing Pasha or you're helping Pasha.
The sacrificing then tries to help, now you're both gonna fight the Monty and the gun behind
him.
Yeah.
Obviously, you tool aside, that is the number one most effective counter to a Monty or any
shield for that matter.
It's a crossfire.
Yeah.
And you don't need anything in your pocket to get that.
That doesn't matter about your element, that doesn't matter about your impact grenades.
There is a crossfire from the Rotator to the top of Red Stairs, into Connector, into Construction.
And that was just not watched for a brief moment while VP had some indecision about how they were going to roam there.
And so, it was looking a little bit rough in that first round, but of course, they just swapped one side, swapped Pace a little bit.
They have a massive leap here, I think. It would be incredible for Rebel to make it.
What is that? That's aggression.
You just shoot, you got those, yeah, so what's the Selva?
When the wall opens up, you're gonna hop the wall and shoot down, there's a bit of soft debris on the outside layer,
and if you shoot that you can destroy the Selma itself actually.
It's kinda tricky because, you know, if you're watching it, or rappelling or whatever, you're gonna die most likely.
And upon the Selma detonation, there's a lot of smoke in the air, that's what it's called.
Neither player could see the other enemy for a good while there.
It's not much as a lot.
They're expensive setup. I mean they just spent 3 Salmas and some Candlebunners.
And they got the first step done. What are they up against?
It's not a bomb site, it's the room because it's a Shuntive, right?
But they got Maestro Evilized. They got some 2 Brows spent earlier to buy this timer.
They've also been spent in the walls. So what you see is what you have here.
what you have there are no supports there's no one supporting and the only
real tank denial is gonna be no ice throw so that's a very kind of even round
if you will there's no way to cheat on the offensive against like a leg up
where's Pasha losing sacrifice against her bit I think completely zone some
I should make Neko still the door
good flash onto Pasha is he gonna try and pick up in front of the shield he is
Pasha is committing some shenanigans today and it's not working out for VP
Also from the window is able to find Neko before he's able to retreat so VP two players down
The solid snake is such an incredible operator especially to convert his advantage to put that in the montain
One of these operators is gonna get banned after next round you can guarantee it
It's just a question of which one VP think that they have a better chance at dealing with the evil eyes
Fury very powerful, but not when you're in a 1v5
And that's where the guys find themselves right now.
One, two kills, but that's all he is going to find,
and Rebels will find a second very confident
and comfortable round on their attacking side.
We're going to build that momentum back.
The comeback is going to be a long road,
but a possible one if they continue fighting this hard.
I'm a little bit confused, and it's actually
feeling very similar to when Rebels were defending.
Because I mentioned how then both of them...
Team Rebels, there's five people, please, on TV.
The person who's up here is watching the flank downstairs, there's a Lems.
All the first of Koshir is in the last big window, cutting off the rotations on the Bumside.
That's how they catch the player of Ella inside of Konnaker.
But when I'm looking over at his throw, what's the Maestro for?
All three G-Valors were on the Bumside.
We never saw the Bumside, it was like a 2B5 at that point.
So, are you playing Maestro and like a Warden and stopping them from planting?
Or are you fighting them in CCTD?
They're kind of doing both at 50% which meant the roam was kind of weak
and when the roam is kind of leading people to die, the bumps are only weak shortly after
because you just don't have the manpower to watch them single-angle, right?
All the sets of things here, Stoikus, Breeze, Two-Windows, Condor, Obvious Rotate,
is a lot of things to worry about and Maestro has to turn cameras to even use the gadget.
So, I'm not sure why nothing's Bp.
There's still Vibe Chicken, I think.
Talon and Basement.
They got a more stable Rumble's Castle Barricade.
They got the new Jammers.
Again, same tools as the previous one.
Do have the Denari.
Mech instead of Ships and Pushing.
They caught me.
I feel like Basement's the ultimate test
of the attack on Clubhouse.
Yeah, of course, the top fours are hard,
but Basement is so much more to deal with.
Rome game, execute, full map, you really see.
You're only bombsite where you can really use the full map.
There's not much point to be using the full map
in some of the other bombsites.
At the moment, Rome clear is just step one.
I didn't notice to catch how many of the hatches
are already pre-opened.
But in the Rebels defense of the basement,
they actually opened up a lot of the hatches,
which meant that even when VP had lost their Hibana,
it kind of didn't matter util-wise.
I just noticed that the Moto hatches open here in bar,
But the kitchen hatch is closed, that's the pivotal thing.
If Asus stays alive, it doesn't really matter.
So, I always say the benchmark is one minute and thirty seconds ish for full map control
and you start it opening things up.
They're at 140, they have full topper control, they now know that all our first floor is open
and they've reached the blue hatch.
So once again, team rappels are a little bit ahead of the curve.
They got more time to spend at picking apart the second step, the setup.
The setup means you gotta get all the things they want in control.
So probably what a kill means is here,
if you have that full defender, you can make him run away and take the space to free,
or get the kill and play 5 vs 4.
That's the perfect ideal scenario.
Then you reach up and on the hatches,
you've already done that,
and then once you get those two things, this last player Borek,
then you can go for Bones and execute.
So how about all this?
He's got the laser,
and he retouches every 30 seconds.
Oh wow, now I stop to deploy a different feather.
There needs to be some kind of feather to treat the effort.
Rorik, great shot from Rorik!
He wants to try and take this 1v1 with the Monty as soon as that gadget from the Tenara reactivates as well.
The Monty will be trapped, yes, and now the gadget...
No, they're from the pocket! What a play, though, from Winko!
To drop down the Moto Hatch and look to try and backstab VP.
It works out for 1, but he gets traded back.
And while Rorik survives, it does make him fall off the main stairs.
I have you covered. Stay close.
Push not over, though. Monty's alive.
They got a lemmish bottom blue looking to make the play with the information first.
Rorick again in new prime position, walking down bottom main,
but now then feels the pressure Vassal walking on in.
Wow, such a split push here for Rebels, but Skye's finding one.
Makes it extremely difficult now for Rebels to convert.
Dropping straight down into the barbed wire, Asa needs to land some big shots.
Barthia's army's gave a barrier, protects Dan and allows him to play aggressively against this
This Monty to finally get the kill and you know what also with it why not a match point.
6-3 is the score line.
Three opportunities for VP to take clubhouse.
It's crazy how one small thing will change the entire outcome of the clubhouse round
and it comes down to again you need to play for execute.
If you don't clear main stairs in a clean way the round can just turn upside down and
that's what happened.
Rorik was playing Main Stairs, somehow got two kills, somehow got back towards the bottom side, and just lived the entire C of that round.
Which, quote on quote, should never happen.
And there are pretty much like two big things that could have changed, that could have been done better.
First of all, when you're playing that Monty, you're un-extending, and you're extending continuously.
Shield up, shield down, shield up, shield down.
But any human that has decent level of pattern recognition will notice he never actually ADS the shield.
He never applied any real pressure. He's just saying, look at me, don't look at me, look at me, don't look at me.
He never said, I might actually kill you right now, I might as well take the gun fight.
And, Rorik saw that. He was never worried about Matso and the Muncie at all. He was worried about the gun behind them.
If Matso says 3, 2, 1, push together right now, Muncie can un-extend ADS with the twitch swinging.
You will guaranteed get a 1 for 1 trade worst case, or in best case scenario, you get a 1 for 0, you get the free beat.
When you're playing the Monti Shield Operator, you know that you're very important.
You got the diffuser, you got a bit of utility in your pocket,
and you are the primary way to get information and get down at the diffuser.
However, what's that worth if you never see the bombsite?
It's worth nothing.
So it's better to hear that Marshal has a bit more receive,
ADS's Rorik's dealing with Fennel, and they get the kill.
Because if it's not to die, they still get the map control.
Whereas to happen there, they never got it.
it was surrendered to them because Warwick created a man advantage by getting two kills.
So I really want to take a bit more commitment there, a little more aggression.
Mapso is also, and this is not about his performance, but he is 0-7.
And there's nothing about him himself. It's about if I'm a player versus Probe,
and I see a 0-6 player pick Monty, I'm saying this guy's scared.
This guy doesn't want to take a gunfight because he's not winning them.
So he's probably not going to take the fight amongst either,
because that one uses blitz, he's a Blackbeard.
So when I see Malta do this, and I'm worried, I will never think that this guy will take the risk of spanking.
And that's why the shields are actually such a mental game.
A lot of the value in being a shield operator is the mental warfare.
And the more that you're in the opponent's head, the more value you get out of that shield, particularly the multi,
because as you said, you could just sit there, this ever-present threat.
But if you never actually ADS or never even pretend to ADS, then you're not really putting out as much pressure.
If drama clowns, you gotta sell it.
And this is why a lot of it comes down to the micro.
We talk so much about macro strategy, are they roaming, are they playing 4 or whatever.
Micro makes a massive amount of difference.
And Mato just making sure that he aimed down sides at that exact moment when his teammate could also take.
If the defender is fighting two players at once, he can only kill one of them.
You guarantee that you will trade out and get that kill.
Unfortunately, that's not what happened at the end.
And the reason why I want to do that is because you want the round to progress, you don't want to get stuck on main stairs and lose the round then and there.
It's the same logic with C.A.P.L.A.S. and Yang, and enemies are roaming in front of us.
Well, you should send some ink into that as some gladus when you throw some grass to roam kill those people.
Because if you die to the roamers, you're not going to see the bomb site.
So why are you saving your utility?
You spend it as the round progresses to get to that ingrown drain.
That's that round done and dusted.
Rebels down, down three rounds, they're on the attack, they have to make a count.
They got Mato one to once again, good info here on the catwalk Rathar's player.
But what are they gonna do about it? Well, finish this kill, then treat it right back.
Still, that's a worthwhile trade here for Rebels.
Well, Mato, they're on the Pasha fight.
Oh yeah, not if Pasha's gonna fight too, I guess.
And now, Linko and Mato, the last two remaining, Linko's deep in sights.
And Mato has found his worst kills.
However, now he's the last one standing.
He was always stepping, and now he is one and seven and one and done!
Rebels cannot stand up to the might of Ft.Spro on Clubhouse,
and the 7-3 scoreline shows how dominant this team could be!
I actually liked that fake push there from Rebels, because they always send the monster with the main push,
it's the one where they're attacking from, this time they're bidding against the monster so long after his throw.
No? Yeah, they didn't win the round, just a good idea.
Ready, Spitty? We'll back show it to the desk. Don't go anywhere.
I think VP really got surprised on their extensions. I think they tried twice, on Basement, also on Gym, to have an extension towards Cash.
Two times where I see VP players trying to hold their ground, one of them gets aggressive, and then you're waiting for a teammate to come, and they're either delayed or disjointed, and they just ruin the round.
Two times where I see VP players trying to hold their ground, one of them gets aggressive
and then you're waiting for a teammate to come and they're either delayed or disjointed
and they just rune the round in the room.
But you fought yourself that luxury when you set yourself up so well on the first half, right?
That's the thing, you get a 5-1 split, you get yourself dominant, you get yourself into opposition.
Even if a couple of rounds do start to go wrong, it's not the end of the world, you can cause corrective.
Now the most important thing is when that comeback starts mounting, you need something to stop it
And I think, who stopped it? I think that was Rorik, especially on that basement round.
When they choose to once again get aggressive, but they stand closer to the one side.
It's Rorik with the main stairs push here, gets aggressive, gets a crazy pick on to slow his snake.
And then here, he does not give up yet. He just steals by time.
He's still being really aggressive to that Monty.
He burned another 10 seconds, he waited for the motogai to drop, trades his teammate here,
and then the rest of the team can play around.
The role advantage gained by Rorik, a massive round for him.
And that's what brought, basically, VP's victory.
That was the stop to the comeback, a clean one.
This time, they decided to extend much closer and around each other,
so they can trade each other.
That was the beautiful part about it.
We're looking at two players in particular as well.
You talked about Rourke already,
really being a spearhead for the side over to Sproul.
If it wasn't for Feno, maybe this game would have been done earlier as well.
Yeah, the Turkeys stepping up, really.
I think Feno was the bright light.
We've been saying a lot, Jack, that we were thinking that in Rebels,
they were lacking a real entry line, right?
They were lacking real fraggers that would step up because the two best players statistically were Aston and Ems
I think Feno in this playoffs so far really showed a pass because already in defense
He was the one that was fighting. He was the one that got aggressive and got a couple of picks
It was a sad truth that the rest of his teammates were not following that and even in attack
He's the one to find the opening kill. He's the one that played solid snake
He's the one to play the critical role. I think overall he works for him
Yeah, I think so. It's nice seeing actually two rookies
I called him a rocky then. Rorick the rocky the rocky step up into the game
You know Rorick had huge effects. Fena was a shining starfish team and I actually think on Rebels
They didn't play particularly badly. I just thought they came up against a better team by team in the side of that as well
There was a lot of those first half rounds that they could have won
They maybe would have won against other teams
But that's where we're finding the way to get over the line in the late round
So I think for Rebels as they focus on the next map they they shouldn't get to this
We'll talk about the next map in a little bit as well.
Before we have the summary of this matchup here, we're already looking at those best performing players on either side here.
The tiny comeback almost happening for the likes of Rebels there on that second half.
But going into the second one, we want us to improve when it comes to Rebels.
We talked about the team play that was better over on the side of Virtus Pro.
This was Virtus Pro's map pick, right?
So you expect them to win that as well.
Misa, we're going on to Rebels' map pick after this, and we'll see you after the break if Rebels can bounce back in a series.
I
I'ma keep it going till I'm done
I'm going to hurry and run
to the right and that's
both these teams find themselves
in the upper bracket with a good
reason why they have that extra
the game. It's a very good
game. It's a very good game.
Extra life very soon inside this
matchup. A dominant first map
We're looking at Rebels map
big now, Jack. What do you need
to go into the series? Well,
they pixel are, and I think
that's a tricky amount to play
on. They clearly very
confident, and I think for that
map. It's all about the right
decision making and the right
trigger points because they'll
be starting attack. That's a
very dangerous place to be
online. I think if you think
of all the different sides top
floor, you got make a decision
to go to operations room side
or you go for our six room is
the army in play. That's the
And then the Bunk's briefing site as well,
where they play top floor and try and clear out the top floor,
or do they go direct to site?
That usually, getting those decisions right on Lyre is absolutely massive.
So that's what I want to see them do.
I think so far they've really used Martel well on the shield.
I know he doesn't, you know, he struggles in terms of statistics,
but I think that the pressure he creates,
actually was one of the main stakeholders of the two rounds they won in attack
when they were really wearable to problem.
So I think his ability to play on the shield
and the rest of the team to play around him,
to gain the initial control into Lyre,
And to gain the man advantage is the key to the victory here.
The main thing is, I don't want another scenario or on the main stairs of Clubhouse,
where you have a Monty, one solo guy playing behind him, if he dies he's done.
No, we want everyone to commit to their sum care.
Make sure you gain the initial advantage, then you speed up for the execute.
And then speaking of the map feature really quickly as well, right?
We've seen this map a little bit from Rebels, but mixed results.
Yeah, in Total United Secret Academy before that in the full year of play
and all the competitions they played, they only showed it seven times.
It was very social some losses some victories on a set of VP
They've not shown it yet under the realm and leadership of Neko. So right now. It's a big question mark
It's gonna be a glimpse into VP's map pool really. Did they play it? How good are they at it?
You know, we're expecting them to really flex that map pool. This is the time to show it
We might be in for some surprises is what I'm hearing with the second series here that that might end badly for Rebels
If they lose this one as well, we're looking for a bounce back from Rebels on map 2
Yes, we are, we are, man.
But is it gonna be possible, PENGOT?
Maybe. I'm gonna ask you.
Possibly.
Is it possible?
Is it realistic?
Because I didn't say a lot on Clubhouse that makes me feel confident about Rebels.
The one thing about Clubhouse that makes it better than Rebels can still have a fighting chance here is that VP has so many clutch rounds.
The 2v2s, the 2v1s, just gunfights that they may do, a ring that they shouldn't have every single time.
If Rebels have an even game, and VP don't touch up, they can take it, but it's gonna be close.
It's not gonna be a one-sided Lair affair. I don't believe that at least.
No, I don't think it will be one-sided.
I hope it's not one-sided because we've seen some good things from Rebels, there are a few good moments there.
One thing that I liked, we talked about a loss. At the very end of Clubhouse,
Mato found his first kill. He was gonna change that Monty for the entirety of the attack half for Rebels.
I'll do it again. Yes he is. When you're going 0-7 it's really hard to get your head into the game
and you cannot have this kind of avalanche start to form when you just can't get any level of confidence.
I'm glad that he's now got off that donut. A little bit common. He's still not going to be super happy with his performance on CloudHouse.
No doubt, but Lair is a new map. It's a fresh start. You're not going for a donut on the series. You didn't donut on the map.
Gigi, go next, make a comeback. Leia is of course the map pick for Rebels, so they're gonna feel a little bit happier here than on Clubhouse.
Rorig is hiding in the clash in the corner of the bomb site, got Nature wants him to tend the Nile and the Shungap, got the Asami,
so it's a big push in that first race in the desk thing, was slightly pushed forward and he's the Asami in play.
Such a big win, I noticed you're in there.
fresh to be making a lot of
like, jik-tok type content about the Azami on this one side.
Yeah, shortfall, there you go.
I know you've been, there's been a lot of convo's on Twitter
that the trash is good initiating about, like,
why are people not banning Azami on this boss?
I'm so damn good. How the hell are you meant to clear
a player around this death position where Dan is right now?
I actually haven't seen that new barrier that he's got,
kind of, like, tucked into the wall there before.
That's a really nice one.
created more positions to play between the asami and the clash man how the hell
are you gonna try and clear that bomb side out that's gonna be tricky and
that's gonna be a lair it can feel a bit claustrophobic when you're having these
particular operators in play and again like to clash the asami but if they're
both being banned or not picked in a round by the defenders it can be very
different for it. Well it's not that the map feels quite open actually for the attackers
especially when you got a shield operator. Martyr was back onto the Monty in the very
first round. And again, this drop is not gonna be to get the kills, it's about getting in
the building, get that map control and give continuous information so they can make the
correct decisions on where to go when to push. First throw, again, wherever Rory gets
next hacked, on this patch you can completely stop Mato, because the elitification from
the patch gadget will slowly guard break you, and you get that mini stun effect onto his
multiplayer and that's just unplayable so it's very cautious in these hallways.
Don't you feel like Flash takes a little off? Maybe increase the asian time by 50 percent?
How's that? That's how the developers know it. They just came out on the media like they
are a Twitter group. Gems and I watched them before this game went live. And yeah, the
math came out and said yeah, they buffed it from 10 second duration for Flash to 15 seconds
Activation timer and Mark is the first kill. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. It's a good day to be a clash
man. That's for sure. A couple off red is a present in the in the patch mode, but we'll get to that later.
For now, really, grapples are stalled out. Skies has also taken down a left. Oh, that's devastating for Mark.
Skies finds a second one, brings out the SMG-11 and forces Linko into a very unenviable position.
It's time to get active.
Oh, big C4 from Skye.
It's a 3K for the Frenchman.
And now his old teammate of Assa has a lot of work to do.
You know, 1v5 with two flashbangs and no Selmas.
Oh, there's a clash and the Nazami on the board. Good luck, mate.
Yep. 30 seconds.
I mean Skye said this round accepts me well here on the top of the rock and stairs.
There's a bit of a one tap, but they're feeding him to kill us in the angles.
Rorik! Rorik! He never stopped moving!
From Skybrids, Thor all the way to Obstum.
Can I just say, I am so not surprised that the one guy who died in that round for VP was Pasha.
Look at this guy right here. He's such a memester.
And in map one, he's peeking everybody.
We saw him time and time again, kind of solo on his roam.
He's playing with no respect. He's peeking in front of his shield on Clubhouse.
He had like a shield top red, peeks in front of it, runs through a smoke.
He actually ended up with two opening deaths and no opening kills,
because I think his very highly aggressive, risky playstyle is being read pretty well.
And it's just, it's so funny, like, that I'm not surprised that with guys, they're like jiggle peeking.
And then quickly a one tap comes up for Asa and who it's going to be. Of course, it's going to be Kassi.
Who else is frontier than this guy?
Classic for VP.
It wasn't for that, it would have been a flawless round.
It effectively felt like what Rebels could be scratching their heads.
That was a pretty disappointing start to L.E.A.M.
I don't know if you saw, but when Skaius got the 3K,
he got the Nomad Killgoo to C4,
but the airgems still got pushed on the doorbell.
Then he told Pasha to tank it.
So Skaius who was made Pasha with full health,
Right after the air gets, the guy's gonna look for the 4k, like he wanted more of that.
So yeah, I'm literally full supportive from Pasha.
I get the vibe Pasha's the kind of guy that like, you dare to do anything, he's gonna...
Like he'll do it.
Anyway, do you reckon he could like survive if you jump off this bridge?
Yeah, I reckon.
So he uh, he's definitely here.
I spoke into him at a fair, fair amount of tournaments after like a heartbreak and lost
for Empire's last VP. They were my iteration. And he's always like positive about the losses,
where Joystick, you know, the veteran was like, ah, we played bad, and instead I made it further,
and we had these computations. Pasha's like, hey, remember, we have fun, we did good. You know,
like, you always want to be the positive guy. Also, like this, Pasha's hiding from Soda Snake on a
jammer in silver room he heard him though so the figure is being faked out
reloading and Patrick cannot help himself he really can't be right there
like that was so cheeky they're hiding from the soul of the snake but thankfully
Feno has played enough soul is fake to be a little bit careful when he trusts his
ears even when he doesn't trust that scanners and here's the thing right how
you cannot solve a snake or visual alibi in mid-jammer is either will not be seen
in the gadget and they add by prismas they will show as a player even though they aren't a real one
the issue is you hide behind an obstacle and Slyldersnik walks past your door
now you make a movement sound trying to chase him so ideally you uh get an angle and hold him
either way nice to the mini-play goes punished a second mini-play this time fenrir with another
jammer again just hiding from the Slyldersnik roam clear while robert gets a kill in the bird
Rorax had a phenomenal day so far. Pop frag, the last map. Pop's EPS, 10 and 4 by the way.
Marto goes down. That's... guys! He's seemingly unstoppable until he gets stung by Astor but
the damage has been done. 2v3 now. The Hibana and the Ram. And at this point I feel like VP
can just happily fall back. As long as they're not vulnerable to the Vert. The problem is Rebels
can't play on the verdal too much because you need one player to get that diffuser towards
the bomb site and the second player to deal with it instead of upstairs on that verd.
So instead of playing above both of these Rebels players, keep up together and Neko's
found one.
Now shut out of the bomb site with the keeper barrier, Asa has a lot of work to do, brings
up the bearing knife, secondary and he's just being teased as he cross fire and Neko takes
a tiny bit of damage but deals far more than he receives.
And it's another convincing round for Virtus.pro.
I mean, these rounds, they gotta be so frustrating for Rebels, right?
You're coming from Cloudpiles' lair, you're putting clutched swimming rounds against you
and just kept fighting back and losing positions.
You go on to lair, you're a map pick, and they're just running over you, right?
They're ego-peaking, ego-challenging, they're doing these mini-paces of the roaming nude
jammers where, yeah, they find Pasha, right?
But they never found Defend Rear, and Skye finds two kills.
So it's like, we're good, we're good, we're good.
Oh shit. And then the round is practically over.
Because we lose two bodies like that, and important operators, what are you supposed to do?
How do you stabilize?
They didn't even get the staircase control.
That was surrendered by Virtus Pro when they fell back to the bomb site.
So it feels like Rebels are only getting what they're being given.
They're never taking things away from VP, or even beating things by VP.
Yeah, you gotta check both areas.
They only heard pasta, they never heard cinder flare.
Yeah, it's funny. It's a good little counter to the the solid snake
You know was really perceived as a wall denial operator and then through time he's had his
Kind of limelight moments as all drone denial operator
But these days I feel like people really prioritize mute as a hard counter to some of these power use or so
Yeah, doc a beat lion
Daimus and most recently it's solid still it's very different to playing like a vigil where you can move freely
But small team here as jammers around the map makes a big difference
I think I'm just lying do the new new changes. Oh, okay
I was lying it's like a it's a vibrating makes you that tracks movement, right? It's not like a signal thing
I thought it actually left it right in the case going and I was giving very much
That doesn't make sense, which is like, they don't disrupt this.
Do game UAVs, which is what mine is, so I don't know.
The things that are internal versus...
I don't know how to code it, man.
Okay, I would say it's about 40.
At least not at my rank.
I'm falling.
No, I trust you, mate.
What was the single biggest change to Mute that made him from not playing much in the past
to playing much in the recent history?
What's the single biggest change?
There comes the money.
Uh, it was stupid.
What? Well, you didn't have...
It's in G11, originally.
Oh, mate, you said recently.
Okay, no, no.
You said it's in G11 for years now.
Yes, of course.
My bad on recently.
But it's like, I've had a lot of people that...
They forget it, because, like...
Yeah.
It's smug.
Mute, they have the same loader, right?
No, mute did not have...
It's in G11 for the longest time.
I was the...
I was a mute man.
My first operator that I asked you about, and I played the game, so yes, I was MP5K and the P2-2-6 mute back in the OT days, my favorite operator.
Oh, we still got the Muncie by the door, the Sten's wall, we've seen this attack a thousand times across all the regions of Siege Pro League, and it rarely works out.
You understand, you strike the solid with the Sten's and block off the ward and push up off the distraction once I get out of the fuse there.
You gotta get a win either upstairs or get the plant down downstairs.
It's hard because you've got to fight players on site.
Skye's getting so insane tonight.
Five and one so far in the first two rounds.
And of course, popped off on the first map as well for VP.
He needs to be targeted here.
Well, Rebels try and have a little bit of a backstab,
but Feno is definitely his position.
Has been made aware of so much top-up control here
for Verdes Brolinco.
Extremely low on HP.
And of course, Grouped Skye's to go big yet again.
It's the massive two kills, most critically taking down the Montaigne.
And now, deeply crossing into the long side, it's a Lens.
He wants to try and get that plant down, but it's a 3K for the Frenchman yet again.
He is absolutely decimating Rebels.
Fennelow HP, but he finds a pick.
1v3 for him.
This Aster can't help out, and Aster taken Darylo.
Finds a pick.
Now, it's time to get that diffuser planted.
But guess who?
It's Dan up above.
He spots the player, denies the plant,
and wins the round, three straight on defense for the Otis Pro.
Oh, it's another heartbreaking round.
Right, step one of that attack is you're gonna clear that one player buying the bomb slide
with a bunch of different crossfires, and you toss like grenades, and you kill the C Adam.
That's guys, somehow the player that you're supposed to kill first
takes down two or three players' view over the course of that round.
The Monty, the guy covering the Monty, in the sense in the middle of the bomb slide
with the defuser shortly after.
And there is one small thing here that kind of, it could have been a good thing, but it didn't find much value.
Rebels clip the nirg in their previous round, that has one of the set of grenades that you can utilize to maybe clear out skies.
But the nirg is top floor, ratcheting around the barricades and can't find an angle.
So you pick a nirg for a specific niche purpose that doesn't get a kill,
and it's all thanks to British Pro hoping F and barricades are one of those chores stopping the rat play above.
So this tiny tiny detail has made the nuke completely useless, and rebels never had a pistol in the ground.
Because nuke was stuck watching basically nothing from most of it.
It's uh...
Verdi's pros aggression, their confidence from hokobomb's side, and not getting pressured enough in the server has just led to these very one-sided affairs.
And now, well, the flash will stay open, the mirror will stay open, all the panacea tanker stays open, rebels have banned utility in other forms.
Electrobrows, Kite, and Bandit, when Obelisk reinforce walls, I get that, and they ban the Asami, which we said, that first said, very important operator.
Yes, but Asami hasn't been the thorn on their side, that's just like an overall really strong operator for a beast with a bomb side.
How are they gonna deal with the Tashna? Because Kite's not banned, and they think, no matter previously, but it found nothing.
So I'm a bit curious how they're gonna pick up this round, on attack.
thing about how VP are playing is there is no singular thorns that they have on your side
there's the atomic there's the clash and even if you get to it then there's a check
out.
He shot his chest.
I'm gonna like, he clipped his ceiling down.
It's good, he's got some more.
He could have picked it up again.
Well it isn't the tub of the ceiling, I'm not sure you read that.
If you repelled, you could pick it up.
Can you do it?
Make repellent?
I actually don't know.
I've never, okay I've never been that precision in my life before.
I guess you're just too good, you've never missed a shot.
No, but you, um...
Yeah, whatever.
If it has to start detonating, you can pick it up.
Missed a shot as well.
Yeah, sure.
Okay, okay.
Yeah, trust me, trust me, trust me.
Just, trust me, I've missed a few helmets in my time.
Well, that was my mistake, I haven't done that one before.
Not in that area.
I'll tell you what, you said Fresh was talking a lot about his army.
He just, he just, oh my god, what?!
What? Wow, Roryk tanked that and only took about 40 HP damage.
Welcome to shields.
Wow, that resisted the mains.
I thought he was dead for sure, but the fact that he just faced the nade for a split moment
and that you're right, he tanked that hit with the explosive resistance of the shield.
He last, like, frame the frame perfect man.
Once upon a time, shields didn't have explosive resistance, but they do now.
Bit of a gap here.
Lehmish didn't get skinned by the verticality, was still held, and he's just a thorn trap.
With confidence, doesn't run away.
Please, very known health has one more typical infotainment.
Final push marks with a wake stop on the D-Rolls to fight the pick.
Big chance now for Linko to go massive with a twitch as well.
F2, get some a kill on the skies, but Feno on the backstab gets shut down.
The best chance we've seen so far, the Rebels, to find a round and Linko goes big for another one.
Dan trades with DMR work here.
On the tube around, Neko's the name's his life, Neko for a double!
It's Mato now, but Neko goes big with the LMG and the Lord will retain his throne.
It's four round straights and ZP are becoming untouchable.
Nah, Neko is the main character right there.
He is saving his teammate, left, right and center, frame perfect like he catches the
ace mid-bulb.
Astros is about to execute his teammate, he says, no, not today, not now, and absolutely
again saves the round.
another case of VP probably shouldn't be winning this one, but they're so goddamn
caution when the round gets chaotic. They are reacting so quickly. I mean look at the
highlights here. Every single time a fight happens on the map, there's somebody in VP
instantly responding. Rorik, there's the hallway. He dies. Xan, 1 degree, Flix Blue is trying.
Then once it's over, Nage covers both the angles in meantime, gets those kills,
and then he establishes another crossfire for this final run fight. Like, it is so hectic,
in his full carry, and VP are not missing a single beat.
And they're a new roster, then I suppose they have to spell us in it again!
Yeah, it's crazy. I don't know when exactly Virtus.pro, the organisation, the team,
decided to make the big roster shuffle, but I know from talking to Dark when he was with
Fyrex at the Sixth Invitational that after that team was eliminated, it was pretty clear
that he was moving on. I assume he was already in talks with Virtus.pro at that point. I assume
that some of the players make those guys, and Rorik that got picked up, maybe you would know that Rorik obviously knew.
We're involved somewhat with GK back in the day, which was his former team.
I don't know how long exactly these guys have been streaming for, but man, they have stuck with chemistry.
They are so instinct, and obviously they have phenomenal preparation work from their support staff team,
as we would expect from a coach like Dark.
But these guys are certainly making a case to be maybe even in a top three team in EML if they can keep this form up
Well, then good here's down the wrong here. This might be a little bit of a laser-lazed VP and then someone dies keep going
Next they go in five and oh guy. He is insane. Nobody guys
I want you
Right, on 12 pounds simply, so the men's every south,
and at once, the two is the three here, logical siege.
They just watched the building.
Double shield, both the B, they most,
they get the pick, they pop the hatch,
the looking for the staircase,
but then fire, it's gonna slow them down
from the floor of the soil.
Talks to Bex as well.
This is where this boys staying.
We're gonna hold our ground infiltration
and stall you in terms of time,
but then as the finds pass ya,
make your skill alive.
You might have to go absolutely massive
on the staircase infiltration, doing this.
Oh, of course, guys, peeks it vertically.
Man, he's popping off tonight on the Tachanka now,
and he's got nine kills.
Him and Neko together are really doing the heavy lifting.
Pasha, by the way, is still 0 and 5.
Poor guy on VP.
He's dead for the round, but it's the three newbies
on the VP roster that try and hold on.
They've got two shields to deal with here.
They are kind of the three perfect operators
to counter his fields, aren't they?
Yeah, they are.
One toasty babe and then two decent fire operators.
So, honestly, if the Raccoon can't go for a plant,
you know there's a cap to go fishing for a kill,
but that's a freebie.
Way shot.
Then you just walk straight down,
and you can scroll peek,
you toss mid at him, take flat damage.
Then you get shot down,
roll right towards the cross list.
If you've got a couple of good advice,
you can watch the science,
and that final toxic babe,
Nekyo's been holding on to this
for as long as humanly possible.
He knows if he has toxic babe,
the plant cannot go down.
The prop is a no-glare counter to the blitz here.
This is still upstairs.
finally drops down into Toxin, comes up from behind and Mato finds the kill.
That's exactly what we needed. The player that we said has been far too passive on the shields,
needs to get active, needs to do it on the blitz, and he does to close up the round and finally
get Rebels to join VP on the scoreboard of Lair. All it took was a very big adaptation since
a pace. Don't play slow, don't play predictable, just hit the building, hit the side and play for
kills do not play for the plant and it's so important that rebels they kept that
mindset because I think a lot of time when you get there like three versus
two you know guys we can just plant now it's free and you start planting and
like oh they actually had one month to be able all that one more before we lose
that planter chaos panic and you start fumbling the round they didn't do that
they push through the sacrifice right here that case guys by surprise and then
just keep fighting fighting fighting I mean they keep up the space style
Although, you need to squeeze just one more round in the half, then it's side-swap.
And you gotta re-learn how to play it out again from scratch.
So, we really gotta see Rebels get that second round,
to get a little bit of a weaker room on side-swap for mistakes and defense.
Otherwise, I mean, you lose for more, and it's matched for VP.
Like, a serious point for VP, to that point.
Yeah, 2-4 is the goal here, that's what you can do.
But the other thing, if Rebels do go 2-4, it's not just, obviously,
2-4 going into the second half gives you a lot more leeway than 5-1.
But it's the fact that you've then broken that momentum completely.
You go into the second half, you have the halftime vibe check, as we like to call it,
the roll swap timeout that's new in this season.
You've also broken the momentum, VP have finished off their half by losing the last two rounds.
Of course, VP, they're a really good team.
When they take their tactical timeouts, we saw that on CoVas took their tactical timeout.
I believe it was straight up the next round, they won.
and finish the map. Rebels here need to lock in, and they're throwing everything at the wall for this one, Pingu.
The double shields come out again, Mato has now found three kills in the game, and we need him to have a lot of confidence when you play that Blitz.
You need aura with Blitz, otherwise it just doesn't work.
Finally, we have an Echo in Valorant here, right? There's mostly counters, Dmg of 4, and there's a lot of key for fine-to-nothing.
the place we want room to elsewhere and while VP they do find a kill the big one
of that is gonna be Blackbeard so that shield's power cut into half now only
miles remaining whose full of room clear on top of what no somebody's lingering
above there is impact toss power fix doesn't
damage but posture without any more impacts in pocket can no longer stick
around he needs one counter for this shield now he has to follow away and
You love that map control
Pasha just needs to trade positions with someone that has a nitro cell Dan skies both have nitros maker
Obviously, I want to get too aggressive because he's getting in he's got two in packs
I think my though is checking a position knows exactly where he is needs to take the fight against guys finally gets him
But it's taken very long the process a single shot to his foot and he should be down so VP are still in good stead
Speaking of toes
Curse into a death once again, the motto falls, and he's being watched now, you're dead.
Does he sneak around in a spring for it?
He's tensed it, and someone crosses the hallway.
Now he's gonna be stuck in the wrong game.
A player above him is staircase, hunting for him.
There's redling, but it's too late.
Fennel gets the kill.
And now Fennel on very low health and lends him half.
His health is not looking good, James, but he keeps finding another pain.
Very aggressive from Rorick, and maybe a little bit ill-advised.
something 3v3 near the end of the round, still have the yokai drones. I feel like VP just
needed to play back on site. Obviously we can see as well there's no ram, there's no
vertical operators. It's just Aston's breaching charges has now been used. So you know 3v3
this would have probably faked the notice. Because it's a 2v3, Rebels do have a shot.
You're right, the time is going to be on VP's side. 20 seconds to go. He's playing
Yosha and Neko, which means that Neko can get on his yokais with Pasha to protect him
in the late round. The Yoka comes out. It just looks to harass the attackers. Assa plant the knife. Yet again, he shoots through the smoke from Pasha! It goes massive! And there's no time on the clock!
Virtus.pro, finish up the half! Five rounds to one for Rebels!
They crossed each other like two ships in the night. In the smoke grenade, with the red ping, with the Yokas on the worst part of the stage, they hacked the cameras.
The dead attackers were watching the Yoka drone, it's about to lose them the round, there's nothing they could do about it.
No more Tokyo P4nkos, no nothing!
And another huge clutch, I wanna hear the desk. What do you guys think about this VP performance?
Well honestly, I'm not gonna lie Nick, that was insane. That was an insane way of losing the round.
I will say this, there was one thing that was way more consistent in the way VP played and that was Skys.
I mean if you take a look at the way he's been playing around the entire matchup, especially in the outside, it's actually insane.
He always manages to find the right gaps on the room here with the double kill.
And then on the next round, you see Moe, he's gonna hold with one eye here, gets aggressive on the Monti, gets the peek here.
Jack, it's a consistent flow of kills on his side that really are pushing VP together.
And do you know what's been quite funny? It was actually Skies and Neko before this game were not actually the hottest players in terms of VP's actual playstarts.
Skies was in the mid-round and then Neko was clutching up those big moments in the late-round.
And we're looking at another 5-1 split at the halftime. That's absolutely crazy.
Yeah, honestly, looking at this player, I just want to see the stats as of now, right now it's 10 and 5, I mean, it's completely insane.
It's 6 rounds in a row, he was already double digits the game before.
I think we're seeing one of the main win conditions here, and once again, that's one more side with a 5-1 lead.
I think they've capitalised actually really, really well on, I thought it's about Rebels in the free game, can they make the right decisions?
I thought they made horrible decisions, they didn't run away the Azami, they only tapped Opsides into the Azami, and then the next time they did it, it was against the Clash,
And who was there? Even when they dealt with the clash, Naco's clutch up. And I think realistically
that's what they've had. They've had Skye's hitting well, they've had Naco hitting well,
and they've had a team attacking against them, but that's probably why the team is
attacking against them. That has not been that consistent.
Yeah, and we look at the statistics right now, and Skye's is going crazy right now.
Yeah, he's getting really impactful kills as well. That we're seeing in these rounds,
absolutely amazing performance from him on this series so far, but he's putting a lot
of pressure on the shoulders of Rebels. Jack, you already talked about that decision making
is absolutely not the way that it should be. We're going on to defense now. How could that be changing their decision making?
Yeah, I think so. I think it's another 5-1 split. They will of course be going into a band phase.
It's going to be very, very important for which bands come out. They've decided to take the Monty away,
and I think actually that's really smart. We've seen how good Manko has been. We've seen how good
Bert's probably been, particularly behind the shields. It should be a bit sort of like good.
Let's not block me. It's glass. Okay. So I thought it's not a bad execute operator on that specifically.
I'm just not sure about it. I'm not sure how I would buy it, you know, Blackbird is still up, Blitz is still up,
Neko can still be terrorizing them on it. And look at what he's picked, Blackbird as soon as he did it.
Straight away, even just a fast-forward lineup, there's a Grim, there's a Teimos coming out, there's a Blackbird.
This is the lineups we want to see from them.
Maybe if you two are confused, we can ask our casters in specific pingu, how are you feeling about the Alfredo Banz and the Alfredo Selective for the match?
I'm not gonna lie, you know, I said, nah, not the double shield, surely not.
And I don't think it's because of that idea from Alpha from Leo, it's like diminishing
return.
I'm actually a big disliker by double Harbridge ban, Bandit Khairi, double shield ban, because
you leave so many power-ups open and available, like you said, the Grim, the Deimos, the Blackbeard,
etc.
And you can ban the Blackbeard and the Monts, but then there's no Blitz, like that's the point,
right?
Yeah, it's so tempting though, particularly the double Electro-Brow ban, I feel like as
This is the best one.
NKAA, you're like, well, we just don't have to pick that,
so we don't have to pick MPs.
We just complete changes.
Same when you ban all three shields, for example.
You're like, well, now I don't have to worry about shields.
But there's a four.
There's a few shields.
Yeah, but I'm not anything we'll pick for you.
Well, that's all those people.
Yeah, yeah.
Oh, man.
I do love the little moment where the guys on the desk
had a chance to talk about Skies.
And it's not just him, but also NAKA, obviously.
won the 1v1 at the end of that round and had a big 3k earlier on in one of these rounds.
If the former Gen.G was who were rising up for VP and it's funny because this Gen.G roster right last year
they were always like consistent mid-pack but challenging the top. They ended up top 4 at the end of
EML and while they went to the EWC they failed to qualify for 6-in-1tation because they lost to
Twisted minds and you know that was the moment I think all the team realized maybe we're best of when we're not together
Guys are already looking far better with those pros than they ever did with Haster and a lambs on Genji
This first I can say half of her makes me mean she's good and then the
Differently there's some sounds I yelling at how you view the games be played a lambs you know
years what we call like an old-school RGL he does come from that year one OG
generation and maybe that's the different taste of what the other players
that the newer blocks was because the fuckers look at this oh what are they I
mean this is ridiculous right you're just fighting you're sacrificing like if you
lose that run fight you lose all the key that's with us then trash it back onto our son
that's a good pick at all you're right it's very risky from Linko but I do like it I do feel like
I think Arte, using the T'Chang of Fire was probably a little bit overkill.
I don't know what that really gave them, especially by investing so much.
I guess he still has 11, so he has a decent amount left.
But it looks like VP completely flipped the switch.
They found the pick at the top of the other stairs,
and now they're looking to try and poke on server.
They got the Blackbeard very close by.
I really like that deep edge.
That's very unusual.
It does prevent an aggressive peek.
Gives a lot of a damage now to Dan.
So they have Rorik on a display window,
cutting off the bomb site. If they know that D-Test is clear,
Levy can walk and just go for a plant here, and they can't really stop him.
They have one C floor, that's the only win condition here, that's the lane.
If he hits his C for the plant here, they might win the round.
If he misses, the plant goes down.
Oh, he's dead!
He's dead!
Tarzan is about to cut him down, there's good trade,
but Pasha has been worth his weight for gold
by finding that critical pick.
Press shots though from Venom and Linko,
Neko now has the clutch to 1v1,
and Marzo, what?
They got revealed outside, now he knows exactly where both of them are.
He has the defuser. He can go for a plant if he wants.
Put the shield on his back.
You're right. Time is of the essence.
It's a very risky play.
He decides to put the shield on his back.
It makes it a much faster aim-down sidestime.
Martho and Link go for it.
Put it up together.
Humbling up, the shield protects him for a brief moment,
but it doesn't matter in the end.
The 2v1 will work out for Rebels.
And it's no match point just yet.
Zertis Pro Rebels find their second round.
Really well played round.
If you want to get very particular
about some of the things that could be done better there for the attack of VP, it's how aggressively
they were holding the rotation, right? They know that it's a vault rotate. They defend it to vault
through that rotation, make a big sound cue, be stuck in animation, they can't ADS take the
gunfight. Everyone's holding a very deep angle trying to cover Neko, but the second they take
down Lemm's that only C4 and they knew that, right? They knew there was some more C4s because
they saw all the up-and-down lineups revealed earlier than the gunfights. They could have just
planned it, held the roadside very safely, and then when you fall through, that's when you kill Fennel and the Legion.
But they wanted that deeper angle, and they just lost the prefire gunfire, that's really all that happened.
Look at this, very aggressive angle number one, and for all that, that was the second one as well.
Honestly, great, she did the NAFU trying to savage the round, going for a swing getting off the plant, but it's so tough in that 1v2, there's just no chance for teams in the second one.
Now the one of those rounds that feels like a game of tug-of-war, you just keep flipping
that coin.
Alright, well who wins this fight?
Oh, okay, now surely if you feel it, oh who wins this fight?
Oh, surely Rebels are gonna win.
Never mind, VP's back again.
It's the chaos that 2026 Siege brings us and I really love it.
Obviously that's a soft spot in my heart for the good old 20-second meta or the util sync
meta.
I prefer, I feel like it's a pro apps name than 20-second meta.
These days, we just have so much variety in the way Siege is playing. It's all about the mid-round adaptation.
VP did that perfectly. Rebel's full of that.
VP is showing us some really good signs, though.
Even after losing the first kill, there's a nice usage of the ram.
Just to have a quick entry there for Pasha, breaks down the barricade and enables the jump very quickly.
Sounds familiar, no?
We were talking about this off-camera before, weren't we?
Yeah, you're playing ranked and a ram did that to you, just killed him, that was it.
It was so tilting bro, I was playing night haven labs on rafters and like yeah, ram just throws a thing into the window and chomps on him like dude why you playing ram on top floor?
Maybe he was proud of you, he did the same thing here, he roams clear, he gets a kill, he's gonna say worth it, even if there's no burst he's gone after the fact which of course passable to you.
Dude, you get your one, that's the solo kill in the silencer right there, I got my kill.
I had too long to get redundancy in the event as well. Not only have they got the ram, not only have they got the sledge, they even have breaching charges on Skies, so it allows them to play individually a little bit more aggressive, and I think that's another beautiful thing about 2026 games.
No more is in the days if we have one operator for one role, and if he dies then we're done. No, we have everyone can do a little bit of everything.
allows you to play a bit more unpredictably, a bit more aggressive.
Didn't get the Goliath to the pretty big actually, the Nade went a little too deep,
so second Nade gets tossed one out, and then clear it.
Very important because if you don't clear that with a grenade, the smoke can pop it when he desires to,
and his stall evens 20 straights back in.
By donating it first, you take that ATC away from the defenders,
and now you can force the play only being stopped by the toxic babes.
There's a backup though, and as is the spare key back,
You can patch up the floor and enable a limb to fall back or to push up and maybe hop on that staircase.
It goes to Braxton BB.
Oh, perfect. It's the legendary laser that's got to be burned, and indeed,
Rorik walks right through it.
But it's a big kill there from Naked. Great usage of the flashbang from Rorik to support.
And now Rebels are really under the pump.
Ashes forced back. Taking down from the vert, from Pasha.
Indeed, our question has been answered, Pengui.
He will not just use that ram for a fickle purpose.
He will use it for the vert as well.
Great shot onto Neko.
Liku is under so much pressure vertically.
A triple for Pasha on the round.
It's just Matso left.
One versus four, and this TCSG will not save him.
The flashbang's coming out.
The flooding to site.
Rorrik to start forcing down that plant.
I don't think he's going to be able to find an angle.
He won't dedicate a round deep enough.
and with two players upstairs on the third and two players deep inside, it's a classic lock-in for Virtus.Pro and with that, it's match point.
I feel like if you took that exact same round, but flipped the teams, Virtus.Pro would somehow win it, because they'd have Skies or Neko on the staircase where a Lemsh was playing and then get two or three kills, playing somehow, right?
But instead, it's like you put a Lemsh there, who's one of your more passive players, I would argue, right?
And he just gets flashed and then killed by Blackbeard.
There was no real fighting back. He tossed out a toxic babe, but it doesn't need to pop it before he dies.
You kind of need to either play for time and just smoke, smoke, smoke, and now you're just kind of coped, and then whatever happens happens.
Or you fight back. You swing, you jiggle, you look for that opening, because mind you, he could play at the top of that staircase against the Blackbeard.
That's not a blitz. They can't blind you.
So, maybe a bit more aggression, maybe a bit more full commitment.
Ask the criminal, as I said, keep it off the floor,
spread up the staircase, try and trade off his teammate,
or keep something off and help Elimge escape back towards the bomb site.
It doesn't feel like they're fully helping each other as much as they could have.
Well, tactical timeout from Rebels now finished off.
four match points and I'm talking match series points against them now and they have to make
a big comeback on their defense.
If they go to the split bomb side, it's not really split.
Feels like a split bomb side, doesn't it?
Because you have to play on the top floor to try and protect here in bumps and man,
this is going to be a big investment into that top floor.
A lot of roam game likely as well from the vigil.
I don't know if that's going to be a loose roam or if he's going to be one of those
player is hard playing on the zone above like a lens.
Regardless, there's no second chances. You can't get anything wrong in the next four
rounds. We have seen, so we've got people behind the curtain, people at home paying.
We've got this beautiful, like, kind of tool round tracking device thing, website, thing.
Okay, explain it very well. The DEZ has built and it shows the number of multi-kills and
clutches per round. So we've had two 3ks from Skies, a 3k from Neko, a 1v1 from Neko, and
a 3k from Pasha. No, no 3ks from Rebels, no clutches from Rebels. If you look at the
first map as well, it's very much the same story, 1 3k from Asa and all the rest, it's
Neko, Rorik and Skies. This has been sadly quite a one-sided game. Virtus.pro have been
Better in the strategy, they've been better at the fragging,
and overall, they are just so much more of a ready team
to fight for a spot in Salt Lake City Major.
That's what I was talking about before Lair's start.
I was asked, can the Rebels come back?
It was like, well, if Reefy don't get all these clutch rounds
in huge moments, it's going to be a close game.
But if they can shut them down, it could be a one-sided affair.
They've not shut down their clutch ability,
they've not shut down their star players,
and honestly, Rebels,
simplest way to describe how they lost these rounds tonight,
They're just losing their gun size. They're not individually challenging V8 vs Pro 1-1 as effectively.
But, in the last game strategy now, and not so much about the guns, look at the attacker line-up.
Badger, Sends, Capital, they're on the green stairs with their rappel, watching down at a flank.
And rebels don't have maybe estimated tools to counter, as you sometimes would.
They're playing Vigil, who's just like a bit of a selfish operator, right?
Can hide from certain gadgets, and the drones, the intel.
What doesn't help you lock down the bombs particularly well?
Let me have Ella, who's great when you're pushing into them taking those gunfights,
but they're mostly out the building watching long angles.
So it does feel a bit right now that Rebels don't have necessarily the best tools for the job,
but you can go back to gunfights.
They need to win their individual fights when they start to happen.
We got eleven and seven skies, that's gonna be hard, but I guess here we go, okay?
That's one for one?
Not the end of the day for either team realistically.
Obviously you lose a C4 on the valve, but yeah, you're right guys has already done his job on the thermite
You lose your top frag which kind of sucks, but at the end of the day you back in all these other players to go big anyway
So here in the side
Deep here happy the fact of the thing of the ice is nothing actually will be executed because can't stop it
They're since wall ways out and the impact the wall
How do you afford to lose that that is such a critical kill and a critical
Lots for rebels with lingo going down. That is surely the round and therefore the game
It's a 4v3 the post plan for vertus pro
And rebels seemingly have no idea how to play this on the retake as Dan shuts down a lens from the repel
Ass with the boss fee. It's not what he needs, but it's all that he's got and voters pro
Dominate over rebels. They squash this rebellion
7-2 on left, it was 7-3 on clubhouse, and they retain their spot here in the upper brackets.
It's another hard breaking round, the 1-1 trade is okay, yes move from side control, but they can't, you know.
The impact grenades, the sense for the gap, there's all the scanners, the appendage going down,
but man, at the end of the day the gunfire and this little window takes everything.
Ah, don't go anywhere, we're back shortly for the desk breaking that game down.
A dominant 2-0 victory, and therefore we get to speak to the victors.
We should have an interview live from the studio here with Neko.
Congratulations on the victory here.
You're beating your former teammates, you're one step closer to Salt Lake City.
How are you feeling?
Yes.
I'm feeling great.
I think we did a good match, but on the two maps it was okay.
So I'm feeling great.
focus on semi-final for the major spots.
I've got two questions for you Nekka. How did it feel to play up against your former
teammates or a couple of your former teammates, fast and formless?
I would say I feel a bit bad because like I love like it's still my close friend
almost all of them I like them so like I mean in the game I don't care I'm here
to win so I don't care what I'm playing against but now after the game I feel
bit bad for them but I hope they will just bounce back from it and maybe they'll do a great run
in the lower bracket. And then the second one is more about you and your team's map pool because
you'll know you played against Virtus.Pro last year famously they struggled with some of the
newer maps. Have we seen Virtus.Pro with a big map pool? I guess you will see for the next playday
but I see some tweets about us having a very small map pool, but how do you know?
Like, stop it, come on, you will see guys.
You cannot say, still criticise, we are not the same team, three different players,
one different coach, everything is different.
So I think people should stop tweeting about us when they are not screaming with us.
Yeah, and another IGL by the way, so I think that just changes things.
I think looking at you, Neko, the last time and only time I think we had in an interview face to face
was at EWC, your first international event and I just want to basically hear by winning you
basically guarantee yourself that you have two BO3s post potentially and that if you only win
one of the two you will make it to the major. Do you think that now with this team you have
better chances to perform internationally and have a deep run at a major than you did going into EWC?
I would say yes, like I'm not gonna lie, I'm really confident with this team, I think we have a huge potential from screen and even from match, from pressure, everything, like I'm just so confident with this team, I just love this team, so I think we could go far and major and qualify for it.
Do you think that the experience from Pasha and Dan, because every time I saw these guys at LAN they went far, like they had something, do you think that their experience is going to help you guys, whether it's Neko and you, who don't have a Stimula international experience,
but for Auric as well that didn't play on the video stages do you think they will
help you guys have a deep run? Yeah I think so as you said full experience from
them full just good runs everything they go to international event and they're
already like I know sometimes in Russia I hear them like giving some advice to
to Auric so of course whether it's like online any match anything for so far LAN
event they will give us maybe some some advice from their experience and it
it will definitely help us.
It's awesome. I feel like the guys want to have a lot of things that they want to ask you.
So I'm going to release you for now. I think you just have to win another game
so they can ask you even more questions in the future.
Thank you for your time, Neco, and good luck with your next game.
Thank you guys. Have a good evening.
Thank you, Niko.
And in theory, the next time that we see Neco in the interview,
you should be a qualified manager. Otherwise, we're not going to see him.
I hope you're not going to manage himself on the right.
Tell him how deep he's going to go.
I feel bad, he said, with a smile on his face, you owe victory, he says, oh, it's okay.
Evil Neko, unhinged Neko, that's what I'm going to call him. But now, like, why would you not, like, have a smile on your face when you're playing, playing with this roster?
But I can't even describe it. I've gone from, like, a generational VP hater in their style and their map pool to, like, VP's number one fan.
You know, they're playing a modern meta, they're doing it on big maps, they've got a good team play.
And even when the team play slightly breaks out, as you would expect it to, because it's a new team,
they've got big clutch players. Once again, he had three clutches coming in today in 4 maps.
I think he picked up another couple across his best of 3 as well.
That is absolutely phenomenal for a guy who's IGL in them.
And then even when it doesn't quite go right, he's managing to find a way in the late round as well.
Yeah, the impressive thing with me is that when I was talking to some of the top players on Falcons, on G2,
When I spoke with Shaco about VP, he was like,
Orgle will always be and try to pressure them enough
so that the Cums will be like Luster,
because we expect that it will create some kind of shift
between the Russian players and the French players
because they won't have so much of an English.
And I'm still waiting to see them test it so hard
that I see that communication struggling.
Yeah, they look uncomfortable, don't they?
Yeah.
They do.
And especially with people in that transfer window saying
that like, oh, Virtus.Pro has lost this transfer window,
But it more so seems that the skies is the limit for this team.
The skies is the limit.
I see what you did there then.
I see what you did there.
That was a pretty good one.
He was phenomenal too.
Look at him.
He spread in his wings and he was flying for that as well.
22 kills across the whole best of three.
Pretty decent on the interest.
It's worth noting you know, he's not the one that's playing the Flashy Operators as
well.
He plays some of the more cut off roles, some of the flank watchy roles, the breach of roles
as well.
doesn't play the best roles, and the fact that he was still excelling today is real
testing.
Yeah, what's important to me is that he's done that by doing it, like you said, on
YouTube, the Bezo Berter, that was a triple kill that he had on Ying, by the way, and
doing it on Smoke here on the basement.
I'm looking at a player that was by far one of the worst raided on the roster.
Neko was the worst raided, but he was the Agile, he was the shield player, so like he
has an excuse, right?
Force guys, despite him playing more of a passive role, it was still annoying to see
We sort of had to head between him and the LEMs and us at the beginning of the match, Jack.
And he was far behind, in terms of PPS, in terms of KD.
I think it's also important for him to prove that he deserves his spot on the roster.
His French teammate is the Agile. He has the voices, so he will always be worth it.
Forced guys, he needed to prove it in another way, and I think he's proven it today.
And it's a strong sign for VP as well, by the way, because we've gone through a whole VP game,
basically where they've gone clean 2-0.
We've not spoke about passion, really. We've not spoke about Dan.
We did speak about work a little bit, but really, it's been the two French impulse into this roster that have shown.
Yes, I want to give you guys something to think about because we've been talking so much positive about Verdesboro, right?
Feel like in previous iterations of the EML, we've always had that top three that is untouched.
It's always the Falcons, the Cheetsu, the Secret, but Secret's position being a little bit unsure right now in that lower bracket.
Do we think Verdesboro might merge themselves inside that top three or even a top four?
I think there's a huge opportunity to. I think the hour expectations of the big three in EML really, so far in kickoff has been shattered.
with with secrets downfall and with really how well that's pro played and
slot in there but there's a couple of back all teams in there as well you know
twisted minds are not out of question
secret cancel come back I would say realistically we're probably looking at
a big two of falcons g2 with a cluster of teams fighting to be in the top four
behind them. Exactly consistency is there the only
reason I would say to that is I actually believe that VP's head and shoulders
above every other contender in the top three. I think looking at this right now
just based on kickoff I do think there's a clear top three I think it's falcons
G2 MVP and I think that after this comes the fourth spot that is heavily in
contention. Well they are the current top three instead of that upper bracket
right in the next round. We have already an opponent for Falcons, they will be
playing that Votersboro roster in their next matchup but we also need an
opponent for G2. That opponent will either be Phenetic or Twisted Binds and
will determine it after the break.
We are moving to the day fast here at our first day in the studio for the email playoffs
for kickoff.
Our second best of three is just about to start.
We have Trist of Mines going up against Fanatic, the last time they played against each other
inside a best of one it was a near victory for Twisted Mines.
Rusters may have changed and things may have changed on the side of Twisted Mines as well.
When we look at that roster in particular, there are some big differences over on their
attack and defense.
Yeah, I think it's been an issue that was raised by many players that faced them in the matches, in post-interview.
When they won against them, they were like, it's crazy.
We faced a fire when they're in defense, they go crazy and then when they're in attack, what happens?
If we look at the statistics, actually, you'll see the heavy difference between the two sides.
You know, in one side we've got a heavy defense win rate, but they're quite aggressive, they're the false best rated,
and then we look at their attacks and they're struggling.
The entry rate is also much better in defense than in attack.
Almost everywhere the entry is much quicker when they're in defense because they go very aggressive compared to the attack
Yeah, there is something like that is
Really wrong with the way that they play the attack versus the defense
I agree and it's all well and good good
I was just saying it and putting it on the start and throwing it on the graphic
But actually I wanted to show you because I wanted to show you just how crazy
Twisted mines can be this is one of their rounds in punch like a GK kill outside of the building onto a player plays in your play
That's the very first kill of the round outside C4. They're getting aggressive. They're getting in your face
They're not waiting for utility. They're not waiting for plants doesn't stop there
Absolute floorbind based off of our camera. It's aggressive. It's in your face
This is what I talk about and what people have to play against when they play because Swiss demand
They know it's coming
They're gonna be in places that you don't necessarily expect you hopped on the other skylight 20 a minute left
You don't expect somebody there. You keep they carry on peaking even in the fourth versus one here by the way
This is to stop peeking at an attacker in a 4v1 squad.
That's their identity, that's what makes them strong,
and that is what they do well on their defense.
So they're relentless, they're unpredictable, they're chaotic,
and they abuse their individual power.
They all have incredible aim.
Yeah.
Now let's switch to attack, and let's take a look at that playstyle,
because I'm still expecting that to happen.
Well, look at this.
Two minutes and 17, that was the first breach.
156, that's the first guy in the building.
20 seconds later, second guy in the building.
Okay, cool.
First encounter with a defender,
that's at 1m30. First kill. They die here at 1.15. They have zero control. That guy is still
outside the building at 1.12. That guy just barely got into Vizag at 1.12. And that guy is still
also outside at 1.12. What are these guys doing? They're planting at 45. They're in 45. They have
zero map control. So obviously, the defenders are gonna go and collapse on these guys because they
had zero map control. So a first player dies. It's a 5v3. The smoke can just retake towards the
the Monty and the rest of the opponents collapse on them. What do we learn here, Jack? That
at 112, two players were still outside. They love to be outside, but in defense.
And I think that's from the same game. Both of those clips are from exactly the same game.
It feels like it's a completely different identity. I don't know if they're just getting
a little bit stuck problem-solving, but we're expecting them, and all the teams are expecting
them, to take so many more risks on their attack.
So you're playing very two different halves of what you're playing, Twisted Minds, but
Nadek can add that even more, right? They can play two different halves inside one round, especially on the attacks, it can start so well and then somehow they find a way to throw these attacking rounds away.
It's always the same issue with Nadek, is that you can see the game plan, you can see that it's a great game plan, you can see the first step is good, the second one is, oh wow, and then there's the end.
always happens somehow in the late round there's something that just does not work. They are the
certain best team when it comes to planting Jack, but they're the worst one still in tournament
when it comes to winning an attack. It's crazy and I mean look at those stats by the way as funny as
the meme is, it is funny. 38.1% plant rate, 38.1% attack win rate. They want to have won every round
that they plant, so what does that tell me? It tells me fanatic are actually a little bit weak
that. You can see that
actually they're good at the
entry. The fourth best team in
the ML entry. That's not bad,
is it? Especially considering
some of the teams that we've
got in there. Conversion, though.
Getting that entry kill into
around when nine best three
three K slash 4 K rounds. 10th
best. They don't really get
them. They don't really have
the pop off players. They don't
really have a lot of what she's
won. And that's the one thing
that I would say about
fanatic is and we saw this in
the game against G2. They're
doing things right, but when
that's where they seem to be
like. Maybe a bit of a voice
inside of the team as well.
That might be like in some
situations that we talked about
the players about that voice in
the team a little bit, but
they'll have to prove it today
inside a best of three. I want
to see the maps because if we
talk about the attack and the
attack being such a big
struggle for both these teams,
I wonder how that's going to
unfold on a map like cafe where
it already is, but I think
it's going to be a little
different. I think it's going
to be a little bit different
from what we're talking about
today. I think it's going to
be a little bit different
from what we're talking about
matchup. Well, were you
more excited to see a cafe
where it already is so
difficult to tell you what I
did not expect to ever see
fanatic play cafe again
because they didn't win a
lot in the whole of 2025. In
fact, they should have been
relegated based on their
results. The map that they
did win was on cafe, so I was
actually very, very surprised
to see this allowed through
the veto. No surprise
therefore that for nothing
affected straight away. And
then the final map that stands
up to me actually is going to
be fortress because the last
two times speaking only from a
twice, including last playday against G2 where they got 7-0. And Twisted Minds, that was the map they
came out the blocks on when they played up against Team Secret and they were aggressive and we thought
hey we've got Twisted Minds in this league that's going to go for. And then in the middle, even that
one, Labs, Fnatic, they played it twice last stage. G2, match go, lost it every single time. A 0% win rate
at the tier 1 level. And then Twisted Minds, I don't think I recall seeing them play that map,
So I have no clue on how good they are, but the record from Fnatic alone makes it interesting to pick into.
Feels like Fnatic, certainly subjective in my mind.
Feels like I've got to get it done too, because I do worry about my fortress.
Yeah, so it's a worrying sight, and if we do get to that final map, when the game is almost ready,
and I've got good news for you, Jack, because your favorite caster is...
Ace!
It's Ace the final caster!
I thought you were just going to go on about this!
Here I get it in the background!
Ace is caster, there we go!
My name's Eddes, for this final game of the day.
to be a little bit more. But
what I mean is, obviously,
guys. How are we feeling about
the matter we got for ourselves
today? Yeah, really good. But I
am falling for that bait and
newest. You're still saying
you and I weren't falling for
that. I wasn't having it. I
wasn't having it. Go on. Go on.
Save you. If your favorite
cast can respond. I was having
all of it to be fair. I was
having all of that. That seemed
very legitimate and genuine to
me. Tim did beat me in the go
cart and so I do have to
respect him, but there's I
managed to beat you. Very
I think it's time to talk about
a match that is ready to start.
So you do take it away. Thank
you very much. Yes, this is
going to be one hell of a series
team really excited to see how it
plays out because the last two
times it's been pretty fateful
out there. I mean, it's been a
lot of fun. It's been a lot of
fun. It's been a lot of fun. It's
been a lot of fun. It's been a
lot of fun. It's been a lot of
fun. It's been a lot of fun. It's
the first time in a while.
It's been a long time. It's
been a long time. It's been
pretty fateful outcomes between
these two teams. It was in the
SI polls. Guess if that's it
lost both of those calls to
Tim, who did they lose both of
those calls to test? They lost
it. Tim to twisted mind. Well,
would you believe it today is
the one that sent them home
from both goals. They're not
quite send them home today.
So this is the upper bracket,
but it's still quite a fateful
reencounter. We get to kick
things off on cafe. So let's
to get to you. It's been on
this roll, of course, to ride.
You could look at it and say,
you know, those results through
kickoff maybe expected losses
to G2 VP. Okay. Um you know,
wins against the other two, but
I look at that and I think it's
the performances that have
surprised me as well. It's,
you know, like they just
haven't turned up for some of
those games and then others
look quite dominant. So, um,
yeah, funny old team at the
minute of fanatic and in terms
of results, they've got, you
up. And we have a lot of
players who have a lot of
results and positioning this
is better than anything they
achieve last year, so. Being in
the upper bracket great for
fanatic. Just got to do
something with it now? Yeah
I mean, I was looking back at
all the stages. It's 2024.
Admittedly, this is, of course,
a different roster, but the
fanatic organization has had a
little bit of struggle to
think only one of the stages
they've played since the start
back of the stage and obviously they want to put on a little bit of a show. And you heard the
dare-speaking about their losses near the attacking win rate versus the plank win rate.
A lot of the losses they've taken have come through Fortress, which is why I'm quite nervous
that it's part of this map veto. They've only won one of 12 potential attacking rounds on that map
throughout the stage. Yes, against our two of our besties in the competition, but it still makes
me nervous to be getting there. And basically, looking from these two teams, I would be sure
I don't know if we can get to the three maps today.
Well, let's get into it.
We've got round one of Café and it's going to be up on the top floor.
Exciting stuff, Des.
It's thrilling for you, mate, I'm sure.
Hmm. Do you know what is the current worst defensive side on Café in EML's hit-off?
I don't, Tim. What is it?
Statistically, this might surprise you, Des, but it's the top floor.
Um, it's a small sample size. We've always seen it play three times, but guess what?
We've seen it lost three times by the defence. It's currently size zero percent, but continues to be the first choice size.
Somebody explain it to me. Explain it to me like I'm five, because I just don't get it.
You know, I'm going to be very curious. I'm going to go and find out what it is globally throughout all the kickoff, and I'll let you know in a minute.
You going on a little with the minute into the round here. We don't have an entry kill yet, which is bang on par for fanatic
It's what we were talking about on the desk, but that is significantly quicker for them crops
Managers to get that opener within the first minute taking down your lad
That's the mute gun as well
So you're not gaining much in terms of utility, but you do take away some big big weaponry
What is your laughing? What's the defensive win rate globally in kickoff my day?
It's 56% Tim, which don't sound too bad, but it decides it's 61, 62 and 70.
So it's the worst site on the map, is what you're telling me.
It's been for many years now, I believe.
And it still continues to be picked.
It's number one.
It's going to carry on.
Look, because now it's a currently unmarked spot.
Continue to rant about it.
I'm going to try to catch up.
I've not got any idea, but if a 3B tricks it again a little bit,
but 3B back for his side.
It does seem to be a 3 versus 4 for twisted minds, but Tim,
Surely for now they can't sleep themselves giving away what I started out as a great advantage for them.
Here we go, Crocs and him for one.
Deeper come to a note that this is now looking much better.
And they're letting the one versus four doves downstairs on the Solis.
One of their most played operators on this team is worth stressing as well.
But I don't think even he could pull off a 1v4 to him.
Now it's going to be tough. I mean he does have the Solis.
He could play around, you know, preventing a plant or anything like that.
But what of the opportunity?
Crocs manages to get it big round from Crocs.
the game. I'm not sure if
he knows. He knows. He knows.
I love this. Um we've got this
kind of new vein from the
players. Haven't we where it's
like, you know, they really are
playing up to the cameras. Some
of it, and I'm here for it. I
love it. We've seen Shackle
eating his popcorn. We've seen
a lens sipping out of his secret
mug. Um you know, we've had
we've had some beauties to kick
off so fast. Carry it. Oh, what
was the other one we had? Who
was it that was putting players
in his pocket? I can't remember
the other day. Thank you very
much to our wonderful
Observers who just whispered
that to me. Um, but yeah,
brilliant stuff coming in from
fanatic. Let's focus on them
for a moment. They just walk
on the desk heavily about
fanatic struggle on attacks.
They're great at getting the
diffuser down bad at winning
the attacks. You know, overall
attacking win rate 38% three
kickoff. So to improve on that
that. Anything more than two
attacks here and they've
improved on that performance
that they've given us throughout
the stage. So, uh, really,
really important start for them.
I think getting that first
attack cafe, not always an easy
map to attack. You know, you've
gone over the stats there does
and the worst defensive side
has a 56% defensive win rate
globally. So, you know, it is a
map that can be difficult to
attack. The defensive blues does
at the minute have a bit of an
advantage here. So yeah, great
that the death mansion was having those players that can go head-to-head with a stomping with a
June with these players that are going to put up big numbers having that hero player that's going
to deliver. Perhaps just come out and put that beautifully in 4-0 or so. You know what I was
digging to find out? A time range where it wasn't the worst site and the closest I've got in the
last year is actually the entirety of the last year and Tim you will love this in Hyde for work.
I've been making of it for the last three years, this which is me start looking at defensive side being picked first time every I think it's just comfort me and I've even had teams I've even had players and cars and so you really hit top look at the lap what's the problem.
time every I think it's just comfort me and I've even had teams I've even had
players and coaches and say oh you really hit top look I feel like what's the
problem another opener for Freckler for a Crocs in this low so I'll be talking about
Freck's celebration he's not playing Crocs manages to get another one wizard is
there they get dead shot back on his feet as well important stuff and another
great attacking start from Fnatic but yeah I've literally had players and
coaches asked me and be like why and I've said why are you playing it it's no
Like, they get it's lost more than any other site by defenders on the right.
They're like, well, we really like it.
It's a good site for us.
And I'm looking at the numbers thinking it's a good site for anyone.
But, here we stand.
Now, this is something the guy spoke about in the first part of the game,
was the aggression that you often see coming out of twisted minds.
We remarked in this cast in them last week as well.
They've always been this aggressive group of players.
But ever since you first saw the appearing numbers here,
all those years ago, aggression has been the name of their game.
And they've added depth to their game.
The thing is, they had a bit of risk in playing some aggressive very early on here.
Like, three players upstairs have gone down very quickly, unless they can get something like this on the go,
which is a little bit of magic out of a shot and needs to really find another here.
Then I was going to say, it gives Spanak a lot of time to make these attacks work,
but they get down towards Wizard Thim. They were 3v5 and now suddenly it's time to look like a 3v3.
Yeah, for that I didn't need to make sure that I don't give this round away.
We've spoken about the importance of them improving those attacking stats,
and this was a great opportunity to do so.
Croft comes out, pick again,
we spoke about these hero players for Fnatic.
Somebody's stepping up and grabbing hold of the game.
Croft is doing exactly that.
6 and 0 at the minute 2 inside the round.
But you've got to deal!
You've got to deal with that VIP position trick!
He hits them for a double!
Are they going to allow it to continue? No!
Oh, my.
Keep it, goes in and gets what? It's traded.
But it's that man, Croft.
What's talking about hero players?
Is he going to be able to cause this down?
He knows where his pizza.
Oh, I'm just looking for it.
But a shot goes massive.
We spoke about him on brown
stairs, popping up and getting
that kill on the second floor,
then dips back down to the
basement and gets a couple more.
Great round from him.
But for now, they're going to be
heading hands over that tin.
They were five feet three with
half a round still to go.
And they've bottled it.
There was one big mistake from
fanatic there.
They've got a player in VIP.
They were fighting with him.
And then decided to run into
to be able to run into
freezer from bottom wise. Um
you know, I think they were
maybe hoping that he didn't
away. They left the angle
because they've been a bit of
the fight there. You really
have to deal with that player
before you try to move in and
take free because otherwise
this is exactly what's going on.
Um you know, tricks is it's
just it's so free, isn't it?
It's so easy. You know, the
fact that he gets to over my
nose, ultimately they get the
trade, but it puts them in a
you know, it's like you're
going to be in a position to
get aggressive onto that spot.
So, you know, what are you doing?
Even tricks that standing, I
think, you know, fanatic. We
start to see where maybe some
of those attacking walls have
come from just, you know, a
little bit of a poor decision
there and it cost them the
round, but look so far 50 50 on
attack still better than they
have been. If it can continue
Well, we'll see how they play out.
You've got to be mindful of it and it's more the frustration that Fernandes can let that one slip through their fingers
But don't take it away from the swisted mind boys. They play brilliantly while they just keep on making fantastic feel uncomfortable
And get away with a crucial round as you say 50-50
Where's you go here as if nothing has happened now? No shield coming through in this round
We have got this in a cross-walls playing on the gap of the towel, but they've missed out on p-9 entirely
It's out on slow-door and it's just about evade the watching eyes of defense, but he's finally traded out and yet again
and then felt like they've got a man advantage.
What can they do with it?
Yeah, good start again from Fnatic.
You know, another thread that we will continue
to look at throughout this one is that entry time.
You know, I've been playing a little bit quicker
and they continue to do so.
Again, within the first minute, pretty much there.
They get that entry kill.
And also important, they get in it
because it's another one of the stats that they've looked at.
Entry on attack is far worse for Fnatic
than entry on defense.
And again, they are now three for three.
you're going fantastically well.
They've got themselves popular killing the rounds as well.
Four versus one, you have to look at it
and think if there's a good chance this is over.
Joe had sort of play that's definitely capable of doing this.
He's on thorn at the minute,
who is just, you know, super charged as an operator right now.
After those recent buffs,
she's very, very popular.
We're gonna do absolutely nothing as dead shot managers
to find that vertical angle fanatic using the map.
Well, using the ground they've taken,
using, you know, that advantage that they've gained
they're getting themselves that
round to one. So now the way I
look at it, they've got their
minimum amount of attacks in the
bank done and dusted pressure
can come off a little bit and
they start looking for the next
three rounds to see, you know,
what else can they do? I think
that was a bit stood up and
twisted minds. Yeah. The fact
that was it managed to walk up
white and just look from lumber
straight to into cocktail kill
one player seconds after a
second one has died kind of
says. Yeah. Why are we still
White wants to start getting pressure from inside a bar.
They'll just drop the hatch down towards utility
and rejoin teammates on site
and look to play C4s from below.
Now, Jack spoke about this a little bit on the desk
as well about how you've seen the aggression
on console from Twisted Minds.
C4s out windows trying to catch players out.
That's their memo.
That's what they love doing.
But the problem then I think is that
overstayed their welcome and been punished for it.
Again, but on that I think Wizard is walk up
while it was Winderfeld and they got him a crucial kill
to see two players then inside a cocktail.
But for me, Twisted Minds should have
that's going to be so. This
going to be the two taking
away twisted minds choose not
to go back to top floor. Um
that would be following their
rotation. Instead they are this
time going to take the fourth
side long that we haven't seen
so far. It's going to be
it's going to be fireplace and mining. So we'll see. Again, it's going to be a scrap over top floor, I would imagine.
This always has been taken away, so again, that's going to give maybe just a little bit more freedom.
I think for that it will maybe look into what's top floor attacks in doing so.
There is still some opportunities from below. I'm thinking kind of in train from kitchen.
So you are cutting them down a little bit, but it's not too often that we see teams play in that fashion.
But on the defence of these mid-floor sites, so I think Fnatic definitely walking more towards that top floor.
But look, it's always never a bad one to remove, because she's just taking away a ton of intel and canon knowledge that's going to be passed around the team.
So let's see if Fnatic can keep up that aggression, get themselves a 4-4 on entries.
Nice and early, we're going to have straight away Croc just racing in there,
but is punished by Jalan using that Rooney DMR so popular at the minute
and taking that entry kill. So first one for Twisted Bines,
they've been great so far at securing rounds, converting them,
when they get the entry, can they continue to do so today?
Yeah, Croc's become a little bit of a nemesis of Jalad throughout this game, actually.
The first two rounds, both the entry kills went away a croc,
and Jalad was the one who was on the receiving end of it,
the receiving end of it, whereas this time around we've changed things over.
He's got the entry and now he's starting to,
he just demands build into things a little bit.
And to a level here, I say I'm just using something that we see
Fnatic employing a lot throughout the stage,
just a Goyo being used in this round.
Now a lot of teams too, make use of Goyo,
but Fnatic have got, I think as you heard freshly on the desk,
one of the slowest entries in the whole league right now.
I think that's intentional, they play a lot of stall,
they slow teams down an awful lot with Goyo.
You see in the same being done, bats have been added here,
because look at the difference.
Yes, Swiss demands are willing to take gunfires onto them,
but they're not aggressively getting out there with C4s.
They've got a pulse playing downstairs, for example.
They're playing more behind their utility,
she's being much more cautious,
and now Fnatic are looking a little bit
just straight to derisive.
They've lost the sends, they've lost the day most of year.
They're giving themselves away.
We're going to let Tafara couple of bullets
and Dobbs out there with a freebie.
This is a much better round coming out from Twisted Minds.
Yeah, it's quite interesting as well,
because taking away the gridlock,
that's going to suggest to Fnatic,
we're going to be hitting you on the flanks.
We're going to be playing that aggressive playstyle.
We're going to be chaotic and unpredictable.
I mean, it's not like they've
got a lot of work to do. They
haven't really done that. You
know, instead, they've lent into
a completely different kind of
playstyle here, and they've
given fanatic a little bit of
time in the round and a little
bit of space. And just instead
use the map and use the angles
that they've got to find the
kills. So you manage to find
themselves up for versus one.
Now twisted minds and. A lot of
work for however to do can't
find himself the first and that
is going to be twisted minds
I think just find the pace down a little bit there.
Probably the previous round as I said,
they held their position a little bit too long there.
Didn't want to back away.
The attack utility was good early on,
but in this round, the fact they got the entry,
then turned it into a quick second.
And off the back of that, just hold their positions,
let Fnatic be the ones to try and figure this out
and break the problem down.
They quite simply can't,
and that was definitely the most convincing round
I think we've seen from Twisted Mind so far.
I'll always bring up that classic line there, Tim.
There are two hearts to a game of siege.
I'm very curious to see what happens
when we get Fnatic on the defense.
I'm going to be playing on and
using into the animal to begin
with, but the washroom mirror
just gives them the opportunity
to kind of cut off across
towards new balcony as well.
Sorry, new hatch and keep that
default spot inside of there.
Pause, but look at this
aggression again coming out of
fanatic. She's going to be
to get back into the game.
Coming out of fanatic straight
in the building inside 15
seconds, hoping to catch
somebody out as it is. There's
nobody down there on the bottom
floor. Dover is on the second
boys inside and reading at the
minute, but for that, I think
we'll have to move quickly if
they want to catch it.
Here's a bit of a classic you
normally see being used by the
other side in deep. It's the
old trip. The employee back in
of course rogue lifting at the
trophy. It's one of the popular
eyes and awful lot making very
aggressive use of those echo
drones to get outside the map
and we jump big up and down to
see where players were and then
feeding that information across
the rest of the team to make
things happen. Tricks can't
look into the same year. What
about the information that is
feeding over to the other side?
I think that's why you've got a
little bit of respect being
played by dead shot bringing
along the IQ to deal with those
that. I mean, that's it's not
unusual for deep. We do tend to
see, you know, when he locks in
on something, he locks in on it.
We've seen it in the echo as
you mentioned previously. And,
you know, other operators, so
doesn't surprise me to see that,
but it's not a bad operator to do
it with so much value. You know,
it's not a bad operator to do it
with so much value. It's not a
bad operator to do it with so much
value. It's not a bad operator
a bad operator to do it with so much value can be found in Capitao. We do have the opener coming
through. It's going to be a shot that gets taken down, but does manage to find a late response
on to Wizard taking the lion off the board. Big Oscar does he want these guns going, but it
doesn't matter when Cox is just going to walk into sight. I was going to say he had a couple of
quiet rounds after one and two, but he makes amends with a big double when his team needs it,
a little bit. I'm going to
go for it. Put any milk down to
eight and three. You want to
hear up here? He's delivering
big time make it three in the
round and fanatic. They get
themselves that third attacking
round. And that is better than
we've seen from them as an
average throughout kickoff. I
think that is criminally
underrated. Well, plastic of
just done then they've seen a
gap and the gap I'm referring
to is that there are no bullet
proof cameras anywhere. No real
cameras back inside a cocktail to see what's happening inside a bar, but
they've identified right. Both mirror windows are inside of storage and
they're inside a bathroom looking into wall's piano. They can't see someone
walking into wall's bar. We brought along the IQ and we dealt with the
yokais. They can't see us from that either. No drones have been captured away or
if they have, they've been dealt with because the IQ has seen them. So they
have no idea if someone goes crouch walking through the middle of bar and
then pops up and starts killing people. I thought for a second they had a
stiff arm to him because they had to really start shooting from inside a
cocktail. I thought, oh, he knows he's there. But I think that was just a little
that's a really good opportunity
to get the ball out of the
corner. We're going to have to
take a quick peek out to see
what was going on, because then
he stands up and gets free fire
on towards the mirror inside
the storage and we saw what
happened from there on the whole
round just folded. So I think
that was really, really good
opportunity to spotting out
there and, of course, props
for one being to make it all
happen. Really well played
involved. So third round on the
on the ball from them. Okay
defensive brain coming up
towards the minds back down to
kitchen. It is one that they
they've got on the board. I think with the way that Fnatic have attacked, actually Twisted
Mine's probably aren't too bad to come in away with the 3-3 split. The problem that
they've got is Fnatic, historically so far through kickoff, have been better on the fence
and Kafe has been fence-sided. So it is going to be a more difficult second halfboard. Again,
look at this aggression and speed coming out of Fnatic. You know, we said on the desk how
they have been slow on those entry kills, on that opening aggression. That has been
and recognize them dealt with and I have a Sean picking up the opener on to Croc's door however they're for the trade so four versus four fanatic two things lovely.
Yeah, a little back and forth nature again.
It's far these rounds it feels like Croc's been involved in almost every single entry in fact casting my eyes down.
That has been now four entries that has been involved in.
Like two that is one that is lost and this one here of course is a little bit of a strap with the bravery start but for me at least so far has been player of the half for me.
for me. He's at 9 and 4 for God's sake. He really is making a big impact, but he just seems to be
involved in everything. He stays like a Wednesday entry. He's getting himself a silver or a 3k off
the back. Don't forget that 4k, he got him round 1. A 3k in the previous round. Brilliant impact to
the bar. Now the rest of his team have got to make do that. I know for the remainder of this round,
but I think they'll be fine to give them the operators they've got available through them.
Deepak looking to get busy on the shield. Wizard has had a wonderful kickoff so far. And over here
with the scents, there's a lot they can get done.
The big question is, do they deal with P9?
He's out in VIP, they lost the round to that area last time.
Did they just avoid it and play for Peer Kree instead?
Or if they do try to work down white, keep an eye out for that area,
instead it's Shilada who's going to do the damage.
Wander's up Brown, Fnatic not quite aware or certainly not within
the timeframe that they needed to be and they get hit for one.
It could have been worse, it could have been better.
They've lost the sense who could have dealt with this VIP problem at bottom-wide by rolling some of those
Arc screens across as it is they either need to
Reduce and push the bakery or if they need to find another way of dealing with P9
So one more supposed to go through they could just try and solve that if they wanted to draw it out and go for a drop
But there might always be the fear that's been counted of course
And see whether or not any are less standing and they're only the one and that's one in the back pocket of shillard
Maybe they'd be mindful of that knowing okay. Actually, there is only one C4 on the side of you know to go off
Yes, we have this you know that drops okay, but instead it's completely another size
Attention given out to start now. I've got a full clear this side of the map and this players holding them here
Yeah, it's really struggling to get anything cool. It's I think been a good defense from twisted minds there
They've had the answers all over the map. I love the push-up brown stairs managing to get that kill
that was you could see fanatic
kind of crumble a little bit
after that. It was like they
just fell into. I won't say
despair, but just really in
decision losing that sense. It
was a big loss for them. Let's
go to the studio here. They
think now we're going into a
half time, guys. What you make
of that? Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh
dear fanatic. The more things
change, the more they stay the
same free free attacks, but you
think in that's actually pretty
good. But in reality, in
reality, it could have been
thought to it should have been
They were in man advantage. They had the Blitz, they knew exactly where the player was, and even then they lose a 2 vs 1, allowing the player that plays inside a Christmas to get a big kill.
Not pushing him in the Blitz, not re-fucking out, he has 2 kills before the Blitz eventually pushes in, but where's his teammate? There to trade him, and Croxton then loses the 1 vs 1 clutch to Hushong.
Realistically, Fnatic have been excellent then at half, but they've only come away with it with a 3-3. Will they ruin it? I don't know.
But it should have been a 4-2 on the balance of things.
If you're just shooting in, a 3-3 is actually really good on the attack.
We spoke about our worries for both these teams, kind of, on the attacks,
such as the Fence favourite map, but it seems like it's a positive thing
we were even hoping for more for Fnatic.
Yeah, it's hesitation, really, that costs them.
I think in that round, in particular, I think so far, though,
I want to give praises to Croxton.
I think he's the one that finds the increase.
He's the one, for example, in that long bar that goes aggressive and gets a 4k.
You know, 9 and 4 with only 6 rounds, being the one that plays in the weaker side as an attacker.
He's the one that opened up most of the gaps for Fnatic.
He's the only right now.
Yeah.
But then you're like, ooh, they are a better team strategically.
They should be further than that.
They feel you with so much hope, but then they feel you with so much frustration at times as well.
I can't even imagine what that coach and staff are going through.
On Quarkson, I will say we kind of mean them.
We kind of mean Fnatic a little bit in the pregame.
Well, certainly you did.
But we also said they don't have maybe the big pop-off player.
I think Korkson showed us in that half, he can be that big pop-off player.
We just need to see more of it, but he's certainly been the front runner.
And now the good news don't stop, because they will go in defense, this is a side that should be easier for them.
And most importantly, that should be way trickier for Twisted Nines.
It is the one side where they're slow, where it's hard for them to problem solve.
We've seen it and we've showed it on Consulate.
When they go on a map that is heavily defend-assided, they struggle to go step-by-step.
And then there's the Operator Bands as well that we're seeing coming in right now for the second half.
A Shield seems quite reasonable.
Yeah, I would hope so. They've abused it on Dove, especially for a team that struggles to problem solve.
The Shield is very often a crutch. You want to go and remove that, so far I'm not surprised.
The Nomad, I'm not so sure. I assume that can easily be fixed with a Great Luck.
I don't know.
I think it's just so that you can pot him, poke him, and get the Sons off.
in the Mariband. It does leave the Azami up. I know Ace and Dez love talking about the top
floor. Azami is devastating, played inside that piano on the top floor defense. So surprised
that they've left that one up. Ooh, we're not seeing the Azami so far forward this first round.
However, we're going to stop talking right now, I guess. Then back to the cast to talk about the
second half. Thank you very much, Ann. Yes, second half is ready to get underway. And Tim, I always
say, two hours to a game of siege. Let's see how things play out now that the shoe is on the other
But, immediately looking at Fnatic, I spoke a little bit about that Goyo in the first half, and we saw Twisted Minds running it.
Not at all surprised to see the Croson has leapt straight onto it.
Yeah, exactly. You can see from the operator set up here, there's a couple of things that they're looking to do.
One is, I think, you know, I don't think it's just about denying Intel here.
I think it's about gaining a little bit for themselves as well.
If you can catch a couple of drones with those Mawson pests.
Yes, we can create a little bit of safety for themselves if they want to play up on the top floor for example
Which is where we see that shot now
We can kind of create that like drone back out area
But also if he grabs one or two of them as well and can get them repositioned
It could be something valuable for the later round particularly get them on that mid floor
And Twisted mines are trying to play vertically
Nitro goes out there. I think they were asking for an awful lot from the arm of wizard
He gives it a go doesn't catch anybody
It might have been a little bit of damage onto Dover, but nothing too serious to Twisted
Minds to worry about.
But yeah, on the other, on the flip side of that, a lot of denial.
So, a lot of time wasting here.
You've got your Goyo, you've got your Tachanka, you've got those laser gates, you've got so
much utility there that Twisted Minds need to problem solve, need to think about, need
to work their way through.
I don't know, you know, whether sort of chaos and aggression will win the day against this
kind of lineup.
We're going to find out, I suppose, thinking about it, but I also do like the idea of being able to disrupt and isolate players on Twisted Minds if you can.
You know, shield an isolated player who's trying to pull off his own sort of flank all alone, you get three versus one against him.
That could turn the round around, but I don't know that it's just the mind's of the king, but it's to acknowledge that and go hyper-aggressive on towards site, for example.
Not when you look at all the line-ups coming out from the side of Bananic and all the things they've brought along to slow the other side down.
So, unstoppable force, immutable objects, that's kind of what the lining up was here, Tim.
Drex is working his way through though already.
Joe might be taking out his way through on his way towards White Stairs here.
He's got a couple of defenders to worry about down below too.
The minute it feels like they're slowly working their way through about the halfway mark,
and this is when really, Tim, you want to start ripping up their floorboards and getting eyes on what's going on downstairs.
So, so far, so good.
Yeah, that's how Wizard were playing inside a fireplace.
They've burned about half of the round there.
So I think they have to slow things down a little bit. I think Twisted mines are still fine
I think it's kind of like both of them. You know one team have done okay
Just putting a little bit of time and making Twisted mines. They expect things and Twisted mines have done a pretty good job of clearing
out and getting them back down all the time. They've also done a much better job by clearing VIP.
That's how you need to do it for that team. We see two kills come in. They're both gonna go to Twisted mines. Five versus three
They've still got the tachanka on the board here, so they do still have some denial.
But, Tristan Mansell can super smooth and slick on this tack.
I mean, look at how much work Tricks has got done there.
Look at the piece that Thresh is analysing at the halfway point, right?
It was a 3v1 for Fanatic in a very, very similar spot.
That was a 1v2 for Tricks.
He smirks one off, charging towards Christmas, got the player with the support of a teammate coming in behind him.
They played that absolutely beautifully to him, but now they've got to convert the round.
You can't go for 5v3 and see it lost, you will criticise the tonalic for the same thing, it'll be a similar story here, if they see this one split away from them.
Drex got the fuser in back part, waiting for this fire to burn out, but see, time is not on their side.
Look what it is doing, the job does, it's those operators we spoke about, it's the Goyle canisters, it's the laser gates, it's all this utility that they brought to slow things down.
the game plan was 3.5, one and
well deserved. What a defense
from fanatic. Wonderful round.
Indeed. I really like how they've
played that one out. I mentioned
about playing a little bit more
slow, maybe trying to isolate
out players. What did surprise
you was twisted minds with the
one they're looking for the
isolation chances that blitz going
1v2 absolutely nuts. But like
we sort of said, like the issue
is the operator line up Tim and
back to fight them massively
all that fire in the closing
moments. Deepak having himself
racking up inside a small
break. Just a very, very good
about for that. But I'm also
very impressed with what I saw
from twisted minds really
understanding first round. I
hope it carries on down that
trend. Yeah, they certainly
looked good for it. Like I said,
it was good on both sides there.
It was like fanatic have been
schooled in better to be happy
and deal with that player
you know, but ultimately, I think it was, I'm not gonna say it was all part of the plan for Fnatic, obviously, you know, they want to hold on to that area,
they want to hold on to the whole map as long as they can, but that really wasn't the core of their defence, you know, there was another core of their defence,
and it was one of those big layers, that was one layer that Twisted Binds were able to remove, but let's not overlook as well the work done by Wizard and Deadshot,
So, halfway through the round, I said that the Mozzie muted actually dropped away from
fireplace.
But there was quite an investment up there.
There was mute jammers, there was mozzie pest, there was reinforcements to try and burn
as much time as possible.
It was 1 minute 30 before they dropped away, which meant that twisted minds were behind
that mark, not massively, but kind of behind that mark that we talk about of trying to
open up those verticals halfway through the round.
They weren't confidently in control at 1 minute 30.
It was another 10, 15, 20 seconds before they could start really doing that.
So now everything starts to become a little bit of a rush, you know,
you behind the pace because it's taking your time to clear out their shot on
Wizards. So I think there was a lot of factors for the fanatic in that round
that all came together. It was kind of 10% here, 10% there, 20% there,
and all those added together won the round for them. It was really nice.
Well, let's leave the guys on in this one or if we get some different ideas coming out
from Chris Devine because it sure looks like it's him.
Of course, got Solid Snake onside, the glass, the one that I've got my eyes on most of all.
But more interesting to see how they make use of the JkB.
Then he would use it for clearing through the map, but a couple of teams over the years,
and looking back at old school Falcons would use it as part of an execute to defeat them all the until they need on their push in.
Now look at this, you know where the player is, he's got a win, he's got a fight, Tim.
It's officially comes out on top, loose, a bit of HP, but Croxton is down on the deck.
Azadok and B'Kul comes out. This is when the pressure starts to mount here.
Switched to mines looking for some early advantages.
Yeah, P9 is going to continue doing that work across top floor, mid floor, with solid snake, just looking to drive those wheels out in position.
But Dover does get taken out. That's the Blackbeard obviously we spoke about.
The analyst spoke about how Monty was banned to try and prevent Dover being on that operator, but instead he brings the Blackbeard.
Doesn't matter, he's been neutralised. Four versus three as a Nitro finds its mark.
The F2 keeps on singing three versus three as Twisted Mind's scrap to keep themselves in this one.
Yeah, company.
Come at us in the first half, and when we saw Twisted Mind defending this site, they didn't drop away soon enough.
What have they done? Drops away, managed to get Cropped up, got a kill on the way out, and then collected a C4.
They're in a golden chance to be able to close out this round, however, it's still nail-bitingly close.
Two versus two, we're coming down to the last 45. Still, one C4 in the bad pocket of over here.
I think he's going to be pushed on that door by Deepak, but Deepak knows he doesn't need to do anything here, really.
He's baited out a little bit by the sound of P9's gadget.
He plays it smart and gets back. Doesn't feel he needs to push there, however.
Does get taken down by P9. Deepak with the trade though, 1v1.
Fuser has been recovered by her shaman.
Deepak now is surely going to start playing the time game.
He's got to be so careful here as well, D-Pekashom has got a great idea on where he's going to push him from.
There's only really one or two places he can make it happen, but we're down to the last five.
He's got to go for a kill now, Tim, but there's a shotgun out there, and D-Peksy here.
Who comes out on top? He gets down on his belly!
The good ol' Shump Beaks in. He's working in for the magic, Tim.
Gets away with the kill, and gets it for his team.
Managers to find it with the bailiff. Beautiful stuff.
There's a bit of that unpredictability that twisted minds bring to the table.
to the table. 4-4, and what a cafe we are seeing so far.
These two absolutely fighting tooth and nail for this one.
Seeing great seeds on both sides of the table.
They're all enjoying it.
Kroc's just getting dealt with at the beginning there.
Just a beautiful use of nades.
Obviously, it's not a new, it's quite an old change now.
But since we saw that change so that they can't be cooked
anymore, the fuse activates once it bounces off the surface.
You've then got to think about four seconds.
just bouncing that need in there just to give that warning to proxy has to move or he takes the death from the need
But the angle is covered P9 had a great round on that F2 as well did some great work
Ultimately it was enough to get to us the minds over the line
Really very very
You
Ridiculous versus a like a psycho P Queen country the head just popping around the corner
It was more of a I'm gonna stay on my belly rather than get back up and dip away
So it's more trying to be a little bit cheeky, but I'm buzzing for him
It's what it's out there that has come out on top and kept things equal
We were saying after the series earlier on to go. You guys have a nice
Good to zero watch this series go with the distance all three bucks 45 rounds. Well
so far
that. I'm just looking at the
entry game so far as well. Um
it was an area that that we
have spoken about and fanatic
did well on the attack four and
two one and one so far with
fanatic on the defense and
twisted minds on the attack,
but it's 5050 almost five and
three depending as to where the
teams have been able to close
able to close out the rank based on that entry. We often see quite a high conversion rating
games for entry kills being, you know what I mean by that, where a team gets the entry
kill, it goes on to win the round. It's certainly been a little bit of a mixed bag of sorts.
See how it plays out this time around. I have that good lot of just preventing the run-out,
the concern being unsurprisingly from Fnatic really. We know how unpredictable first advance
can be, so unpredictable that you can kind of predict a little bit of that unpredictability.
You know that there's going to be jump out. You know they're going to be sticking the first set of windows if you get the opportunity.
So they try to prevent that happening. Deadshot managers to get the kill on to Dover.
That's going to be five versus four now as we start off for Fanatic once again.
Their great run of entry continues.
An exception, as long as you're speaking about in that round, Tim.
on the way. So unpredictable.
They become predictable.
Almost. Yeah. Some of the
numbers. Yeah, I think I just
have the point. I think this is
it. This is it. This is mine.
So that you know, they've brought
the gridlock. They're trying to
protect the runouts themselves,
but fanatic reading into that
and saying, we know you're going
to try and cover you. We're
going to make it. You know,
they're trying to lean into it
by being unpredictable
themselves. That's it. Two for
a 5B3, they've now lost one back.
Sean, we've won for the fact that this is far far here,
but now they know that it's coming as a player
on white stairs, does he know?
Sure he does, they're back to the way he hits him.
Left in taking the end, well, it's not a utility instead,
but there we go, it's out front in, he falls down
and surely this is a fanatic round to win,
and all orchestrated off the back of a couple
of fantastic C4 kills, they made it look easy.
I think fanatic are just leaning into those power weapons
at the minute as well.
the game. We've got a lot of
players. We're seeing them bring
the DMR's along. We're seeing
deep out playing the warden
plenty of SMG 12. We've got a
lot of SMG 12 enjoyers at the
minute. You know, we're seeing
that as a secondary used often
as a primary, and it just gives
that opportunity to kind of keep
the shotgun in the back pocket
for but that's it looking good
here on cafe. It was their map
choice, I believe, and they are
like the edges there for fanatic. It does. Yeah. We've seen this a few times in the past and I said
a few times now, a number of times, like a lot of times in the past even, where it feels like one
side has really got kind of the tactical side of the map down. Like you look again at some of the
issues that we've seen from Twisted Minds throughout the game. When they've had to kind of play the
macro game is where things have fallen down, the more strategical side of things. Where they've
been very, very good, I think, is more in the micro like tactical moments. And I refer to things
like the Blitz play into VIP with the smoke onto the doorway and the 2v1 they're slaps at the back of that.
It was fab. Where they've fallen down is when dealing with double C4 kills coming from below,
fired denials on towards plant spots. It just feels almost like fanatic of like one step ahead
and know what's going to happen and how to deal with it or their setting up traps here that
were not quite seeing twisted mines yet overcome. They can do a brute force, but I feel they've got
to find that opportunity and maximise, maximally capitalise on it to come out on top. I do think
I think they've got more of that clutch capability in them compared to that.
They could still save them here.
But I do feel like so far for now they could be in the stronger team,
playing strategically.
Yeah, I agree.
You know, we can't expect it, it is their map choice.
But they definitely seem to be on top in those respects.
I think Twisted Minds have had some great gunfights
and a couple of good passers-by, but it's kind of kept them in this.
But Twisted Minds are much more keeping themselves in it,
whereas I think you're looking to win this one.
So, 5-4, we stand. Fnatic are completely avoiding the top floor.
I could not be happier. We're going to go to kitchen.
In round 10, we've got those extra bands coming.
No surprise, we see the Aruni there.
I spoke about that then in another way.
The Fnatic are using those power weapons, those power operators.
Take away the DMR, but also we saw it in their last defensive kitchen,
using the laser gates really well, positioning really well to burn time,
to burn utility.
So, no surprise to see the Aruni taken away,
and it's gonna be game-os on the other side.
We'd love to see this again.
There's Trap up right, like 3D and Loadadult,
or the Intel's an R from the way plus.
We'll make sure they're gonna see for in that pocket.
They're just actually gonna rip some ready here
till he's stood with it.
Just waiting to see if they come up towards that half
and he gets a preview of the back of it.
Not quite sure that he will,
but even if they fail on the C4,
there's still so much more
that Twisted Mind's gonna work through.
And I think we'll have fast they wanna go
looking at things like the Blitzcon sign,
Okay, he's been able that as well.
Then it gets clung by it later on.
Ooh, just taking down off the repel,
yet another entry going to fanatic deadshot,
managing to take down Hashom,
and that is a big loss for a kitchen attack.
Look at what's gone.
It's the Ram.
There's gonna be no boogie none down in this round, guys.
It's been taken away,
has, has the verticality, pig loss.
That's it.
You go on to start.
You've still got this edge on side.
It's not the end of the world, you know, we saw the same happen to Fanatic when Kroc was on in the ravine, so he died in the entry.
Still had a buck on side to make things happen, so Tritz can get work done, but my Arnie's will always be on that seat for which is now being wielded by Deadshot.
Is he gonna throw it off to look somebody? Yes he is, but no kill secured this time around.
Dover's still doing great work on the shields.
Could have been a cast of Curse there though as he walks in.
Floor opened underneath, smart moving from Wizard, manages to take down another really important part of the Twisted Bands attack.
The people thing is, I've seen Fadalik do that twice this half, now that isn't a new thing.
Twisted Bands maybe only seen it last time round and missed out on it, that's fine.
But we've had seen that same hole open up twice, both times we've had a player start under it, waiting for someone to run through.
And this time Starves just walks in, absolutely blindsided, and they lose the main spearhead of this round.
Let's not forget, Blitz has done a lot for them throughout this half so far, and now it's completely not available.
This is going to be a rescue after this divine.
It is. It's not the end of the way for them at the minute. They've still got the sledge.
That results from under the Ram problem a little bit. They get into work and doing it now.
Deadshot is going to take a bunch of damage as well. So they've still got the tools that they need for this job.
They've got time. It was a minute 15 when they were opening Freezer Wall and have control of VIP.
So they've got a lot of good work done, it is possible, but they have to stop losing bodies.
Deadshot manages to find Jalad, 3 vs 2 now, steps up, wizard, double in the round for him.
And it is all up to Tricks on the sledge, 20 seconds he drops,
Freezer is going to push on him to site, but this bullet's raining in all around him.
There is absolutely no safe space for the sledge.
Shutout by Deadshot, big round from him, and Fnatic put themselves on match point.
I really don't want to dog too much on twisted mind because that was a wonderfully played round by fanatico overall from the early C4 attempts
On towards red hatched the entry they got and then basing it out again and the kill for the floor
But what it really again shows is that on this macro level fanatico always a step ahead
It's what we said a couple of rounds ago. Everything that it felt like was coming out twisted minds
It was a bit labored a little bit like that stop and think about what was it?
What they need to do next to try and deal what was going on and every time I felt it regained their composure
the game. It was a constant
battle to try and keep the cells
in that game. Well, in that
round sorry, that means that
next point. Wonderful play by
them. So far across the time
out the air couple of hours
that could have been over the
while already. But that's just
how things go. Sometimes again,
brilliant play. The golden
chance to go one year on. Yes
the start that you feel fanatic
need as well. You know, they've
I think to be honest with you.
This is I'm going to say the
best fanatic performance that
we've said through kickoff so
far. Um you know, I guess there's
been a couple of mistakes in
there, but overall, I feel like
they're looking really good today.
And if I was a twisted minds
fun, I'd probably be a little bit
concerned. Obviously we've got
labs coming up. That's plus the
mind's map choice. There is an
element there where an attic
wanted to play cafe. This was
I think they've really come in
with some great ideas on this
map overall. And again, the
track gameplay that played the
way this flow these rounds down
and not really giving to
mind the chance to play their
game or get themselves really
rolling on the attacking side. I
think it's been wonderfully
done. Will you get the same
freedom? I think on laps
probably not because there's
more optionality on that
Because there's more optionality on that map, because it's bigger, because it's a bit more chaotic at times, I think, at least anyway.
I think you're finally going to see Twisted Mines finally find their way back into it.
When we get to Fortress, very different conversation.
That is going to be a very, very interesting map, if you find ourselves getting there.
Let's see where the Twisted Mines can keep things going on.
Café to begin with then.
They've got two rounds here that they have to win back-to-back.
Map 0.4, Fnatic on both of them.
So just one will do.
not all the chances in the world, but they are back in a reading room now. This is the site that they have lost so far. It was a successful attack, but it came down to that one. The one if we remember, if I'm having to hit the deck and take the pistol fight was the bailiff actually against the shotgun of Deepak.
to get a shot in on the
Blackbeard. But how much
success a fanatic found with
the explosives? It continues.
Blackbeard taken down. Your
life manages to find the trade,
but Deadshot is there for one
on two tricks. He's continuing
to fight while it stares. He
was in a bad position, but
again, this is something that
fanatic have done well throughout
is to trade those deaths. Really
Always a step ahead Tim. It's really all I can say about this half. It just feels like they've always got something else in mind.
There's just the minds to give it to them. It's not all that often you'll see two players playing on white window there.
So the second player here, they've got a freebie. I was like, oh, nice, that surprised them.
Now they've got themselves another from the similar position. He and I are bringing it down to a two versus two.
They're not out of this yet. They can still do it, but we're coming down to the last 40 seconds.
the back pocket of croc, for
example, and a keeper barrier
still to go. There are still
ways for that. It can cause a
headache here.
You can see P nine on white
stairs. They're looking to get
aggressive into war. Fire
bless is able to take the
challenge as he's in the
boat. Animation takes down
crocs and leaves wizard. No one
V two. One thing twisted minds
need to make sure here is that
they don't give him anything
for free. Don't give him those
one V one nicely done.
to win the game. They've got
to be extremely done working
together. They create a little
bit of a diverging get wizard
into a fire and then dovetakes
the peak around the corner
finds the kill and twisted
minds. They get themselves to
round 12. One more to win to
take us into overtime. Yeah
honestly. Fantastic there again.
Big peanuts and so much in that
round around White window two
kills on that same repel and
then as you saw at the end of
I was just like the rounds over. They've lost a freebie to the C4. They've annoyed their dead choppers to the side of white
They've been traded out when they got the kill even back on to him
It felt like there was nothing the system mines could do right without fanatic being had to repeat it and relay it back
Onto them, but they managed to find a way through with a little bit of a big hero moment
And it was one thing actually speaking of like hero moments
They speak about hero rounds from individuals when they can have a player that just gets 3k or a 4k and basically wins the round for the team
I was looking at the numbers, like Fnatic are the least hero play team I believe it was so far.
Others generally are looking at like teams like Falcons, just endless, as you can imagine, 3Ks and 4Ks coming out of their ears.
He's seen a couple today so far, I think from both teams now. Both of them are really up for this, and it's not just fans of team effort,
it's individual brilliance as well as shining, and that always makes for a fantastic series.
Yeah, Croxton and Deadshot are the obvious two to pick out for Fnatic there.
23 kills between the two of them, and you know, they've all had some big, big rounds.
Deadshot with a 3K round, Croxton with a 3K and a 4K round,
and it's just having those big moments from players.
You need, like you said, the full sweep, you need the combination.
You need the players that are going to come out and do that,
but you also need that solid, strategical foundation as a team.
And I think, you know, in parts, I'm not going to say the performance is perfect, always round,
but I feel like that is something that Fnatic have shown us a little bit of both today.
And that is a really positive sign for them. Not twisted minds though, takers to 12.
They've certainly had some impressive moments themselves. They've dealt with some difficult
problems and they've made life a bit of a misery at times for Fnatic in some of these rounds.
So, can they get it done? Fnatic bringing the clash this time.
Is that going to be the difference maker?
It's another thing to get in the way of twisted mines to slow them down, isn't it?
And now that's being the constant threatened annoyance throughout the half,
twisted mines to hate to have to face off against, and it might probably be the same again here.
They've had, what, two frags run out so far, shield of course is still standing,
Jalaz got two more to use, but look again, it's a little bit of a stalemate that falls, albeit it's very early in the round.
Going to see another Camdello going in here, I think.
two left on the board after that, like that it's dealt with so quickly and easily by a wizard,
just applies that keeper barricade, shoots out the cantella, keeps himself safe for another 10 seconds,
is so halfway through the round now, and twisted minds, it feels like they're struggling to get
themselves really established in their state here. They've managed to take some top floor,
but otherwise it's a lot of window play, and they're not working the verticals too much,
they do manage to get that entry though, Hasham picking up D-Pick and that is a big one to remove.
That is the class, the shield, gone off the board. And just when it was a 6-4 we were thinking surely
Twisted Minds are going to find themselves trying to catch back up. Well Tim, they look like they're
on to do it. A five versus three, but now they can try this really aggressive hold-around one that
hasn't yet paid off. Right, gets at least one back but now it's a little off and scrap, into
fireplace and self-carnity, pushing, but look at it from below. Wonderful play from Hasham
to get the assist down.
Jalakim Rida dead shot.
They have sliced that sides up to him like a good old pizza,
and now they've forced us to overtime.
We're going to get a few extra rounds of this.
Twisted mines digging deep in those last couple of rounds.
Fnatic are going to kick themselves for not being able to get it over the line,
but I do think it is more about the adjustments that Twisted Mines made
than necessarily anything that Fnatic did.
I think dealing with the clash as a priority,
that round. It's going to be
a little bit of a. Not early in
that round, but as the first
thing that they did in that
round was a real big moment for
twisted minds. Recognize where
the kind of linchpin of the
defense was what was going to
be the big hold up. They
managed to remove it. And then
also the use of the verticality
but from beneath rather than
from above. Beautiful stuff. They
Certainly made it interesting those last couple of rounds.
Because again, there's six, four hours like that.
They just want to keep on saying that.
They've always got to figure it out.
They've always got to wait through.
But in the last couple of rounds,
you've seen twisted minds really step up,
both individually in round 11,
but then as a team in that final round of regulation.
Now they're trying to hide away half of here on the echo.
You see him lay down here, not wanting to reveal himself.
They've got something cheeky in mind,
but maybe so do you decide.
So we're looking at their line of those hopping across.
a bit of an hour of coming out of course got a what I call like a major buff I wouldn't even say it's
a major buff but it's certainly an improvement now it gets all off the doors at the very very
start of the round they can be used at longer range all that kind of good stuff to come and look
forward to but here we're not yet at the point where those guys are out so it's not available
at this stage you of course want to look forward to in the future all eyes now turn towards things
like the sense and the blitz there to work a bit of magic on the other side though we're talking
to the match him. Looking at the Kai, looking at the thugs, looking at the flash, and the
Goyo of course. It's all about slowing them down. How well that is there as an insurance
policy. So let's see what they can get away with.
Yeah, we'll keep an eye on Jalad on the Roura. It's an operator. I've been playing quite
a lot of in-ranking recently, nice DMR, and then especially when it's solo, if you just
want to give a go in your own games at home, she can be very good at creating that bit
that you sometimes need, you know, to avoid those flanks getting hit and just create a
little bit of a safe space to play in, especially as a solo hockey player, where you can't always
guarantee on having that support put. Here we go, in round 12, we get a goalie with twisted
minds, they're sending the shield, they get a double fanatic, starting to crumble here,
they're on the defensive game, they've got the clash, 100 people die, DPEC becomes less
powerful because he can't keep playing behind that shield. They need a gun up, able to take a fight.
Jill admires the fine wizard. He's not going to have to take one fight. He's going to have to take
five right now. Flawless round and twisted mines. There's, they seem to have found another gear.
They've hit the accelerator pedal in a big way. Wow. They really can't, they don't just use most of
their users here in that round, Tim. They just rolled one kill into another, just breeze their
the game. I think that's a
thing that's going to be a way
through and correct me on
mistaken. Have we seen a
fanatic time out this game?
No. We saw a twisted man, Tom.
I really feel like attack time
has to come in now not to try
and come up with the strategy
to win. Thank God for that.
This isn't to do with a
strategy to win the game. This
is a mental thing. Those last
three rounds have just got
progressively worse from the
boys. Yeah. Around 12. They
just looked a little bit lost
there getting sliced up inside
a fireplace in the one part of
that. Yeah, P. Man went big.
to the last round. They got
absolutely rushed their pants
up by the side of twisted
minds. It's gone from bad to
worse across those three
rounds. They just need a mental
reset right now. Otherwise this
map's done. Yeah it was far too
easy for twisted minds. There
wasn't the whole round was
over in about 15 seconds. You
know, they just spotted that
opportunity. I think they had
locations. You know, sort of
pinpointed for a few of those
fanatic players and just went
in and to the I think that
fanatic have done a good job
their game, which is chaos and aggression. And they found it. They just found it there in round 13,
so a sub-mind's able to just dash in and say, you know what, we're going to play our way for this
round. And as soon as they did, Fnatic really struggled to stand up to that. So, you know,
what do they do? First of all, they've got to win an attack. That's something that they did pretty
well, I think, in the first half. They went three and three. So there's no real advantage there,
but I feel like Fnatic were in the driving seat when they were on attack. So if we do see this
I think something fanatic need to do is kind of lean into the the theory of that clash pick of, you know, maybe brings some of the trap up for it as we've seen them use the Goyorkan system and maybe they bring out a lesion.
You know, maybe they bring out a frost, bring plenty of barbed wire, just do everything they can to prevent that chaotic aggression from twisted minds.
Slow them down, spread out a little bit, just a lot of problems to solve.
I think where they found the most success, honestly, was, as crazy as it sounds, like,
the rounds where they had to be able to cross a couple like Skyward of the early parts of
the round, is where they found success, is where they found the early kills and been
able to get themselves on the leading foot.
They've had the entry, at least a couple of the last couple of rounds went by, and the
majority of these rounds, they've done really, really well on the entry, and they were like
8 out of 11, they were flying, and those last couple, that's tight, let things slip, and
The means across those last few rounds in total,
that's if you've only found four kills.
Now it's not looking good, and that is one open.
That timeout will turn things around for them.
For now, they've got a deal, though, of course,
with the other side.
Now, Trix is the one that Paul's got my eyes on here.
He's got the super hyper early aggression
he might be used to,
but I think he's playing currently on the stairway.
Trying to look for wards.
Sorry, I thought he was on the stairway
up towards the museum side, but no.
He's sat back inside a train,
just feeding out what's going on on these windows.
We saw for now they get a freebie
onto a blackbeard playing here and here on,
and maybe they're hoping they'll get there looking,
to get a free beat into
was piano on the side of
the night as well. Okay, then
crocs is taking the drop at
top red. We saw him have some
success on the entry in the
first half around one and two
both went to him. He's going to
find this one as well. I drown
14 to his bike. We just needs
to go to the checkout and try
to purchase the rest of this
round. It's going to be five
a little bit here, and at it, not wanting to get anything back to twisting mines, wanting to keep at an advantage before they continue sweeping across the top floor.
The droning does go on. Look at this utility use. Very little that could be done there.
Amazing. Again.
Push it a bit to bad positions.
Yeah. I mean, they managed to get away with the C4 kill from Tricks, which is what they've been aiming for for a long time, but after the damage had been done, Croxton again, like he did on Bar before, just crouched, walked his way through, still haven't gone,
Still haven't got, oh hey, there's a free kill in towards storage for me, because no one's really paying attention.
They haven't got the intel on the other side, or at least they should have.
That was Tricks job, but he's missed that one and let...
...cross and get away with quite literally murder.
It's a 4v2.
Surely, Fnatic can't bustle this.
Tricks is a big thing that Twisted Minds have got going for them here.
Having that intel on the pulse, tries to go for a run out, but due diligence has been pitted.
over earlier in the round had that air jab there for that possible runout good stuff they're going to
drop all the kit behind the sense walls they don't quite get away with it but the trade is there so
no big loss for fanatic dpeck finding the man it's going to be the plant going down as well now
Tricks is trying to get movement going here but he cannot find an angle wizard picks up the kill
and we are going all the way to 15. A very well controlled round by Fnaticus thought as well like
They weren't dropping until the very bitter end and maybe a bit too much reliance on the sense wall there
But I'll give it to them again. This is the aggression that we used to seeing out twisted mines
They're willing to step up and be aggressive there and try and isolate out the 1v1s and it almost worked out beautifully
Just D-Pet managed to get the closing shot down that forced that to be a 3v1 on the close
Well now Tim we get that switch we've seen both teams do well. They've had a 3-3 half
They're both on their attacks in overtime
Is that what carries on the twisted mind? Take it or do we see a defense win come through here for the first time in five rounds?
I think that's a good chance.
As long as they don't go to top
floor, there's there's always a
chance. There's always a chance
hold your breath in. It's going
to be reading. It's going to be
reading now. Come back. Come back
to what I said a second ago,
right where I think they found
good success. It's been in C
foreplay and that is very
simplistic. You can't always
The question now comes, it's a twisted mind, see that on the left side, you know what, they show respect to us, they brought the IQ, they dealt with the yokais, it's how Croxton managed to crouch, walk into bar and kill two of us and win the round.
We're going to bring the IQ as well, or they're just going to leave it, they can lean into what the doc could be of desire, but as a note, I'm not 100% solid on this, this is brave.
It is, as you said, they can use those calls a little bit, you know, if you're going to take an area,
Yeah, if you're gonna take an area that you think could be dangerous. Oh, this is interesting
No, I'm you used to be able to play about comes out years ago
That's a real sacrifice to try and get that early peak as we can will now be out of action
They're gonna take it out anyway, but it would have stopped giving a speed much like the echo comes to
Yeah, interesting use of it there kind of a little pocket
Can't throw it out there so you can get a kill doesn't work out
But back to you know what I was saying the way that you can use that
It forces when that call comes in it forces all the defenders off the camps
So if you've got an area that you know is a high risk area
Something like piano and you haven't found a cam in there
But you're worried about getting hit with a C4 when you go in and take that area as you're about to progress through there
Bang you hit your door could be cool
You force everybody off the cams you work your way through you're forcing them at best to a blind C4 attempt then
So it is you know one way of dealing with it at least but I agree the actually
more
All right, well, let's see if any C4s
sets in the rounds, if those black eyes come back
to bite just to find them.
Now, taking things very slowly themselves,
there's only worries to get a bit more of a self-dust
on yourself, ain't gonna help.
Only worries to get a little bit scared here,
a little bit hesitant to start slowing things down.
Where they've found successes in the aggression
and I feel taking your foot off the gas now
would be the worst idea you could take.
Just continuing the sweep across the top floor.
They do still have Crocsons to deal with this,
Four fanatics 7-7 on the scoreboard for versus four in the round could not be closer than this
That's what I think that it could play for here. They've done such a great job losing crop though. That is not super ideal
We know that it's been must have fallen throughout this game 15 and 12. He will end on one kill per round
Perfectly averaged out
Here we go with the drops coming on through this black being here
It's put pressure down inside the fireplace, a key spot to be in, because that spot's not a playing range, it's an aisle.
They're looking nice and close to going for a door fight here as well.
I expected to find someone in behind the fallen bookcase, but there is no one.
But that could have been a freebie, but no, it's the Blackbeard.
Plant is going down and for that it looked powerless to stop it, Tim.
How will she say death? How will she say otherwise?
Pops himself up onto the washing machine and cleans house.
Gonna take him down, but then, but then,
Twisted mines, they just run in, they close the net, they bind the kills and they take map one.
Ashop's straight in all chat, surely Sage easy, easy enough points him.
That was a back and forth game, right until the bitter end.
But when it matters most, twisted mines, they put their brains to the challenge, and they find a way over for their next map game.
Strategy vs Chaos and it comes down to a chaotic final two seconds where
Twisted Rhymes were able to turn it around and get it done.
A fantastic first map series in all 15 rounds. That was a joke about 45 rounds but it could be on the way.
Let's stop next. We'll see you after a short break.
I think we need a VAR check on what the hell happened inside those final few seconds.
Again, it starts them off with a nick and then they seem to throw it away.
Yeah, of course, this is the run that I spoke about, actually, the halftime where they threw away an attack, that would have been a 4-2 split instead of a 3-3.
Had they won that round that was very, very much in their hands, they would have won the game entirely.
And it must be so frustrating to be a fanatic fan. It must be so frustrating to be a fanatic coach, player even, you know, like, because the game was in their hands and they really let it slip.
It's worth noting, both of these teams had really, really good attack arson cafe,
which traditionally is not the most attack-as-ide of the map.
It is leaning more and more attack-as-ide as teams figure out more and more,
but yeah, they managed to find a way to get the job done.
Even here, 6-4, you know, the fact that Twisted Rounds were able to come back in the 6-4 round
whilst being at man disadvantage is another slight on the Fnatic.
When they've got the round and the game in their control,
they just seems have this soft underbelly right at the end.
And look at this, he brings back the round in 3v3.
Hovak has gotten the most important kill and then suddenly, boom, the 3v3 just disappears.
Two player pushing two ways, no one is expecting them.
All the major gunfights, Jack, they are lost to the side of Nadek.
And I think it is a consistent issue that in the most critical moments, when they do
need these impactful kills, the critical skill is just stacking.
Yeah.
I mean, this is one of those games that on the balance, you could play out ten times
and Fnatic would probably win it nine times.
We just happened to view the one time
that Swissenmann's found a way
because Fnatic would just snatch in defeat
from the jaws of victory.
Well, what's that coupion like?
Do you really think they've replayed that?
There is a 90th-century stage wins this?
No, no, but at least three rounds we've watched there.
Fnatic have completely thrown it away.
Yes, Swissenmann's have brought it back,
but Fnatic have completely thrown it away.
Okay, but at some point you've got to ask the question.
Fnatic has done that.
And they've done that, exactly.
They've done that every single match.
So in history, if they do that every single match, I expect that if they replay it again,
I will know that probably too.
Do you know what happened?
My point started out strong.
My point started out strong and then we got to the front of the half.
Do you realize really weakly?
Do you realize the logic behind it?
It is just a fanatic thing.
They are a great team.
They do things the right way.
They have a good game plan.
They have good players.
And I've got to hate it that in the last 30 seconds of every round, I'm like how are they going to lose this one?
And somehow 50% of the time they will lose it and I'm like how?
Because they've got everything they need? Yes, this is a crash out.
But because I expect these guys to do better, because I'm like they have it in them, they deserve to win.
But they just keep throwing it away.
Yeah.
I mean, that's not even just a soft underbelly.
That was a lot more that we saw on the horse there causing a very valid crash out here.
And especially thinking that this was for that XMAP pick right yet want to see them take that one if they're show
Confident to pick that first in a series right? We're talking about best of three
We're talking about death being shown with these teams here
We're now going on a map that twist of mine apparently is very comfortable because it is their MAP pick in this series
I want to see improvement from the side off medic
I want to see the two endless here not have another crash out when we're gonna go into the second map
We'll talk about all this in for the second series out of this
I'm breaking next to the body now.
Check this out, I'm never sounding out.
I'ma keep it going till it ain't a night.
I'm breaking next to the body now.
Oh, it won't stop, I'm running out.
Cause I can't get down from the funny love.
I'ma keep it going till it ain't a night.
Welcome back to the EML kickoff. I need your help because these two gentlemen, even when
the break continued, continued crashing out about what we saw from Fnatic in that first
I'm very serious about this
They just kept going on that I I need something I need a bit of hope crash out. Okay. We're over it now
I need a glimmer of hope for the phonetic fence. We're over it. We're over it. Okay
The reality is is fanatic actually for the most part even close up to the G2 game
They can control round 12 they can show as good theoretical knowledge and control of the round
They just let it slip and it's very easy to say don't let it slip
They need to find their own way of doing that.
Maybe, you know, just committing a little bit harder without any fear, without any hesitation.
That's maybe how they do it.
But yeah, that's the hope, is that they actually are still in a lot of these rounds
because they're controlling them well.
I think the back line works well.
I think Deepak has shown it multiple times with his double-digit games.
Three times in a row, by the way.
I think that if you look at the entry, I think that Kroc, for example,
with our players that are stepping up, that can't put up the numbers.
The roster on paper, it has some abilities.
The main thing is trying to stuck together and play well.
It will be hard because Twisted Minds, they beat shifters on that map.
They beat Gen.G on that map as well during SAQ.
They're confident on that map.
On the other hand, Nadek, they've never won it last year.
They lost it to Matchco.
They lost it to G2.
0% win rate on the map.
It's supposed to be type-in fanatical.
Yes, but I'm supposed to be objective as well.
Okay, but there is hope.
Even if it's just a tiny bit, there seems to be hope.
And hope could be a very dangerous thing.
is something that Fnatic eats as well if they want to keep themselves inside this upper bracket
as the second map of the series continues.
Well, hope is a wonderful thing, Tim, and I'm sure right now there are a number of Fnatic fans
that are hoping they can recover it here on Lads. Just to remind us though, we were talking
during the break and we have a feeling that this game is probably only going one way.
Yeah, look, I just feel like that last map is going to come as a real blow to Fnatic. What we're
that. We're going to see here
from them is how is the mental
resilience? How's the mental
fortitude? Because I feel like,
you know, I'm not just said on
the desk there. They did a lot.
Right. There was there was a lot
of moments where for that it
wrong top of things. If one
round goes differently, you know,
one failed push goes
differently. They win that map
and we come away. It's one zero.
the way they did in round 15 and coming in here. I'm not saying they can't do it. Of
course they can, you know, they've got this crocs and deadshot of both had a great day
so far today on Cafe, but I just think they've got a real mountain to climb.
They have, however, seen the number of series that you and I have cast where the teams win
each of us might mix and then we're left with that third map like God knows which way this
one goes. Maybe that's why this is going to go, because the latter two get to start out
on the defense. They were always one step ahead is how we described it back on cafe and maybe it's
going to be a similar story here on labs. Let's see how things go starting things off up on that
top floor. See if they can back on their way back in or if tonight is going to be the night of two
true zeros.
I think we've had only a few rounds off to be fair about our last map being as long as the
entire previous series. Always the way it is. It's always the way.
not signal the end for fanatic no matter what happens if they do lose here on labs they will
just drop down to the lower bracket so they will still have further chances in the fives to make
that salt lake city pager um things will just get obviously a little more tricky because they will
then be on the precipice but there's a lot of stage to be played before we get to that if they
can win here on labs then we will see a naturally decided on fortress don't think anybody could
I could say at the minute they don't want to see that given the way these two teams have gone at each other on Catholic.
Absolutely, we were saying we'd be really cool to see us get that third, especially given the history of Gnadec on that map and not attacking what I'd like to see him turn it around.
And also, let's just remind that we've got a little bit of bananas on fortress at the same time.
But let's get ourselves through labs first.
We're going to focus on towards IT wall now, Tim.
There seems to be a bit of a cursed wall in Rainbow Six Siege.
We have seen many a protein completely mess this look over the years.
defense having that as army with the keeper barricades holding on to catwalk both lost.
And this is before any walls have really been opened up except for the one you just saw us
left on the ground. Right here there's a player here but he's going to go around and win the fight
here and P9's down on his belly. Learning a thing or two from a shot on the way through but it's
been constant 1v1s being fought by the Gnastic and constant 1v1s that they are losing giving
to be able to do that. We're
going to be able to do that.
We're having themselves over to
twisted minds. We're now five
versus one with only minutes
ago. This is done. Yes, it looks
that way. Tricks is going to
start putting the diffuser down
just to make things that little
bit more difficult. You need it
to one be five. Now you need it
against the clock. He's going to
get caught with the smoke
canister in his hand. It's
happened to the best of us. It's
going to be the final kill
coming in, and we see a
I'm a little bit nervous right now.
Yeah, I think you're going to be on. Yeah, it's not looking the prettiest for them so far.
I'll be it. It's only been one round. You didn't have any time to walk into the map. However, it was the fashion which was lost.
The kind of worries me to be honest with you. Again, it was the fact that this was the constant 1v1s.
And the constant was hoping it had been spotted there, but you know, there's always going to be a good chance as a drone.
So I'm watching it already shot out a few throughout the rounds that in different parts around aqua.
throughout the round starting different parts around Aqua so that the information was there
of Swiss admins and obviously the end of paying the price of the nothing by being a little bit too
slow coming into those gun fights should we say so a good start from Swiss admins taking their
first attack since they're not picked the last thing that it want to do right now is let them
start getting ahead here otherwise this could be a pretty quick series
to be able to do this. Okay
then. Have a bit of it. It will
continue to move around. Valkyrie
five seconds. Roxanne. So let's
see again. It's it's not
something that seemed to worry
twisted minds. We spoke about
this back on cafe. They didn't
lean into it with an IQ pick.
For example, they were happy to
into a direct response to that. Don't even have the doc at this time. I'll stand around.
They did choose to bring it off the beer. At least give some disruption to players on the camps
when you do decide that a push is going to be put in. Barbit tricking. Will be successful.
Eight ex-Karros pellets lost. Not an ideal start to a survive. Reloading!
This start indeed though. It's nice being able to know those way. And I think again that may
welcome down to knowing a little bit about these boys. I mean, part of the people who just bought
the minute they are ready for any fight that comes their way Jalad is going to start moving into
top floor and be chasing down the wizard who is up there at the minute and is no longer up there
at the minute. Trixie is going to be the one to take him down. Mike! Come on, I don't know.
It's a bit pedestrian, isn't it? It's a bit easy. Nowhere there's one more.
it's a little bit of a new idea
all together. Just some letting
that opportunity pass by in
there. I think maybe just a
little bit of trigger
discipline feeds the Intel
to his team. Gillard is going to pick up dead shot. Just again, you know, you don't need to necessarily
expose your position. You can just give that information and let your team do the job. Gillard
manages to find Crocs as well, four versus two now, and it is not looking great for Fnatic,
how he's going to relocate himself towards cargo. He needs to be careful though, because
is there in position to have a little EF3 now who needs to readjust because he
could find himself getting hit from the bottom of the hatch and it just to find
this plant 2 vs 3 25 seconds off the go 2 vs 2 and the prowess with the
nitros continues there's past the panacea curse lift here they the ones I'm
gonna we're around from a losing position the wolfies down to the last 15
11 tricks have really got to get a wiggle on them because there is very little
time left. Now running themselves, they're trying to go for the gunfight. They get another one.
Can they find the next? And no doubt the call will be on where he is. Tricks taking a couple
of shots. Deep-Pek is full HP. Tricks had to go for it, but Deep-Pek lies it. Well,
honkers himself down. Three kills there in that four versus two to give the round to Fanatic.
Yeah, real big turnaround from Fanatic there. And it just, I was asking about that mental resilience,
that mental fortitude coming into this one. And I don't think the last match has done them too
the game. It's not going to be
too much damage, which is what
I was concerned about. They
kind of reeling after that loss
on cafe, but the mood seems up
and the second round result was
good for them. If anything,
that's going to be a real blow
for twisted minds. They were in
a four versus two. They should
have won that round comfortably.
Reversed conversation. I'll
make this again. It was the
The clock definitely a big helper there the six man for the defenders
It sees them over the line and what a piece exactly the same as how cafe started
See where we go then it's gonna be storage and control for our final site before we'll get those
additional operator bands and then no doubt through the same
rotation I can't see if it's doing anything as cold as playing kitchen
I wonder what they're doing there.
They're wanting to take those sorts of risks with what is on the line,
being that upper bracket spot.
I remind you as well, in terms of how this sits inside of the tournament,
obviously I've spoken about the fact that it's an upper bracket game,
so losers will still have the opportunity to continue.
But the particularly important point here is that the winners get an opportunity
to fight for a position in Salt Lake City.
So the winners of this game will first need to,
win. If you win, you'll get
that opportunity. You'll get
that opportunity. And whoever
wins that will qualify to
Salt Lake City, but not only
do you get that opportunity, you
actually get two opportunities
because if you were to lose
that game, you then drop down
to the lower bracket and you can
continue fighting through again.
You know, so again, another
win would then see you into
that Salt Lake City bracket. So
big, big deal here. The winner
being especially now that you look at what Fanatic have got to play with, got the
keepers of course being able to lock themselves down and play these more
difficult spots for a lot but most crucially it's 2c4s and a hell of a lot
of utility coming out of the poles and the Valkyrie. This ain't a fantastic spot
for twisted minds to be in. At least making use of one of those stuff could be
cool. Here's to try and get the size marching force but deep back that
train just will not stop delivering. Okay now maybe it does, fine it's off the tracks.
It has crashed but it's got three in the round. Dead shot on Wizards to get one
I'm not sure if he's going to
be able to get a good start.
One more each fanatic take
round three doesn't matter.
Does it when he's already done
so much damage, not something
that we don't get me wrong.
Deepak brings a phenomenal
amount to this team, but kills
is not usually something that
you know, we're seeing in this
sort of volume from him
necessarily certainly not this
level of aggression. Great
stuff from him in the first
couple of rounds, though,
really getting his team off to
a good start fanatics it to
that was twisted minds map choice that they get to pick the side. Um, but yeah, I think,
you know, all's all's good so far. They need a four to half minimum and they are on course
for that. Absolutely. Not looking too shabby at all. Now really cross the owners turns
on the other side to see what twisted minds can do. I have to say lighting doesn't strike
twice. All right, it hasn't two rounds there because the effects gone big. Will it happen
again, it's unlikely, but I will not write off the possibility. It could yet be a thing,
but let's see how the site rotation pays out this time around. Hopefully a stronger start
team in round four.
From for that, it compared to a sort of round one because it was a big control over, wasn't
it?
Yeah, it was a little bit. As I said at the end of it, you know, if I was a fanatic fan
at that point, I'd have been very, very nervous. I think they could be sitting somewhat more
the game. We're going to see
the game more comfortably now,
given the round two and three
that we have seen. So it was
the binds on the attack just
looking at that line up. Nothing
too wild. They're given that we
see in that capital brought
along. We may well see them
looking to take control of
that walk. We will see whether
that is the case or not. They've
got the group as well. So just
that. It's a lot easier for
them to open. It was
something that they did sort
of estimate with a little bit
last time. You know, getting
that line across it, they
started losing bodies, but
they did ultimately still get
the round, but deciding that
they just want that process to
be a little bit more straight
forward. All right, then on to
the wall. We go for a little
bit of sticking this on the
round, but that's the game of
He came back to bite them here, looking less willing to go for that challenge.
How was hopped across on towards the clash, who once again slowed things down,
and that ever hasn't bore him in the fanatic line of his, rearing its head at the same time.
And what I really want to see Fanatic not do is believe players in silly positions near.
You've got a lot of useless play behind.
You've got a lot of the architects of the game in the form of the clash and the Azami
to pop these fourifications slow down the other side to really to straight-skiss the mines.
It's all good if you can get a kill like they've done here.
Keep yourself alive afterwards.
Good play by Croxton.
Yep, manages to get the opener, takes down the Hibana,
but a lot of the breaching is done.
So not necessarily a huge loss of twisted minds
other than the fact that they've lost a player.
We're gonna see the EMP just thrown at the class shield
to prevent that electrification.
Doesn't do any damage anymore,
but it does still have that slowing effect.
So it's a real disruption if you're trying to push yourself
into an area, for example,
bad that there's a lot of the focus on fanatic here but we spoke about this
fact the head of the show they are ninth in the league for entry conversions
just 53% they sit at the average is normally somewhere in mid 70s they
are shocking at converting entry kills what's happening in that rounds
they've got the entry they're five versus four they then haven't got a
single kill out of the next five that ultimately saw them lose the round
i don't understand how they keep on finding themselves in these positions
where they get the entry, they start out strong, they can afford 2v1 players and they can hold
certain bottlenecks, they can use utility, all this clash shields and the key of barriers,
everything else they've got to play behind, they should be able to win. But look, there's not
even a bullet going back the other way, they've lost a few players out of nowhere. I'm just on baffles.
I'm rattled. I don't understand. You've got to ask questions there, you know, with the lion DMR,
the shots are already coming in. Yeah, he's always going to get that kill. I get it. But like you said,
there's no light return fire. It was just kind of turned around. Oh, well, you know, where am I
being shot for? You know, it's going to be from my T door. Actually, not a call that we're inside
of that. You know, that, you know, there's going to be an indication that it's coming from that
direction, at least sort of kind of prefire it that, you know, maybe you pop a headshot,
maybe you get a training, maybe something. But like you say, you know, handstand is a wonderful
thing and I'm sure there was maybe as much time as it appears but talking about not much time
Tricks doesn't need much time to get things kicked off 15 seconds into the round he's going to pick
up the opener it's going to be deadshot on the malusia taken down. Well Tim the last three rounds
we've got the entries lost around so maybe Fnatic are really trying to break bane this one by having
deadshot die first. I'll choose to surrender to Copian and to cope to God that that's the legit
Yeah, that's right. Reloading.
We'll find out over the next two minutes to see
that there is one still upstairs looking to hold on to meeting Corridor.
Just going to be continuing to charge, was it?
He needs to be careful that he doesn't overstay his welcome and he does.
He was on the score post to the opportunity
was there for him to get out of Dodge may be however,
taking down as well, twisted minds are starting to speed things up.
They're starting to increase the pressure here.
They will start the vertical work in honesty.
And I don't think they need it, there's one versus five, they've got crocs and cornered in the kitchen, they could just continue to push, they could flood here, that's what they need, a good flood come, just get on in and find this kill with aggression.
Just get in there, man, they're all screaming at each other now.
Nobody wants to go first.
No.
I can't help but sort of look at what's in the due to finding moments for that in this game. And that has been two, three case coming out from the outside of that. They're really not off the
north. A lot of afraid now crossing nowhere is is about to get flooded to make it a flawless round. Fantastic couple of rounds out of twisted minds to really ride themselves back into this game. And this
not to be in a position where
you're not going to be able to
get to the top of the mountain
and then you're going to be
able to get to the top of the
mountain. But the thing that
I mean, it's what we've got to
see attack time out coming from
for now. They've got to break
this because this is not
looking good. Yeah I'm always a
bit sort of dubious with
brown five timeouts because I
think how much do you gain
from it? True. That's what
kind of time out you're looking
for. If you want into come in
with a very specific
strategic time out and you're
looking for you know, maybe
giving a blueprint for the
next couple of rounds. I think
it's a little bit difficult
I think really at that point, you've kind of got to, for me, it's round four, or it's not at all, it's still the second half, because you've kind of got to look at it and think, you know, play out the last round, then we've got the two-minute halftime, time out anyway, that I can prepare, you know, the team for the second half, and then I've got the opportunity if it's still not going right.
So, I'm not too surprised there that we don't see it.
In the shade, Gemma!
He will see.
I feel like going into the second half down 4-2, though, is going to be pretty ugly.
And it just feels like they are careering towards a 2-0 loss,
at least with how things are set up here, motivation-wise.
We'll see if they can turn it around.
It could be X-8 time of the Twisted Minds.
Well, Peter, gravy train rolling, it started out a little bit shaky,
and Deepak was popping off the way that he was,
and the clock was working against Twisted Minds.
Since then though, they've only grown into this game and I just think here you might see them just shift to third gear
or put to fourth and then fifth, by then they're a bit too far away.
In terms of the performances that we've seen through kickoff from Twisted Bands, like you said, they've maybe not been quite as aggressive or quite as speedy as they always would be.
I think there's definitely more
in the tank that they can bring
as well, and that is a serious
danger for fanatics. So we're going
to see storage and control as
fanatics last defensive round.
Twisted Binds again, working quickly,
like to see this getting that IT
while we're working within the first
minute, starting to put a bit of pressure
onto Catwalk. We're going to send in the
Ratero drone up to clear out that utility.
They've got Denari gadgets, Mute
Jambers, they've got Keeba Baron kids.
All sorts there for twist advice to deal with.
Really good buying what I said last round.
But yeah, Raffold and Raffold, let's call it.
Raffold.
I'm absolutely raffled, Tim.
Best way to summarize it.
Anyway, they see him on a drone.
He must have to move away now.
He's gonna keep themselves away a little bit.
The drone, which is supposed to back up slightly.
Not going in for a last-hitting.
I'm gonna swing there.
I thought the player was still there.
That would have been an absolute travesty.
Just a good thing that they got themselves.
and away from that pretty far.
Still secure here, dead shot, holding his position.
A minute forward to hit to the ground.
D-Pecto is really down, and this is the problem.
The defence is falling down around him.
They can keep holding the top floor.
All they want to keep feeding.
Hashom, the diffuser goes down.
Croxton manages to find one along the way,
but he's going to need another four.
It'll have to be an ace coach, and we know how rare a beast that is.
He's looking, peeking, hoping that he can find
he could find something to get him, go in he sees a fight up on the top floor, flashbang
does its job, the distraction is there, P9 with the final kill, it's going to be a 4-2
half on the attack for Twisted Minds and it's all smiles heading on to defence.
Such a wonderful round again, the pressure pushing all the players from east to west
up towards Aqua and then they have the trapdoor to Snapshot, but let's go and hear what our
desk thought about that half Tim.
concerned there might be some more crash house coming here because I feel like we're watching the
grounds right? Looking good for Fnatic and then somehow... Do you know what Ann? You asked us,
the desk, the analysts, the couch, the sofa, to give Fnatic Fanto, their team needs to start doing
it. They really, really do because other than Deepak getting two free Ks and a clutch himself,
Fnatic have not been in this game. They have been absolutely steamrolled. Swiss Mines have been so
So good. It was the aggressive attacks that we wanted to see out of them. We said that
the defense is aggressive, but their attacks have been so aggressive as well. And they've
just snowballed. They get one kill, they're snowballing it into two, three, four, and boom.
Suddenly the rounds over.
Multiple slowish rounds, and at the same time, the ones that are not supposed to win,
a top-float one, for example, that was supposed to be, by the way, that was supposed to be
a 4v2, they were supposed to win that one. So it should be a 5v1 split. But later down
the road, there are some rounds where they lose the entry. Just some rounds where Fnatic
actually get that, that open kill, and when that happens, that was the round, for example,
where they got the opening kill, initially, and then some guys look in IT, two players
just died from that, and Goyo is still completely clueless, like, if you needed an example of
the lack of communication and of the panic state in which Fnatic players are, this is
the statement to me, and the main thing is, I don't understand why. I don't understand
why because Fnatic has no pressure on himself, in the sense that, there in the upper bracket
when many people would not have put them there.
Most people would have said that it's fine they would be enforcing your group and they would already be in lower bracket.
They have a life to spend.
Spend it in a way. Go out the big door.
Go aggressive, go crazy, change things around.
Because you're in a state where it's fine if you lose.
You will end up in lower bracket.
So you have nothing to lose here.
And this is exactly the kind of moment where a panic state should not happen as a professional player.
Now, you'd say that maybe the hard work's already out the way for Twisted Minds, right?
We know how sometimes they struggle on the attack.
I don't think that's. I feel
that's exactly what they should
go for. If I'm being honest, as
we see the bands coming in,
you're going to be a band
because. As Emmy will be up
because Murabia because
glass will be a mirror in his
army for the catwalk. If that
is okay, that means top four
is an easy one. I think that's
as army for the catwalk if that is the case that means top four is an easy win at least once
for twisted mines. The mirror on the basement if it's not a mirror band it also open for the
basement as well which forces you to do a full clear which forces you to lose around on time
it's really difficult especially on night heaven because you choose do I open the walls or do I
deal with loads of utility in the later on. So on Azany, Mira, Ella, there you go. Alright lots of
annoyance I guess as well trying to be throwing into the faces of Fnedikas
They're trying to survive inside this upper bracket.
They need the second half of this game to go their way to stay there.
Thank you, Anne. We spoke a lot about hope at the very start of this game.
And I think now they need a bit more than hope,
and they need divine intervention if they're going to fight their way back in.
They've not looked themselves.
This is a painful thing, I think, for fanaticists.
They've looked good throughout the series strategically.
I've liked what they've seen from them.
The ideas they've got, the responses they've had.
But sometimes all you need to put through some undue and some fancy stuff
It's a rock solid fist and that's exactly what twisted minds have brought time and time again.
They go on the defence now. Let's see just how aggressive they can really be.
That's it. This is their opportunity now to take the game too far. They've got that advantage
and now they kind of dictate the pace a little bit as Rush quite rightly said. You know, if you
want to start with those spawn peeks, you can already see it coming. Trickster is on the door,
he's getting out there and putting barbed wire down, they're going to be fighting this
right up at the boundaries and as Leo said, those bands have just lined up by Fnatic wanting
to guarantee themselves quick opening of the walls. You've seen this an awful lot recently,
the bandit KU band, and I get it, you're trying to secure those walls quickly, but it leaves
this situation where you're playing into a ton of utilities. So is Thorne, Azami, Ella, so much there
and then the power of the mirror as well.
Fnatic have got so much work to do in this round.
Now, with pace left, I think it's going to be more pronounced
that's more important than that.
But the last thing to do on the attacking side
is you do tend to dictate the pace, Tim.
You choose where the action happens,
and basically where it happens.
Yep, human point is to make any wrong decision on those things,
but you should give Fnatic a bit of control
to be able to work it.
Now, at least I had tough questions already here
of the Catwalk wall.
the impact coming over the back of it as well. Miro window being shot out here. Got to be careful
about aggression coming in again. I was going to say we've already seen one impact come through
Tim. The second one does just that and gets him down as well. Alva paying the price. So that was P9
from Aqua Stairs by the way. Launching those impact nades across the gap and through the window.
There's your aggression. You know they're willing to find twisted minds, alternatives,
where it was to take these fights. They've probably got a good idea at this point that the lion has been downed.
Wizard was downed as well. He's been revived and he's up to 20 health, but where it looks like Fnatic was starting positively,
getting Catwalk, taking the mirror window away from them. They've actually gained nothing for it.
P9 manages to take the first kill. Havers gonna bleed out pretty soon. They've lost the capital utility.
This is effectively 5 vs 3 at the minute.
I really thought for a second they'd go for a swim in his house and get picked up.
There's two players out of action and there's a freebie for ya.
Oh really?
Er, Sean must've even got a move for him.
Like...
How did they not know he's there even?
Do not dice that drone hole. I swear to God.
He diced the drone hole again. I'm out. I'm done.
It can't happen.
And he's off, er, managing to take down Rizzo.
that. Yeah, I'm pretty sure
it's coming across and the
elder in some work, but not
I'm pretty sure it's the
yeah. Yeah. Either way. Yeah.
Twisted minds are basically
finding a way. The P nine was
absolutely gagging at that door
for someone to show himself at
the window and they just
again, the fanatic have taken
ground quickly, but you get
the feeling that they've not
really taken much more than
you. Well, it's not pretty,
and that is why we are into a
tactical time out just one
round. That tells the whole
story team that clearly there
is something very much wrong
behind the scenes here.
Communication wise,
motivation wise. Either way, it
is not going according to plan
and things need to change now.
Well, I spoke about mental
resilience. Didn't I at the
I think we've started to see
that resilience kind of a road
in a little bit, you know, as
when they've got those couple
of rounds at the beginning,
everything's good. We're all
smiles. Yep. You're actually,
you know, we're back into this
one. No problem. But as
twisted minds started to take
round after round and in more
sort of convincing fashion each
time, it feels like that's being
like the final straw and that
the resilience is crumbling now
for fanatic and we're going to
the resilience is crumbling now for Fnatic and you know they just feel further and further off the
base as this one goes on they get more and more rattled with time we're starting to see those
mistakes creeping. Well it's going to be fixed at some point Tim and hopefully this is going to be
the round where their fortune is turned around a bit of an attack time off we say it's in the
back room and maybe get them back on the right foot I'm enjoying the lineup here there's clearly
Still an idea being cooked, but as long as those fundamentals, the communication side isn't fixed, I don't see how this improves no matter what.
I mean, that's certainly a way to break the mental once again.
Well, look, that's-
Not before now, right? Listen, listen, listen, listen. You know how twisted minds play.
We've seen them get kills from inside the map, what outside the map in was multiple times.
They keep on falling for the same basic shit time and time again.
At least we're trying to make an rescue happen, Tim, but there's going to be a C4 coming from somewhere, surely.
I thought that the first C4 is going to sit you down, there you go.
Tricks managed to find the kill onto the planter, that leaves the defuser down in No Man's Land,
and Tricks was down in the process, but I thought, oh, he managed to get picked up as well.
Absolutely brilliant stuff from Twisted Minds.
But the problem that they're going to see now, Fnatic, comes back to that entry kill as well.
So, P9's playing above, they have to deal with him because otherwise he's just going to keep preventing them from getting in through that wall.
Now, why have they not been able to deal with P9 and play as above this?
You'll add above as well by the way on the solos, and that's because that lack of attention at the beginning of the round,
running out in front of a very well-known spawn peak and taking a death, who did they get killed?
Croxon on the snake, who would have been on that road clear?
He would have been able to go through the entire map quickly with spoken at length repeatedly about solid snake in his gadget and his ability to solo Rome clear at speed.
That would have been his job, but now they've got to start doing it in a two versus five and twisted minds can commit to this. They can get back.
They can just they can play with their food at this point because they've got all the time in the world.
I've never seen a clutch like this.
In a long time.
This has been a pretty big fold, and I know again, and I'll say like it did back on the first map. I know we're focusing a lot of fantastic here because we've seen the strategy be welcome to it. We've seen them have some really good moments throughout the series show.
Deep Earth early in this game, wonderful 3Ks. Back on the first map, they were always one step ahead.
They just couldn't deal with the outright aggression sometimes. On this map, that has been dialed up to God knows how much.
Again, two kills in a single round outside the building from windows and doorways.
That's...
That's ranked stuff, team.
That's right, round one on one.
Twisted Mines have played this absolutely perfectly.
Oh, they have. They have abused every possible weakness that you can see in this classic side right now.
I'm loving what I've seen from them. Yeah, it's it's been
Almost the part from the fact that for night I could've got two rounds. It's been almost perfect. It's just about the game
Finally, there's been perfect from them and they've executed it really and
I'm not sure that fanatic have another round in them
You know, I will be impressed if they fight their way back and get themselves a couple of attacks because right now
You know, whereas cafe felt like a very close game fanatic fell on top for
I still thought they were going to come away with the win even in overtime. They didn't quite get it done. Right now, it feels like there's only one team in the server.
Alright, I'd say maybe there's still a chance they could turn it around, Tim, but I think even I'm a little bit out of ideas and hope for them at this point.
So come back to the start of the game,
hope it was the one that we felt they had,
but this has been an absolute collapse here
on Night Haven last by a fanatic.
Twisted minds are not taking their foot off the gas at all.
Suppress them as they can possibly be.
They want to take the fight to the final
if every single chance they possibly can.
And there we go again, Tim.
Start of the round, a 3C4 kill.
Yeah, exactly what a fanatic did.
They've been so unfortunate there, a fanatic.
So the reason that they've been so unfortunate is,
They do have themselves to blame, at least for the last round, but that entry down that they've taken each time,
they've maybe got themselves to blame a little bit there as well.
You know, just sitting around the entry breach quite that close, it's so common that it gets Nitro'd, does.
They've lost Nick at the beginning of the last round, they've now just lost Bram at the beginning of an attack onto storage in control,
where Bram is so important to get that verticality,
They don't have any other options to open up the verticals
They don't have any hard breach charges left even to slap on the floor
You know this very little they can do with it and fanatic has been so unfortunate with me
The black beard gets dealt with as well. She'll add managers to find in the shop. They're doing takes down wizard
two versus four fanatic and
Many many wounds at the minute does
Not playing as a team and paying the price for it as a result
more of that aggression that we used to see in Deepak at least going to get to pot out that Kady,
a little bit more. Two, three K's to his name and it's two K's in this round. It's all that he
will probably find. Two players left to go with the minutes filled to play out, but this only ends
one way I'm afraid. Let's see what Deepak can do. He's got a slither of health, so he can't take
any shots. He needs to create positions here where he can find and take some chip damage at least
to three off these players. You know, where you start with this, you don't start anywhere,
to be honest. Over. Manages to get the kill, twisted minds. Absolutely electric in that second
half of things. Once they got themselves onto the defense, it was absolutely over for an
after fanatic. I think they've gone with a bit of a crash out there, does, that will
only be rivaled by our best, I would imagine.
I feel really aligned with Leo. I completely get where he's coming from and I'm sure there
are places to stay on the desk. I can't wait to see Twisted Mind vs G2. What if that will
be for now though? We'll go to break in our desk. We'll break it down for you afterwards.
the decision-making adaptation, everything was so much faster and better.
Yeah, and it starts off with, I would say, not the weakness we identified,
but the criticism that we had of them pre-game, which is that their defenses were really, really strong.
But their attacks were maybe a little bit of a fault, maybe a little bit lacking.
We didn't see that today. When it got to overtime on cafe, for example,
they had a quick rush through Bakery and really stepped on the front of an attic.
That continued all the way through Night Hate.
And then, yeah, I think that's the main thing is as soon as they gained their momentum,
As soon as they won that 15 round game, that was their opponent smack big as well.
They knew that mentally won the match.
Exactly, they won mentally and then I think it's very much like the Sharks, you know,
they smell blood, they're ready to get more aggressive.
As soon as you understand that's not expanding a bit,
as soon as they give you a little bit of rounds that you should win, rounds that you should not win,
you know, rounds that you go in 4v2, you will go and get aggressive and pick that up and honestly,
that's what they did.
Well, I think there's a certain person hearing your praises from behind the scenes.
We're talking about the brains of Twisted Minds joining us for the interview. Congratulations.
Hi, congratulations on the victory today. How are you feeling?
I'm feeling fantastic. I'm really happy to go. I think it's upper final, right? I don't know, but
I'm doing fantastic. Feeling fantastic. Yeah, the semi-finals, if I'm not wrong. So that means that
basically you have two BO3s to play if you lose the first one. So you have two chances at making
taking so long, which is honestly such a good one for you guys, especially because I anticipate
that in the last day of kickoff you could not play, so you're all watching the games
and just crossing fingers about the results on the very last day.
I guess the question for you, because we've talked about it a lot, was we felt like in
defense you guys were super aggressive, always trying to get the opening pick, always trying
to jump out, and we did not see that playstyle when you guys switched to attack.
were multiple examples last week where you guys were a little bit slower and we didn't see that much aggression.
And today, I felt like your attacks were actually amazing, much better than before.
So what did you guys do to try and improve that part?
I mean, we know they have a good cafe, for example, and we think,
oh my god, we're gonna face it or not.
We are ready and we are thinking to hide something for the game against G2 or some games in the Major.
But if I say, guys, let's do our best, let's use everything to qualify for the next game.
So basically we are hiding some good strats, some good maps in the group phase and we are showing it now.
as a coach how much does it how much do you have to balance like you team obviously has a very very unique style of play with their aggression and you know we saw even in the five versus one they're chomping out of it
reaching the running out of the cat locked off how do you balance that with letting them express themselves but not wanting them to take unnecessary risks.
It's hard to think. I mean, I'm graduated from psychology and I became from Brazil,
so it's a different game style, it's a different culture, everything is different.
But when I joined the team, I tried to bring more of these things about the mental,
about when we do something, when we do this thing, or when we're going to take the risk, or we're not taking the risk.
I'm not saying it has a magic formula because they don't have it, but every time, every game, every situation, I say to them,
guys, this situation is here, is this, so let's try to do this, this situation is this, so let's try to do this.
I try to work more like the best of their talents and try to make the things safe.
I feel like it's really working out so far. I mean, as you mentioned, your next game is against G2, which is a qualification game for the Major.
Thank you, too. You and G2 are some of the most aggressive teams that we have in the email right now. How are you preparing for that game?
As I said, also, I think you guys already saw it. Sometimes we scream against them and it was a mess.
And I think the game will be a mess too.
So, preparing, I know they have good strats, I already watched their games.
But I'm gonna look how they're gonna play and, you know, I'm just trying to prepare the best way I can.
That sounds awesome. Sounds very exciting for a big bra between you two for the next game.
Thanks so much for your time and good luck against you too.
Thank you, guys. Thank you. Nice to meet you.
Thank you very much to the Brazilians and to all of you who are here today, and to the Alemão.
Hachun is just trying to get his head back. Thank you so much.
I need to know what you just said. I need you to tell us a little bit.
Are you coming for his head?
Is that what I heard?
Yeah, exactly. I say Hachun once he said.
Nice.
Okay, nice. Thank you so much. Once again, beautiful. I guess I'm going to stress put out.
I spoke Spanish and I was like, I missed it. I was like, okay, he's going for his head.
All I just heard was the word LMO and I was like, wait, we need to catch up.
He's not even going to do that quickly.
Oh wow. Honestly, I am so excited about that game. It's only Thursday, right?
Yeah.
They're like, wow.
We're going to have to wait, but like, he's saving himself. This is going to be a mess.
This is going to be a brawl. The two most aggressive teams.
The two most aggressive teams in the league. Oh my God.
I can imagine that, but on both sides.
But it's much a different game than what Twisted Mines got today, right?
Could you get that impression from Fnatic?
And I feel like this is the kind of quality that we're seeing from Twisted Mines,
the fact that they are able to adapt to a Switch show.
It will be a boxing match where you have two boxers
instead of one boxer and one punching ball.
Like, that's the big difference between this match to this.
What are you laughing about?
No, but the reality was that...
What did you just call them?
A punching ball.
Because if you just look at the last map,
that he does not react. They get pushed again and again and again,
even outside when they're playing against defenders, and they do not react.
We've done a lot of criticism of Fnatic, I think on this desk, and I think very, very far
it's very important to price with Simone. They got their game plan right, they got the maps
more or less right, I would say, given Fnatic's cafe was, I would say, a calculated risk,
but they managed to get over the line, whether they should have or not. They did manage to do it,
and once they got over the line, once they won the mental game, they really did not relent whatsoever.
They didn't like the fall of the gas, and it was thoroughly, thoroughly a performance now.
But we, I will say this too, we did see some great signs from Tadec.
I think in the early game, I think on cap especially, you know, I think the attack side
clearly should have been a 4-2 or a 5-1 if they played the right way.
I think they have the right ideas most of the time.
It is such an easy and hard thing to fix at the same time, right?
The lay around means composure and communication.
Those are the two hardest things to learn to teach to players.
So they need to do a reaction somehow, but in such a short amount of time.
There's also kind of a theory in sport as well, that like winning or losing can be a habit.
And winning rounds from the draws of defeat and also losing them can be a habit.
You know, it must get in the finite players mind.
Later on, like, oh, no, here we go again.
We're on the contrary.
I feel like this might really help to survive.
This is the first time we've got to speak to their coach studying psychology
as well, which can really help with that kind of mindset inside of the games.
We have some very smart speakers in our own as well. We have a quote. I'd like to let you guys look at and see which of our
philosophers
came up with this beautiful
Quote who said this? Oh, I did. Oh my god. I didn't say that I did say that. Did I already say that?
Yeah, you regret saying it now. No, I think out of context it is go out the big door
door. Leo, I don't listen to you. When did you say this?
That was the... Oh, wow. Did I already say go out the big door?
You said that before going into map 2. I swear that you...
But you were in your mid-tentrum. I swear it makes sense in French. I swear
it makes sense in French. The literal translation sounds very weird, but I did not speak of
that kind of door anyway. You were so mad you defaulted to your native
language. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
anything that's happened. Exactly it happens. I mean I was I was I was hurt
because I thought that Fnatic had the potential. Yeah I played for that
organization before. I know what it means to bear those colors. I know that
you're supposed to give it your all and there's prestige involved and you want
to perform at the highest level and I just felt like they were not giving it
their all despite not being in a situation where they can get eliminated
and I think that's what really I was trying to get at is this was a bracket
They could still lose and be safe and so this is exactly the kind of it was afraid
It's the exact moment where you're supposed to go and take risk and I did not see there is taking
And that was just free back to the siege side of things that was compounded in in the second map as well
They took a timeout work clearly very clearly
They would have been told twisted minds are playing uber aggressive just bait it out
Just bait it out what happens within 15 seconds the next round swampy and in the run after see for from outside
And you've got to kind of wonder like, are they taking that bit?
Yeah, it's tricky.
And that's where, yes, we've made them quite a lot and we have, but it comes from a point of
frustration that we kind of probably hold them to a bit of a higher standard than we
hold some of the newer teams.
You know, Swiss Amands were a tier two team last year, so we hold them to a higher standard.
Oh no!
And yeah, and I think that's the reason why you've obviously played for them as well.
Oh no!
It does come from the point of frustration with them.
It's not even the right logo, by the way.
It's the old one as well.
Yeah.
They just went by ten years ago.
Is that when you was five?
No.
Do you know what?
There are still two hours left in this day to have plenty of crash hours because I think
this is one of the fastest e-mails that you've ever had.
That's going to be really fun.
You realize that I literally, I was on the analyst desk with Milosh for ACL last playday
and we went through a third 7-0 and I said, wow, this is going to be a quick day.
Then we went to a second 7-0 and I was like, wow, Milosh, this is maybe history.
We went to a third 7-0 and I was like Mila, what black magic did you just do like right now?
Like I did you just like and then and then eventually we went to having a really good game
Yeah, but I think that I'm on a record right now for the shortest play days I've ever seen so far
That is insane. We'll keep you around I say oh and then the email
I mean hey, we can look at the results right two times at two oh
Even though that first map on the second series did go to an overtime right?
So it's a bit of of competitiveness there, but I feel like in general these are probably the result you were expecting.
Yeah, absolutely. Everybody, everybody loves an underbox story. Everybody loves a big upset.
I think that is pro just looked that good just some eyes today.
That is pro looked that good and that confident that it was all always it felt inevitable that it'd be a two zero.
Their game, the next game that they play will be against Falcons is massive.
And then in twisted mind, yes, map one was a lot closer.
But once the once they really hit that stride, it was a clear two zero.
that they've pushed themselves
into in the bracket now really,
really excited when we get to
Thursday because due to
twisted minds, as you said,
it's a brawl. There's two teams
that are not going to be too
worried particularly about the
strategy. That's maybe
understanding a little bit,
but because I've got so much
talent and they can just get
into these creative, wacky,
crazy plays and big moments
and then you get falcons
by which is a little bit more
structured a little bit more
structured. But actually also
I know, I know.
You have a lower bracket for it.
We've done sets of play.
I can't wait for it as well, by the way.
I mean, look at that Fnatic vs Secret.
Two big organizations.
Yeah.
Neither of them we want to see go out.
Two minor organizations.
No more brackets, by the way.
And then, in the first one, for Yulio, which of the Frenchies are going to have to back
up to...
It's a lot of French, again.
I'm not like this.
I'm objective.
But I will say this.
I think this feels like Redemption Day.
It feels like Redemption Day in one sense that I think that Secret were not expected
to go from being an S.I. finalist to lower bracket from Fnatic to play like they did today.
They won Redemption. For shifters, they should not be in that position. They were the last
one to be top four in ML. They qualified to be the leading major.
They're an organization.
Yeah.
Exactly. So it's Redemption.
And I think actually, based on what we've seen in kickoff and what we've seen in today
as well, that is probably the lower bracket we would have expected out of all those four
teams. It's not really a surprise that those four teams are in there with what they've
shown us so far.
Yeah. And it's an increase, I think, as well. We mentioned Secret being in the lower bracket,
going from the SI final to being there.
In fact, their opponent from the SI final
also finds themselves in the lower bracket.
FaZe also dropped down to the lower bracket
in the most recent SAL play days.
So they also face elimination tomorrow.
I know.
People were hating on W7M through the group stage.
And they managed to find a way.
Oh, did you see, was it, did Hertz tweet about like,
oh, freak, on occasion.
And then the response from the Flux service, W7M players
were like, oh, remember what happened when we played each other
in Paris?
We should be at home?
That's going to be a barrier.
that's going to be absolutely dang it as well. I just love Playoffs. I love Best of for Alibona.
Yeah, me too. And then of course we're talking about the SAO a little bit here because whilst we
are in a bit of a super week here with the email running off our playoffs all within one week,
you will have to wait until Wednesday before you see from us again with the continuation
of that lower bracket inside EML. We're talking about the SAO, their lower bracket run continues
tomorrow especially for the EML folks. That'll be a late one starting at 11pm CEST for the first
game. We'd like to thank you
very much for watching here as
our show is over, but we'd
like to see you again on
Wednesday, 6 PM CST for now.
Have a good rest of
I'ma keep it going, I'ma keep it going, I'ma keep it going, I'ma keep it going, I'ma keep it going for all you want now.
Thanks for watching guys!