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at the heart of Counter-Strike since it's very inception.
Now we return for the last ever full finals here in Copenhagen.
The penultimate Blast Premier champion
will be crowned tonight as a marathon best of five awaits.
My name is Forest Beers
and I have the pleasure of being joined
by Pymfans Tico all evening long.
What is gonna be a fantastic day, Tico?
Absolutely.
I mean, it's current final day, best of five.
What else is there to ask for?
Two of the best teams in the world taking on each other.
Some of the best players in the world taking on the server.
it's bound to be good.
Let's recap exactly how we got here
because we had some banging games going down
on the quarterfinals and the semi-finals just yesterday.
Let's take a look at the bracket
because that can explain exactly what went down.
Let's talk about the first game of the day
which was G2 versus Vitality, a three map affair,
such as Slog, but Vitality,
they let it slip through their fingers.
That was a really, really good game.
You know, one that you wanna rewrite,
especially considering the third deciding map on Mirage.
We knew what happened with Niko.
the almost highlight of the year clutch coming in him smashing the table by
tell of the up 12 to 9 on Mirage you think it's over you think it's done
Saivou popping off and then all of a sudden G2 find a way to crawl their way
back into the game that was one of the best counter strike series I've watched
in CS2. And for that Mirage we don't have to forget about Saivou as well
because he was having incredible impact he was it was not just a Niko
show he was just starting off the map beautifully making sure that well
they're gonna grab the third map but after all it was just not enough
the rest of the team were kind of slacking, but it was his XIWU performance.
Where does that leave vitality in the grander context, say for sure. They come out of the
player break, they lifted the trophy finally in Cologne, 10 years in the making for Apex,
two-time MVP for XIWU as well. But a semi-finals finish here and quarterfinals finish back in EPL.
Where does that leave you, Jacob? It's a good question. I feel right now when you look at
the results right here, the IM Cologne victory is kind of what saved this team from a lot
a critique right now obviously they have been consistently been getting into the
semi-finals into the finals and they won IAM Cologne but apart from that it's
been a little bit bleak you know we spoke about a stoker's world rumors
word that they took an extra break you know leading up to pro league and
they're trying to peak for the major if that is the case I'm willing to give
them a little more time it makes sense that I'm maybe not hitting their
strides right now but we are after all looking at Vitality as one of the
teams out there that is supposed to win more trophies than just one during
a season. And Vitality is this world a team that is aiming to be that
number one team in the world in Counter-Strike and right now Navi is just kind of beating them and yeah it's it's looking kind of bleak
Where does that leaves the whole Spinks conversation though because we heard Xase on a French broadcast that he'd expressed interest in looking at other
opportunities post-spring final go into that player break obviously I am clone kind of changed the tides in that very
Moment, but does that open up another conversation now? I think it will do after the major
I think no matter what happens right now with my telling me
I'm pretty sure they made a decision together that we stick with this lineup.
We're taking an extra break.
We're coming into pro league, maybe not feeling at our best.
We're coming into blast, maybe not feeling at 100 percent,
but we're aiming towards the major.
However, if they're not doing well at the major and they bow out of IMU
and don't put up a good result right there,
who is to say that Spinks is not reopening that conversation?
Who is to say that Messi is not gone from that lineup?
So I think right now,
right now I'm entering the stage where the next two months
will be incredible, incredible interest in the future of this lineup.
Yeah, and we were saying that the Cologne is the turning point in terms of springs when it comes to his desire to leave or stay in the team.
You have to take into account as well that, well, it's kind of a buff in the teams when teams know that they are about to make changes
or some people are maybe desire to leave, they wish to leave. It's called the quote-unquote, that team obviously wouldn't make vitality at that team, but it's pressure off of your shoulders.
I mean, that rumor mills continues to grind, so hasn't it, Stika? You were just saying on Twitter, there's been a little bit of rumors about maybe Merzy Axe.
Yeah, I know you don't like it.
Someone else coming in? No, I hate that personally.
Finally, a UK player on a tier one team, and he's going to be pulled.
No, we don't know whether it's actually happening, but would that make sense for you?
Yeah, I mean, it's been circulating around and it's happening,
and keeping appearing on my Twitter feed as well.
It just coming from the sources.
So nothing is, nothing is definitive, obviously.
But Messi is maybe on the chopping block.
If things don't go well, I'm hating it as well,
because maybe it's a little bit scape.
We'll go with a situation with the statistics
and everything, the roles that he's put into.
But I think if the rumors are true and there are names like Jimpatt probably going into Vitality, that might be the upgrade of the year.
Yeah, and that's where people have to stop crying all the time when we speak of roster changes.
Because if you see a clear upgrade of a player, nothing against Messi, I don't think he's a bad player either.
I don't think he's done bad for himself in Vitality.
I don't necessarily think that he's the problem with in Vitality.
But if you can get a clear upgrade into your team, of course you're going to make that leap of faith.
If you can get Jimpett, one of the most exciting players right now in his position to replace Messi, you would do it.
It's the same thing with Simple coming into Falcons instead of some pairs.
I know people are crying, well, some pairs is the highest-rated player. What are you doing?
If you can get Simple on and off into that position, it's a clear upgrade of course, you dude.
So quit the wine, quit the crime.
I know somebody that definitely wasn't whining after their performance yesterday was Zaiwu.
He must be... I mean, we saw after that clutch moment only managing to put up, or almost clutch moment,
only imagine to cut up two frags on the side of Zawoo, but he did everything up until that point
to try and keep Vitali into the game and no one was joining him. And not only this game, it was the
games throughout the group stage and throughout the quarterfinals, I mean sorry the semifinal itself
and I mean he was putting up MVP-like performance and he's going to end this tournament in the
semifinals, however as the highest rated player from the tournament of all the players, if
wonderful doesn't do some kind of miraculous best of five. That was the weird one because we
We came into it when we spoke about Flamesee having a great tournament, Spinks having a
great tournament, Saibou having a great tournament.
Those are win conditions for Saibou to get some help to win the games and get into the
final.
So a bit of an odd one for Vitality and also why their problem has satisfied them not
being in that final.
Our second semi-final, another absolute three map affair banger that was Navi taking
on FaZe.
Once again for Karagin, not going to be permitted anywhere near the trophy here
on home soil.
Tell me the story of this game, Jacob, because it was quite different to that of G2
of our talent. It's a weird one because after the game you're standing back with a feeling
saying of course now we want now we were the better team they destroyed them up and nobis
and then of course they're supposed to go into the final but fact of the matter was
that face on the second map of ancient were up 10 to 4 at that point you would almost
argue that they should have won the game they could have gone a 2-0 for them and
they could have gone into that final you know being again on home turf and maybe having
a realistic shot at taking down now is so it's a bit of a weird one for me for
face they showed in moments throughout this tournament they could play counter strike
at an incredible high level, but the consistency and the, I guess the mentality
we're in face that we always know them to fight back and you can never put them
down. We're starting to see more and more face actually being put down in those crucial
moments. We saw it in the, the major final on Inferno, bitch shot them down. We saw it
yesterday on Anubis as well. So this face clean, I'm not sold on it anymore. I, I'm
starting to, to worry a little bit, to be honest.
Yeah. And we're also looking at Kerrigan and the Danish curse. So to speak, I don't
want to say like a curse, but I'm hoping that he will get it.
I think it's fair though, eight playoffs just in Copenhagen alone.
We're not even counting the other Danish cities.
He's never listed a trophy.
Half of those, he's made it to the grand final.
That's, that is a curse, as I'm disputed.
In itself, it's pretty amazing to go into four grand finals
on home turf, you know, so that's a positive,
but of course not winning any of them,
that's gonna sting a little bit.
Yeah, let's talk about, I guess the final nail
in the coffin moment from this series.
I think we do because it comes at the end of match two,
we were standing up here thinking,
Hey, this is gonna go to OT and then wonderful pulls off one of the most insane coaches I've ever seen.
Yeah, I'm not gonna lie, you know, when I saw it the first time around, there's no scope and this hit on Kerrigan is insane,
but we get the point of view from Kerrigan as well, and I'm not gonna lie to you, Danes out there, it's not looking pretty.
He's not hitting anything at all. It almost feels like stuka and Ashton, the green one as well.
You know, when you're peaking outright and even before Kerrigan is peaking, he doesn't believe he's gonna win that duel because he's moving.
He doesn't stand still. He's not taking the duel with confidence.
He never stopped moving, he never stopped spraying, and it was a miss.
I feel like if this very situation happened on that 10-4 scoreline, Kerrigan is getting that kill and we're closing down the game.
But after that the collapse absolutely happened, from calling wise and individual wise.
I mean after that it was a 21 and 3 in favor of Na'Vi when it comes to rounds, especially accounting for the third time.
And he took responsibility for it as well. He went out saying, you know, I should have made sure we got into overtime.
I should have made sure that we closed out from being up 10-4.
They were in the T side, the Colts weren't necessarily working out
for Faze and Kerrigan.
So if anything, it doesn't look good for Kerrigan in that point of view,
but at least he took responsibility saying it's on me.
And it's a shame as well, because I mean, that man we just saw on our screen,
Brokey, what a tournament that he has been having, sadly,
no more than the Grand Final.
It's great to see Brokey play well.
I will say it probably, I think he's one of my favorite players to watch
because you never really know what you get in every single round.
Like, he can be the most explosive player on the server,
the most weird-ass player on the server,
And he has that intuition for Counter Strike, where you sometimes want to rip off your eyes
and be like, what the hell are you doing, Brokie?
And sometimes it's just, you know, a symphony in motion.
So he's a fan favorite to watch and definitely had a great term.
And unfortunately for him, it wasn't enough for Faze.
I saw this beautiful anecdote on Twitter the other day as well, where whenever Brokie
is holding the angle and he's playing textbook Counter Strike, he's getting one
and being traded.
But whenever he's doing something crazy, that's when you're getting the 4Ks.
One before we saw it, the Falcons on Ancient previously in the group stage.
I mean, this is where he drives and he was showing it throughout the tournament and I'm hoping he will build up on that.
Yeah, such a flashy plan. Unfortunately, no more here for FaZe during the Grand Finals of Copenhagen.
Um, Robs was a name, Jacob, that you were kind of throwing into the ring fairly so because I think there was a lot more to be desired.
We definitely saw that in the series versus Liquid. What happened yesterday?
We saw an uptick in performance from Robs throughout the entire tournament. I think that's where I want to leave it.
We didn't see the best version of Robs, but we had a couple of maps where he went off.
I even think in the semi-final yesterday on the first two maps, he was doing alright for himself.
A 1.16 rating over the course of the entire tournament is acceptable for Rubs,
but it's not back to that level where he's the star player.
It's not back to that level where he's taking charts of the game,
or with his lurks and with his positioning, it's constantly being annoying to the opponent.
So an uptick in performance, but I mean, for the future of face,
when Rubs is playing well and you're groggy or frozen,
then you have a championship winning team.
If Rubs is absent, then we've seen how much they've been struggling as of late.
7th in the world is not good enough for Faze.
And I think this uptick actually correlates with the way Kerrigan and Rain were utilized throughout the tournament.
They were trying to grab the space, trying to play aggressively in the face of CTs, especially on those D-sides.
They were just very heavy on fights.
And while Robes was capitalizing on that in those mid rounds and late rounds, so this is beautiful.
And this is exactly what you want to see out of him.
It is crazy to think that Faze when CS2 came out were part of every single grand final.
Yeah.
The winning trophies, they're up there ranked number second, ranked number one, ranked second.
went into the major finals well in Copenhagen and ever since it's been going
steadily downwards so at some point if you're faced right now if you're the
management you gotta stop that bleeding so as much as I had to say I don't think
that it's a guarantee that face won't make roster changes especially after the
major unless they turn around the show. I was gonna pose the question which one
is the bigger disappointment Vitality being eliminated with the
semi-finals or face being eliminated? I would definitely go for Vitality I
didn't even expect face to make it to the semi-finals so I'm giving
and they came at them the benefit of the doubt
and they were getting into the game, no pressure
and they were having no pressure up until they were about to win.
So yeah, I agree.
You know, Vitality not making it into the final
after being up 12-9 against G2 yesterday.
That was a bigger disappointment for me.
Well, let's switch up to talk about some of the highlights
of yesterday in our trade at playing of the day.
Jacob, what did the guys at home vote
as our third best play?
Well, we're starting with Nico signing the table first
and foremost and I guess we're taking that story
from the top and downwards.
him smashing the table, signing the table and I guess there's a reason why he did that
Shikru and in just a couple of moments we're gonna see exactly why he's a little bit mad
about that table not being in a hole.
Yeah, I mean we are gonna get to that but first let's see what prevented all that and
well it kind of showed the clutch itself.
It's beautiful, like this is beautiful Counter-Strike, the crosshair placement, the decision-making,
the whole clutch itself is just beautiful to watch and you know he had it in his
palm of his hand basically and he just kind of whiffed towards the end and that led to the Nikos.
The climax you know the play of the day Nikos smashing the table and I gotta be honest the man
has been going to the gym smashing a table with that kind of force it's very impressive and he's
even bleeding from his little finger right there. I feel so sorry for Niko I really wanted
him to win that clutch because it would have been accurately the highlight of the year and
maybe even the highlight of Counter Strike 2 history so unfortunately for Niko not yesterday.
I hate that was the first time the production ever had to sub out a table between series
So that's the first time for everything. Let's check in with our to do that predictions as well to see exactly
How the steels are looking after yesterday because if you bet against house that means you get steel
That means we have Henry we had Mike and we had James with those steels and
They oh Mike stop from you Jacob. Yeah
I gotta have a conversation with Mike because he's now putting me in a position where I could potentially not win this thing
So I'll go have a talk with him and we'll see if I'm gonna smash something
How you feeling about sitting on that Tuesday? I'm feeling alive. Yeah, all right
So what did you predict for today? Best of five you either go the G2 or you go with an RV? Oh my okay?
Kind of makes sense. I guess so
Jacob I guess I have to roof a G2 now just that you lose. No, I still lose. Oh my god. No, we should have colluded on this
Steaco. God damn it. Can we just let Jacob win? Is it Winner Takes All? Can we change
it up to that? Our production is saying yes, yes it is indeed Winner Takes All. Any words
Jacob? No. Maybe we should go to a break and get ever closer to this coveted Best
of Five Grand Final. G2 versus Narvi, getting closer to it after this. Counter-Strike to
me means area of loss. Failure and loss in Counter-Strike is always hard. Even
know it's hard when you lose. You can always learn from it if you have the right mindset.
My name is Marzium. My in-game name is Down. And I play for Astralis.
My nickname is Down is obviously like it doesn't mean anything.
The story behind it is when I was younger, my brothers, they would like to tease me
and apparently they'd like to call me Down because I would get annoyed by that.
They basically called me that my whole life. And I remember when I was choosing nickname for Zia.
It was just my friends and family would call me that,
so I just took it to me eventually
without being angry about it.
I grew up in this small city called Espaguerre,
and I've basically lived here my whole life,
here with my parents and my family.
I've always had very close friends.
They live close by, and the school is close by as well,
so it's always been easy for me just to go to the school
and get back home and play some CS.
So we're going into childhood dreams.
The gaming has always been a part of my life, basically.
Other than that, I played a lot of soccer as well
until around the age of 11 or 12.
I can't remember exactly where I broke my leg.
After that, I couldn't really play football anymore,
so after that, it was just only CS.
One of the hardest moments of my career
was when my brother, he committed suicide back in 2021.
I remember that is the hardest part of my life for sure.
I knew that my oldest brother,
he would want me to just keep playing CS.
He was always like one of my biggest fans, so I just found strength from that and just
continued to keep playing and playing for him as well.
My first experience with competitive gaming I remember I was going to Danish, small, bring
your own computer land in Denmark.
I think I spent 13 or 14 years old.
We thought he was too young, he doesn't have a bunch of friends.
We're going with one of our friends called in sick and we decided to let him have
the chance to go, Martin.
I think we won the B tournament in that land.
It was clear from that moment, but he was a very special player.
The biggest moment in heroic for me was winning the last Premier All Final in Royal Arena.
That is to this day for the most important day in my career and life, maybe.
I've never been that happy as winning that match.
It was also a very close match against Faze, winning an overtime in the third map.
And being there with family and friends, both for me personally but also for my teammates, it was an amazing feeling.
and then have these days my life. All that you worked for finally made sense.
So I think one of the hardest periods in my career as well was also the change from Heroic to Astralis with Yabi.
All the hate I think me and Yabi got from that online I think was very tough on both me and him.
Now I'm in a much better place than I was back then.
Counter-Strike is always going to be a part of my life and as long as I enjoy doing it I will keep playing.
G2 versus Navi as the four finals grand final. I think with G2, you know, in contention with an opportunity of lifting a trophy, we've got to talk about roster changes, some shuffles, some transfers that have gone down this year because, first of all, with snacks and mobs coming into the mix this soon, obviously they had such a honeymoon back at EWC once again versus Navi in that grand final.
Did you expect them to be this competitive so soon after changing two players and an in game leader within that?
To be completely honest, yes, you know, I didn't expect it to change much.
It wasn't for me that Malph's coming in, that's a great signing, that's a clear upgrade in Nexa,
and Snax coming in instead of Hoaxi, I thought that was a pretty much, you know, 50-50.
It could go one way, it could go the other, but the clear upgrade in Firepower would bring in Malph to this lineup.
I was thinking to myself, they can't get any worse than it was before,
and what always has been stylistic when it comes to G2, they're not consistently the best team in the world,
they're not consistently getting into grand finals, but they will have tournaments where Niko is popping off,
I thought to myself, there's still going to be this upset team that can win tournaments.
Yeah, and with Niko and Omonosi already on the lineup, you don't really have that luxury of saying,
oh, we just need more time. We need more time to fix things out.
You need to get in, you need to grind in, and you need to start performing from the get-go.
This isn't intended to be any bail on snacks, but I think the Malp signing was probably the more exciting of the two, right?
Because this was the first time that we've seen him kind of going into European waters at the very least.
the very least and yeah having an opportunity on a tier one team. I'll be completely honest right
Snacks have now left G2 into two grand finals that in itself on paper is looking great. The problem
is that I don't really feel it's Snacks' fault you know I don't feel like it's his impact that's
made them going into those finals. He's doing a decent job as an in-game leader he's working
together with Task Guard. I more so feel it's Malphs living into that rain you know being a
massive upgrade to Nexa having had so much impact especially on his T side. I feel like that's
That's why I want to put my focus.
He deserves an awful lot of credit for coming into G2 as a rather young, experienced player,
playing on the stage for the first time and still delivering.
So as much as I want to praise Snacks as well, I don't think it's his fault.
I don't think it's a result of him coming into the team.
Is it Snacks?
Is it Huxi?
To me, it's the same.
For me, the Snacks pick up is very much a sidestep.
And from a couple of interviews we had throughout the tournament, we were actually called that
teams think that this G2 is less tactical, obviously.
So a sidestep in Firepower and then downgrade in a calling wise, it's hard to say, it's incomparable
with Nexa, obviously he's taking different positions as well when it comes to T-Sets,
so he's kind of leaching off, I would say, a rating of Hunter, because he's not performing
that well and that is kind of understandable, kind of have five people that are putting
up 120 rating, it kind of goes hand in hand here.
Professor Pimp and Sir Stiko, please give me a grade as to this transfer and how
it's kind of panned out, maybe expectations versus reality, we've got 8+, all the way
down to like an F or a U an ungraded I guess. I think for Snacks you know he's
living up to the expectations I had. My expectation was not that he was gonna
come into G2 and change the way they're playing Counter-Strike or all of a
sudden propelled him to be the best team in the world. I think he's doing a
decent job but I also will be completely honest. I think he's on the chopping
block the second it starts to go down as well so for me my money he hasn't
come in and he hasn't redefined the way they play Counter-Strike and for me
that's a I don't know a C probably. C? I would be a little bit generous I would give them a B
just purely because of the fact that snacks are them listen listen cheat no no no Melbs is
getting an A plus there we go in my opinion so snacks is probably a C for me it's it's that
I'm comparing it to the previous roster as well which they were managing to get deep into the
tournaments never lifting that trophy yes I am Dallas without hook see yeah that
was an anomaly definitely on duty's record but a positive one let's move on
to talk a little bit about Team Liquid because obviously JKS he was a known
quantity coming into this team but ultimate I mean I've heard this kid's
name flying around but nobody really knew anything about him prior to this
team well passionate he was trying to to get into that a couple of times and
was you know trying to do the lobby work for him I think he's been a very
positive addition into Team Liquid. The way he's playing Counter-Strike, you know, you mentioned
that a couple of times, too, because World is very much involved with the opening duels,
very assertive on the server, doesn't seem faced by the pressure at all. I think early stages
for Ultimate, he's still going to develop a lot, but it's been a very positive first couple of
tournaments for him. For me, the story of him being scouted from tier two, tier three, getting
into the tier one organization is just beautiful for me, because you never know, this is for
all the audience, all the players out there. You might be scouted, even if you're playing
simple facet game. Someone might in the future download the demo and actually pick you up for
potential academy team, potential actual team. It happens and if you saw Twist, he's not watching
only Ultimate's previous team, he was also watching his individual demos in Facingland.
Based off of those, he's actually considering Ultimate to be a worthy pickup and he is proving
him right. I think J.K.S. was kind of an underrated playing initially because obviously
to us you've got to remember he was on that phase there and when J.K.S. was standing in and
and they somehow managed to get the trophy at the Intel Extreme Masters
Canavita. He's just such a reliable piece of the puzzle.
And I love that he's been given another shot after being, I guess,
unfairly cut from G2.
I wouldn't say unfairly, you know, but he was in a position where he didn't fit
in with G2 for whatever reason.
He's now catching up to Counter-Strike 2 as well.
He wasn't playing in the beginning.
And from what I see and what I hear from Mitha as well,
the coach of Team Liquid, he's the hardest working guy within the team,
always trying to catch up, always trying to better himself.
So for my money, I agree with you.
JKS has been a solid addition and I think we're going to see a better JKS as we move forward.
May I also say that he's Australian. This gives Team Liquid opportunity to play both EU or NA tournaments qualifiers.
You know, this is kind of a fact that people kind of forget about that this gives this leverage to Team Liquid to really put it into international team.
One of the most recent transfers to go down.
Caden to Astralis. I didn't have that on my 2024 bingo card Jacob.
No, neither did I. I think there was a lot of rumors within Astralis that they had to do something, they had to change something, because it wasn't working out.
Huxi was being rumored coming into Astralis, Kaden was always a bit of a joker, because you thought, that's not going to work right, you have device on the off, you have Kaden as an in-game leading off player, how are they going to work together?
I think it's a sign of two things. I think Stabby and, you know, Stabby, sorry Stabby, Javi, Javi, okay, Stabby and Javi obviously was brought in for an awful lot of money into Astralis.
and you want to enable those. So if you're Astralis, you're the management right now,
how do we get the most out of them? You're bringing KDN. You know he's going to work them out,
you know he's going to figure out a way to make them perform. So I think it's an investment,
not only into Astralis as a whole, but it's an investment where you're backing up the
investment you already made with Stabby. No, Jesus! Stown and Yabi. I see why we went to Stabby
rather than yours, because that sounds way more trashy.
Oh, but for my money, I mean, it's obvious that the bridges were burned at some point
between Stown, Njabi and KDNL, making sure.
I'm making sure I'm saying it right. And I thought that that ship has sailed completely.
I mean, the fact that they actually rejoined is something that I would have never predicted.
Can we just call them stoppies? It's much easier. Everyone is really doing it in a way,
and we're combining the two anyways. I think those two players, you know,
next to Kadeon right here they were they were brought in for as I said an awful lot of money
they're very good players and they have shown before that they have the potential to be up there
with the very best so for Kadeon to come in it's it's more sort of thing of him finding a way to
enable device enable enable yappisor and enable slime all at the same time. Electronic to
Verda's pro um this was one of those situations I feel like kind of like the cloud nine roster
rum like man this is going to be bangin nothing's really happened with them. Absolutely
for my money as well it was kind of it made sense on the paper when I saw the news I was hyped
but then I realized that there's going to be a lot of clashes with the style that Virtus.pro tried
to enforce and jame and IGLing and the roles and electronic coming in from previous teams that
were kind of it was just not matching basically and for me I think that this was probably one
of the most underwhelming signings actually when it comes to the big profiles. It has been
underwhelming because I thought to myself, okay, what made VP good back in the days when
they had Yakinda? It was that unique style of having Jayme being very passive as the
AWP in-game leader and then you had the wild card in Yakinda who would spice it up a little
bit. I thought Electronic could come into Virtus.Pro and be the second coming of Yakinda
almost within that stylistic difference that is between Jayme and Electronic. But for
some reason, nothing is working out. It's not Electronic now performing, but it's
the players around him as well, all of a sudden also performing at a worse level.
So I don't know whose fault it is, but it's looking rough.
recent transfer that happened literally just a couple days ago. Simple two Falcons confirmed at the end of the year. This is kind of a wild one, right?
Particularly if we maybe just maybe get Nico joining him. Yeah, and considering he's on loan for now for the second time, I guess wouldn't Falcons.
We don't really know if it's a certain thing he's going to join full time. Something suggests that it is. And as I said before, a lot of people out there complaining saying, well, some pairs were starting to get good again.
he was starting to perform, yes, but if you can sign Symbol and if your sure Symbol is motivated to pick up the AWP role again,
you want to bring him into a team, if you have the financial stability to do it, which we know Falcons have,
then why not take that leap of faith and try to bring back Symbol. I feel sorry for some pairs,
but there's many other teams that can use him. Bring in Symbol to me is a no-brainer.
And I also want to remind to the audience that Symbol actually was already on loan in Falcons for a brief moment of this year,
and he was playing in the fall showdown against Metisport, lost that one game and that was it.
As a R1v1. As a R1v1.
As a R1v1. As a R1v1. As well. As well.
And it's a team that you should be beating, whether you're simple, whether you're not simple.
You know, it should have been a win and after all, just bad.
Well, we're gonna have to wait a little bit longer to see exactly how that does pan out,
but not much longer until we get into the grand final at-hand here in Copenhagen.
G2 taken on Navi after this.
G2 versus Navi.
One final best of five separates the next Blast Premier Champion from this coveted
Copenhagen trophy and it's two very different stories when we're talking
about this but G2 it's been a story of redemption after their most recent
roster revamp whereas for Nabi undisputed Jacob the best team in the
world and looking to claim their fourth title this year alone. Five finals in a
row currently ranked number one you know having the best team play the best
synergy occupies the best coach in the world and maybe even the best in-game
leader as well. There's so many accolades you can put towards Nami and what they've been able to achieve in 2024, but there's no doubt when you're saying it for you, they are currently the team to beat.
And I just attributed to the consistency most of the time. I mean, the output they've been giving, the practice days has been scarred pretty much and they're traveling from event to event. It's been hard and they're still delivering world class
fast-counters. It's insane. It may have an amazing quote in that HLTV interview saying
it feels like a rock band at the moment. They're just on tour absolutely tearing
things up and obviously with their eyes on the prize. Let's talk about just how
many clashes that these two teams have had there, Jacob, because they are very
familiar foes. Yeah and it's not a good sign for G2. They've tried before
to take down Navi, haven't really been able to do it and I think that's the
stylistic change that we're coming into and we'll probably discuss even more
So G2 relying on the individuals G2 relying on certain staffers to show up was finale
It's more it's more about the cohesion more about the team play more about the preparation
So it's not looking good on paper for G2
But let's see how it's gonna turn out has it been what nine clashes between these organizations since G2 have even able to
Net a win that is insane
We've got to go back a couple years to see that as well
Absolutely, and you have to look at the LXB specifically as well when it comes to him and his previous teammates and previous
you know organizations he played for like the guy just keeps on climbing that
rank. Yeah he's got some revenge versus his exes man like it's actually insane
because we're not just talking about GT we're talking about a hell of a lot of
other teams that he has consistently always been able to take down on Navi.
Yeah I guess a lot of new fans will will be familiar obviously with Alexi
now that he's in Navi now that he's winning but we have to go all the
way back to when he was in ENCE when you got kicked from that ENCE lineup
he's constantly been trying to find what would be a new home went into OG
was there for some time, went into G2, a team that he used to play for, couldn't
really get it going. It feels like LXB finally has found a place where they
believe in his attributes, they believe in his way of thinking, Counter-Strike,
played of course, working with LXB, it seems to be a match made in heaven but
it does feel like this is more so LXB's home now, it's his team and as
you said you know every time he's playing X teammates and every time he's
playing anyone at this point he is winning and he's hoisting trophies so
I'm happy to see the man on the screen right here doing good job.
Well let's check in with the in-game leader himself, it's LXB Patsy of James Banks.
There's no stopping you guys, G2 can't stop you guys. How much is the best of five change things here?
You know, whenever we play against G2, we always treat it as 0-0. It doesn't really matter what the streak is.
It doesn't make a difference if the streak is 9-0 or 15-0, because it's always a new match.
And you can see how they play against different opponents, you know.
Vitality and spirit has been hard for us, and they beat them both times now in a row.
in a row so definitely a team to look out for. We have prepared against them many times, you know,
nine matches but now, you know, we got some quality sleep, we did our preparation today and now it's
just us showing up and that's it. Now you did break this famous Best of Five curse at EPL,
is that for like a weightlifter off your shoulder before going into this one?
Yeah, I mean you could say so. I was super happy we managed to do it, straight from EPL to
here won this tournament now we're in the final and you know it's it's just
amazing how how we work and how everything is panning out but you know
it's one more obstacle this best of five and you know after that we can be so
proud of what we've done here in terms of being proud of what you've done here
I think you'd be proud of probably how much you've beaten G2 but I want to
ask you how much are you in their heads at this point does that play
into some of the mind games you do when you're on the server I do feel
I feel like if we're making a comeback, it might be harder because I know as well when
I played against my Kryptonite in CS. Usually it feels like when they're winning rounds,
you kind of feel like, is it happening again? This could be something, but at the same time
I feel like they have nothing to lose. They already played us in this tournament, now
they have a best of five in front of them. So I feel like they're going to take the
game super serious. They're not going to give up. We're not going to give up,
so the better team will win today.
It's interesting that Alexi V touches upon the kryptonite factor because for him it has
been a team.
It's been a format.
It's been those best of fives which he did put to bed at the ESL Pro League season 20
grand finals versus the tunnel five.
But does it count Jacob?
It does count you know but I would also like to see it against a formidable opponent.
I don't want to take anything away from the eternal fire.
It's what they did during pro league was nothing but outstanding especially considering
the expectations for them but it's different playing eternal fire at pro league than
it is playing on this stage against a team like T2.
So if anything, yes, he got the first taste of winning a best of five.
Now I want to see him repeat it once more.
Yeah, and well, you have to look at it this way.
The fact that he was a kryptonite at one point, he made kryptonites himself on the way.
And previous teammates and previous teams are just part of that.
For what I want to say as well is that Alexi B is not the man himself that goes
into the games and just drops through the kills.
It's always his teammates around him that kind of create this synergy that always
He's made sure that the tactics, the strategies, everything that in-game leader needs to bring is bringing it.
He's making it really serious.
You've been under a fair few in-game leaders and your ex-teammate is now under Alexi B.
Why do you think he has that ability to kind of bring some young stars together?
Some maybe underrated players as well when we're looking at Jail on EMA.
Why do you think he's found success specifically here?
I think it's the system.
I think I'm blaming it whole tournament on the system and I'm going to give you the answer one more time
because I think what they're producing in practice is the game plan specifically for these matches
that are supposed to be tough. They're supposed to be not one-sided, but they're making it so
throughout the whole 2024 so far.
Are they able to play? I'll be completely honest. We've seen Alexi B in history of Counter-Strike.
He has his flaws. He's not a perfect in-game leader.
There's certain aspects of the game he hasn't been able to develop within OG, within G2,
you know, keeping the stars in place, etc.
He came into Na'Vi and he got that final piece Alexi B was needing.
A coach that would trust him with the responsibility to be the in-game leader that would take charts, micromanage and bring up these young players.
So I think the partnership between Blade and LXB, that's what's enabling him to the next level.
Let's talk about some of the stars that they do have on this roster.
Starting off with the most recent major MVP in JL, how has he been performing so far here in Copenhagen again?
Well, you can say he's been performing poorly.
I think he's been okay.
You know, he's been up to his own standards, but he's not been standing out as the best player for Navier.
He's had a couple of moments where he's been club-sing, he's been very solid in the way he's been addressing himself on the server,
but he's not JL on the same level he was at Pro League, and I think for my money that makes total sense.
I don't expect JL to be an MVP of every single tournament, so for him to be playing at the level we see right here with a 1.17 rating, that's fine.
Also, happy birthday! I heard the crowd here in Denmark singing him happy birthday when he arrived in the booth, so that's lovely.
Of course. I mean, 117 rating is nothing to just ignore, obviously,
but it is Ford's best player right now, when you look at the rating.
And it has to come up to him as well to raise that level a little bit for the Grand Final.
So who is top of the race in terms of this MVP discussion, Landraker?
I think Wonderful is a great candidate for that fantastic tournament so far.
He's had so much impact, his clutching ability, his ability to post up with an AWP
when they were in a 2B5, in a 2B4.
He's been turning around rounds that they were not supposed to win.
And I think right now Wonderful is having, I wouldn't call it a breakout tournament
because we have seen him play at a high level before, but you know, we were searching for a star,
but in Na'Vi, who's going to be that superstar? Who can be that guy who's consistently picking up
MVP trophies, who's consistently going to bring them through games that are rough? I think wonderful
is the best case for that if he continues to develop, and this could be that breakout tournament
where he finally hoists an MVP if they want to win. It could be anyone in Na'Vi, let's be honest,
but for this specific tournament, it is wonderful, no doubt. How does he compare, maybe stylistically
to the offer that we're going to be seeing on the other side of the server in the G2
That's a great point, I mean, at the stylistically, it is kind of, Monasi is kind of this explosive guy that is going to go for these more advantageous openings.
He's always trying to get it up as soon as he can into the map, most impactful.
I generally like that Wanderful is kind of laid back and reserved when it comes to a lot of stuff.
He's enabling himself in the clutches, we saw that yesterday against FaZe and that 1v2 against Rops and Kerrigan.
It all kind of made sense and is falling into the place just the way he is kind of set up by the teammates.
Wonderful is a system player, Monacy is a player that creates the games and enables the game.
Without Monacy playing well, T2 doesn't stand a chance of winning this grand final,
but I'll bet you this, if Wonderful is having a game off, Na'Vi can still win.
So that's the biggest difference. Monacy has to play well, where it's wonderful,
that's just an extra such free throw.
Maybe this is just my little mind getting blown.
Can you believe that Monacy has been on G2 for a thousand days today?
That seems insane, because he still seems so young.
It feels like it was a year ago when he came in and played the first
last group stage you know joining G2 we heard the the fee is what he came in for
around six hundred thousand dollars for a kid that wasn't turned 18 at the time
so yeah I think those money were will spend for G2 probably one of the best
investments they've ever made yeah definitely whilst minus he celebrates
that anniversary with G2 let's check in with him courtesy of banks look at your
struggles against Navi because it seems like it's quite a mental battle
does it sit in your mind do you start to think about this no I don't
I don't really think about it. I mean, obviously, obviously you... I still have this, you know,
I mean, everyone has this, like, thing that is like 9-0 for them. It's like win streak,
but I don't... I try to not think about it. I don't think it actually shows, yeah, like,
all the nine times when they played against us, I mean, five times before, yeah, I mean,
how we lost in CS2 against them, they are better as a team. I think they're playing
good individually and they're better as a team, but I don't think we are worse
individually players in them maybe they're better as a team but not individually I would say
but we will just try to show a bit different CS today and
I believe in my team and I think we can we can destroy them we tried a couple of times and we
always lose comeback or some stupid rounds against them I think we just try to respect them a
lot for some reason but today no respect. No respect okay I like that I want to last
asked you about wonderful he's having a monstrous tournament so far in the last
best of three you guys played he played incredibly well what do you think of his
form right now yeah I saw I saw also clutch against against a face yesterday
1v2 I think it was like pretty confident clutch for him as well I just
wanted to say extra you could see like he's maybe confidence is a bit
different than on different than on last tournaments I think he's playing
well and I've been happy for him. Are you ready for him? Of course I'm ready. Oh yeah I don't underestimate
Monacee, he is ready for absolutely anything. Love that insight as well Jacob that he gave. He
feels like G2 much more on the individual standpoint. Vinavi much more about the strategy which we've
kind of been talking about. I think you can cook down this game to a very simple analogy which
is the individuals versus the team and I know there's a lot that goes into that many contextual
situations that will arise in the game, communications, you name it, who can keep their head cool, just
like we saw with Nico yesterday after that clutch, but at the end of the day, it does feel
like it's the individuals versus the team. Let's talk a little bit about Nico. Obviously,
that moment yesterday will go down in history, probably for the reasons that he didn't want
it to, because that clutch, if he had pulled that clutch off, that would have been the
clutch of CS2, right? I mean the clip would have been viral either way. He made the clutch,
it's 1v5, great, probably one of the best clutches in CS2 so far. He didn't make the
clutch he's like I'm the main character he's gonna smash this if anything it's a
great sign of Nico coming back into form we spoke about it in the beginning of
Counter-Strike 2 he couldn't find his form we think we've yourself have we
seen the best of Nico is he never gonna come back as the greatest rifle of
all time I think yesterday and the way he's been playing at this tournament the
way he's been smashing the table so far gives us you an indication that he
very much still have the desire he's very much still have the abilities and
Nico so far in this tournament I think he's been the most impactful player
I know it doesn't show up in the steps, but as I said yesterday his rating was up there, you know
But every single kill he got it was an entry for it. It was a double entry. It was a multi kill
It was a round winning thing he did in the game
So for my money Nico the most impactful player the tournament so far with or without the clutch
Yes, even in the map that they lost versus mentality
He was having so much instrumental impact
But now we do need to dive into the maps for this best of five obviously
It's just gonna be two fans then the teams subsequently picking do we get to see that mirage? That is the question
are you two gonna be valid and
I don't think so, Vertigo going out of the map pool right here, I think everyone should cheer for that.
No and Noob is being played either, D2 will ban that.
With these 5 maps that we potentially can't play, I wonder what the first pick will be though.
We have an Ancient here for the side, and I believe there's a CT side start coming up with the Dust 2 as well, so...
I would like this Dust 2, that's kind of bold for D2 to be going in with that, because Na'Vi have said they felt very confident on that map.
That's the thing, right? But G2 also played by Taliyah,
by Taliyah set themself with the best team in the world and us too,
and G2 took them down.
G2 picking Inferno as well means that we've seen Navi shaking Inferno yesterday against Faze
and then a total fire in EPL.
It's either Nuke.
I'm not gonna lie, if we do get to a five map series,
if he gets pushed all the way to that Nuke designer,
that is a perfect playground to end it.
Maybe Mirage would have been a little bit better,
but I think Navi right now feels super, super comfortable in that,
so it makes sense why they would pick it as a third.
No, I very much love that we get that Mirage earlier. Guaranteed to be seeing it.
Do we get the 4-5, those, Diko? What do you think?
I think if it goes to Ford, I'm giving the tips of the scales on Inferno to G2, actually.
And Navi hasn't impressed me too much, you know, against the Choco against Space,
and then the Thermal Fire in the Best of Five, they lost in the landslide.
So, if it goes into that Ford map, I'm very much seeing Nug on the cars, and we decided.
Dust2 is the key for G2.
If G2 wants a chance to win the Best of Five series, they have to win Dust2 to open up the series.
Thank you so much, gentlemen, for your thoughts. I think it is time that we get Championship Sunday started.
Two, he drops the bombs. That's not my problem. I want their heads.
The king on his throne. Hope's gone.
We're still a man at all. It's an angel of the steppes.
We'll be from the exit, but we'll get him.
These teams fought so hard, but it could have gone either way.
We could have two different teams sat in front of you.
We'll start with Navi. They did start off slow. It was not their A game
But they clawed their way back into it and they looked damn good while doing it
We got some Navi fans in the house and then for G2
Niko's table smash that was historic
But then the comeback after that and the fight into the game was magical and now they go up against Navi one more time
We've got some G2 fans here, that's Winstreet, but also a nine series Winstreet against G2.
That is pretty tough for them, but a best of five changes a lot of things.
Are you guys ready for an incredible day of action?
Carbonhagen, that wasn't good enough. Are you ready?
Well, let me feel you guys out first. Let's get this roof raised.
I want to see you guys bring the hype, bring the energy for all of these teams,
for all of the amazing players that are going to come your way,
way because there is going to be so many of them. So G2 fans, where you at? And for Navi,
I can split crowd, I like it right down the middle. But what you guys like more is the
teams. So let's get into the final.
The journey has not been an easy one. For many of our challenges, it proved too much.
broken. Emotions rattled, frustrations heightened, grounded, eclipsed, broken, washed away, flatlined,
and sent packing. G2 took on fierce opposition. Niko's punch defroamed the reigning champion,
Nervin comfortably marched on, dismantling the hometown era, consecutive final.
G2 look to finally break the cycle.
Counter-strike rivals once again clash for a title.
Sweat and tears.
Champions will be crowned in the final, full final.
They sacrifice little blood, sweat and tears into getting here.
Their desire to win is unwavering, even when all hope looks lost.
From the outside this matchup may seem cursed for the G2 army,
but here and now is where they need all your support,
All your energy as they sit in their furro grand final of 2024 against their Aunt Nemesis.
This is more than just a grand final. This is about revenge.
The Guatemalan god, the trapper, mighty, monocie, low flash, destroyer of opponents and tables.
is now the time to break the streak this is the time to strike two major champions to
now making their fifth consecutive grand final.
Blade is their mastermind and he gave them the master plan.
They follow it with confidence to motivate, inspire and show you all that with the right
Brothers, trust and belief dreams do come true.
This is more than just a grand final.
This is about legacy.
The head shot machine.
Here's Regelli, the Grenadier,
in the name and in the game.
Dan's for legend.
Can they be born to win again and again?
He versus G2 in the final, full finals, grand final, nine times.
Alexi B has come out on top in this exact head-to-head and Jacob a 10th wood spell, his fourth trophy of 2024.
Five back-to-back finals for Navi have considered them as the best team in the world as of right now.
There's no doubt who's the favorite walking into this best.
The five is G2 have everything to fight for them, everything to prove was for Navi.
Maybe they can walk in a little bit relaxed, it's just a week ago they won the last trophy.
It's just a week ago, Alex, you know, killed the demon of not one of the five Grand Finals.
So, if I'm Navi, I am looking for more comfortable walking into this Grand Final as just the post a week ago.
That's dangerous for the mindset because G2 wasn't favorite against Vitality either, and look where we are.
Yeah, anything can happen on this big stage.
Let's talk about the first map we're going to be beginning on that's ancient, the pick of the side of Navi.
We know G2 is starting on the CT side of things.
What do we expect here today, Siko?
Yeah, I'm going to say that there has to be some kind of a resurgence inside of CT.
I think especially against Faze, there was some kind of a miscommunications throughout the Navi game.
I think Jail was getting punished a little bit too much for my liking towards that B-side.
But eventually he recovered obviously thanks to Wanderflin, the strong second half of the map.
But we need more coming into the first half of the game as well.
It's a massive game for Melcs as well, in the G2 Camus.
Well, we speak about them starting on the CT side, which means that that's the side
where Melz gets to lose the least of his work, so to speak.
So maybe he has to get off to a slow start and then slowly but surely build his confidence
into this game, which means that the likes of Monizzi, Nico, Hunter for that matter,
will have to pick up the pace in the beginning of the game to allow Mobs to slowly but
surely get a feel for it.
We know that on the T side he will be immaculate, he will find impact, he
will be part of the entry department, he will open up the game.
But starting on the CT side, sorry, in your very first grand final on a big stage
in a best of five that's going to be a tough one for maps to get into the game.
For my winning condition definitely for Navi's side bit highest rated player for
CT side throughout the tournament by high margin on the other hand he's side
wonderful is the highest player by high margin as well so this is actually two names that I
want to keep an eye out for for those best of five duels. Yeah we certainly will we can also
check out with the live odds which understandably aren't going to be favoring Navi in this one
totally makes sense with their record this year Jacob Inna you picked them too as your
production to be lifted in our trophy. Yeah I did I do believe in team play you know will outwork
you know individuals especially in a best of five game it's it's very much to demand from Niko
very much to demand from Monizy that they can keep that level up throughout a best of five game
however we have seen them done it before it's two of the best players in the world and they've
done it on big stages. Now I guess the the Joker in this game for me is Melps and his
performance in this grand final he came in he replaced Nexa a massive upgrade in terms of
of raw firepower. We do know that raw firepower is what D2 needs in order to beat Navi. So if
Melts is having one of those games that could be the key that opens up this matchup and
makes it far more equal than we initially would have thought.
And in best of five, mental resilience is something we don't talk about enough. And
both of these teams have incredible people behind them, both G2 and Navi in their camp
and working on the mental side of things is going to be crucial. However, they're
going to put it to a real test in the best of five. Endurance is the key word
Yes, two totally different coaching styles going down on both sides of the equation.
I'm very curious to hear from both of your perspectives though, obviously we've talked
about this kind of best of five curse, they broke it versus the turn of fire exactly a
week ago but it was a very different scenario.
We're talking about a studer environment and we're talking about a clear underdog,
which obviously we would argue that G2 would be the underdog in this situation but we
know they're so used to these big stages, it's a totally different conversation.
It is a total difficult conversation, but I will say that the more I watch Na'Vi play
and the more they do play in these big stages, the more they grow on me and the more they
grow as a team as well.
Yesterday versus Facelift, to be honest, they could have lost that game 2-0.
They showed mental resilience in that game.
On the second map against Kerrigan on home turf, they were down 4 versus 10 right.
They were three rounds away from being eliminated.
Wonderful had to come in with a magical clutch in order to close it out and push
it into a third.
So if you're Na'Vi right now, I feel like this sitting right now with a feeling.
You said it was a dangerous mindset.
I agree with you, it can be if used negatively,
but I feel Navi right now feeling so comfortable
in their own abilities that I can only see them win this game.
We are ready to get this Best of Five grand final underway.
G2 taking on Navi, Scorni Launders taking away.
Thanks, Freya.
Hey, Forum, how's it going?
Wasn't it special that we had Niko's blood game
to get him into an unlikely grand final?
How special would it be if that's what helped G2
do the impossible and stop Navi's streak?
Yeah, about 10 win streak on the line.
But I think back, Mohan, to 2017, when Blast was born,
here in the beating heart of Denmark.
And over those seven years, Copenhagen's
played a special role in CS.
So for him tonight, I won it here!
A special moment.
Yeah, I accidentally packed my tux for this game.
Maybe it wasn't an accident.
I don't think so.
Maybe it was fate.
Maybe it's fate that G2 are here today,
a very special story in.
I mean, it has been an amazing series of days of games
here at this fall final.
B-O-5.
Look at that map scroller at the top of the screen.
That's how much counter-strike we've got on the menu.
All day.
All night.
Pistol set up outside a donut.
Hunter dodges the flash nicely, comes back in.
Oh, a quick massacre between Hunter and Malb's.
Couldn't have asked.
Oh!
Oh, are we going to get something special here?
Because Moulbs' introduction to G2 just came at such a surprise.
I mean, the step up from M80 to G2.
He whooped Niko back at Pro League to get that golden ticket.
And now here in a very important match,
he's going to put forth a beautiful pistol.
He definitely impressed the right guy in Niko to get his position.
It really does come down to that matchup. That's not a joke.
G2 got to see first-hand how strong he was
and rated him correctly.
It looks like as he has taken off flying beautiful stuff.
from mobs and he has had an amazing tournament. Yes this is a lot about wonderful 1.40 rating across
the event but we're talking about mobs in these last couple games that he didn't get every kill
that he got. We might not be seeing g2 in this best of five.
Pickle pistol peek outside the door. Don't expect much from this. Snacks comes down gets into
the action. Can't hide. Not between him and Nico chasing those kills every step of the way
And look at these laps already coming out from snacks. He says my stats mine
Can't be going 30 games with a sub part rating. Yeah
The guy who won a major in his home country one of the most special majors ever won
That being said 10 years ago
Snacks the last time he hoisted a notable trophy was back at ESL one New York
with mouse sports. Oh my God. And just like we learned from
Kerrigan and you know his trials from facing Navi at the last major he got
earned it every time you know we know Snacks is a legend and we know that he
has what it takes to win on stage in front of a crowd no matter what the
size but as you continue your career and you enter new events you have to
show up for the job every single day does not get easier. Yeah it was
wonderful having him come back and kind of float around the scene again
leading gamer legion that nobody was upset that Snacks was playing in 2024 but when you take on the
responsibility of G2 and the potential trophy hoisting moments of monesty and Niko and Hunter
then suddenly the critics come crawling out of the thick and right now no crawling out mid because
you've got utility back and forth good posturing coming out from Navi. We saw Alexi B get kind
of battered up by Kerrigan yesterday when it came to this cave fight but this isn't Kerrigan
This is Niko now. So we'll have to see as time goes on whether that pressure starts to come out.
I know G2 are quietly nervous about the CT side because this is where they struggle the most in Na'Vi.
They score unreal numbers on this map, especially versus G2. In fact, G2 would have like a seven map
win streak or five map win streak on an ancient specifically, if not for Na'Vi beating them twice.
CT rounds are liquid gold.
Ooh, this shot out of Bonnecy. Fire at his feet. That's a lot of pressure in Donut. No surprise he goes down.
See if Mollys can do much with the Fommys.
Oh, lines up the approach because of that Molly.
They are getting just kind of held back for a second.
Ema from Red Room to come and join his teammates.
Tons of damage done to Snacks and Hunter.
So this really needs to be one of those glorious Niko moments.
And a quick JL headshot certainly sets it up.
Now, low health for Wonderful makes the double kill easy,
but caught off too many options with that.
Presence back site is attention just drawn all over.
And he's still out Hunter nearby.
And Snacks is inching his way in.
And Ema's not hiding his position.
He jumps around, he makes a lot of sound, and that gives Snacks all he needs.
Oh, they got Bitbacksite.
Not spotted yet.
Didn't jump the gun, didn't fire off.
Goes for the spam, now Hunter comes away, is that, is not the snack.
And now Bits it a bit of a tough spot, oh man!
Hunter runs him down.
They got the kit!
Yep, Snacks oppressing fire, they pull off the retake.
And that one's all about Nico, you know, Pimp brought him up as the most maybe impactful player
outside of the stats just watching the game that he played yesterday.
The one he feared, three that he won after he smashed the desk.
1v5 he nearly won
We're seeing him play to win almost like this when the ball goes down on default and CT's not mullied
You actually have such a great opportunity to kill the guy who's planting if you're a little bit too aggressive
And that's something that Navi actually love to do
Versus this exact same play
Nico flexing on him
three nil and again
Liquid gold here for G2 getting a pistol and CT ancient
is actually one of the most important steps.
Pressure though, suddenly to be thrown up this ramp.
Snacks cannot afford to get caught off guard here.
He's got no support elsewhere.
A little bit of damage, but all Alexi.
Blind tech nine headshots, that smoke plumes.
Malbs also a one and done.
This could be that freebie from Navi.
Just a sudden burst up the ramp that definitely caught the defense off guard.
Hunter doubles back to make sure there's no flank.
They can fixate in. Oh, a push. Bit comes at it.
Good cover. I mean they had Niko flashed.
And now he'll sneak out through his own smoke.
Carefully.
Can't contain him.
They find Ema elsewhere, guns on the bomb site, hold Niko back.
Oh, nice right bang from Hunter, that's definitely going to serve as this last attempt.
The final folly in and Alexei looking to shut it down.
Oh, sir, we've got another close clutch.
Wow, it has to come down to the USP.
Maybe Monacee's got it on his tuxedo as well.
Nope, just you.
That's a fun moment on the silent gun and the 1v1
Didn't want to let Alexi go would have been a much harder round if you did
Alexi M4A1S up versus USP. I know where I place my bets
Yeah, and I know I would have just lost the sidearm comes through from monosy and blade wants in now
Now this is a a tournament where Hunter hasn't had the best day so far
G2 won Dallas this year. This is a team that won with sort of in a completely random situation
having to play with Stewie2K. In that tournament though, in a sort of a year where Hunter's
form has been up and down, Dallas was great for him. We come into this event and it's
more been his presence supplanted by Malps. I feel like where we haven't had Hunter,
we've got Malps. And there's still so much room for Hunter to show us things in this
grand final if he wants to come alive now and if mobs can play the way that he's
been playing there is no question about the firepower imagine a g2 where both of
them are able to put forth performances alongside a nico star studded
performance and you also want to give some credit to hunter for giving mom's
space of course when he came on to this TV offer that up he goes sensing a
chance to attack but doesn't quite catch that player with nades in hand
and Monosy inches down middle and does fight E-man.
No challenge back the other way.
No trade potential.
With a smoke up, this pack of players still sectioned away.
But Niko takes a little damage through that smoke.
And JL, known to be a rascal on the ramp.
Oh, he gets covered by a wonderful.
And Navi, in a 4v5 conversion, take man advantage.
Wait, the bomb.
Hunter pushes in.
Bomb is sitting outside of A. This is a round that
could still get weird.
And we saw odd moments like this versus Faze on Inferno.
mobs doesn't know what's happening so he's wondering now why the bomb isn't being
planted they've taken the site and for Navi they want to make mob believe that
they still have control of the rounds and mobs is wondering when is his time to
attack bits cleared up the A site I would say surely he's thinking about a
now wonderful is going back this way it'll come down to this maybe engagement
and don't know if bit wants to give it to him just small timing where mobs
can win another pool but no cutout by this forward off angle from bit so well
It's done by bit, I think, you know, leaving bomb is one thing, but secures all of A site,
secures that entire other half of the map, and luckily Navi moved back.
It's really important you keep the bluff up in that situation, especially if you have
time remaining, because you start running back to spawn, it's going to become obvious
that you don't know what's happening, and that's when you lose confidence in the
situation.
Oh, what a spam.
Okay.
Alex is pulling out all the tricks lately.
All right, about time, Navi got on the board.
And they've done a good job keeping G2 on us economically.
It's just Montesey on the AWP right now, inside of middle.
And a lot of these rounds is Ima, because he
does such a fantastic job of lurking,
like we talk about Alexi B on the new miss
and how many he is on T side at finding space in middle.
That'll be Ima working to get towards the window
every single time.
And Montesey in the last round shoved his face
into elbow to kill him just to escape,
knowing he's oftentimes alone.
You do not want to step on the landmine that
is the solo op. And with that donut kill, you know they have to inch a little closer.
Navi doing a great job of just grouping up first, smoking off the B rotators.
But CTs are still just kind of leaking through the spawn. They're getting in off this inkling.
And with a deep donut kill, now you know, do we go up against this op?
Jail's kept an option open, else we're on the map.
And this is such a key thing for Navi. I mean, they can believe in this.
They don't actually have cave, they don't actually have banana, and they don't believe in it.
God it feels very light but can a solo op really do this such a chance for monacy
Amen high down to 30 seconds. You're not thinking of turning this back JL starts to seize a chance
They're just going to find some kind of alert maybe this was a tackler behind
Chances here from monacy, but he keeps one locked into main
Can the players do any work?
The exit we'll secure his red room control
No, I can't go anywhere. Alex he has to come back and he has to tell the troops to join him
There's no time. They're gonna pick up this gun and save. Oh my god
They got it! Too scared to pull the trigger!
Modesty does just enough and Navi hit a hiccup!
Geez, that's because of that late smoke and that's because they didn't do proper scouting
and obviously they didn't want to risk anybody dying to cross-firing cave or someone pushing
down Banana late, but there were no players from G2 on the other side of the map.
It was all about Modesty and supporting Modesty here on the site.
something obviously that Navi need to think about.
And we have seen a couple of rounds,
even yesterday where it came down to time.
Late round calling has been a bit messy
and sometimes it's because you don't have that option open.
We pointed out Jail outside of cave,
but because he wasn't inside cave,
that demands a certain amount of resources.
If he had been walking up Banana
and seen nobody fighting him back on the site,
no smokes coming down in front of him,
maybe he could call for his team to come.
But at 20 seconds, I think they were scared to look foolish, even though they had the instinct
that they were running into a stack.
They knew something was wrong, so they just cut their losses.
I think it still looks foolish, but obviously to a lesser degree.
You keep that economy up, you see Blade come through with an instant timeout.
We're talking two of Nobby's three timeouts on Ancient already being burned.
Yeah, that's insane.
And again, so much comes down to this first half in terms of G2's confidence.
They're almost at quota, to be honest.
One looking good feeling good
During no challenge with lane play where let's see those try to work up towards cave entrance
as the a4
For you that second and a half that JL stays just glued to the wall thinking he's waited long enough
Only to repeat into another stream of bullets. I won't say see a gelator on his birthday. Okay. That's fair 25, right? Yeah
He said the five stands for the five grand finals
every map that GQT2 can win versus Na'Vi is going to break some kind of burst.
However, snacks.
That's a nice find.
Was it you that told me every once in a while we see snacks getting caught off by like improper jump spots?
I'm thinking when he anchors B on Mirage.
Oh yeah, like it can be a little bit sloppy sometimes.
To be honest, like there are mechanics involved in that.
You see some of the younger players, Flamesee, Monacy, their shoulder spots and their jump spots are so perfect.
Perfect when snacks and jumps walking spotting back in the day you could you could be a little flagrant with it and get away with it
But people these days are getting it down to the pixel. So you've got to be careful
Another great find. He just saw the utility thrown out so he knows that perfect moment and they've already got this top deep in control
So just beautiful move from Navi so smooth. Oh Niko feels like one of those rounds that comes off the tack pause
Not even gonna go for it was like
That's beautiful stuff
That was a that was sort of a I mean it wasn't a one round. It was a good position with and then
When snacks died, of course, it made things easier. Oh say wasn't the only reason and yeah, Nico
Goes down to
You know, it's not often we get to see blade kind of frustrated with his team's performance
But after those two rounds yesterday on inferno, man, he couldn't help but wear it on his face
He was rolling his eyes. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I mean kind of sick of it and that could have been a two zero series
They would have just breezed here into the grand finals and now again we go two timeouts six rounds into the game
This is a round
I think played tactically will be proud of and it gets them an edge right this back and forth affair between the last four rounds
Puts g2 in a desperate spot round eight with pistols
And you want to see wonderful stamp on every round possible showing us why he's at a 1.40 rating
been quite an unreal tournament, you know. Some of Wonderful's maps have actually been
a combination of rifle kills, AWP kills. Well, Ancient specifically, in fact, yesterday,
he had a lot of beautiful entry frags going down on B site. That's right. And sometimes
you do have to show your range. AWP's not working well. You've got to be able to use
that. I love being a well rounded player. Yeah. Malmstrop 540, JL. There's the pistol
push for him to deal with and one's always gonna get. Careful now, that AK picked up.
Niko almost dies, but goes for the wallbang and misses it slightly. Hunter here with
multiple players coming at him and only the 5-7 means it's too much of an ask to
solo whole day. It's one thing if he catches them on the boost or hides behind a box
but they were so prepared for him. This is that exact situation that they had a
a problem last time where they solved it. Now they fight in cave. They demand some information,
so G2 have to show themselves and Navi keep an option open on the other side of the map.
Still, it's a nice early sign from the individuals of G2. We look down to the kill count and it's
just spread across the board. Maybe we want a bit more from Niko, but give them time.
It's always great to see them want to see a bit in games together. Of course, it's
Call the way a bit for the last nine series, but they were fast friends playing together on Navi jr
And same as wonderful, right? He's kind of out of them three just three guys
True
Three best friends travel in the world and competing for trophies. It's not a bad time to be alive
A couple clean deagle kills this one the span this one a headshot bad a boom
This will be a bit of a cleanse here
for Navi's mental. Getting back into T-Side, of course, I think, like, you know, only getting 7 rounds is actually the low par if they can even do that.
But just getting back into the game is all that's important. We saw the comebacks yesterday versus Faze.
Yep. Again, speaking of, you know, sub par, slow start, T-Sides.
Ancient was a key point of that series. We saw the C-T-Side come back, the denial of overtime with the wonderful clutch.
A very recent rep for Noggin to kind of bank on mentally.
Now that one AK hits the ground, so Niko continues to be a little bit muted in this series in stark contrast to the just world-class performance that he was able to throw out to get here.
But here we go. You know, we saw Hunter just kind of get run over by the A exit.
Right now, Malph does have that little element of surprise, but nah, he gets found out.
Very cautious on the approach going through all the proper moves and he has so deep this one's another breeze for
Navi if you weren't here for the first five rounds you think Navi had been dominating from the start. Yeah, right?
It's very calm. There's so many numbers coming into this game like you've had some streaks going on. Yeah, things JL's birthday
It's monesties one thousandth day on G2. It's JL's 25th birthday
Novi are on a 9-0 win streak versus G2 specifically on a 9 match win streak in general.
I don't know man.
And there's even, the interesting thing is that, you know G2, this is their arch nemesis because they would also be on a 9 match win streak if not for Novi.
They've won 7 of their last 9 games, the last 2 losses being Novi specifically.
The numbers make sense.
They try to come through in the series and they leave Mirage in, which is maybe the more
predictable veto based on their last games, and we have to sort of find out if they'll
regret it.
But doesn't it make sense that they're trying something different because what they've
done in the past hasn't worked?
The only problem with it that I potentially see is that they overrated the performance
yesterday versus FaZe on Anubis.
We watched that game and FaZe were not playing well, right?
Obviously, Navi look extremely good on it.
We'll not find out now because it's banned.
But let's say it's possible they were beatable.
Right.
You know, in a world where that map had come through,
you're still talking about a Navi that has basically a 90% win rate
on three maps in the pool.
Yeah.
And all these numbers that we just kind of list off,
these weird curses and dramatic moments
that have occurred over the last few months,
but we've seen Alexi B now win the best of five.
Yeah.
That would have been like the one counterpoint,
the one number that works against him.
And in this case, that's recently lifted.
There was always a new milestone though,
like this would be a top five team in the best of five.
And it's, you know, we're getting to a bigger stadium.
We've got, the eternal fire game was extremely legit,
of course, like they played so damn well at pro league finals,
but this would be the most impressive so far.
Let's see if G2 can get back into that early form.
That's a wait a little bit to get their guns back out,
but now they're well equipped.
They all try to seize the moment here into the B site.
Nobody in the corners, but long as occupied by snacks,
and they isolate him, they find him, and he goes down empty-handed.
Again.
Jail.
He loses a lexie as he swings around pillars,
so Hunter's been found out and forced to dive through fire.
Oh, Niko saves Hunter.
Helps him out perfectly.
A little challenge gets punished by Niko,
so again, he is kind of the piece that's faltering,
has bitten wonderful come together for this quick flurry of three frags
and force monicy into a clutch where he just can't stop that bomb
bomb has been planted
all the way they use wonderful is absolutely perfect like if everything goes
wrong he's in the back
with the spotlight watching to catch and punish the mistakes
everybody swinging out to make their trade tapping got stopped in their
tracks by wonderful
sitting on the ramp
been wielding that up effectively this game
and monicy has two
But he doesn't have much of a chance here in this 1v3.
He looks for a thread to pull on, but there's nothing there.
Finally, he does get that contact, but at what point?
Time far too gone.
AWP just posted on this angle if he even wants to try it.
And so, Modesty is forced to depart.
These guns that they waited for, it's been far too long.
So, you can't let this one slip.
And remember, we've seen a round where the Modesty solo AWP
posted a win for G2.
Yeah, that's true.
They know how to use them.
But look at Na'Vi waiting for their chance to get back to the game, finding it.
And it's these entries on the snacks a couple of times now where it actually batters.
And when we talk about Dallas, it was, you know, they were missing Hoaxy,
they had Stewie and Nexa down at the bottom of the board,
and they still won because they have so much individual level between the top three on the team.
And at this event, instead of Hunter, it's been Malphs.
And it's consistently still been Monosia and Viko.
So they still sort of have that formula.
But it's not to say that they can simply do that again.
And we go.
There's the opto.
Last time, this kind of a round for G2
was Monosy hyper-passive deep inside of the A-Side.
So I do like that they shift that up, right?
Change gears.
Go for the mid-gift.
Get your openings.
Oh, that sweet justice.
Revenge back on the man who had wallbanged him prior.
Anything you can do, I can do better.
Monosy down, and the op changes hands.
Niko's turn.
Silver lining that the AWP does die in a place where it can just be so easily retrieved.
The utility execution here is gonna kinda get that AWP out of the mix, you'd think.
You know, Niko loves these chances to show us what he can do with that AWP, but it's just missed another one.
Oh, but oh my god, sometimes it's out of touch.
Sometimes.
Guys, guys, it's okay, he's not an AWPer.
You know that's why we sing his praise kind of sitting around top five in the world this year doing it with a rifle
I mean it's it's he's in a complete lane of his own
There's the funny thing about Nico that like he's not he's not got that same versatility that simple or zai woo or some of the
Other sort of like mega elite players in history have been able to go
But with the rifle he stands above them all of them completely which is arguably harder to do
You're more volatile, you have to be more consistent, and he's got the best of the best cross-air placement, the best of the best peeps, counterstraps, everything, sprays, spray transfers, like you name it.
And even within this year, the emergence of Donk and the Katowice run that he had to match Niko's 1.70 record in New York many years ago, even in this year, Niko is killing him in the head to head.
It is. It's unbelievable is not even doing it justice when it comes to what Niko has been able to do with the rifle.
There is no one to compare it to five rounds in a row as Navi go on fire and they bank off the Lexi double entry.
So okay, a Lexi B 13 and six like it's nothing comes back up from G2 here.
Final attempt on the CT side to tie this up at six for Navi will get a chance to tap back into that solid CT side.
They showed us last night deep peaked down ramp sees nothing but a bunch of empty space
And it's a long road to that A site and that would be to assume that of course
There's not a chance for Navi to double back which right now JL is thinking about no
You didn't see it
There was forward the second flash but again
I mean we've seen Ema do great things up into the red room really serves as a skewer to cut off rotations
And it seems like Alexi's gonna do that instead. I think this is the perfect place for monocity to be
I mean we saw him get the opportunities to miss him last time so that's something but
In terms of being where the action's at, Monacy knows where the party is.
Sandovi awkwardly limp away from an attempt to hit this site when it was just a single off, but back smoke buys great timing.
Look at the 2-2 push that comes out, red room, oh it's coming for Alexi and those donut players are also inching out.
They outspout with a back turn, beautiful re-aggression, but it does cause them the bomb site. That's something they signed up for, they knew.
We can go for middle, we can clear it, we can take an advantage and look what happens.
You leave wonderful in an impossible clutch with so little time, you'll hide behind his
box and try as damned as, but that's an act of G2 to split this first half straight down
the middle.
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The only weather report that really matters, it's the Counter-Strike weather report.
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A phenomenal semi-final and yet a slow start for Nico so far here on Grand Final Sunday.
Three kills in that first half and it was a strong start but that start came to a quick end
when Novi were able to string together those five rounds in a row off the back of a top performing
Alexi B. Yeah you can see him playing some of his positions in the later rounds in that half and
they're coming in with this confidence right now. Holy fuck Alexi B is back huh?
That's good for us, if he's top fragging me a little bit.
Do it for Jail, that's what Alexi B is here to do on his birthday.
And yeah, they're coming in with an understanding now that they played this last Best of Five,
and they played a series of Best of Fives, even if they've only won this last one,
that this is a marathon, not a sprint.
Like, you could really feel that energy for them.
Even when they were 5-1 down, they didn't look too upset about it.
Maybe they don't feel upset because of the strong start, right?
This doesn't feel like it's all this counters Niko's pressure actually if they're gonna jump up
This is a really good timing for Navi to find this the problem is rotations and Alexi if he doesn't get a kill
Might have to forego the site
Hangin on the cave Malves does establish himself in Donut and I mean he was a killer back in the first pistol in this position
Malves almost got away from him buddy joins forces with Hunter and they do take control
So it's a quick push from the CT lane
Monacy slides in between the three players that remain and even takes their back.
Oh, that's fine.
Now, Novi have this false sense of confidence.
But what do you know?
Oh, he's in the way!
He's dropped the ball and Alexi's on the bomb.
If they wait too long, they might forget that someone's actually defusing it.
They cannot take him in the smoke, the knife's coming out, and he gets it.
Oh, okay.
They stopped it.
Jogged out.
That's how Lash is through two.
Three grand.
Three grand made for Mal.
He did it for the money.
One point.
He did it in 6-1 seconds left.
What is this, a custom map?
Oh, denying Mulder's impact certainly been felt in both pistols now, so he gives his team a chance to kick off T-Side as well as the defense.
Yeah, he drops a gun, I think. I don't...
What, no round two off?
Yeah, no, should have been the auto, right? Just go for the full flex.
Second hand.
Two of two pistols, one for G2 here on Ancient.
And six rounds is pretty solid for that first half.
Every time to turn it into the attack, the flank gets potted off, snacks chewed them up, no issue here, full confidence, full impact and all that money mom's made moves forward to the next one.
It's a complicated recipe, but the pistols are actually the main ingredients here. They have so much experience versus the ancients on the other side.
They have the individual firepower that matches up, even maybe Clair's Navi on average.
And it really comes down to the preparation, you know, when it comes to Taz and Snacks working together,
to perform the game plan that works this time.
Navi, you know, that all streaks come to an end eventually.
And the more practice that you give your opponents, the harder it is every single time to come up with a new way to win.
Almost find some good timing in the middle.
As he hears that run from E-Map back to Donut, missing a chance.
That frag grenade could have done a good chunk of damage to Alexi, but...
Snacks decides to hang on to it.
Takeover middle.
Again, kind of propped up by that early information gained by Malbz.
He's been out here the entire time.
And Bits...
He's got a responsibility there, and Malbz is so ready...
As he connects another headshot, won't be able to double down.
JL gets his falls back instantaneously.
Wait, weren't both spotted?
I don't think he noticed snacks the snacks don't even have to shoot jail coming up now
Footsteps being made and this way isn't good enough snacks
Look at the perimeter. They have on the A site now. This will push in my out
He has a forfeit this bit of map control and Navi or sorry excuse me G2 are gonna be able to just look around see nothing's here
They cleared out Temple behind them
See Alexi being super cautious on his approach because he doesn't know where snacks got off to but they find him now and that should fuel
Alexi to move this rotate in a little quicker
Wonderful's gonna come and bolster him. There is indeed no mid lurk
So he mess just trying to get the job going before his reinforcements really arrived
Good trade right back from wonderful and he doubles down with the m4
We already praised his rifles Nico has been absent this map time to shine back turned to him on the diffuse
Alexi sticking this all the way. Niko, what are you gonna do? He swings!
Oh no! He actually gets it! 0.11 seconds left! Not enough for Alexi. Niko gets a clutch.
That's the impact. And that's why the raw numbers aren't matching up to some of the other players in the server, but the impact is unbelievable.
It's a game-changing moment right here. And we're sort of at this point on Mirage where Niko was so frustrated he didn't win his clutch.
You know, it's partially because he's putting up the highlight of the year, the potential highlight of the year,
but it's also what probably feels like the difference between a win and a lost map.
And this is one of those rounds.
Malph's establishing middle control out of the gate last round, really did kind of lead them to that A site, so...
Popped for him, playing in the sexual part of the setup before G2 swarmed that site.
This goes all over, don't let this moment fall G2.
You've got yourself an excellent chance to establish double digits, and what do you know, Niko opens up, it gets found out.
There's a lot of bullets though, just kind of rattling outside of the site, so it's no surprise to either team, of course, this B site gets stacked.
It's a pretty calm moment here, there's not going to be anything aggressive, and you know, Navi knows that.
They sit on the site completely, they actually won't have any odds of winning the rounds, but...
...and the way they're crawling up, they're aware of the default that's happening.
Guns out, guns out, no.
Just the one from Wonderful...
And pressure back at Aniko.
There's G2 on 10.
Assistance supplied by Snacks.
The real way from a map 1 win.
A map pick of Novi.
Might be something to start, man. This is a pretty great performance.
Like if G2
play their hearts out,
they obviously have a chance in this series.
Like we know that.
But they need every little X-Factor.
They need things like the pistols.
Because Novi are the better team.
That is also undeniable at this point.
But that's what we're getting. We're getting the X-Factor. We're getting the AWP presence.
We saw two nodding timeouts burned in the first six rounds of this map. Here comes Blade.
Same instance. It's like you're saying, the X-Factor, it all goes this way.
For the favorite of G2, pistol full conversion. Four rounds straight on this T side.
And for Alexei, I'm sure he's proud of himself right now, but he probably is looking around because he needs teammates.
He needs teammates. He has players that are getting set up better than him that have more space to work with, that he demands excellence from, and you can get an Alex if you pop off.
That is not a rare thing at all. But he's also not supposed to be the sole player at the top of the board.
Yeah, he definitely hasn't had to be lately.
Bit and Ima with more than four kills.
Wonderful.
Oh, this is coming fast. And he sees the shadows. So early warning sign is they commit to the swing.
This counterpart monosies back there, but E-Met blows out the smoke, bit tries to get pressure, nice triple strut, and we get that bit of improvement from the others, right?
We can sit here and say Alexi can do it in the meantime, but this was four kills for E-Met in the map coming into this round. I mean, nearly doubles it with that triple.
Yeah, glad I got to mention it, because then, boom, there you go, 3k spray down, huge impact, perfect timing, and even though G2 did a good job of covering those smoke pushes,
pushes because Navi do that all the time.
They try to dive through the CT smoke when the A site gets taken over.
They do not go for pure 5v5 retakes at all.
They just don't do that.
And so G2 cover the pushes, but Navi kept pouring in players as they do.
That was a five player A rush off of your opponent's tack timing.
It's an age old classic, but not one that serves G2 very well.
and then blow it open to smoke just gave themselves such a great chance.
Because of that smoke dive, you can see it, right?
Smacks so busy. E-Met comes through, lines up two players.
And any round, honestly, doesn't even really get a target to shoot at.
It's around that Navi give themselves the best chance.
When you're playing at the mouth of the donut on the A side, you have a chance to stop the attack.
Anything inside a donut and you're playing retake.
There, fifth hit is A something.
Oh, and ult seeding flashes too.
It is just such a complicated situation.
But with the smoke down on elbow things, I'll start to get a little more calm here for Navi.
They're winning in mid.
He can snag through something about it.
Wonderful post.
There was so much presence here.
You can't help but feel like G2 drawn to the fire.
Oh my god, he missed that jump spot.
Hunter called it.
Bam comes back in at dead.
Damn.
Ema actually a little too far forward for Wonderful to even get the response.
Alexi!
What?
What a wall bang!
He's got all the tricks.
All that presence set up in mid, and then Wonderful does finally get somebody to strike down.
Malb's dead.
So much of a fight.
It was complicated, and it could have been even more costly out of the gate, Alexi knows.
And it's a triple kill for Alexi so far.
Oh, make it a quad!
Okay.
Maybe he was meant to be the kill leader on this map.
Insane impact as an individual.
Insane impact as an IGL.
And in this event, we have seen so many moments at so much dynamic play, and there have been
off-games, but no series lost to nine series, clean streak.
Oh, that's ridiculous.
Those were heat-seeking bullets.
I've only got one more hand, Nico.
I think it would have been hilarious if Blast put the Smash Desk back on his side
today.
I was gonna say, we won't find you if you want to use the desk.
Yeah, right?
That's all you already bought it.
single AK and it comes through with an opening kill so Novi can't celebrate too
early. That was a very hairy situation in middle last round that Alexi kind of saves
them from with I don't want to call it a gimmick but and you know what I said
that other people on the team have more space than Alexi but Alexi as an IGL
has always had confidence in himself he's played positions like Mirage
connector where you would normally have your thoroughbred star player in
in that spot, and he gives himself some of those spots on maps.
And I actually like that.
Like, IGLs that have zero space sometimes also get zero confidence
because they never get into games.
And Alexi has always believed in himself as an individual,
even if his stats will never be as good as some of the players
that are hired to help them.
Right.
Right, so those moments where he's proven it, him and Bit
just sliced through a couple of pistol players on the ramp.
Pressure from both ends.
So you know G2 are going to be feeling stranded
and figured out at the moment.
But that AK exchanged his hands from Niko to Monosie.
and he keeps going.
Why not?
You know you've got the advantage in this fight,
just trying to hope that that AK can get more,
but no, sir, not this time.
And I mean, this is a single AK buy
that was once given to Malb's back on Dust2 earlier this week
that won a match.
And I loved Malb's energy when he came out of that.
He said, this is what tells me that I am as good as my teammate.
Yeah, for sure.
If you give me that hero, AK, well,
you didn't have it this time.
And definitely credit to G2 for how they incorporated it.
I mean, he clearly felt comfortable.
I really thought that he was gonna have a hard time
with the amount of star players
and the individual level on G2 and standing out,
but he has done that.
It really did give him the respect he deserves.
Yeah.
And he has sighted playing some of those boring anchor roles
that I thought would help, would cause him to suffer,
but outside of that, when he's gotten on the T sides,
that's where he can really be himself and shine.
I mean, they gave him the respect he deserves,
and in return, he's given them the impact.
The growth is a player.
As he steps forward into a high pressure team where every player gets scrutinized the G2 aren't winning. It's like a phase
Niko trying to find it will indeed
Soften him up for mom's to get the kill but then mom's comes through with the double E-man quick pressure out of middle and wonderful
It's not smoked off. Is anybody overstepping? Oh
They they made him click right there. They got K control. You've got to be careful
This will help out really wonderful. Oh doesn't see it hunter in the corner. He read it well
He had the right idea, but just kind of gets lost in the moment and now Hunter is able to put his hands on that
AWP and take the deep pressure. You've got three of the best players you would want in this clutch alive, G2.
Just gonna bank on Niko's site anchor for first contact and BIT. You're not gonna be able to unravel this one.
It looks like G2 able to pounce into that B site and take back a two-round lead.
As we talk about Maltz, he gets two kills,
strengthening that entry pack and
And that was the big part as well about Dallas that their entry pack on T side was absolutely incredible like they tip the scales
With double entries consistently
They're sort of you know a John Jones of the team are very hard to find someone to spar against when it comes to G2
Who's the practice partner for a roster like that? How do you find monesties counterpart?
You know somewhere else in the scene to scrim against it's very difficult a lot of ways
You're going to read the macro from G2, but if you don't pay attention in, think about the micro as well.
That's where the individuals will slam you.
Angle.
Numbers have been here for G2. Ooh, a tripe could be costly.
Oh, missed shots.
Wonderful with a golden chance at striking the first player down.
Now all of a sudden, B-Site completely enveloped and equal.
Is he going to stop here? Or is he going to go a little deeper?
And as if they have a flash to scale and shoot it.
Wonderful gives the cover, making up for that first miss shot.
The bomb still goes down regardless.
It's G2 on the brink of securing their 12th.
And as the reloads are heard all across this bomb site, sure enough G2 continued to bounce.
Hunter making it up for the Kovac.
As Niko goes down with nothing, Mobs is here to help.
And Ema, a single answer.
He's got a piece together, two more frags in this moment.
And as the cover comes out from that deeper ramp spot,
Ema is still thinking about the corner, he peeks deep.
And the offer doesn't get his chance.
He doesn't know about people.
He has to get into the cover.
A little bit of team damage, actually, but it's a good armor and body, and that's G2
on 12.
Oh, they've actually made it 12.
After the lead evaporated, G2 have just suddenly won a couple of rounds, and people
like to call Nico selfish.
Look at what he's done on these last couple of rounds.
Even though he didn't get that opening entry last round, he was the first man
in the site.
He's the one scaling with the flashes.
Here he runs the entire way through, and he has a team that he can count on.
He's just as important at the end of the round as he is in the beginning, and
it's actually unreal.
the range that he shows as a rifle for that.
12 found, well earned here for G2.
MP9s, dude, that's all that got left.
It was the CT side that just destroyed
in the face comeback last night,
not to be had this time around.
This B site's been the intended target.
Oh God, it's sloppy.
Both players blind the MP9s.
They crunch, but they didn't know.
He left a couple of bullets.
Niko continues to tap back.
CT's on both ends.
And Niko is actually able to disengage from all of that.
How does he get out of line?
I don't know, he's the main character.
He got around that molly to take any damage.
Plot armor.
Two players low here on Na'Vi as they fight for their life.
Three MP9s, no rifles, and a reset situation.
The most obvious thing they can do right now is walk down B,
but they've already gone ahead for the push over on the other side of the map.
That's cute.
But these HP bars, that's the real problem.
Wow, it's shower time if you get to kill here.
That was a sweaty angle.
Yeah, listen, you pull out all your hidden tricks when it comes down to securing a map,
because you've got three rounds to close this.
Little did they realize that Alexi and Wanderful are as low as they are, so these maids...
Oh, yeah, it's gonna be worth it.
Niko catching pit as well, that's the flank dead.
They know that the last two players are probably here if it was flanking like that.
like that now just a matter of ego at this point do they want to try to bully
their way in or maybe they think that there's someone coming in from mid and
it could be a second honestly you've still got just that bit of time let the
smokes go out try to trade for I'm sitting on a 4v2 and Niko's got three
kills this round he's set you up to close it and mona see it's gonna do it
okay in a best of five or questions were asked about G2 they will take
They take this first map and they've got their pick of Dots the next.
G2 furiously fired up and taking Navi's map pick in the process.
Man, what a way to be starting off this best of five marathon in G2.
That completely blows up, sorry, this best of five final.
Coming in for G2 to be able to steal away the ancient, the fashion they do it in,
playing good Counter-Strike, countering a lot of the stuff that Navi had planned,
a lot of the preparation they came in with, felt like G2 were a step ahead.
This was the team performance. Look at the scoreboard right here. No money is popping off per se, no Niko popping off per se,
Snax even finding a bit of impact, having a high ADR, Meltz having a decent game.
This was much more like a team cohesion coming in for G2, which is not something we expected coming into the squad final.
Definitely a little bit worrying for Navi here, because it looks like upside down. I mean, Alexi be top-fragging,
and then Bid, who was supposed to be the best CT player, as I requested before the game, to watch out for him.
he's been not delivering at all and throughout the whole map he was rather struggling.
When was the last time you saw Alexi B frag for both Emma and Bit in the same game without winning it?
Alexi B had a monstrous performance, I don't want to say anything away from G2 but Alexi B with 108 ADR
he was so so close finding even more impact. There was two rounds we'll dive into later
where he came dangerous to close, defusing the bomb. One round a second and a half lift,
another round 0.11 seconds left of that one. So far Alexi B to have such a strong
individual performance and yet they still can't win on their own map pick, that is a
warring sign, I agree with you. And he was also involved in a lot of
entry duels over at T side, especially at the beginning of the map where actually
G2 were having a good start but now we actually managed to bring back half
into 6-6 scoreline and that was thanks to LXDB and his openers. I think Launders
put it perfectly during the game, it's not, you know, regs, I think to see LXDB have those pop-off moments maybe compared to some of the other
during game leaders that we've seen, but it can't be him in isolation for the
vast majority of this map it was sure wonderful he comes back a little bit
towards the end but yeah fit and then they massively missing for Navi. I mean
Sturco said it right bit has been the best CTs like performer throughout the
entire tournament he was nowhere to be found in us well he's had an uptick
in performance the past couple of months how he has revolutionized himself
when in his Navi jersey how he went from being a player that everyone was
pointing towards seeing we're gonna cut him up if we ever need to cut anyone
He's been playing fantastic Counter-Strike the last three months.
This was the first time I saw Ema in quite some time completely dropping the ball,
involved in a lover opening duels, and he couldn't win any of those,
especially in the mid-portion of that map.
He made it very tough for Navig to get into the game,
and unfortunately, even Alexi B, where a hundred and eight ADR wasn't enough.
Yeah, 0-4 in openers, especially when you look at the ancient and the position that he has
to occupy and hold on the CT side, because he's not delivering,
and he was more of a liability throughout the half there.
Let's go back to the first half of this map at Ancient, because G2, they win the first four rounds,
Navi then eventually get one on the board, but what happens immediately after that, Jaker?
I love G2 and the way they approach this game, they really want to force the issue. You see the
round history right here, they win the pistol, they convert, then Navi is winning the first round
as you said, and round six which we're diving into right now is a bit of a gamble for G2.
You decide early on in the game, do we, do we, I guess, protect our good start or do we go all out?
You have Monizzi on an AWP and then you have four players and just pistol you see the buy right here left bottom corner of your screen and
Somehow some way they still make it work. Obviously Monizzi on and off is always going to be a bit dangerous
Again, you have Emma here in middle with a legs to be finding an opening a thing in a 4v5 scenario
This should not be possible to lose out Monizzi good timing right here on towards wonderful
He shows the AWP and for some reason they decide to push the issue
They know Manassee with the lone weapon in the game right here is poised to this position and yet he still finds the double kill
And Navi at this point 15 seconds left. They cannot do anything about it
Just like we saw yesterday. This was the first glimpse of Navi out calling himself. There was an issue
That was beautiful prediction from Monace there as well on bait that he's gonna jump away throughout the corner
Maybe knowing a little bit too much about his good friend bait. Let's dive into it
at the second half and talk about that diffuse moment,
that almost diffuse coming in from Alexi B,
but just at the last moment, Nico denies it.
I feel that could have changed the game.
Again, I love the fact that Nico put himself in this position
instead of flanking through donuts,
he went all the way back here,
so they have no idea where he's at at this moment.
Wonderful low HP, is not sitting on the bomb,
unfortunately, it's Alexi B, he has a kid.
He taps the bomb, slips it,
and look at the time out there.
0.11 is the last number we see,
it was so, so close to be fruitful
And I bet you have not only won that round, you would have seen a complete different game
because they caught me from this point and I was supposed to destroy it.
And this was not the only round where the diffuse got so close.
It was in a pistol round as well where there was a smoke diffuse attempt, but Malps actually
managed to clutch it out with a knife and two knife kills, giving such an economy boost
throughout the T side that it's kind of carrying them throughout the whole half there.
Yeah, it's crazy.
I mean, for Malps as well, it's great to see him stepping up on this big stage.
We talked about the differentials between his kind of T and CT form, particularly just
because of the positioning that he's put in.
What did you take away from him on this first match?
I think he had a good performance.
You know, again, it wasn't a standout performance, and nobody, dare I say it, from G2 had this
massive breakout standout performance, but they all had moments in the game where they
were impactful.
We had a Nico Klotzer 1v2, we had Meltz being very efficient in the opening, especially
in the pistol as well.
We had Monizzi, obviously, with the AWP having impact.
Snacks even had certain moments in the game where he got some impact. I know 14 kills
I think we counted seven of those to be against pistols against eco
So I get a little bit inflated in that regard
However, every single member from G2 had a good show and had a good game and that's what it takes to be none
Do you want to just talk about snacks for a moment?
I know this is just completely outside the context of the game
Well, actually, no it does pertain to the game because he ends with 14 kills 15 deaths
So, Seacoat, the negative KD continues to horn him. Doesn't matter, they won the map, but still.
Yeah, I made a note. Snacks broke the streak thanks to Ecos, but in the end he didn't really, and the streak keeps going on going 26 maps without positive KD.
Well, they're winning, so it doesn't matter, but it's just a fun little stat.
And I dare everyone out there, you know, in these breaks between the games, if you want to sit down and nerd a bit of Counter Strike, you have 26 maps now in a row without a map with a positive streak, sure, they've got to be record.
I can't think of any player ever at this level who's not been able to go positive just once
Yeah, it is mental. It's breaking all the records. He don't want to for snacks
But either way, he's up one map. As you said Jacob, this kind of
This makes a specified conversation wide open particularly when we're going into this Dust 2
Especially with Dust 2 on the horizon, right?
It requires now and now to fight back and steal away that map pick from G2 and will speak more about it after the break
But for my money, it was more so the fashion G2 did it in. They did it as a team
that it would every single player showing up having impactful moments and that's one thing
I didn't think would be possible my win condition for T2 coming into the final was Monty playing
well, Niko playing well, mouse finding impact and then if Snacks and Hunter would have some
moments in the game that would be a bonus but this was a different looking T2.
Yeah I mean definitely that what I was touched upon is right now the Navi camp what is going
to happen to them.
I was watching a lot of webcams throughout the game because it's really interesting
how people behave, players behave to such a losing streak or like string of lost rounds.
And there was a lot of frustrations, but if anything, they're going to have to bounce
back because they did it in semi-final already. Current final is here. We need to bring the
competitiveness back.
If you don't mind me pushing you a little bit, that's T-Co, because we saw particularly
with JL, the Rx teammate, he was having some of those moments. Understandably in
that knife situation on the second pistol, totally get it if you're on the side
of jail. Did you ever experience that with him when you were kind of on that major run?
I imagine not because it was a bit of a Cinderella story, but any other tournaments where, you
know, the emotions got the better of jail? It's really hard to say. I don't think,
I think he was very resilient throughout the tournaments and official games. It was a little
bit shaking us throughout the practice, I would say, where it was kind of like
the frustrations were running high, but it was not only jail. It was like
understandably, even in Navi, when best teams in the world, this happens during practice
And we need to limit it just to practice when we're on the stage. We're fighting for the trophy
We're all one unit and we need to pull for the same end mentally wise and also tactically wise now interestingly
Production have noticed that monasy has come in a little bit earlier than the rest of the G2
Can't happen the other day when they were on the receiving end of a loss that time around
Do you think he's just a hungry tip keep wall make sure that his aim is a scratch
Believe it was the assistant coach of G2 as well who went on Twitter yesterday posting a picture of monasy an hour after the
semi-final versus Vitality sitting in the practice room at the hotel warming up for tomorrow, which is then today
Monty right now has his eyes set on that trophy and I think from an individual point of view
We want to make sure that he's on it. Well, we have our eyes set on Dust2
But not until we hop things to a quick break. Dust2 discussion coming up after it
We await at the door of Dust2 now internally enough G2's map pick in this series
But the last time these two teams went head to head it was indeed Navi to come out on top
They will be starting on the CT side once again, but Jacob, there is a very big asterisk with that game,
because it required an incredible T-side comeback from the side of Nabi.
So I wonder whether G2, they've been doing their homework, they know exactly what went wrong on their defensive half,
and they know exactly how to counter Nabi.
I think so. I think Dust2 have been a very solid map for G2 throughout this tournament.
We saw yesterday with Vitality as well.
Apex said that he feels that Vitality and his team is the best team in the world than Dust2,
and we saw what G2 did to them yesterday.
So I think in terms of raw confidence coming into Dust2 and the feeling the players have for the map,
G2 and the camp right now must be feeling pretty satisfied.
Yeah, they played it four times already, they still remember losing it only once to Na'Vi, briefly.
And I mean, it all comes down to individuals as we saw against, even that win against Spirit,
it was Malph, Niko, everyone firing on all the cylinders, and right now aim-wise,
if I'm looking at Dust2, aim-paradise or paradise, we want to see more from Na'Vi to compete.
And it's not often we get to make this comparison right, but when you play against a team twice in a tournament, just with a few days in between,
there's more to learn for G2 losing that does two games versus Na'Vi than for Na'Vi.
It's subconsciously, and you probably can attest to that as well, Stukka, when you're winning a map,
obviously you can look at it and be like, we can do certain things better, and we should do certain things better.
But whenever you lose a map, there's always more to be taught, there's always a learning phase in that one.
So if anything, G2 have a pretty good idea of what to expect and probably also have the ability to change certain things up that could maybe surprise Blade and the Na'Vi boys.
This is exactly why some people or some teams, when they lose a map, they put too much focus on it.
They completely disregard the wins and they focus on those negatives to fix them.
And this might have happened as well in the camp of these two teams,
where G2 really prepared to come back and prepare a new game plan
that they were now countering in the previous game.
Just looking back at the CT side of G2, the last time they faced off on DOS2,
Manusio only got 5 kills, that was the most on the side of G2 rather.
we can check in with the live odds as well to see exactly how they are stacking up. No surprises,
see them slightly favoring G2 in this one, but yeah, I think you're totally right, Stiko.
Oops, we want to see more from both sides of the equation. We want to see some fire coming off of
Dust2, right? Absolutely. Now we have to build up on that eight map, map, win streak that they
have on Dust2 so far. And this is no perfect ground to do so in best of five. But we
are able to jump into the second map of this best of five Grand Finals. Dust2 with Conor and Moe.
Thank you so much panel that's right suddenly we find ourselves here with a
bit of an unexpected tone set with that ancient win. Yeah that is the interesting
thing that's happened we have seen the odd map where Navi lose it and they
still win the series but the point is that they win the series and now we're
in a position where they enter a best of five but they have one the last one
So if you think they're going to win, go for it again!
Let's get it!
Emeru's paradise.
Let's go head hunting.
Wonderful.
Taking a quick spot down mid, and it's a bit of a distance.
But I wouldn't ride him off.
What do you got in store for us, Niko?
I'm glad that his teammates were able to prop up that G2 win.
You know, touched on it back in ancient.
We'll bring it up again.
So far, 4-0 start for G2 in both halves of this best of five.
What's crazy is like the sheer number of kills really wasn't there for Niko in like that top-fragging sort of style that we see from him sometimes
but the clutches were there, the entrying was there, like the selflessness being at the front of the pack
when he could be so valuable as a clutch player really showed his range and showed how he's always playing to win.
Like I mean ultimately that was the big takeaway.
So G2 talked about the recipe, comes with pistols, you need it when you're playing against a better team.
against a better team. That's how upsets happen.
And that's what this game will be if G2 win it.
They're already up two.
Now they're looking for their third.
Little warning for Alexi.
It takes a P250 shot to the shoulder.
Flashbang scares them for a second
as Alexi confirms all those numbers.
Crazy. The bomb is not over here.
This is selling them a bill of goods.
And they did see enough targets.
And I think G2 are actually quite happy
that they flash retook this.
They still keep two committed over on the other side.
Yeah, Montes is turning the corner.
Might be too soon. Malph gets a kill.
They have time to peel back.
But who's in the middle of it? It's Ema.
What can he do? He drops. They would have heard that, right?
Yeah, they would have.
Ema.
Oh!
Oh no!
Oh, he didn't even go!
Oh, he didn't even go!
Don't!
There was, there was the opportunity.
I mean, he dropped off, but stayed aware.
Smax tries to reclaim this.
Wonderful goes up top middle.
Ema just puts himself in the perfect spot.
But he didn't do it cautiously.
I thought for sure they would have been aware of it.
But now, times, I mean, this is impossible.
Just don't die.
Essentially, and with the reload, that's gone.
G2 give up their first pistol
of the series because of the misrotation.
Oh, let's see the point of keeping the money in this spot.
Time runs out.
And that's Emma, knowing at least that there
were players in tunnels, I didn't want to rush the situation.
If he had jumped into Lord directly,
maybe it's a different story.
And maybe they weren't communicating
is the moment where they were trying
to run back to A at the exact same time.
Go for emergency protocol.
So they could have been talking
over a very important drop.
Right, you know it's probably a frantic change
of plan.
They offer a strong start to Navi. First one, we've seen.
Ooh, but do they convert it?
Alright, G2 won both pistols and got 4-0 starts.
If Navi win the pistol, only to get D-ed in the head like that.
Absolutely, makes up for the pistol. Counts as a pistol.
100% Navi, especially being on TT side, it will be...
way too difficult.
Good on a wonderful. Scoops up the M4.
Simply win the round back in the next one.
There will be broke, so there's a chance here.
Malm's approaches, that M4 is gone.
So you know it's been repositioned elsewhere on the map.
And Malm's has referenced himself in his own Deagle.
He said, in North America, they know about my Deagle,
but now that I'm playing on G2, he's
trying to make his name for himself over here in Europe.
I think he's left a good impression.
Yeah.
But you only get one guy on the team that gets famous for it.
And unfortunately, he's teammates with his Niko.
Yeah, shout out JT one time.
Malm's making a name for himself on that knife.
I'll tell you that.
What can you do, JL? You're pinned against the corner.
Oh, back turns. Yeah, he does his job.
Niko gonna try to cut off the rotators.
Flash misses, and wonderful is there to get him.
So, gap on the door. Snacks on the scout.
Goes back as it makes out on the approach, and SMG's just paring through them.
Modesty dropped by Alexei.
Navi will convert their pistol despite the 4v5.
Yeah, that's a sigh of relief. 100% there for Navi.
pistol and conversion after losing the opening kill. It's all good for them. I
think it was also important was when they played against external fire. That was a
game that went to distance and that's a situation where you think that's where
they get the most nervous. They got tested all the way to the end and Stale
came out ahead. They definitely showed some resolve. Looking confident as they
They should be versus the lesser weapons and emit off the flash set up.
No bad risks being taken.
Shirley I hope for an uptick in monesties performance in his heads ahead now that we find him back
on Dust2.
We've seen good Dust2 performances.
Nobby kind of had his number but you know what else it's nice to see getting a couple kills
is bit because back on ancient he was near non-existent.
At first it was funny just watching bit just show up only when an inferno took
place in a grand finals and take over the entire game, but it's not a joke if they end up losing
a map in a grand finals that he can normally play well on. It's not really room for Justin
Inferno specialist on a roster that's constantly making best of five grand finals.
It is map four, so Navi will need him when they plan on getting there. Here we go.
We'll buy out of G2, we'll see if the early gun rounds will work. Wonderful goes peeking in
after the first shot had already been fired and so no surprise that monasy's
there but it's dropped. It's funny because there was a time where G2 were the
team that couldn't win a single map in grand finals. The cycle of life. It's like
it's hard or something. It's the final hurdle. The final fall final. While we
watch Nobby power up over the second half of 2024 in a year with so much
instability in terms of number one.
I mean it's it is great to have a number one that really speaks to the ceiling of
the game. We talked about MR12 and how inconsistent that can make things seem
and players and coaches and things complaining about the fact that you only
have a few rightful round chances. Well if ever there's a team that reaches
number one in the world and is consistent that stands in the face of
their excuses. A bit of kind of wishy-washyness from JL didn't throw the
native immediately, but he finds the timing in the end.
Yeah, he's got the right feeling for it.
But the support utility isn't here.
God, they really don't have any idea
that this full B exec is happening.
I mean, nobody.
No one's even here to stop mobs from walking across mid.
All right.
God, it had already pushed long as well.
Just no rotations coming out of time.
OK, quiet victory here for G2 as they only
have one person in B to fight.
Simple as.
There's gun rounds that look real good on G2.
Yeah, no kidding.
Now it was with a grenade that kind of chipped away on four,
he almost ends up getting the double spraydown,
but I mean he would have had to do that and then more,
because Navi were never even coming close to support him.
That's the kind of round that tells me if I had a hunch,
late's taken a pause.
Navi showed, you know, they weren't shy to kind of burn them early on ancient.
That one feels a little too easy for the G2 Army.
Oh, B, clear for the taking.
Could also be that they...
Well, I think they really had no idea.
I would assume that Jail would be playing retake
instead of committed to the site
because there's no way he stops a full mid-split from happening.
But that's also why you wonder where the communication is
because either he plays retake and they save
in case B site gets taken,
or he's on the other side of the map
and actually supporting this idea that they think it's A.
But that sort of shows you that they were just reacting instead of being proactive and again.
Here and there you get those rounds out of the obvies.
All dancing with Alexi on long.
It's not that instant 5v4 that G2 were able to establish one round prior.
Oh, wonderful!
He's great at that pick.
Winning over Monacy and he gets tagged in the process.
Down to 25, but still the champ.
Trying to put pressure back through that doorway.
Is he gonna go grab it? But now they see Wonderful. Okay, you can go and have it. Yeah, well he snacks was as cautious
He's the one that steps into the sniper emet clean kill on Niko trying to crest the catwalk like that
And now unfortunately for G2 they're just gonna have been pulled apart this round a well-timed smoke pop in mid a
nice reposition from Wonderful so that he can double his kill count and
There we go. Navi right back to winning ways. So
So no opening 5B4 from G2.
No round to go with it.
Yeah, certainly looking a little bit more flustered now.
Not one tactic, wonderful does a lot.
When they set him up for pick plays,
that's when he's at his best.
And when he first joined up with this roster,
he always got good stats.
But he has always been an opera that's
more sat in the back.
He's such a contrast to someone like Symbol,
who you don't have to tell Symbol what to do.
He's going to create the round around his own plays.
Wonderful, more so, needs to be set on a path.
Needs to go for some type of opening.
And those set-pick plays always worked out pretty well,
but that's consistently been a feature of his gameplay.
You know, he's closer to a Shiro than he is a simple
in that regard.
Hey, hey, eventually we'll run out of those.
What do you see Monkey do?
Got to imitate your idols.
It works, doesn't it?
We've worked out a thing yesterday, it works.
He literally said in the interview that if he didn't, then he was not going to be able to reset.
Yeah. Well, now for Niko is just working with the Desert Eagle.
It's not be converting pistol and then getting right back into winning ways.
Wonderful trying to find his pick.
But if I was G2, I would also be cautious about middle knowing that wonderful is on this prowl.
Earlier catwalk fights at times from Navi, but this round's not going to be one of them out of the gate.
There's a lot of open space here, but it's like that type of silent open space that makes you cautious.
G2 climbing up with numbers, getting ever closer to this two-player setup.
Yeah, this one looks like it's going to be pretty raw versus this cat defense. Good utility back and forth.
Yeah, goes just deep enough, causes some problems for the catwalk players who could always, if needed, swoop down to CT.
You can see the B defenders start to take an eye towards mid.
Yeah, they're ready for something.
There's that smoke into spawn to kind of indicate that there's a pinch to come thing is it's not a pinch
It's an all-in. Yeah, no need here for the smoke. Emma just gonna be listening but not supporting so two players in the site
They've got a defense going through. Yeah, it's gonna challenge. Oh, he messed up the bomb
And the op up close will find him, but it's a beautiful double kill from Eman JL tested back side again
To be honest for the Peaks versus the Mac 10. Can't quite hit it
Snacks doing a good job of keeping him busy in the drive-by. Bison monosy scoops up
Another kill at Snax in that exact moment. Just grab a bomb that was open in the door.
Wonderful to try to pressure the planter.
Monacy wants to come out from the tunnels and that's Smoke will give him a chance.
Wonderful finds it with the rifle and as he turns, it's Monacy to creep out slightly.
Jumping over top. Wonderful in Monacy. Two star ops.
Up close!
He does not overreact. Wonderful thought that he would run through the smoke and said he throws his own.
He lets Snax die and still says, I'm gonna play this 1v1 carefully.
He knows what wonderful is thinking.
It looks like a round-
It looks like a round-witting play for him to come out, but as soon as he gets that trade and you look back and see there's one person in the site,
Snacks is working on him with the back-trend, it really comes down to that duel.
JL wins, most likely Navi will win the round instead, he goes down.
Snacks has impact, Monacy finishes the job.
There's a small detail there, but remember the bomb was dropped outside of the doors.
Modesty got that additional kill right before leaving from middle to go join through tunnels. It's in that instant that snacks just jumps out grabs it plants
Right not for that distraction from modesty
I mean even with the distraction that last CT could have just been looking for snacks in an attempt to grab
Really nice drop stuck outside of mid no bomb plant or nothing
So shout out snacks there seizing the opportunity created by modesty and giving Navi some early struggles
See if GZU could keep it going
A lot of peeks from Waterfall down this mid-door, so no surprise.
Monosy tries to flex his AWP against him.
But it's not the countersniper in position, rather BIT.
I still feel like they're a little bit weak when it comes to making connections
on CT side, leaving mid as an open window,
mid to B, being a problem for them in the last couple of rounds.
And yeah, you had Emma run through a smoke and get a 2K by himself,
but we're not looking at sustainable game plans for Stop and G2
if they're going to have free reign over the middle of the map.
It's been boring here for G2s.
They don't see anybody in the first 30, 40 seconds.
But the entire time, they're working.
And if they don't see any reactions,
they're gaining more space.
Putting in the hours.
And look at this.
They're bifurcated once again.
There's no one in mid to stop this.
Split from coming in.
It's going to be the three CTs who need to put the hole
together.
And they don't even think the T's could be this aggressive.
But they need to hold on the cat or something.
Wonderful.
We're going to get along with one.
But now, Malm's this trade, puts pressure
on this last CT in sight.
Alexi gets killed out by Hunter jumping.
And what do you know about pressure up Cat?
It's pressure that last time was empty, right?
Molotovs, but no follow up behind it,
as G2 instead skated towards B site.
This time, that cheeky spot from Niko behind the stairs
catches Navi way too off guard.
I mean, I hate to go back to like a fundamental lesson
about Dust2 here, but obviously,
they're trying to hold on the Cat because they're not
really in control of Long at the same time.
And for Navi, you wonder, why are they
in that position exactly.
Why is it right now that they're letting the execs come to them?
They're not the ones bringing the fight to G2 early.
They're not trying to get the open and kill.
Or when they're not successful, they don't have a second plan.
I mean, they're the number one team in the world.
Sometimes they have three plans in one round
and they get away with it.
At the moment, not exactly looking like themselves,
if you ask me.
And G2 are doing everything right here
to punish this exact gap.
G2 are not going to turn down free information.
I mean, how does this happen?
just laps and focus that threat assessment like there's the Mali behind him but they
were really not keeping a close watch on the situation taking place a cat 2m
force and a p250 for Navi G2 about to tie this game up bombs in a weird spot
I can't keep an eye on monosy roof on the file here watching mid oh they just
try to escape that plate jail denies them that's what you need out of one
of the two guns as Wonderful scoops up the second.
Snacks goes back grabs bomb for tunnels control and JL putting himself back into
the platform of which at times he has let go.
That's way back at the moment.
I mean, if he's going to commit up cat with them, then.
It's going to take some time to get there.
Oh, and they'll draw a rotation out.
That's the man advantage gone.
But remember, bomb is still disjointed from this cat play.
Yeah, he uses his own smoke right for the B fake and
Emma will leave the post start to lean towards a 250 dude. It's all they have on site
It's all that's here. Alexi just banking on the right time Pete. Oh, oh, okay
Excuse me and get pieced up by that P250 a little more damage done to
Snacks slightly image run forward gets tagged and it's met
Oh is now that a soft because modesty finds him the wall bang into the bomb site to set up the plant
It's not going to be planted for catwalk.
Monus is going to have to come back in here as he just kind of peppers them with the Glock.
It serves up a distraction. His snacks deliver kills.
He gets caught off by the climb up from JL and then JL goes even better.
What a round for JL. Four kills alongside Olexi's unthinkable P250.
Yeah, they let that swing happen across the Gandalf and slowly gets picked apart.
They needed all four kills since his first double spray down inside of the doors.
And the snacks can't decide if he wants to get over towards Gandalf or fight that cat jump or get to Goose and watch ramp by himself.
It's a sight for sore eyes to see J.L. trying to get up to the top of the board alongside Emeh.
It is his birthday, we are cheering for that.
Whoa!
Beepers.
It's not, it's not. A little bit of coal in the stall game there.
Careful what you wish for, Niko burns out.
Sure, Pit takes him from beyond the grave, but that is an open door for Hunter to just push through for total site control.
E-Met will throw himself yet again. He has been problematic in the middle of the map.
When G2 goes through these scrambled rotates,
Alexi gonna keep that pressure up.
With all this utility usage, of course G2 may know that the retake is right here.
Navi have a choice to wait or go in, and Alexi, the Grenadier, just perfectly plays between the smoke and the fire behind her.
He'll take two heads off and a wonderful given a ticket to leave.
I'm not gonna or not.
Yeah, well, now he's dead.
They got him full of limb.
So they take the B site and they run it over.
And you know what?
I'm not surprised that Hunter is hiding double stacked and takes the delayed peak.
Like at Navi do their retakes on CT on ancient running through the smoke over and over again.
They do the same thing on dust to B site.
This is not a site that they will let you have all your players stay alive
and then come in afterwards and try to have an honest retake situation.
Instead, they like to go in before the bomb gets planted.
They love to try to lurk through that smoke on both sides.
They stay on the same page, and that's why it works,
but it's also why G2 are on full alert.
This is not their first rodeo with Navi.
Oh, blinds, Nico.
We saw him get the kill from inside fire last round.
Entering into the B site to let Hunter kind of slot in.
And you've alluded to it to kind of, you know, struggle for cat control
because Long hasn't been in Navi's wheelhouse,
but this time they're a little more adamant about it.
And I think it's a well-timed round to do it with that initial Niko aggression.
When we switch over, you're going to see Malves fighting for it hard.
I mean, he's oftentimes full committing to taking control of Long.
It's just not in the game plan right now for Navi, which again, could be fine,
but there are other gaps.
This round they're working with less, so you're going to have to take what they can get.
But NG2 let a lead slip back on Ancient.
Now it looks like they're trying to perform a comeback
and attempting to win in two different ways.
But we've seen them make mistakes on Ecos.
Well, this be an opportunity.
I'm close.
Oh, it's a good hole.
JL putting up the numbers yet again.
Sidearm can't finish number three.
Spam could have just toppled snacks.
As he's tasked to plant ahead of Montesy's off with Niko
close towards Carr.
Denied by the Molotive.
Looking at the door, Montesy on guard duty.
Smoke fades, Odyssey goes hunting, Miss Chance finds him in the open.
Wonderful gets his revenge with that rifle.
And so it's a man advantage here for the Navi retake.
But it's light on utility and there's no kick for this.
Time is ticking and now Niko down after just those two.
Just the two is all he's able.
And so Navi yet again even under oldest G2 pressure find answers.
Wow, they worked so hard to get to this point.
G2 to have a chance to go up against another save.
And instead, Navi win.
Another mix five. There are good guns here on this crossfire. I mean, this is hard to deal with.
Flat comes in, Jail can see the entire time, however.
Eco killed Snacks.
That's why he's confused. He killed Snacks. Snacks was flat. Oh, what? In the...
Because I said two kills, he's supposed to kill me twice, but there's a team kill. Was it a weird counter strafe?
Is that what happened? Because his Snacks was low, so it was like a stray bullet or something. I don't know.
No.
All right.
As Fiskals died in Nades, and as Navi capitalized on that moment,
somebody better go digging through the archives.
And that's a mop up.
Time to stay focused.
I thought he was frustrated with Snacks' cover.
Like, how do you let them in?
But no, it's how did I kill you?
Yeah, I saw Snacks on, like, 11 health sitting there,
spamming at the window.
Navi's time to shine, I guess.
Oh, they've got fans here.
Oh, one third in a lead.
Yeah, showing up when they're winning.
Honestly, in a wonderful exchange, off-shots, and I feel like this duel has been brewing this one.
Okay, it's a bit of a messy one, but how many times wonderful has opened this smoke to catch somebody?
It's a shame as Ney doesn't find its mark, but Niko gonna capitalize on the moment.
Bit thinking he can get away with that corner spam.
Nope.
At least for once what we're seeing is they're trying to get activity here,
look for lurch and pick apart and get in front of it and very aggressive on cat.
These are the two places that g2 have been going consistently.
It's much better than what we've seen before. This is not what g2 want to see
and this flash timing is really important but lexie's not setting it up. They're both pushing.
Burt force. Get the trade at least. There's still numbers here for the cts and the trades
go well. That third piece key in a lexie b but again that trade train gives the edge back
Over to G2 and monosie despite the lower health finds that known to be dedicated be anchor in JL
No JL no round right here and Alexi even shaken off the frustration
Yeah, it's been awkward to
Yeah, like this is the the good. I the one good idea that they've had so far built on
No chance. That's it one more sprinkle to the tally as G2 after losing pistol and conversion keep that entire half close
We're just here staring at the stars.
I'm getting tripped out by these balls.
I love that.
Just staring at the balls.
Kevlaunders, I'm here on the full final,
and things tend to get a little bit hectic,
so maybe I'll just take a chill pill.
Welcome to Recline Perspectives.
I'm here with Senpaius and Frozen.
This is the pre-2025 relaxation period,
because it's the only break that we're gonna get.
Frozen, I've seen you do this pre-match
pre-match all the way we're coiled with your eyes closed. Are you meditating? Marcus Aurelia style?
It's called focus breathing. So yeah, more or less a meditation, that's it.
What's focus breathing? Well, it's like breathing exercise to kind of
don't get lost in your flow of thoughts when you're coming to the game and you know just focusing
on staying in the moment. Is that like you're you do all the preparation and you do all the
deathmatch and then you just need to think about nothing before the game starts?
I think it's more about just getting into the zone faster.
You know, I met some people on my journey that showed me
all kinds of different tools that there are to be able to get to the zone easier,
and I mean, this is just one of the things I do, you know?
It's like mindfulness.
Yes, mindfulness.
The other thing I can do is visualization.
You have so many tools, you can just choose whatever works for you.
Exactly.
There's been a few teams like in the last few years,
like you had Heroic, and you had like Gambit,
you had like some of the online grinders
like Monty before the Paris Major. A lot of these teams played like basically every online match
possible to the point that no one would choose to do that if they could you know only play the
tier one LAN events, but it really worked for them. So did it? Well it got them to a point and then
they end up usually splitting up or going to other teams. Yeah I mean that's actually how it goes
with this tier two team. What's the thing that is most important for your guys with mental
health. Gym. Gym every day? I try every day, yeah, but I mean sometimes you cannot write,
sometimes you have rough schedule, sometimes you have early games, sometimes you have late games.
I think as much as I can, basically. I'm not a gym guy. I like to do sports,
you know, but not gym. I don't like it too much. But also I know when I don't need to do
a sport too much, instead of what I need is like talk with friends and family, maybe meet them.
Are there days where you want to be like an aggressive, active player or like your team
needs that from you in certain positions, but those days you feel a little bit off or
maybe I should just play, try to play the side a bit more passive this time.
Depends a lot on your instinct, how it is going, obviously also, at times who you play
are also about the situation. You try to go with your feeling always. You need to trust
yourself.
Well, thank you guys so much for staring up at these balls with me and it's a beautiful
a bare boat like late reflections.
So JL had a birthday wish and I think it's this.
Counter strike has screwed over Niko perhaps.
A straight bullet in a team kill.
Right there.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, hitting snacks in the background.
Oh, okay.
I mean, I think it hurts a little bit more for Niko because of the head shot, but I
guess since there's no one coming in from the window, maybe that actually matters.
Oh my God.
before he snaps over to the door so yeah it does open up window not the weirdest
shot in the world but definitely open a door for Navi to come through with that
retake and for Navi of course to continue their winning ways they end up
walking away with seven rounds on that CT side but again it was with the three
zero start so pistols have been important in the series it's one of
the things that really allowed G2 to put their stamp back on ancient forum
how you feel it to best of five you guys put it work yesterday it's only
We have the maps now.
Honestly, you know Henry G told me at the start of the week there wouldn't be one bad game at fall finals.
Henry G is right.
Yeah, so far so good.
Alright Snacks, you hungry?
Oh, it ain't pretty.
Fire at his feet.
He's gonna pop up with nothing in the end.
Niko cleared out the window.
Navi looking for both pistols here on Dust 2.
JL wants a little bit more here, bit of bloodlust.
But you gotta be careful because not only was he on 24 health,
Also got Ema and Bit with 22 combined.
They are low, they are low.
But the fact that there's four, the fact that the health bars aren't there,
let's see if they can hunt down these players.
Malb's gonna flash him in, do it.
Clears the close one.
Not bad.
But Ema's able to trade in.
So good trade from Ema, kept his head down just in case that flash came out.
Response to the door pressure.
Malb's was essential back on Ancient in both pistols,
including a double knife at one point.
This time it doesn't look like he's gonna get into that mix.
So Navi grabbing both pistols here on Dust2 and looking to lead on
with that CT momentum they've established.
Many people believe this veto comes down to Dust 2,
but since she too have already won Ancient,
maybe they take the edge off a little bit on this map,
but this definitely signifies their best chance of winning.
In fact, it might be near impossible for Navi
to come back three maps in a row
if Dust 2 doesn't go their way.
So essential that they grab the second pistol
and maintain a lead,
because she too had to work hard,
but they got five rounds.
And to be honest, I would say they looked like the better team overall in that first half.
There was some, you know, the sheer quantity there was there for Navi, but the lack of ideas, the communication, the tethering, I wasn't very impressed.
Vice coming in here, of course, again for G2, and the idea with the double scout versus Long, it's the number one spot to go if you're on an anti-eco.
These scout tags basically want to just get your 70 damage in and let the pistols do the rest of the work.
It's an understood game at this point.
A 55-45 position in favor of the T side.
Maybe slightly more since it is this round where they're saving.
And they're starting to think about other ideas.
Not catching any total flank just yet.
Hunter still jiggle peaking at the mouth of the B site.
And they're leaving wonderful just to space out his utility
and hold the rotations for a few extra seconds.
He is cautious as you need to be.
Scout fight, down long.
And wonderful comes out worse for wear.
Let's get a quick run over from Snacks,
but Snacks is your support hunter.
They have to run from the smoke.
They're actually respecting it.
Okay, and G2's rotations are gonna come by the mid doors
and they're also gonna hear this,
but the thing is they're not up on cast.
So this is the best chance to stop up on.
That mob's deeg's set up by Niko.
Snacks finds a scout headshot elsewhere again.
I mean, this is remnants back to ancient.
The pressure's there.
It could be good.
Alexi's going to be having to run at that bomb site,
and the cross is being held.
Modesty!
Two scout kills and Naughty over-respecting the smoke,
are the lead themselves to slaughter.
Wow.
Wow.
Man, them running through tunnels,
that's got to be an oversight.
Like, this is G2 knowing exactly how to stop them.
They could have, if they could, smoke the door cross
and get up there, then that would be the one place
was understaffed. Look at this, open lines here for mobs. Putting a name to that
deagle and more action. What do you think is going to happen if you're going to try to
jump up Xbox after telling Hunter and alerting him that four footsteps are
running away from the smoke that he's just thrown? Another worrying sign for
Navi, even though they're in the lead again. Who's been more active? And they
have to think back to the fact that they had full long control. They still
have that option. They could have gone for the crawl up to the A site.
Sometimes it's grueling, it feels like you're clocking in and writing up a TPS report, sitting
up at long, waiting for your opportunity, slowly crossing past the smoke, but there's
a reason that's a popular option.
It's strong even if they know you're there.
Best case is this AK goes big, but Hunter's not gonna have any of that flashback right behind it
So keeping the pressure up as Niko looks to slide in JL gets a stout shot through the cat smoke
Goes for the X-Bots peak and yeah punish for it not gonna happen not on Niko's watch
Here comes a third challenger Niko looking for no, D.A.P.A. right
Oh god, he's starting to power up and that is the last thing that Noggy need at the moment
He deserves that
he goes blood game will go down in history very special moment so far it's
yes to be honest it sort of had everything it had to fail the clutch
then I had the redemption clutch then it had the map win and it had the comeback
and now we're at the grand finals you two looking for a tight game versus
pistols right by hunter that's all right you'll double into the pack
make a little bit of money and go on for even more how about a little anti
Niko Ace. Oh, he's got it.
Some stuff, some sticks him on the wall.
He liked that taxidermy.
Clean as can be.
Oh, God, you got Niko laughing one round, a hunter smiling the next.
This is the G2 that just tied up the game, have a map in their back pocket.
Map in the back pocket.
They wasted that Alexi carry on Ancient.
Now, Emma's trying to get into the mix.
JL as well doing a fantastic job on this map.
Unfortunately, it's this man who's had two quiet maps now.
It is yet to find his moment in this matchup.
Yeah, he had a 30-some-odd ADR back on ancient.
Not a great start.
And for a minute, we're just as critical of Emma,
and then he got that 3K try to put together some impact.
Of course, in vain as they lose the map, but now...
looking warmed up.
The only thing that matters, however, is the score at the top.
And they are tied.
And this is tying up without winning the pistols.
Hunter doesn't want them to approach middle without pressure and honestly the rounds where we get late and that pressure exists
We see them crack
Two frag grenades for Nico to throw towards catwalk when called for
It is getting laid into the round and that's why he's throwing this utility
you have to
Throw it preemptively but or they arrive
They're really they're kind of ahead of these timings in a sense like the maid comes out a little early hunters already thinking about flanking
Upcat in this spot full kit of utility finally comes down 35 seconds
He has every right throw that's what goes way too far. They can punish this it goes over the Molotov
Monacy's gonna miss his first shot now the pressure certainly on everybody crossing over here for Navi
That's an only dink against Niko hunter fights
One is he activates back in the mid-play monosy dealing with one of what?
Second but a miss shot on the third so resurgence back at a Navi we go to v2
Mobs doubling off of long pushes pressure to JL who needs a 3k in the round, but he gets bought out down
Stopped and body-banged that's another new surviving after a failed smoke. We have a fully animated monestee. That's right
And honestly it felt like Niko knew that it went a little bit too far and played reserved went all the way back
Monestee did the rest he made sure not to die on the site
Hunter's flank works out perfectly
They're looking sunny here for G2.
Imagine if they lost nine straight series to Navi, but the one they win is the best of five.
Imagine lifting that best of five curse only to add it put right back on.
All sorts of nightmares that may be brewing in the heads of Navi who, now that they're at the top, everybody's watching, everyone's coming for them.
Everyone wants to prove that they can take them down.
Honestly, he's looking for number one this year.
Again though, this mid control starts to transition Navi into another 8 hit.
This time the timing's faster, Niko's gonna get dinked up,
but he's got malts to just help him out, and these two are not gonna let you cross.
Oh no, no chance!
Like answer the magnifying glass, they burn him.
Double digits G2, 5 in a row ever since that force on round 2
In the second half they have not looked back, not a bon plant since for Navi.
Time to call in the mastermind.
Yeah, here comes the blade timeout and he's got a lot to say.
Credited for being able to convey a lot of information effectively in a short period of time.
I praise for this man doing what he's done with both the lineup before they went international.
The international lineup which is a whole different beast.
The man who helped get simple his chip before CSGO ended and now is running the
current team of the year. Blade it. Let's see if he's got the words and if he's
got the team that can listen to them. There's definitely two parts to it.
Let's see what the plan is gonna be. G2 on fire. Touch 10 again. Getting into
the cat hit has gone easily for Nabi in these last couple rounds. We'll see
Maybe if they continue to just emphasize mid, now we watch for mobs, okay, over on long.
He's gonna be playing pitway more often.
This is already a contrast to Navi's style of CS.
He's very comfortable around these doors by themselves.
This takes so much stress off the map and it makes me wonder why this was not an option
employed from Navi ever.
And instead, they gave up long, they even gave up cat sometimes and they gave up mid
all simultaneously.
This is the full committal on this side of the door.
This is mobs spot.
They know that he's here as well.
He's just very good at winning the duels anyway.
Honestly still eyes on cat and G2 are on full activity
Sometimes you peek out with the gun and just peel back
Oh underneath of it. He doesn't even go for the shoulder spot nice swing low
Supported by Alexi there. So, you know, Bits got full confidence in the train. Honestly under pressure
Go down if he had it. Nobby. Yeah, third time's the charm of the same site
Now that is what they had to tap into previously. He's gonna get tagged down to one health
They take over the site fully and fair play bit destroyed mobs right there his ninth frag of the map
Powering up to go into the swing right he was priming himself for that fight, but just steps ahead of him bit bolstered by a lexie
Not even to respond to g2 five rounds straight finally
Sometimes the bait is just sticking the AK out the door and then pressing s backing up into the door baiting one shot
And then it's a nightmare the Molly lands and you have to cross and that's where the duel gets unfair for the tee
Or the CT who's defending in this situation?
Malph is looking to get ahead of that punish any kind of tricky spot and you see this
Time perfect with ducking under the bullets involved
And then wonderful both hitting singers
There's played pleased off the tack pause round one here for Navi
has his turn
Yeah, speak it of masterminds. Let's see what Tads puts forward
Malph's been doing a great job of supporting the bombsite because there hadn't been too much long pressure itself, but
I don't think it's a coincidence. Blade takes that time out. We see a very fixated attack on Longdors. Yeah
That was very much the key to the last round's success
Because that game plan won't change much. He's still going to be persistent. He's still gonna be stubborn about it
So that duel might happen
again
He goes there to get Malph's into position
Hunter gonna try to pressure mid yet again, but doesn't create a gap.
He may not gonna slip in behind the doorway with support behind him.
Hunter had the right idea, trying to dissuade them from trying to get out the mid doors early, minute 26,
and we've already breached enemy territory, but the last one is beautiful, and the punish is there.
Niko had gotten into position, setting up mobs early and running back to CT spawn in time.
Wow. They almost catch pit on the fallback.
God man, this is everything that Navi weren't doing versus the mid bees.
And it's not like Niko is too far gone to also start to go into now that cat pressure, right?
We've seen him before standing on this cash of utility right here on boxes throwing these nades and this time
It hits and there's another to be had
He grabs it as they throw fire
They've already pulled back so second aid a little off the mark as eyes are set back towards doors with no smoke on it
They're still getting conditioned here. They fell back off of cat. They were punished inside of mid
There's still a 2b set up here for g2 and the crack spot now lot comes down to can this site hold
Smoke at 30 seconds that is not what not be wanted to arrive in but now as they throw open
Charge it out wonderful gives cover snacks. What can you do nothing? Wow dies empty-handed with smoke on door?
Oh, that's okay. That's that's incredible
Great CS 2 moment here for not be as they blow up in their own smoke have all the lines and wonderful hits that hard shot
What a good posturing in this round. I felt like a game of chess. They earned it, man.
Now, gotta give Navi a lot of credit right there. They got sent through the ringer. They were lost the
opening duel, got shoved out of mid, opening game plan, ran into the nades on B, on Cat,
had to get in the site. I gotta say, this duo is not working. Everyone's using Eco
strats these days, guys. You're not him. The frustration over there is Hunter and
the snacks right now, terms of output. They're the lowest performers on this roster right now, at this event.
They do have a lot to prove and they do have to rely on each other here on Dust2.
You can't have situations where one kill gives your team a chance to retake and you get none.
They didn't catch it. Hunter got lower. Hunter got lower and Modesty goes deep.
Finally a little pressure because Nobby have been able to get into this mid setup so many times.
They still don't know about it. They wouldn't...
I think they'd be so audacious as to do this play at the same time.
And Bitt, oh he comes and clears the corner.
Okay.
What can Bitt do?
We've been calling for him to step up in the grand finals.
Entries have been massive.
But we've also got a player on the Humvee.
Snacks did nothing last time.
Don't you let that barrel get spotty.
You have to keep your gun pressed against the wall.
They don't notice.
You have to take some kind of timing though.
Otherwise you could get cleared.
Yeah, and they, it's a little bit too late.
But Modesty's here to save him.
He keeps it going.
This has been all Modesty the entire time.
Great positioning from his teammates and hunter in snacks, but the kills are monosies.
Mo, taps away JL.
Smith going for the cross.
Trying to get this one back in, mobs to support monosie on left sir health.
They switch weapons.
It's monosie to the AK, and it's bit into the silence.
Let him breathe, bit, you're on stage.
This is your chance to make up for everything, a chance at the clutch.
But it won't be easy.
Health is low, no smoke, time ticking down.
The silence deafening CT start to check their back intermittently. Where's that push come in?
Long plant is a commitment counter terrorists don't pounce and now you've given bit a chance to get
this AK back up. It is all about the timing on the duals. He peeked! Oh my! Whoa, whoa, put the
up. No monosy neither, but he puts forward three kills in that round. Leave it to the doc.
Taz on the brink of a heart attack, monosy delivers and this is essential
because he was muted in their last meeting on Dust2. He was everywhere this
round and he picked up slack that was left on the table because of Hunter and
Snacks struggling yet again. That is a jubilant mego and for a good reason they
are G2 on the precipice. Starting this grand final off 2-0 it's already an
impossible reality that they've gotten here, that they've gotten through vitality, that
upset alone. That upset probably made Navi happy because if there's one team that may be stood
a chance that they still sort of have to beat after taking down Spirit, after beating G2 so
many damn times, it was vitality and G2, they thought, have done the job for them.
This should be a comfortable opponent. And even this is the best of five. If this
This is 2-0 to start.
We can count that as them at least winning
Bologna Best of 3 in the last night series.
That's a milestone here for G2.
Talks not done.
And this affinity for the B site
starting to come through from Noggy.
We'll see if that trend continues.
And bomb back going for the mid doors play.
Kind of a reactive.
We get out of G2 here.
Bombs all the way back and spawn.
His face presses up.
Pressed up here against mid doors.
Can't be making commitments right now.
Someone at some point has to double back for Novi.
All this map control to be established though.
I mean, honestly, making the most of the amount of time
they've burned, we're at a minute.
They got cat, they got tunnels.
They had doors.
It would be a question as to whether mobs gets active,
whether monosy has to go back.
I mean, I understand.
I mean, monosy playing car in this spot,
when it's been a cat cross,
he's been so comfortable in that spot.
They're giving them A, that's for damn sure.
Yeah, actually, they've got to be careful.
Whoa!
Hunter just oversteps it, and now this one could transition forward.
Remember, Bits got that bomb, still top mid.
There's enough time for things to get weird.
Snacks is surrounded.
Alexi starts to peel off site,
modest he never made that contact.
Snacks has to get something,
and the window player's gonna get him empty-handed yet again.
And while the bomb will work its way around through tunnels,
Niko gets nothing to shoot at,
and this is just Navi isolating the two weak points time and time again.
Okay, this is surprising because, you know, I would have said that they didn't communicate the mid-B smoke and that's why that happened.
But Niko was sitting behind it the entire time, so that was a very clear gap that Na'Vi exploited and I think it's obviously on the B players to be aware of that threat and it's also on Niko as long as he has accurately communicated, you know, that they could be walking out on the timing, that they need to worry about it.
But with the Gorespaw at the smoke out, they were thinking about it clearly.
And this gives Navi a massive chance.
And again, it's one thing to win three maps, but mentality is a huge part of this.
Teams do not come back from two-ohs.
Devices have specified for periods, so it doesn't happen.
So there we are, 11-11, all tied up.
It's time for Navi to make a wish.
This overstep out of Hunter, just in hindsight, he's going to be beating himself up.
He can go over the nade in hand.
And there are two rounds with zero kills between the both of them in the B site.
Here the last four, all to the T's, Navi, when push comes to shove, rebounding.
They're losing that four-spy that set up G2's defense.
At us convinced, Hunter goes for it again.
Luckily for him, Niko's got the trade.
Working in tandem with Monacy here to secure 12 on the line.
4v4 repeating these plays and they end up working.
But still 4v4 is not a bad situation. JL, late game JL, 23, round 23, we know he gets stronger, the closer it gets.
Smokes get exchanged in both ways, Niko wants to make a move, and JL gets stuffed.
But again it has to, what, it needs to be, and there's no other pressure here, he's running forward into the other side to ships them a fight.
Oh man, he just Molotov thrown down out from Niko. Can he pick up all the slack?
He had to trade Hunter. He has to trade Snacks.
And all the on the brink of that coveted 12th.
The entire pack of G2 right here on the doors. There's an AWP trained on them.
And his wonderful awaits their arrival. 45 seconds for the jump.
Honestly, he's got him softened. Moms catches the kill. Bombing Plankton from Alexi.
It holds the door. He peeked through window down.
Oh my god, watching Snacks run to Hummer in that spot with tunnels not smoked.
He might as well have been in cement shoes with how loud he was.
I mean, play back, site, and throw that Molly.
Holy, this is what saves it.
It's Niko who's not behind the smoke this time.
He's in front of it.
He takes out JL who's going to be on the mid-B cross.
It was a lost position without that and he flies in with mobs to get the final
kill.
G2 touching it. 12, 2, 11. Dude, I'm telling you, this end of the table, this duo of Monosy and Niko.
After the desk slam yesterday, you saw Monosy instantly consoling him.
Two superstars hyper fixating on the opportunity to take world number one down to zero of a start in the best of five.
Look at their fog of war. It's once again, they start off with early cap presents to stare down suicide to look to see if anybody's in the lower.
So many kills this way that Navi have the forego this part of the map completely
This is what Navi failed to do condition them out of this moment
That's how you burn time off the clock and now what are G2 doing?
They're changing up with three fall burnt out and get him away bit walks through a smoke to his death
On his own and disjointed
And mom gets away from it he hasn't always had the most amount of action, but he stepped up when they need him
There's no one on cat this move this all in I
I mean this forfeiture of a bomb site
All right, we're down to a single smoke here from wonderful
That's the last timing that Navi have got to cross if they're not going to flash and try to fight
That's the other option
They could do deep CT smoke and nope. They're just gonna go for a standard cross
What's the play here? Mom's is gonna pop that open. They catch one on the cross. Oh, it goes to deep and
So E-Math inching inwards Nico starts his flank. It's Molotovs on both sides at 30 seconds
It's map 2 on the line and it's snacks to get an assist off of Hunter.
Mom's able to kill another.
There's eventually this move out from Niko, he's got their backs to her.
And what do you know, it's Killer Instinct kills him on the left.
We don't know how long this duo has left, but
Monizy and Niko seize the day in a best of five, up by two.
Like maps of inches and one where G2 are just about able to close it out.
Not only Revenge claims for their last Dust2 heads to head Jacob, but one map away for
G2 from Ceiling, this best of five grand final.
Yeah, I'm not gonna lie, it was not on my bingo card that we'd be standing up to
two match, praising G2 for being up 2-0 in this series, but I do think that they
serve it.
They played some wonderful counter strike, we have the individual stepping up now,
A master class once again in terms of impact coming in from Niko,
Monizzi with the AWP, Melp stepping in as well.
We had Honda coming up big in a couple of rounds.
I feel this G2 is looking so, so hot today and so poised to win this game.
And on the other side, obviously, Navi maybe not living up to the expectations,
but I think it's more so the case of G2 really bringing the fire today.
I think it's safe to say that G2 is not the same G2 that arrived to this tournament.
Likewise, Navi is not the same as they arrived.
I feel like G2 is just powering up exactly when they need it.
I think we should take a look at the rounds for this particular map, because my god, was
this just hyper-competitive coming into it?
Exactly what we wanted from Dust2.
Yeah, round 14, great example.
We move into the second half.
The first half obviously was very much back and forth.
This time around T2 didn't win the pistol.
We come into the second half, right here.
Honda, look at the buy.
You know, it's a 5-7.
It's a 4-spy coming in for T2 once again.
At this moment, if you're Navi, you're about to close out Dust2.
The time is running down.
Malp's doing what he does the best.
A nasty Deagle shot, staying alive.
with this guard as well and again Navi they're running out of time then not
giving themselves the I guess conditions in order to make the move over
towards Catwalk Monace is shutting it down and it feels like we've seen this
a couple of times we saw it yesterday as well where they out call themselves
against face clan and threw away a couple of rounds on Inferno we saw it
on the first members world we see it now here in Dust2 I don't know if
it's stress if it's Alex B if it's the preparation but it feels like
Navi is a little more stressed than usual. It's a little bit stick and MVP of the
for me yes he did not make that impact with the kill but that smoke from Hunter
that he dropped in that tunnel redirecting completely that hit from B
side that was original plan for Navi making sure that they have just enough
time to go short and that was the only opportunity for them to win the round and
G2 knew it they shut it off but that's also a sign of not enough
pressure being applied throughout the round right the only way Hunter has a
smoke that laid into the round when you don't have a lot of utility at all
given that you're forced buying is that Navi didn't apply any pressure
throughout the entire round they're just waiting for mistake they never
got it and then Honda could change the tide of the round with the smoke.
Something that we were definitely hoping for coming into this map was the
AWPers to be showing up and I think we need to jump into a round where
Monacee just pulls off something magical on a long Jacob.
I gotta be honest, you know, people probably don't appreciate how sick
this player you're about to witness is from Monacee. He's standing in the
open right here, dodging flashes, hitting the first shot, turning around,
getting the second shot. What Monacee's doing right here, even hitting
the third one on towards Emma. I know he's not getting the kill,
but that is world-class AWPing. You're standing in the open right
Stukul, had it been you and me, we would need a hundred tries in order to hit those free shots.
Yeah, that's the reason we're not standing there, right?
True.
I mean, there's a reason why you call in the flash because even when it's slow down,
it's so damn fast and it's so precise and that's why we love watching Monocy, right Stukul?
Yeah, Monocy is having basically stealing the show right now and especially Little Fun fact,
it can spit, who is beating him most of the time throughout the year and so far,
head to head duels 7-2 in favour of Monocy throughout the second and first map.
I love seeing Monacee warm up into a map as well, particularly when he finally gets the AWP in his hands and we know he's gearing up for something special.
I love this, I love that you're bringing it out because we said it yesterday against Vitality, let's be honest, Monacee didn't have the best of the best game.
There were a couple of the maps where he didn't live up to the expectations and hour after the game against Vitality he's back to the hotel, he's in the practice room,
his assistant coach is posting a picture of Monacee warming up for today.
You come into the first map right here again monisy not having the best of the best showing
What does monisy do he come in a little bit earlier a little bit before the rest of the teammates to warm up?
And then he comes alive on dust too. It's impeccable
It's a nice mentality as well
And as I said, you know when D2 is playing together as a team which they've done so far to die in this game against
Anavi and you also had the individuals in Nico and in monisy stepping up
We said it before and we'll say it again D2 can turn up at any given tournament and win if all the win conditions
Exactly, and Niko being the top fragger, and Modesty ramping up 20 kills, Niko, one more.
On T side, a lot of opening frags for Niko, just running around the map, generally opening the map,
making sure that he's bringing his teammate into 5v4 situations, or even potentially those 4v4s,
just generally opening the map, he's taking duels on Long, on B,
he's winning duels against Pit multiple times, and we're just taking site completely by storm,
and he carried him through to C T side as well.
side as well. And I gotta give it to Niko. I said it yesterday against Vitality
despite his scoreboard wasn't as flashy as Impact. Today the same thing. Right here
in Dust2, 21 kills, 16 deaths, 97 ADR, 5 out of 6 open. You think 21 kills,
16 deaths? It's not impeccable. It's not like a money see popping off. It's not
a side who popping off. But in terms of raw impact on the server, I don't see
Niko farming Ecofrax. I don't see Niko farming any skills. It's always in a
clutch is always in a high-pressure scenario is always in the 3d3 I have not seen a player with a rifle have this much impact throughout an
Entire playoff as Nico's having right now in CS2 obviously you can go back to Katowice
You can say don't get that's a great case to be made
But in terms of what the scoreboard is telling me he's having a good tournament in terms of what the eye test and the impact tells me
He's playing so good right now all 21 of those kills mad in that
Dare I say it's just insane to say putting up this number so consistently as well
flipping over to the side of Navi however I did have more faith in them in
this game because it wasn't just a lexie be at the beginning showing up we had
how it's coming up from email obviously jail as well really stepping up but
equally equally so frustrated as well yes and we can talk about them I hear
he didn't carry on that that first skill kind of impression from ancient he
was losing those what's right there and when it comes to openings he did not
better on Dust2 either. I mean he did ramp up a lot of kills towards important rounds but it was a mid round, it was like a late round scenario.
You can see like in a lot of the early rounds he was having impact which for me was a really good sign for Imae.
Right, okay he's brushed off whatever happened on map number one but he couldn't finish the map the same way he started.
No one, that's a bit worrying for Na'Vi. Again you look towards Imae, you look towards your Bit, you look towards your Jail.
All three of them had impact. All three of them found kills with the rifles, all three of them got off to a good start.
This time around in Dust2 it was LXB going back to be the normal version of LXB.
So you have your win conditions going for you, you're looking at your old self and you still end up losing the map.
There's something right now with Navi that's not working out and you can see it right here on your screen as well, Stigu.
Jero was super, super frustrated to drop the entire game.
This is exactly what I pointed out in the first map as well. I know him and I know when he's kind of not feeling it,
when he's super happy and smiling, the things are going great.
But you can see it whenever he dies.
He was at some point high as fragger for Navi, but still whenever he died he was very vocal about his death
He felt like he was shaking his head. Maybe it wasn't going through into the team speak
But boring sign nonetheless
You are you are former teammates of Jail and you've been in this high-pressure scenario with him before at a major as well
Like is it a player that is turning it in what's like is he
Unsatisfied about himself or is it more so reaction to what's going around him?
No, he never went out lashed out to the teammate never never
I don't remember such scenario especially in official game, but he's more like harsh on himself and he's like taking accountability for this and responsibility and
Yeah, I mean he's having great game. He could it could have been better, but
You know, it's it's Navi and everyone has to step up wider context of this particular match
We're now to zero up for G2 reverse sweeps
They don't happen a hell of a lot in best of five grand finals
do they Jacob particularly if you're Navi where you've only just managed to
finally win a best of five this time last week but it wasn't versus a top five
team and if I'm not mistaken I don't have the numbers at hand you know but
Alexi Beach is winning a map in a best of five for the longest time was was an
issue for him in a world where he goes down 3-0 against T2 right here we can
definitely have bad conversation and and speak about whether or not the
best of five is still a curse for him or whether or not the win against EF at
Pro League counts you know in a studio environment against EF etc but
The fact of the matter is that if Navi want to fight their way back into this matchup,
they have to do it the hard way and if anything, you know, if there was a team in the world
right now, I would point towards having that mental resiliency to do it.
It would be Navi, but it's a big, big task here.
Well, a final chance for Navi to be bouncing back.
That comes down to Mirage after this break.
A lifeline that Navi must indeed grab in this best of five grand final.
And you know what, Jacob?
The signs are looking up because when we look at Navi's win record on the map
of Mirage, it ain't no joke.
It ain't no joke, you know, but I would almost argue that once we're in this scenario, in the best of five grand final on a stage, we can look at statistics, we can look at what happened prior, the last three months, et cetera, et cetera, these games lived their own life.
And we did see T2 make an immaculate comeback against Vitality on the very map of Mirage yesterday, Monizzi playing well, Nigo playing well, Malfutting impact.
I'm starting to believe that there's something cooking when the T2 came.
So yeah, I could still, you know, not his favorites from Mirage,
but it's not entirely unlikely that we are going to end this series right here, right now, on Mirage.
They managed to shut down Zywoo yesterday, and I'm feeling that they could actually pull it off.
They're riding the momentum of first two maps, first two wins.
They are putting up a show that probably no one even expected,
and already two-zero lead in the best of five.
Might mean that Mirage could be potentially to end it all.
12 times played in the last three months.
11 wins. The only anomaly within those 12 maps is that best of five Grand Final versus
Vitality back at IEM Cologne where that was probably one of my favorite maps of Counter
Strike that I've seen this year because that was triple overtime where Vitality sealed
it and they really put the pressure on Nabi. That's why I'm worried for them today.
Yeah, me too. And to be completely honest, you know, had it been any other game, had
it been in the group stage, had it been in a week from now with this context
coming into a best of five and with G2 looking this great, I'd say Nabi are the heavy
favorites coming into Mirage, but I think this game as I said tonight is living its own life,
you can definitely feel within the G2 camp that the laser focus that's sewn in preparation seems
to be unpassed. Well, so as much as I want to rely on the statistics and be like, yeah,
Nabi are heavy favorites from Mirage, I don't think that's the case. I think Nabi is a slight
favorite still to push this game into a fourth map, but I wouldn't be surprised if T2 is nailing
this one too. Okay, why is it slight favorite then? What are we looking out for for Nabi
to be bringing to this map of Mirage? I will give you definitely one stat line that is
going to be relevant here and that is 4v5 conversion we've seen before 43.4% they're winning the rounds
if they're manned down this is this is just way too good yeah but but and i agree with you we saw
in the statistic before as well that for g2 it's a little bit more rough on that side but to be
completely honest g2 can do the same thing in this tournament so far g2 is the best team out
of anyone to convert 4v5s and one of the best teams on mirage when it comes to best rounds
out of 22, they're winning 17 in past three months, which is, again, ridiculous.
Let's check in with the odds to see exactly how they are lying and what could potentially be
the last map of this best of five heavily favoring G2. I mean, Jacob, do you think that is the reality
that we are likely facing? I think the live-ups right there are reflecting who we think is going
to win the entire day at the best of five now. If you were to isolate this map on Mirage,
it's way more of 50-50 games still, leaning towards Navi, but I very much believe G2
to have a chance of making history right here, right now.
It all comes down from Mirage for Nabi to be keeping their life here in Copenhagen.
So let's dive right into it.
Thank you, Freya.
Pay for him.
Here we are, the final Blastfall final.
And now we are on Grand Championship points, potentially on this map.
It could all end here.
It could, right?
But it seems just unbelievable.
I don't think there's anybody in this room that signed up tonight
for a three map best of five and for a G2 win at that.
So, Forum, we gotta empty your tank!
Forum, I want you on your feet!
The final fall final.
Yes, the final fall final, man.
Something I thought I'd never say.
I don't want to say it.
Yeah, maybe there's still hope.
Maybe there's still hope for Navi.
Down two maps.
This has got to be the most unlikely potential start.
Quick little move up through the bottom of middle.
It's all a lot of ruckus.
Oh, a misjump on the frontrunner.
Why is his silence on the silence?
You have to see.
He just loves to do that, doesn't he?
Oh, there you go.
Snacks dead.
And his hunter is able to clear one back.
It's going to be a quick chance for the bomb
plant for LXCB.
Snacks is going to be anchoring this B site all night long.
And Snacks was put under question back on TUS2
as he failed to deliver on multiple rounds that
could have made that G2 run even easier.
They do get through with the win.
And they do get through with another pistol.
Now what's really special about this map and also again, just like we saw on ancient, what's important?
Well, I want to say what's important.
They lost two pistols on Dust2 and they still won.
Then they won two pistols on Ancient and they won.
Now they're up a pistol on Mirage and this is a map that Navi had to wait to see if they wanted to play.
This could have been a Nubis.
It could have been the Mirage Band.
The last time that they played against Navi, they took it out of the pool.
Navi seemed to be untouchable on Mirage.
And I got something brave to say.
I think they're a little bit overrated on it sometimes but they win their maps
There is a lot of good chemistry with the way that they attack a heavy out of the a ramp
They're very good at taking duels, but I'm not really seeing
That much that's special about the way that they approach those fights
Not like old Navi and like old gambit back in the day the way they used to play Mirage
My opinion a little bit more convincing than the strength you've seen from Navi so far
But fair play they are on a map win streak most people fear their Mirage
and it'll be on G2 to prove that they can come here, but I'm just trying to say that I'm not surprised that they let this through in the veto
And I think that Navi's Mirage is beatable
Okay, so let's see if G2 have the game plan and have a firepower to do it because they have already opened our eyes
We'll see if maybe you know some of that Mirage
Impression left on the other teams is just a matter of aura because there is a lack of aura for Navi this evening down two maps a
A reverse sweep and a best of five on a big stage.
Unheard of. Wonderful.
Gonna make them feel his wrath with that scout.
But, Monacee's double kill to clean up.
Malm's ready to go from connector.
And I think we're gonna see a bit more action
from Malm's here on Mirage.
He was kind of relegated over towards long doors on Dust 2,
but right now he is in the thick of it.
And we can talk about these two superstars.
And we know what Hunter brings to the table,
but we can never let in my eyes the Malm story go untold.
Yeah, 100%. He's somebody who, I mean, coming onto this team, it was no secret that there were so many role conflicts.
The fact that he is now on CT side entered into anchor roles.
We see even in this round, he replaces Niko inside of connector because that's like his comfort zone.
And he has recently cited that he's been a little bit bored on the CT side, and we mostly see his impact on the T side.
But he's still somehow thriving even with this limited position.
It's remarkable to see somebody, and you brought this up, somebody come from the Americas over
to Europe.
That is the thing that doesn't happen.
It's usually the other way around, recruiting a European to help out and strengthen the
North American team.
And Mobs in that regard doesn't have many players to look up to.
He's the only player that we talk about from his country specifically.
He's a man in his own lane that has to adapt to the culture, has to adapt to
The role changes has to stand up to play tier one matches every single day and there have been no problems so far
Reclaim of his North American, but I feel like half of any fans couldn't find Guatemala on a map
So for him to come over here following again the likes of what twists naff and with no real proven entity behind that
You know what twist makes the move you kind of let it happen. We're already talking about
the most winning its player in the region right now Deagle's getting cleaned up no sweat
Not an issue at all M4s God they keep it clean, and that's from a pistol to the 3-0 start
Yeah, and what I'm expecting and based on like all the mirage games that we've seen from Navi is this proclivity
This really heavy a lean and the way that again that they somehow
Manufacture favorable duals as they go with heavy a ramp attacks as opposed to palace when they come out and obviously a lot
Of this will have to do with Malton ego trying to defend the site
but it feels like something's in the water today and we'll see if also Navi
are going to try to play that way or if they're gonna take it more towards
snacks inside of the map and put pressure on him and Hunter in the default
who have just been underperforming on most of the map so far at the event.
Nice entry from Alexi is that smoke was popped open. What more can he do here
with the bomb carrier behind him? Honestly on the hunt. Man it's crazy he's
You see he's getting approach from multiple angles.
Talk about three.
If he'd be Cat, the left side connector,
and the bottom hand timing is correct for him,
and he gets away.
As he does, ready for another.
He is so confident.
Sitting pretty at 8-1.
That's a play you don't make in a 5-5,
but it is one that you do when you've just lost
a very key member on the map.
So that edge quickly disappears.
We hit the minute mark.
And Navi just going to pump the brakes slightly.
Monosy on the reposition at the moment, trying to highlight that snacks B-play that will be a key to keep our eyes on as this game goes on right now, still very much alone on that half of the map, but the commitment from Navi seems to be coming in.
Monosy prepared for that ramp peek to come through. JL, what can he do if he's needed? Meanwhile, of course, Mobs still hides behind stairs.
the T's get ever closer.
Maltz is going to activate with a back turn to him.
It's way too easy.
JL reveals himself to be out from ramp, missed off shot,
but Hunter still in the pocket, his gun unnoticed.
Alexi's hands busy on the plant, Hunter tries to bounce,
and Bit's going to give that key cover.
It gives Snatch a chance to shine,
and it'll give Monosy a moment to clutch.
But with 18 health, it feels like too much of an ass.
OK.
Turn off JL, able to cross over and nobby,
piece by piece, put themselves into a place to win.
Yeah, and fair play.
They are so good in those complicated positions.
They are really good at these complicated eight positions where if you get a little bit messy,
Maltz did a great job staying alive.
They had a line of sight for a long time, but the utility usage was very good here.
Navi earned this A-Split especially after once he got that opening duel.
He starts this map 8 and 2.
In the Lurks will also be a key part of the game plan here for Navi.
And again, it's a known quantity. It's still hard to stop because
He's so good at it same goes for bit up in Palace
Nice head shot from bit
Lois rated player of the series coming into map 3
Starting to get organized that minutes window smoke comes out
As usual Niko's in the window and monest he doesn't have much support here
Low utility to work with for G2. I bet they sort of have one foot out the door in terms of thinking about saving
But he'll hold the right
First one's ran, just put a refrag back, wonderful miss chance to strike down the AWP.
Yeah.
It caused a bit of a stall from Na'Vi for a moment.
They were really just hoping it was like a B attack, I guess, like we have no-
They're not connecting to any flank.
Now that you find that mid flank, we've got CTs getting moving.
And I wonder how much attention will be thrown towards Tilly when filming.
There's nobody there.
JL survives that off shot and wonderful puts himself on the same angle.
Monacy's counterpart going back.
Oh, there's no going down at that.
G2, total reposition away from Ticket, emphasizing catching Ema.
Wow.
And so G2 responded instantly.
Yeah, I think you're hitting the nail on the head right there.
They knew that the A attack was coming in,
but there was an extra piece that needed to get in play.
And that was Ema.
And they went and found him first.
And it felt like, obviously, from our perspective,
if Navi had just continued forward with a regular A attack,
it's only Manas, he's sitting in CT on the line.
He's sitting back waiting.
We already have Navi with the open and kill.
They could have peeked from Palace at any point when that pressure came in and tried to refrag on Monosy, but G2 were right to be...
Cause I get out there!
That was jokes.
It worked.
They got out there. They got that trade.
They peeked him.
I feel like you could push that key for him.
They're waiting for VR, Niko.
Oh man, fast play for Mima. Caught by the flashbang.
Niko knows that this was a quicker tempo, but it's that one AK on E-Met, and the Piskals
already starting to drop elsewhere.
Sure, Nileksy comes out with the deep headshot, Malmst given a chance to mow down two, and
there's the Tech 9's impact.
This one ain't guaranteed just yet, as Monosy misses a shot.
Yeah, they do want to be careful as Mortifl puts that bomb down.
Hunter opts not to push through smoke, and I don't know if you've given them a chance
that they should never have found themselves in.
It's obviously very quiet here.
You're still going to have to hit.
Unbelievable.
There I say wonderful deagle shots here playing from apex
This is a good spot to put pressure on CT when he takes his timing over the headshot angle
Another perhaps hunters played this passive
He's dead and now wonderful has to do the unthinkable, but that's a 10 second diffuse
Wow, and if you do I was felt like that straight bullets gonna get a kill in the background absolutely winnable position
I mean, I think he played it well, but G2 did at the same time and getting into that smoke early
Was obviously important they could have actually cleared everything out first together, but I'm not even trying to throw him under the bus
But snacks has just been making me nervous
Yeah, yeah, he's a big guy, so
Your name is scrawny
Try me
Double-Op setup comes through and we honestly of all the places where I'm not quite nervous
It's when snacks starts to posture this AWP up in apartments
I mean we saw moments to praise I would argue in their last barrage outing
Doing things like this
Will it be predictable? I would assume Navi are going to see it coming throughout the CT side
But it's the fact that they could just really hit them hard right here right now. Swoop away the money
Satrity on a 6-1 lead. That is the world that G2 want right now, right here.
I thought Bit was going to look for more unorthodox timing. We've got Monticey dropping off.
Oh, they messed up. Big time. It was a quiet map there for a second.
And that's just going to make you want to turn away from making any kind of actual commitment.
And Bit's starting to walk back to check the flank to see if they've gotten some information while it's all audible here for Niko.
Oh, just missed a time. Cross happens and they're looking to transpose into some cap presence.
Are they going to commit though? Bit is still lurking here in Palace.
Remember though, off of an apartment so if anybody does come catwalk you think?
Yeah, it's not the worst of fights.
45 seconds and Naughty just want anything. They want a morsel of intelligence to be able to act on it, get a kill, explode on a site.
They haven't committed yet to A but Bit is still up here.
Yep, yep, he is. Oh, the contract is active.
And now they know. Surely.
Oh, and Modesty not going to miss.
We thought maybe Bit would get active and play around that smoke.
Instead, Hunter makes his move.
And look at Alexei shaking his head in frustration.
Getting completely crushed.
Every single lurk caught off guard.
Every timing.
G2 are in the zone.
They are in the matrix.
And they are in the walls peeking together,
playing their hearts out right now.
Alexei's looking for a single kill, and they will find nothing.
It is a dry spell for Navi out of the gate on Mirage.
and what points do Navi visibly give up?
They can't do that as a team that has consistently
made all these grand finals.
The team that has finally broken the curse.
They have a job to do and they've got nothing else
to do today.
And right now they're seven away from absolute tragedy.
Part of Alexi B's best of five curse
was when he played on G2
and they couldn't close out in those grand finals.
The 5s have been a great time for the G2 organization with their catamitsa, coloblins winning big matches on the big stage.
Yes, Lowe's in between no doubt, but here they are again.
Monosin just gonna tap away for JL, these pistols will find nothing to tug on.
Little bit of ramp presence, so be it.
Oh great cover.
He's just spinning around.
And Niko wants to keep this one nice and calm and cool.
Cool. Wow. Fix 8 on what is ahead?
A trophy at the tip of the stage.
You're a rounds away at this point.
He said don't get excited.
I mean, he talked about his Dallas win
is one of the most miraculous amazing wins of his career.
Absolutely. Of course, he left the Cologne trophy.
Katowice as well.
It's hard to beat that.
But the fashion of which that happened was unreal.
And now after yesterday,
the blood game, Niko potentially beating their ultimate rival
in a best of five grand final on a map that they took a risk on here on Mirage when again it could have been a new bus
Is that something that contends with Dallas? Maybe
It's a kid something that contends with cologne or Catevita
It's gonna be up there
Nico knows how close he is to doing something that coming into the event just like when they came into the event at Dallas
They didn't think was gonna be possible. There was no
no way
They could true through a bracket this difficult, beat a team that they've never beat.
But here we are, seven to one.
And I'm telling you, they got the game plan.
Navi's Mirage is beatable.
And they sure as hell have the stars.
Niko put them here.
He absolutely dragged them here.
And now Malves and Hunter have put forth on Mirage, as they did in the opening map,
a flash of brilliance in Monacy's 13 and 4 start, 8 rounds into this game.
and another quiet approach top middle we're waiting for an answer here lexie yeah man
knobby what's your move and they're approaching on the exact same sort of a split trying to
change oh my god not now not like this that's the last thing you want to see
hey making something of it is ima yeah that's uh that's lemon it's a lemonade right there for ima
He sees the smokes miss but he starts watching it changes up the plan.
It's also mulch so I think you can be less cautious about a forward A player.
You know he's always dedicated to sights.
This is where Navierra the strongest, this is what I was wondering what D2 are gonna do.
Standing there in the open, wonderful caught.
Modesty gonna get pinched and JL he comes through.
Niko off of connector as the bomb tap goes down.
No plant and a challenge around the side of that smoke gives Niko a moment to shine.
He's not even reloading, picks up another HE, that will land square between both of them, under the hit, damage, and over.
The walking wounded get off the bomb site, they split, one sticks around and the pit doubles back.
It's Snacks shot with the AWP, it was needed last spotted, another aid made.
Thumped on, he survives.
Oh, 26 health as he hides in the corner.
So that's going to force Pit, I think, to take the first fight.
And as he jiggles off Popbox down, he goes.
It's this backside anchor, and Nipah that's going to have to clutch for Navi's second.
No, he can't do it! Niko, 2v4!
He was chewing on concrete right there.
He had to throw three grenades, reposition, go through CT,
but every little bit of chip damage helped.
One push comes to shove.
The slammer steps up.
What's up?
They are tearing Navi limb from limb.
T2 on fire, another buy.
Last round was a missed window smoke into Emma making the most of it, but the team's still
losing.
Where's their heroic rounds?
Where's their X factor?
Where's the one that wakes them up?
It's a question we've asked about Navi.
It's a question we thought we'd have to stop wondering as the collective came to
be in the last few months.
consecutive Grand Finals, nothing to scoff at, but this performance, nothing memorable about it.
Not positively for Navi, Hunter misses timing, this could be that moment, this could be that chance,
but all the while, he goes everywhere to just kill them elsewhere, and Monacy's gonna collect his
cords mid. It's gonna have to be something of a massive ask for Hime. I mean at this point,
he's just hiding, and they know that if it's dead, they're gonna take over Palace. It's still
going to be an awok as it always has been and even though they can join hands right now to try to take over the site
It's a ct's who could peel back a little bit
Emma if he extends enough maybe he could find something
Well monesties guard is down
He may go
Yeah, okay, there's one but now they're gonna wonder why he go. Yes
Why there was no one else peeking on the site the 2v4 right back. That's what's demanded of it
He meant takes his sweet time to set it up
But you can't rush excellence.
Oh, they let him get into the window.
E-mugget to get the shot. No!
It's a good amount of damage.
But it's pressure on Wonderful, who we've seen do great things with rifles as of late.
He's the 1.40 rating coming into the play.
That's how Palace player confirmed. Molotov comes out from him.
And so as the ticket push also extends in, wasting no time.
G2, what are you going to do?
Bombs off for you! They're gone!
Novi cooked!
They didn't even care about A-Rap because it was planted default.
They had CT covered, Palace covered, and Underbalk cleared.
Everything falling into place.
Doesn't get much worse than this.
Niko is absolutely on top of them.
Pressure in all directions, set up here perfectly by Niko.
These two superstars combined.
Oh, it's unreal.
I mean, considering the strength of their teammates, their Dallas win,
what they've done here, Niko and Monosir,
one of the strongest duos in the history of the game,
Continuing to put up.
Snacks hasn't had to see much action.
So maybe now we hit that point of the chapter, that point of the game plan from Navi.
Try to topple the weakest link. Guess what?
Propped up by Monacy.
And off.
Hungrier than Snacks.
It was looking like a perfect rotation to read on the situation to reinforce the B site.
But he leaves his post.
Now it comes time for these two to deliver on a site together.
They have struggled to do that.
They nearly put Dust 2 in Jeopardy.
They have to stand above the stats.
And for Navi, great opportunity.
They have the split in formation.
One step in for Snacks. He'll hear something.
Smoke right there at 40.
Little contact towards Cat 2.
So everybody on high alert as they try to move in.
Snacks goes for his dual.
It's a one and done, but they still don't know about Hunter.
They clear it. Yes!
Oh, what a way to clear that.
JL does what he has to, but Modesty misses a shot.
And so mobs and Niko to combine here in another 2v4 surely not wait
They're not going to activate no cover for the bomb and he gets his inside sight
Yes, one confirmed still to be over towards that fan and it's wonderful at a further distance. No not twice
You can't do this to lobby
Okay, that is pretty transfer
You could barely leave it. Yeah wonderful on ancient versus carry again the most ridiculous off shot of all time into
What is this? What is this?
What is this?
He actually did...
Aim for bench first?
No, no, no, no, no.
That's chance.
That's JL's birthday wish.
Yeah, that's JL's birthday wish.
Wait, someone just crossed on the screen.
He didn't see it. The timing is there.
Nobby, can I get back into this game?
Yeah, what about a third?
Quick pounce. Let him stew on the thought
of a straight AK shot.
Hunter comes back in for the jungle. You got nothing to lose. It's another 2v4 attempt. They're one and one in terms of pulling these off.
Last round of the half. Have at it. Two players question for the Dust 2 play.
You know how to be given a lifeline off the back of a wonderful
Bizarro shot, snacks.
Tagged down low to 16 health, softens up bit.
And as long as you can keep him locked into Palace, then Hunter can start to move forward.
Bomb beyond the halfway point. And you've lost your support now Hunter.
It's gonna have to be the miraculous clutch. The first one's offered up, he peeps deep and goes down.
Now, Navi will indeed string two together and a smirk as they hope to keep their tournament life alive.
My name is Andrey Gorodemsky. I'm coaching Navi.
I've been involved in Counter-Strike for a long time.
If you speak about when I saw the game first, it was, I think, 1999.
I think that time I was at the age of 13.
So, just playing with these friends.
I think the time was always competitive, like everyone was trying to play like let's play duel with the best and all the stuff.
It's like normal kind of healthy schedule, I think we like to spend around 4-6 hours to prepare.
It depends on time, it depends on opponent, because sometimes there's not a lot of time between matches for example we can finish late and need to rest and then next day you don't have enough time.
Analyzing the opponent, analysing the map, the veto, correcting your mistake from previous match,
picking your system to opponent kinda like how it is their style, what should we change and so on.
Considering there are only 3 timeouts per map, it can be really really useless but unfortunately you need to do it if you kinda being snowballed.
Most of the time, I think the amounts are needed if you see clearly how we wanted to approach the game,
doesn't work or opponent is also preparing something and you need to correct a little bit
or change the direction and so on. This is how the timeouts should be used the most because
this is the most efficient, let's say, impact of this. I admire a lot that our players
are very very hungry to learning and they are always listening. It helps us a lot because
we are like in a huge development process being always ready to learn something new and working
the weaknesses is something I admire. Second I think is we are working a lot on staying in reality
like and not overthinking. Parts of mentality is very good. Sometimes we can lose really hard
And then if you say proper words, like to say, guys, let's be real, like it wasn't our game.
It might also be because it works.
Our atmosphere and the team, it's very friendly and good vibes.
Something I wish we could win, Cologne, when we played Best of Five Grand Final versus FaZe,
and that was really hard loss, I think.
For me, a special event was Copenhagen Major,
Absolutely, without any doubts, it was the best win because it was so explosive in emotions.
We were like underdogs and I think playing as underdogs is a huge privilege.
When you're not expecting something, being like the favorites and basically thinking about winning already,
those first majorances to also write the history was amazing.
So, how about we take another look at that wonderful shot, huh?
Because honestly, this is the lifeline that Na'Vi need.
What can we learn from this corner?
First and full speed, and now let's slow this down.
How can we be better players by watching this clip, then?
How can I do this?
Okay.
Okay.
That bullet on the wall.
Yeah.
Point.
Is the one that goes right in the closed up.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
Me too.
All right.
Well, I mean, if they win the game, we'll go back to that moment.
But for now, Navi, you're titting on three rounds.
Big if.
Is there anybody in here who expected the G2 win tonight?
Is there anyone in here that's lying about that?
It's the longest.
An honest people, the Danes.
And honestly, I don't know if I see Navi's chance back in.
Potentially the final half of this grand final.
An unexpected affair to say the least.
Take to one odds now.
Oh man, and look at this attack.
If you think it's me, you play in the site.
You play on Ben, Alexi playing off of Kat
and has to fall back.
And now the site's getting taken over.
You need a kill.
He can't, he can't nail it.
He takes a gush to the head and mobs
is going to put him down.
Man advantage.
Oh the bomb.
Hunter, he dies too far with the bomb.
Critical mistake at an important juncture.
Jail's not able to get out from market.
But the CTs do want to take these fights.
Now there's a chance for Navi.
He missed off the headshots and what do you know?
Down to just Snacks.
He finds himself trying to fight backdoor.
How's he going to get out from this?
How?
Snacks tries to fight off and he goes down.
Oh, mistake.
That's a mistake.
Critical moment.
Now the only thing is Hunter meant to be the bomb carrier.
It's so because where he entry path to, obviously,
he shouldn't have been.
So the question is how did he get there?
And did he realize that he had the bomb
was he supposed to have it.
But what do we see now?
That mistake dislodges everything.
Emma and JL jump at the opportunity.
And then we get the crazy, wonderful 1v2.
We get this mess up on the pistol round.
The first map where they'd actually just split even on the pistols.
G2 have to save.
And now Navi have a chance.
I just knew it would be too good to be true.
G2, they had to make something of this.
Okay, because now we've got two things to point at.
Wonderfuls, bogus headshot, and a miss chance to plant.
And when we came into the series, you very aptly put it,
the X factor, the pistol rounds, the full conversions,
not dying to half buys.
This was all going to be essential to the G2 upset
if it were to happen.
That pistol was a sitting duck of a win.
Or maybe I don't give Nobby enough credit
and the retake could have come through,
but it sure as hell looked scrambled.
You take the site and no one's playing bench
or playing fence or there's no two players in the site.
That means that that team did not expect you to go through.
You would never play off of Cat alone.
Just go for that retake.
Okay.
Snacks with a Glock frag.
Well, it's all good for now.
Well, watch them plant the bomb this time.
Niko's like, give me that.
You want it done well, you got to do it yourself.
Oh my god.
Two Glock kills and a bomb plant.
There's still no way that they lose this round.
Are you sure?
Nima's gonna come through with the saving double kill.
Wonderful with them.
He's still far too much damage for my liking, considering that's just Glocks.
It gets scary. Bone plants a win here for G2, for sure.
Got some rounds to go.
That goes for both of them.
Nobby know how to finish a lead out.
Back when I said that their mirage is beatable, I was really thinking about that first half,
and, well, they did everything to actually, you know, make that come true.
They had an amazing first half overall, like 9-3.
It's the T side of Navi that I think makes the Mirage stand out from their competition and what has granted them a huge streak
But there are two halves to the game
Again, this is basically G2's call to allow this to be played in this best of five
Navi we're gonna say you want to give us Mirage great. You want to give us Nuguz great
Wonderful taking a bit of a risk playing down here spam comes through and finds him
Has to get out and he will
Well done to escape like that. Surely all that pressure may have him reconsider if he
wants to open another round in the same way. G2 may be on to him. Sure you flood the pistol.
You got two kills with blocks and now your guns rearing for another chance to
strike Navi down to just continue to grow that gap. Wonderful repositioned
alongside JL. So many players in front. Snacks blindsided by it. Double peek for the CTs.
He's good, but not enough.
There's Pitt through smoke from A.
Looking for the cat player.
Malb's out in the middle.
Pitt will he take the fight?
He will.
He's recovering.
Two kills now.
For Malb's to go for that fight.
Now the bomb's down on Catwalk.
That'll have to be picked up, and it's not even
going to be close.
All right, three round game.
Ema's there to lock it in.
Malb's going for the wall bank through the boxes
on a player fully health, really gave Pitt
all the info he needed to go into the repeat.
Yeah, no idea. Maybe he thought that bit was low for some reason.
Nice double up here, right?
It made possible my wonderful's rotation all the way over from the other side of the map.
I think they're a little bit fortunate though, because they...
This is simple to boost within range of three people listening.
And those three players forgot that there was someone underneath.
Or they were talking and didn't hear it.
Either way, it's not me winning on the...
On the gun round, Emma starting off this round quick.
and immediately eight protocols as G2 starts to walk back.
It's a comfortable affair here, round 16.
Said they want the X factor.
Well, how about a round like this?
It would have been a little bit too obvious
to just go into that A attack the first time around.
About the right.
No one has pushed just yet.
They can wait.
Try again.
Bitfinding, you go frags a big one.
Softening up Hunter makes this all too easy for Pidge.
You assume?
And E-Mess here to continue to help out.
Yeah, tapping away for a couple.
Two round game.
Your deagles, your tech nines.
That ain't getting you in.
Was Mirage truly something to be feared on the CT side?
There's been one reverse sweep on land in history.
We casted that.
It was the best of five.
It was the best of five.
It was Don versus Jane.
Sir, a tail for the ages.
But to do it in arena, that is something special.
That's next level.
That's never happened before.
do it after such a flat first half. I welcome the challenge.
And if they weren't the favorites, you wouldn't believe it at all. Wonderful opportunity.
We should combat the Nade, but the utility damage is really good.
It's excellent, yeah.
Keeps G2 at bay. You know, that underpass setup.
You'd think they maybe wanted to try and pounce on Wonderful a little bit more, but...
Perfect, that's punishing the fallback.
Hunter on bomb duty, JL lurking above.
Swamp on keen watch inside of Connector.
Oh, yeah. Let's keep that close eye on Eme.
Absolutely has what it takes.
It's Bit who's been a bigger question mark.
What's he calming though, that they go and attack off of this?
Are they trying to get into the smoke?
That's the question. No one coming out of Palace.
Takes another chance to look down,
softens mobs up further.
That's those 200 past players here.
Can you give me low health?
And here comes the eighth players.
Eme's not stopping. Continues to hold him back.
Snacks finally able to respond, but it's that JL pressure where there's one,
there's more at the moment for Navi, Hunter a single kill.
Oh, they crushed him.
And Modesty just never given an opportunity to get into this action.
Perfect flashbang.
He's still alive and kicking.
Could take a miracle.
Bomb in the open ground.
Does he even want to risk losing this AWP?
Eme just so key in the middle of all that,
just kind of puffing his chest from the get-go,
throwing that Util, keeping them back and slowly but surely just whittling away at this lead.
A one round game.
What's obviously beautiful about that round from Navi is attacking, but then also forcing a reaction
at a G2 and leaving Utility in their wake.
Them always to fall back, to flash on a guy who's trying to peek to punish them.
Every single time they came to peek something, they made sure they had protocols to punish
Anybody who chased him down
Jail finds this perfect timing they went in mid
Playing off each other very well
Crazy to see this game gets so close
started at 7-1
Extremely quick buy here for G2 to keep this lead
Play behind the monosia be careful
That was an opportunity mulch jumps right in front of his scope
mulch's name on it
So let me tell him down to sub half health lexie slides to do a more anchor position
Can they get past middle of the smoke surround?
Timing on the only tail goes down and they can blow this connector smoke open
But if they go fast enough snacks who won't stop ends up dying. He's alone. He's so far ahead of everything else
I kind of draw small back from apartments, but yeah, they like really wanted to jump on that
But none of these oppressors team was ready. Oh, no, what a full another shot missed Nico takes them down
He's gonna put his hands on that off. We saw him last time with two shots with it
You have to hit this another big moment for Nico and they could forget about the fact that that was dropped the window
He could beat things quickly
Oh, they shot
Honestly, no second kill for him
And that's everybody now with eyes towards the catwalk Alexi's position well known. Yes time is ticking and they sense this opening
They have found a chance because you've already peeled players off of B
Alexi seems to know that this is their intended target.
Nico looks away!
Missed that timing.
Alexi getting back off of the catwalk,
stuck to feed everybody.
He will shut down mobs.
Swapping over to the off.
Oh, he doesn't peek.
He waits.
Two unlikely offers.
Going head-to-head right now.
Nico talking, Alexi thinking.
He's got support.
They're both coming in.
Nico?
Yep.
Better angle.
And as Pitt gets ever closer,
his position unbeknownst to the T's.
He could be anywhere, and they're wary,
but he's getting closer and closer and closer
with them all in the back.
Oh, it's huge.
Watch it, Niko forward, bit around the side!
Off to keep them in the lead!
That's Kovac's blood, baby.
Spill it as you need.
Winning with the tech knife.
All kinds of opportunities made by small businesses.
Ima taking a shot, and then shaking the link,
and then losing the opportunity to kill Modesty.
Of course, he's going to get punished.
They don't even remember at what point Niko got this gun.
So when Alexi was approaching, maybe he had no idea
that Niko could have been there on that angle.
angle, either way, Oppers making cameos on their teams, Nico, doing just a bit better.
I want to say you cannot give up situations like that, but Navi are the ones who have
this unbelievable map streak on Mirage and have already put together so many CT rounds.
T2 still have to show that they can do it with rifles, even though doing it with a mixture
of tech nines and rifles is impressive.
But they have successfully defended their lead.
So the third time in this series, they get the 10 rounds first.
We saw the opportunity that Monosy nearly manufactured for himself last round before
mobs jumped in front of it and it looks like they want to try to do something similar.
Oh wait, they're actually executing really fast.
Wonderful.
Has to stay sharp.
Flying.
Not able to strike one down.
He's got two rifles.
He gets down.
Yep.
Alexi's got that one.
No problem.
Sure.
Mobs far forward on the footing but JL's here to slip in and the two rifles inside
do wonderful work. And wonderful doesn't happen to you any
at all. That is exactly what you want if you are Nobby. That's
impressive. That's impressive. They get Nobby to fall back. He
throws his van pillar smoke and gets away. Malphe if he hunted
him down and actually got the kill, that's where everything
changes. You cannot rotate in. You can't jump out of the
window. You can't run out of the hallway and wonderful
cannot retake from the off on cat that gets smoked out.
Everything comes down to Alexi staying on point right
here it always not an easy shot at all nice track from JL wasting no time to
slide forward ahead of wonderful that was extremely clutch from Alexi economy on
the line lead now in question
Navi on the brink of finally tying this one up wonderful again tilted by
util but he comes back into the perfect moment set up by e-mail mid control for
Navi again. Snacks, bottom connector, lesser weapon, monosy behind him, and of course no
AWP on the side of G2, so they both disengage. I feel as though they've shown enough presence.
Hunter will take up the responsibility from the underpass, but there is no reason for any of
Navi's members to move. They still want to sense out some control. Oh, nice! JL starting to step
Step it up with the rifles.
Yeah, pull it on the shoulder peak.
And Hunter's also stepped up.
But now that he goes down, it comes.
But in this moment, right now, right now,
Wonderful is too far gone from Kat.
He's coming back.
OK.
Yeah, and Alexi is playing defense.
It's an unlikely spot, but it's great just for one and done.
That three-second window closes.
Wonderful with eyes on it, strikes down the first.
He knows one hits the ground.
Alexi, good.
Alexi, fine.
OK.
Alexi solid on these holds.
Monacy, 1v5.
I don't think so.
A couple of players over towards the window to challenge, Alexi still hanging onto his
bomb site.
Monisy not able to put it together and Navi tied up this game.
Alright, they do it.
They tied up this game.
Way more sustainable rounds here for Navi in the second half.
Again, the one round that Jitsu have put together here was with the combination of
pistols and required a couple of missed shots from Navi.
Looks like Navi wouldn't be able to defend their mirage coming back from 9-3.
He leaves a lot to be desired.
You don't even have that single off the honesty was able to employ
Benefit of the debt we'll give them they've done it before often to keep it simple here
Again, it actually looks like they're on to the right idea right it feels like the B site is
Takeable at moments, but Alexi is also now playing for more information. He's gonna play within flashes in this spot
It's like you need to compromise catwalk first and we saw that one time
We thought it's actually have snacks for jail last time with the tech nine
That's what caught it started this time jail turns in time hears him
Just thunder footing up the catwalk and JL starting to throw himself into all of these engagements
It's a triple kill versus the upgraded pistols Nico's Deagle will find one
But that is it that is all that is Robbie in the lead. Yes, that's right
And a chance for G2 to get onto the full guns and try again
But so far they're getting full account.
Alexi B, they're throwing every test possible at him on the B site,
and he is coming up green every time.
He's played fantastically well.
And I'm not talking about pure frags, right?
It's positioning. It's staying alive is even more important
than getting a 2 or 3k as you go down with the hold.
He's making it so that they can't even put the bomb down.
Retake's not necessary, but Alexi B's on the site.
Wonderful's been providing good cover as well.
Blade wants to attack onto this momentum.
Snacks. Tees? I don't know who's Flash.
That doesn't really stand a chance there versus JL.
Good on him to react like that. Turn it around, shut him down.
Make sure you don't fall to the tech nine twice.
Kind of jumped into his own team's Flash, I'm assuming, but...
Rough start to the round with all that fire damage,
but Wonderful's got a deep angle there.
Again, he's supported by JL, so he could have hung on to it.
Ops not to.
Impresses himself top mid instead.
Monosy versus Wonderful.
Yep.
We wanted it.
The monistee's gonna give us it.
Opening kill goes to G2.
What's the adjustment?
We have praised Navi in these 45 situations.
That's where they've really impressed.
Looking to play fast rotations, pulling goalies on sights.
Get the warden from stairs as this ground starts to come together.
And he is getting committed to.
Only Zach 5v4.
The bench gets bit a good angle, but so exposed to what could be the multi-peak, isn't?
It hangs on the box out there allowed to get out from ramp. They do lose Niko good pressure again from J.L.
Melted down even against his double kill. They cross paths inside. Oh Hunter gets through suddenly 2v2
Modesty still alive. There's a player down beneath 1v1.
Oh Flash burns bright.
Modesty chance filled the stadium as he somehow weeds in between each duel to make the trades happen
within the clutch perfectly calm.
You blink and you miss the flash.
Now we go into round 23,
and he's looking to get active.
He wants out Alexi head that he's already seen once, seen twice,
but not being able to pop it on the jump up.
Alexi's gonna have to play this extra cautious,
because what's usually that catwalk support isn't currently here.
This is a game where you have to give G2 the credit for showing the math.
They aren't getting the solution, but they have consistently realized
that Alexi has been understaffed here.
It's just that Alexi has done such a magical job at duplicating his presence, calling for the rotation at the right time, using his utility so well that Navi are getting away with fortifying mid, fortifying A, and still being strong on B all at the same time.
G2 have the right idea, but they might have to go to what they feel like is the harder route.
Big burden for Snacks.
Oh no!
That could be a key one.
Niko's able to slip out, gets bested by Bit.
He's able to slide into the back site.
Emack over towards Kinect.
Crossed it.
No way Snacks comes alive now.
They've lost sight of Bit.
He's able to hide into the default fire at his feet.
Gets himself another.
Traded out by Monosy yet again.
And as he throws that bomb over, 30 to the block.
JL trying to hunt him down.
Will indeed find Snacks.
Two kills all he gets.
Malg's able to fall back.
Fall back. It's him in the flash. Back on the default.
Alexi trying to join forces.
He comes out for nothing.
Both the utility telling them that this is indeed the endeavor.
It's the direction of the retakes attack.
There to the swing.
Monacy stays down. Sees a bit from Bench.
Down KL in with a hit.
Oh, it's a 12.
Wow, they get it first.
They pull it back the entire round.
Down material working back into that.
They get Matt Point after a 9-3.
after this miss shot from Wonderful.
They hold this thing together with both hands.
It's going to round 24.
It felt like they were a shell of themselves
in the back of that site once Bomb went down.
Just pinned down and held there by the retake of Novi.
I gotta give them credit though.
They kept the utility up, they stayed active,
they found out who was in the smoke really quickly.
They made sure to stay on top of every gap possible
and made sure that G2 couldn't flex the man advantage
and play together and swing together.
This is a quick technical pause.
I'm going to give you the dirty details.
Malbs hit his desk and crashed from the game.
And crashed from the game.
OK.
All right.
There's a.
Yeah.
We're going to get a Malbs blood game now, like,
at this moment.
There's another bug going around the fall finals.
People getting a little aggravated.
Yeah.
Very quickly fixed.
Thank you.
back into it. Come on Forum make some noise! You want overtime? Let's hear it. You got yourself
a best of five. And they push OT. Ema getting hurt a little bit. Niko got punished last time.
Oh no! Foul to see wins again versus wonderful. Wonderful pops up into the obstacle, beautiful
flashbang. That's Ema. The bob down. And Ema just placed this critical role inside
of connector. If it's not kills on the side of smoke, it's just excellent support
through Util. Got to watch for JL surely inside of middle at the same time. Forces
starting to join hands here in the bottom of mid. Both teams start to group up for this cage.
A mouth, he gets one and another. Not only supporting Bits, endeavors over towards
site but coming forward on his own. And Modesty tasked with what feels like an
impossible endeavor. Map 3 on the line for Navi. Molly underneath the palace.
They all peek and it's shot out. You're gonna leave your eyes in Navi's mind.
This is just the beginning of the best of five reverse three.
A 9-1 lead for G2 ain't no matter for Navi.
The Black and Yellow squad, so exactly why Mirage is regarded as their home turf
Stiko with an almost flawless CT side to be closing it out and pushing us to that fourth.
Absolutely the best team right now on Mirage.
Honestly, I'm not sure if G2 lost to themselves or to the best team in the world on Mirage.
So it's hard to say that's a crazy comeback for for Navi. I'm not gonna lie
I thought the game was over. I think pretty much everyone watching thought the game was over
I think you'd have to be pretty blind and all honesty not to think the game was over G2 looks so good in that first half
Navi frustrated couldn't get anything going, but I will say it
You know it was nine to one and then Navi wins the last two rounds very much rounds
The G2 could have won as well they let foot off the gas pedal just a little bit
They allowed Navi a couple of rounds and you even saw when they went into half-time Alexi B
Emma JL looking at each other they were smiling it was like a little bit of hope
was created in that first half then you saw what happened in the second now it
comes in there's that to remind me a lot like face back in the good old days
where you could never put him away yeah give Navi an inch and they will damn
well take them all and the map while spare at it what's your take Jacob on
that second half because Stiko already said you know don't know whether G2
were just losing to themselves whether it was fumbling I feel like Navi
we're just taking full advantage on that defensive half will you allow me
to be brutally honest go on I think now we played exceptionally well I
I think Navi did a really, really good job, you know, winning pistol, converting.
But from that moment onwards, G2's T-Site was horrific.
I don't know if it was the game plan, if it was them losing focus,
if it was snacks, couldn't find the solutions, a test for that matter as well.
But most of the rounds, they weren't even competitive.
The first round they win on that T-Site is down to the Navi players withing shots.
I think Ima with the shot, I think wonderful with the shot,
and then they won a 4-spy.
Up until that point, they weren't even close winning around.
So for my money the T side right here for G2 were equally as bad as their CT side was good.
Yeah, and for me it all started with the pistol round. We spoke about it G2 on Mirage.
They are winning those pistol rounds left and right.
And it felt like this could have been over very much after the 9-3 half.
And well, that was the first real stumble that showed me that something might be actually happening.
Let's talk about Ine to begin with. There's so many of the different Na'Vi players
that I want to be touching around here, but shout out to him for just keeping his head so so cool.
I'm really stepping up in that second call.
So those of you who just tuned in,
Emma had a horrific first map, a very horrific first map.
He came alive on Dust2 and even better here on map number three.
So I very much agree with you for here.
The fact that he's coming back alive,
the fact that he's into the game now,
it's starting to look like something for Navi.
He found an awful lot of impact.
It was also him when the score was,
I think it was 7-2, 7-2-1 for G2.
He had a couple of entries down for him,
his lurk position and connector.
And it felt like Emma was trying his absolute best.
So it doesn't surprise me that he's back at his best, but it's a vital sign of life for Nabi.
Yeah, and for that CT side, I think Launder's pointed out during the cast that he's not only impactful around the connector area,
where he's finding a lot of kills, a lot of impact, just as any other connector player,
but he's supporting Bid with those flashes towards that A site.
Throughout the end of the half there, I think there were multiple times where Bid was just killing an eco that was either blind or either partly flashed at least,
it was just really a good, helpful hand for Bid to perform.
You saw it in the very last round. The score is 12-2-11, you have Niko and Maltz walking up ramp,
Manisi is getting the kill on towards Wonderful and a perfect clash is coming in from the Connector player,
which allows Bitt to get a multi-kill and shut down the round. So spot on when you're seeing that.
It's a little bit of intangible there, we're not seeing that on a stat, he has a perfect performance,
but support, utility, on point.
I feel like the stats are going to be a little bit underrated on the side of Wonderful as well,
just how much impact he was able to get in the latest stages of this game.
I feel like G2 would try to go for him first in a couple of those later rounds, which Snacks did manage to take him down.
Ultimately, he didn't.
Yeah, it was a very cool comeback from Fung.
His T-side wasn't the best team. He couldn't really get it going.
A couple of moments here, as you see with the AWP, didn't really resolve them winning any rounds.
Even this Deagle shot was beautiful, but it wasn't the second half. He really came alive.
That's when he got to do his best work. That's when we got to see the presence.
And sometimes as an AWP player, and it's maybe giving them a bit of a freebie and a free card.
by the way. You know I don't even want to say it's well played by wonderful because it's just
pure filled and feel a lot at that point but when you have an odd presence on the map it also
installs a bit of fear in the opponent so you could see the D2 they were trying to walk around
they're trying to poke they ran into wonderful a couple of times and it wasn't like he got 10 or
eight or seven CT sided obkills he had a couple but there was enough to slow around D2 and have
a little building. Yeah in front of the CT side all in the middle especially I had some
At some point I was like saying to myself, wonderful, just calm down a little bit, because he was overcooking, a little bit overheating, going really for those entries, he was waving here and there, but ultimately it was those important rounds where he got those important kills and managed to translate the actual rounds.
It's interesting when you think about stylistically wonderful as an AWPer, because I feel like when he first joined Nabi, maybe even when we look back at him in the Team Spirit days, he was a little bit more reserved, a little bit more keeping himself back.
I like that he knows when to be more proactive.
He's very good at reading the game.
I feel like that's definitely grown with him as a player.
I'm sorry to throw a shiro on the bus,
but he's doing everything shiro is not, you know,
I was expecting shiro to come in and involve as a player.
We know shiro to be one of the best authors in the game,
been around for a long time.
He's just brought on when he's saying,
wonderful now is not the wonderful we saw a year ago.
He's involving, he's becoming a little bit more comfortable.
He's taking more initiative on the server.
He's a more balanced out player.
He can do a bit of both.
And in all honesty, if you want to be a modernized AWP player in 2024,
you've got to be able to do both even with the rifle, which we've seen time and time again.
And the best example I can give you is that if you think of Shiro,
Shiro is the same player today he was three years ago.
And at some point, that's going to stop working.
Think about the player that he had to replace on Na'Vi as well,
because he was feeling simple shoes when Symbol decided to depart the Na'Vi roster.
And that was a huge ask. And I feel like he's delivered obviously very differently
to Symbol as a completely different player.
But he's been able to grow up with this roster and I mean post just incredible results time and time again
I mean my whole take for this is that wonderful is doing more good for now. It's a simple wood
Agree with that Jacob. It's a hot take and and yes
I think in the system and the way they're playing counter strike right now
I agree with you wonderful is a better fit than simple whatever be but obviously as a player from an individual point of view
It's hard to argue that it simple is still not, you know, we'll see in counter strike too
But if you take down and take into account Counter-Strike Global Offensive as well then from an individual standpoint
Of course wonderful is nowhere near simple, but I think he's the perfect fit for what blade and LTV wants
Okay, let's regroup and talk a little bit about G2 because from a 9-1 star 9-3 at the end of the first half to two rounds
In isolation by the way not even back-to-back on that T side. What an earth happened here, Jacob
As I said, I think the T side was super super underwhelming and I don't know where it came from
I don't know if it was certain players wanted to take it too much initiative
It was snacks losing grasp of the game not calling the right things if tests didn't have the answers
But as I said the T side overall was just mega underwhelming
They didn't have any answers whatsoever
And as I said it took them seven rounds to win the first one that was with tec9's deagles
And it was down to the Navi players with mischads. Yeah, and well if you look at it
It was really I would say a monestee show for for the most part and that is kind of unreliable
For CT side he started with a great opening, he was playing thick at the load, actually punishing a lot of compact plays towards A, but maybe a little bit underwhelming for the rest of the team.
Yeah, and I guess it's also a reality check for all of us, because as I said, when it was 9-1 we all believed that G2 would walk away from this final and win 3-0, and that would have been quite the story, especially with Monizzi playing as well as he did.
as well as he did and we would be praising T2 for being potentially a team on the
upright you know coming into the Major, coming into Rio, look out for them maybe
they'll win a couple of trophies but I feel like it can change the entire story
you know we can now walk into a map number four God knows what's gonna happen
if you move into map five if Navi's able to come back it changes so quickly so
for my money it's a reality check in the sense that when you look the most
comfortable it just takes a couple rounds to lose that grasp we saw the
wonderful clutch the 1v2 with the AK-47 where he got filthy lucky with
his spray. Maybe that's all it took for G2 to lose momentum, lose faith, lose ability,
and now they find themselves in a situation where they have to reset coming into map 4.
We tried Stambus on the T side as well, like fair play to Monizzi, he was kind of the only
man really showing up and making that impact. What about Niko though, because I feel like
we've been praising him for basically the six maps on the stage. Prior to this, he's
had so much impact. Do you feel like that dropped off in this map?
It definitely, and towards the end, I mean throughout the T side, he was searching
for duels clearly he was trying to build up the confidence and trying to out aim bit towards
his A side he was having multiple times on middle where he was trying to do his best but
it was just a little bit shy you know when it comes to some duels it was it wasn't as
confident as I would like it to be and maybe it comes down to the pressure as well I
mean look at the scoreline right now 7-1 during this clutch everything feels good
and then it's going to be just downhill from there especially throughout the second
I don't know whether I'm buying to that pressure argument though because Niko of all players
He knows exactly how to withstand that surely. Yeah, I agree. I'm not sure if it's pressure
But I think it's more so you know to the credit of Navi
I think a lot of times as you said Niko was walking around he was searching for duals
So it wasn't like he it didn't play the normal brand of style that he does
It was just the counter flashes the ability the team play from Navi
It's more so where I want to put the focus, you know, we saw in the very last round as well
He just got flashed out and got absolutely destroyed
So, for my money, Nico had the first pause showing on the stage, I agree with you,
but it was also down to Navi finally coming together and using that team play
and using the flasks to shut him down.
Yeah, the pressure is different.
Sometimes players feel different pressure when they're about to lose
and get eliminated from the tournament
and then there's different pressure when you're about to win the tournament.
Always having Nico is a little bit more resistant to those elimination moments,
but maybe those moments where he's about to lift the trophy, that can be different.
I'll tell you what, right now, you know, from a psychic logical point of view,
You're Navi, you're down 9-1, I'm the third potentially deciding map.
You came back, you won Mirage, you're moving into map 4.
They already feel that they've lost the game.
They already feel that they probably should have lost now, you know.
So they got absolutely nothing to lose,
and I think that's where you become the most dangerous.
All of a sudden, the pressure's on G2.
They now to replicate another great performance in order to get one more map.
Whereas for Navi, they've already been in the game,
they already lost the game, they already were down 9-1,
and that's why they were smiling into halftime.
They're thinking to themselves, maybe we have a chance of coming back,
But essentially we probably should have lost by now.
So this is where it becomes very dangerous if you're G2
and this is where now it becomes super super scary.
This is probably the worst possible way to lose that map
because now they carry the momentum.
They, as you said, they probably saw themselves as maybe losers.
Maybe maybe it was at least at the back of their minds.
They were thinking about how to lift that trophy.
You know, they're already walking out through the states
and thinking, hmm, is it going to be me who's lifting it?
Should we give it to Mab?
Should we give it to Niko?
You had those thoughts in your mind
and I know it sounds maybe a bit unprofessional,
but as a player when everything is going your way you're up 9-1 you're already starting to feel that we got the job done
You know we're over the high part and the second you slip off the second you lose that focus
Well, that's didn't the second the Navi comes back into the game. Well, I'll be keeping their heads above water for now
We're gonna be going into inferno after this break
In terms of that growing process though, how much of this game for the players and for your team
Do you feel it's like a mental battle against Navi as well?
Well, probably there is some
some stuff inside of the mind of the guys, but we are doing our best to have a clear approach
and just take it as any other game. And I think that that's the way you should play the construct
and just enjoy.
You do want to enjoy it and you do want to hopefully lift that trophy, but how much have you been able to
maybe change and adapt things, small details, just to try and keep Navi on their toes or catch him off guard?
Obviously you need to adapt when you are losing, but you also can get too crazy, right?
So we do some adjustments and we will see how it will go.
And Nico, his hand, how is it?
It's good to smash.
In terms of not taking your foot off the gas, you haven't now back-to-back events and
it's back-to-back grand finals, so how is the energy?
It's good.
The further we progress into the tournament, the more energy we got, the less fatigue
we felt because the importance of the game is kind of diminishing the thoughts of stress fatigue
all that stuff so it feels great now we're gonna play better now you're gonna play better and you
probably need to right because it's a best of five against g2 slightly different but why is it that
you guys have the streak against g2 what is it about this matchup do you understand why it's
so comfortable for you guys we do have an understanding yes we're not gonna reveal it
but we do take one game at a time it doesn't matter seven five eight win streak even if
But if you had 25 it doesn't matter because you have to treat it as your first game against them, you have to respect them, you have a lot of firepower, great individuals and you have to respect them to beat them.
Now you're the birthday boy, we're looking for a birthday trophy as well. How much would that mean to you compared to some of the other trophies and just the experience?
I mean, birthday or not, the trophy is one of the best feelings regardless. I'm not a big fan of birthdays. I feel like on your birthday you get a lot of love,
but I think you should give and spread love every single day the same as you would do on someone's
birthday. You need to show them that you love them, that you care for them, and regardless of
even if it's their birthday or just another day, Tuesday, Wednesday, it doesn't matter. You have
to show love to everyone. Man, JL Brigham, a tear to my eye, but he wasn't showing G too much
love in that third match, which does indeed mean Navi still have a fighting chance at pulling
off the reverse sweep. Stiko, no prizes for guessing what JL was wishing for when he
I'm really sure that he's wishing to get on the tip of the stage after this Vestal 5 and leave that little trophy behind it.
It's quite a big trophy for JL to be lifting, if they did indeed manage to pull off this reverse week, which by the way, we don't often see happening in Vestal 5 Grand Finals.
That would mean their fourth trophy this year, that would be incredible.
That would be incredible and it would just add to the story of what Navi is right now.
a team that obviously is the best in the world,
a team that has been the most consistent throughout the year,
but also a team that apparently would be able to come back
from a deficit like that being down 0-2.
So we're talking about mentality monsters in the making, maybe.
We've seen that would face being one of that characteristics
in the prime time.
Maybe we're witnessing history being made right now
and maybe we're not.
Before we do get a bit more of a deep dive into Inferno,
Seiko, I want to get your thoughts on, you know,
when we go into these extended breaks
because, you know, after a third map has been played,
we're going into a fourth.
Players do get, you know, anywhere from 10, 15, 20 minutes
extra to be going out you know having a bit of a break maybe getting a snack maybe
going over some notes what's your approach in these situations what do you
think is best for teams to be doing again it's very holistic and everyone has
kind of different approach for me personally this was finally a chance
where I can't eat something properly because I hate eating before the game
it makes me perform really really bad so maximum like a snag or banana between
the maps but this can means extra break actually allows me to kind of
recover, get the fluids in and get everything just to push out the energy
because it's actually people don't understand how tiring it is to play a
best of five. It's not just five facing games in a row, it's actually high impact
every moment matters to the degree where it kind of can keep the scales
whether you're winning or losing the whole best of five. And I think it's a
good thing for G2 to get a little extra time just to make that mental
reset now coming into map number four because again you can always spin
it into something positive for yourself. What Tess is saying right now to
the boys is probably listen guys would your soldier being up to one coming into
this grand final standing this position right now and everyone be like yeah of
course we would let's forget about Mirage the throw is on two more match you
have two golden opportunities to get it done so in terms of the pressure being
applied to G2 after them fumbling a little bit here Mirage I think this
extra 10 minutes is gonna be them in food form. Yeah both teams we saw from
those live images spending a little bit of time outside getting the notes
and getting a little bit of fresh air into their bodies as well I don't
blame them let's talk a bit more about Inferno we kind of always call
this, you know, the ultimate decider. We get this as the fourth map, potentially a chance
for GT to be closing this 3-1. Who do you think this favor is coming into this
match? I honestly think it favors G2 a little bit.
I would say, you know, on paper, heading into this grand final, I'd argue Inferno
would be 50-50, and given we think Navi is a better team, that's a compliment to
G2. Historically speaking as well, it's always been a map they like to play. We
know Niko feels comfortable on Inferno. We know Monizzi feels comfortable on Inferno.
We know Hunter had a period where he was actually the highest rated CT side player
in the world back in the day when Sybu was at the top of their peak.
So historically speaking they like to play.
There's one downside though and that's Snakes coming into G2.
He had to be nurtured into Inferno.
He wasn't calling on the map on a lot of his previous teams.
He wasn't playing it a lot.
So if there's one weak link right now within the G2 camp, it's Snakes.
When I was doing preparation for this yesterday,
I actually thought that Inferno will be the main pick out of G2
because I gave them the biggest or best odds on this specific map.
And now that the Vita was done,
I was actually thinking this might be a low-key, really, really good
tactician point of view to put it as a fourth map and trying to get at least one win in the beginning and then eventually
force the fifth map out of it. Obviously the things are going differently and they're already leading to one, but I'm giving G2
match for Inferno. Let's check in with the live box to see if they do indeed agree with you, Siocone.
Yeah, still sliding quite heavily with the side of G2.
They will indeed be starting on the T side of things and I know whenever I ask this question,
I know exactly what the answer is going to be. Where should we be focusing the most attention?
Attention, um, should I guess which fruit we're gonna say, Jacob?
Uh, try it.
Bananas!
Let's go!
Well, it's gonna be a fight for banana.
That's just inferno the way it is.
I'm more curious into the pace, you know.
Is it gonna be a fast-paced T-Side out of T2?
Is it gonna be a bit of explosiveness?
You could start off, you know, by running your T-Side,
and let's say you win the pistol.
Let's say you convert.
Do an abs pop, you know.
Do a mid-push.
Do something early on that's gonna keep Nadia on the toes
and force them to use utility early,
because it is all about the utility,
You know, if you can drag out utility early on, you put yourself in a much better position on the T side.
And those apps pop, and lane hits actually might be a very crucial game plan here because
Pit is one of the most, you know, the best player on Inferno when it comes to...
You think of a pop-off game, you think of Pit on Inferno, especially for the major turn,
Maverick and Space, etc., etc.
We spoke about it, he is the best rated player on CD side before this best of five,
throughout this tournament, so far, very quiet.
The lowest rated player on the server, and that might be a weakness.
Bit playing in that pit position and then we have a saying for those guys who are good at that
He's a massive rat, you know for him to be in that position just be a little rat down there getting a couple of multi-kills
He's arguably I would agree with you the best rat in the world at that specific position
Used to be Matt takes back in the days, but I think bit of taking over that role as you said
He's not only in pit, but he likes to be aggressive in towards lane and in towards middle as well
We saw that yesterday when he's pushing in and trying to I guess be a little bit aggressive in the mid-round portion of the section
So I like bit what he's doing
I think that's a massive terrible point for this game.
The Rat King, where have I heard that before?
Let's speak a little bit about Nico coming into this map.
I feel like there's been so many moments go down in CSGO history,
coming into CS2 as well.
Some amazing for Nico, some not so amazing.
I'm thinking the Boston Major and the 2018.
Anyway, where does he have his most impact
when we're coming onto this particular map?
I mean, again, on towards Banana.
I love Nico for what he's doing on the Banana,
both T side, CT side.
He likes to be aggressive.
He likes to find a timing on when to fight and you also need a bit of support in order to do that
You cannot be a banana guard without having the support cast behind him to throw the smokes throw the flashes
Maybe sometimes send over monocie in that position just to change it up a little bit
But overall I feel like G2 got a pretty good grasp of how to play inferno
So I'm not worried. I think we'll get a very very competitive inferno here for Niko's playstyle
Obviously for banana
I think he's going to be challenged by Jay a lot Lexi be a lot of flesh plays a lot of setups a lot of
Utility kind of bouncing off each other
I think that the duel between Nico and Gael is going to be dictated in the base of the whole game
What's going to be the situation with Malph's because we were prefacing it coming into this series
You know T side starts versus CT on that there is a noticeable sizeable difference when we're looking at those numbers
Yeah, and just to spend the case for Malph
She's not as activated on the CT side as many people would like to see I think on inferno
It's a little bit different. You know the players will come to him on that CT side
So he's definitely gonna have opportunities to find impact T side wise playing towards that
You know abs position and and towards middle
We have seen him entry up middle a couple of times and find that impact
So I'm not too worried for Malph's when it comes to inferno
But again, you know for the future I would like to see him activated even more
We've maybe seen that happen a couple of times before the reverse we pass been pulled off seco
Do you think Navi are capable of doing it? Are we going to be going to a fifth after this one?
I'm still sticking with you, too. I think there's only one team in the world right now
Who can pull off a reverse sweep and that would be now it but it's still a big task
I think T2 will win this final but
I wouldn't be surprised if we go to fifth.
Well, we can indeed be jumping into this fourth map bobbin burner between Navi and G2.
Yeah, it's about that time.
A little bit of an extended break there to allow our players to refuel
because Navi have certainly turned this one up a notch.
We are shooting for the reverse sweep on their side of the camp.
Yeah, just because it's Navi and they're so favored in this matchup
you think maybe there is a chance for them to pull off the reverse sweep.
We would definitely hold our tongues if it was anybody else,
But right now Navi have definitely impressed and it came off the back of those incredible runs that they had on
Mirage from that comeback. So if you're not in a hurry, let's get some champions
Who knows when this one ends
It's got to eventually
First sweeper G2 trophy hoist God damn G2 on inferno analysts talked about it enough
Let's look at the players speak. Quick pressure, wasting not a moment off of the extended break.
We go right up through brackets. There is a split around on Arch. Majority of the number
is here for the T's trying to get into site, but a Lexi B could throw something at them.
Good pick cleared. Niko top graveyard then dives down into the pit itself. So he takes
up position for the post plant. Bomb planted along the wall. Both of Navi's remaining
players ready to get it going. Again, wasting no time but a missed jump. Wonderful
wanted to go over the box originally. Now he thrusts JL into a one versus three.
Gets the reload off 12 bullets between him and this clutch. No kit.
At a moment's notice, everybody's going to swing him. It's just a matter of when
no mistakes yet gets a little closer. He will indeed shave Hunter off the play
now going for the player. No way. No way. JL trying to dive forward.
It's just no time. It's just no time. Unfortunately, the story of this one
Beautiful shots. We got to give it to him, but the bomb of the side
He wipes off his forehead he had to work hard to get those three kills, but no mistakes there from G2 in the end
No mistakes too great that is and they play fast and hard here to take over the site
Putting pressure on a as mentioned on the desk
It's it's gonna be a big part of this now the weird part is again like it's because bit has consistently
Assistantly had some struggles that you think this is worrying if they go towards him on pit
But this is just his best position right now him inside of the halls
It's like before this he sleeps then he wakes up and then he's your nightmare
Bitferno is definitely a real thing
Saw inferno go wrong for Navi yesterday
Versus phase that was incredibly worrying the way that they played it. We'll see if G2 can exploit that game plan
Just like honestly, they were successfully exploiting Navi's Mirage in the first half, like you have to give them a lot for that.
They made a mistake on the pistol round where Hunter jumped with a bomb.
They got unlucky when Wonderful won that 1v2.
And that impossible bullet threw the wall onto Bench.
Every little bit was necessary to get them over the line.
But that first half was undeniably good from the perspective of game plan and firepower from G2.
And this is a map that they were once upon a time the best in the world that by far.
And on T sides. Yes, let's see if they can tap back into that history and arguably that entry pack is only improved
They have balls. Hell yeah
Snacks be left here alone
Everybody else tries to move back towards to join up with me go on banana 25 seconds. So push come into shove
You know Jail's gonna go sprinting through spawn. They're still worried about any remnants on a and snacks is indeed there to lock in the others
But Alexi be what can you do alone?
15 to the clock, inside of the smokes within Banana, they go touching the clock, senses him, puts him down.
Gale has nobody to get him into it, so if they just cover the smoke, then all should be good.
Somebody's about to cover that smoke.
He wants to go for it, and yeah, Nico, instant headshot, as you should expect.
They didn't have the flashes to throw in from CT spawn to help with that push.
Just dropping the bomb would have been enough to win the round. They don't do that. G2, convert.
They're doing great on pistols so far. The only map I think they're actually dead even with with Navi which in and of itself is
Pretty strong right now the
The best right now
Last map they split
Ancient they took both
That's too sick. They survived without I mean it's impressive what Navi did but they still have suffered two losses
It's crazy to think there's a world where the reverse sweep is possible, but
Well, again, sometimes we humor it when it's the disfavor team down 0-2, but now it's the favor team that's down 0-2, so you think there is a world.
It's like Pip said, if anybody is going to do this or could do it, you'd think it would be Novi in their current form as of late.
I don't think we'd talk about the curse ever again if they did that. They would shut everybody up on that front.
that front okay yeah unarmored heads get popped real quick and he finds a
little more showing some presence over towards apartments on Hunter I'm not
really too ambitious about getting up in here versus pistols so we'll see if he
takes his time as G2 shirt certainly can no headshot in for Emma horses pistols
it was really putting forward I think impressive moments on the rod like
from connector whether it was the utility to help out bid on site yeah it was
Nice to see him. I kind of step up and that's really what he has been doing. Oh, man
Just in general for nobby over on player where I think a lot of people
Ourselves included we're kind of calling for his head. Oh hundred percent. I mean after the major
I just was like all this they're never gonna sustain like this
If it was one of the most important players and he has like a point eight eight rating or something
And now we look to the second half of the year and not only has his stats gone up
His impact like his decision-making like he's looking very sharp and very comfortable
He's also known as the second follower on the team, so there's more responsibilities beyond just his crosshair and his aim and his mechanics.
And yeah, this run that Navi are having would not be possible without MS4 100%.
You have got to respect it. In the face of all the criticism that only adds on to the difficulties of just trying to focus on your game.
He survived it.
Wonderful looking for an early kill versus anybody who dares step down that ramp
I'm way too far off. Yeah, I think it zings by monesties head
Smell that one. That's a very decent grenade. Sorry snacks. No chance. Yeah, it just down here always
This is the pit, huh?
Crazy risk to take isn't it? 5v5 at a minute 17 and
Yeah, it's in the pit like go figure
Oh, just walking up out can even no flash or trade potential.
Yeah, with only a Mach 10 fighting the Arch.
He said, guys, there's 1A.
He gives away man advantage.
We'll see if G2 can make much of it.
It hasn't really been a contest on Banana.
They've had to feel her out here the entire round.
So, that kill...
I felt like a play that you make on like a save, you know,
or something where you're low odds.
But 5v5, they have Banana.
There's no one peeking Arch or Lane here for Navi.
They throw late smoke, which is huge.
Well times.
And are we talking about another piece of important utility?
Yeah, Alexi has Amali as well.
Got that prime from up top.
They might force G2 into a bad decision.
Let's see if they can hold.
Wonderful.
He missed a couple of shots here or there.
He's been amazing, but this final,
leaves a little to be desired.
JL finds the cleanup through the smoke.
And this is a desperate one for G2.
It's always going to have to be JL.
Doesn't even get to see anybody.
Manages the double kill and as you'd expect that utility is just so instrumental.
Yeah, I mean, counting utility these days is like counting cards at the casino.
It's very difficult with the amount of decks that are shuffled in
and the comparison is that you can drop utility now.
So even if you know there's two players on a site,
you don't know what they did at the beginning of the rounds
to create the illusion that they're out
and not be doing a fantastic job here
of encouraging G2 to come into a site
That is very healthy in regards to utility.
And that's maybe from the lack of pressure that G2 come into the round with, not burning at all.
Wonderful, really?
While he gets popped by snacks in the background, great trade frag by Snack has to be said.
There's a little bit of impact. JL forced into the smoke grenade snacks.
What are you doing? What's your move?
Just blanketing this banana in utility.
frag grenades, molotovs, smokes every which way.
Playing purely off the intuition there. Let's scary for a second, but 4v4 already a better situation than last round. Let's see how this one distills.
Hunter takes up the burden of trying to come out from the apartments and any time you try to exit apps on Bididid, you're not going to have a good time, but...
But, softening up his support here, Hunter just very much showing his hand to keep from pit spotted.
Bit gets his head shot, slips right back down.
Alexi's able to hold the line, and what do you know?
Esai holds strong.
He keeps going, 54 seconds and monocie in a 1v3.
Half his health.
In his mind's eye, he knows exactly where these players are, but will they peek him correctly?
Yes.
Will he miss?
Yes, they do.
Alexi comes up good, great from Bit.
That one's easy.
I love that every time a G2 player dies now they cock their hand back.
Yeah, no kidding.
It took a thousand Hellzer deslamps and only one Niko.
Yeah.
That's cultural impact.
It's a timeout to think here about what to do in this follow up round.
They haven't made their investments just yet off of talking.
Just the right amount of commitment there from Bit to I feel like always be like the
most elusive in Bit.
And it's uncanny how the map can make the player, and yes, they don't end up investing.
Pudger's got a Galil, at least.
A little ball for the E. We saw a flash of this back on Dust2.
Ooh, JL.
He's definitely going to have responsibility.
All Inferno long.
But it's slotting into his groove within the CT side.
Constant pressure on Banana, and usually coming up for one, right?
Sure, Snacks trades in last round, but he's still toppled Niko.
And I don't know about you, but I'll trade Niko out every time it's a lot of deliberation here
And the pseudo tack is there semi-saving losing the 5v4
Changing ideas is not be you're chilling there watching everything right now no smoke on arch
This is the type of round where a Halls-Pop can be really effective with it not playing inside the pit
That'd be the best counter position to be in or some kind of crossfire
That one smoke well leaves the hands of snacks now. I see they keep you early
They do. Oh, that's it. Yeah, it's nice.
You got one smoke, brother.
But the Afro on Arch.
And everybody's going to die.
At least he himself falls victim to it.
So that's pretty impressive to get the smoke stuff up there.
Yeah.
You know what I'm going to call that one a stretch. Yeah.
Hey, man, impressive.
Yeah.
Making mistakes is this best of five goes on.
Yeah, we got to watch for those five before us.
When you said you were getting a little nervous
watching snacks make some of these moves and seeing it more on Inferno as well
there was you know that one moment on Dust2 definitely there was a couple
moments on Dust2. He gets to put a higher price tag on his and I'll like that some of
these rounds monosy will come up quick. Wow that's a huge scalp to take in the
5v4 at a minute 40. I wonder if this affects the map solely based on its
presence from across clean but like you know G2's had to like alright
We're gonna hit a now, but then obviously what are not you gonna be thinking the same thing and
Look what they do they pull guard on B completely. They have everybody here waiting for this exact attack
That's the power of it man. Honestly on this map. It's some candy
You don't have bit and bit you need the entire team
Seemingly, but they're trying to go for a boost. This could be awkward timing
They get it up in position just in time
Two players confirmed. Nice little bait. Oh, it's perfect.
Beautiful.
Excellent approach coming out from G2, making the most of the man advantage to go up 5v3.
JL gets flashed in from Alexi, talking about setups, but no double kill from him.
And if you're seeing JL on Arch, suddenly you kind of have to ask yourself,
well, then is there anybody B?
Absolutely.
And they would have had the choice to depart, but at a 4 versus 2, you'd think,
yeah, they'll probably split it up, and now with an additional kill on A,
Hey G2 will skate through this. So Monace setting it up with that pick on bit as he just tries to jump across mid
G2 make the absolute most of it nice to see no missed utility on the approach through brackets
And honestly it felt like they were very ready for even that boost up top and that's the other part of that game plan
Yeah, and Emma could have playing anti flash there
We've got one set of eyes in the off watching and there was only I think only one flash
But sometimes it's a trick sometimes there is no seconds or flash to worry about
This time works out very nicely here for G2 and
The other half to bits gameplay of course is like you know
He's gonna be a pit or he's gonna be in boiler like that's where he always plays from
It's a great punish for monestee not an easy shot and we're roasting marshmallows once again
comes through with a triple kill this round so we can praise monestee for definitely setting it all up, but
It's mom's that hits the follow-through
The backswing is just as important. You know in jail in those moments
he could swing out easily get two or three kills.
That's what he does sometimes.
I mean, we see him used exactly for that
over towards Banana.
This is Blade wanting to get into it.
They've been liberal with the timeouts and all these maps,
getting him in early, trying to start with a lead.
Gravity in the situation here.
Reverse sweep demanded of him.
Crazy to see the Navi come back versus FaZe yesterday,
just equally as unlikely as them doing it on Mirage today.
The fact that it's it actually gives them odds of pulling back the series
is remarkable stuff, but, you know, within that phase game,
we did see Nobby make some mistakes, specifically on Inferno, right?
Some of their mid rounds once they got to the T side left a lot to be desired.
Yeah. And if there was anything we could criticize them for, it was that.
But to see about that in the second half, right?
You know, great.
Your CT side has got some likes to stand on and make sure that you can
You continue to lean on him, but there will be no easy half in this 4th map with the best
of 5, I don't think, for Nami.
The Molly comes out again, Jail will have to respect this, he doesn't have a smoke to
use.
He does, but he doesn't throw it out fast enough.
Oh, because he was already throwing out her utility.
I think he didn't have time to.
Smoke comes down, it's late.
He guys, that's a trade.
Oh, that's a money grenade though.
Jail's health went down fast, I wonder if he got hit by a fried grenade in the
middle too.
Ah, could have been.
Either way, Snax gets that entire kill just by way of U-Till.
He's hit by a smoke grenade because of the pressure, the presence.
You know, Alexi is so tricky with utility.
Oh, but they know exactly where he's playing from. That's well placed.
And you know, Alexi has to respect a nice piece of utility.
100%.
Tip of the hat to bulbs who's able to throw that one over the building.
Tip of the hat to bulbs who's definitely kind of keeping G2 in
full position for the time being.
Eight kills deep in this fourth map of the best of five.
Snacks at the front of this. No support here for Alexi. This is an ideal situation if you're G2.
He's just hoping to pray and it's not going to be this site, but it is.
Oh, can he go big? No. Molotov spreads almost finishing off Maltz, but he survives it.
Gets the trade frag fast enough that nobody really here can help.
And the Hunter plants bomb before any contest. Do Navi take the chance?
No, they walk away already. G2. Inferno. Yes. They're battling hard.
And these two teams just look like even strength at this point, which is already very impressive.
But G2 have shown themselves they can win.
They're expecting a late attempt in the retake.
And Navi are just so out of this, they're not even going to try to punish the exit.
So, we'll see which way they go.
There's no one at the bottom of the banana. They're more worried about their own guns.
Chance for Wonderful, maybe?
Anybody want to swing?
Wonderful, the better off at the tournament.
But in this final so far, I think Montezvi has had more impact.
Agreed.
Yeah, I agree.
JL, how does this go down in the end?
Molotov, burning, burning, burning.
Just one tick off.
That leaves Alexi with no support.
While Alexi does burn one back, we saw that Util kind of soft it up.
Alexi make his job all the harder.
There are eight rounds through this T side and G2 with a two point lead.
Still led by Malbs.
There's still responsibility for JL.
Now this is looking different.
Yeah, these that the set pick plays that you call upon for wonderful to make
Hunter's got a teammate in the apartments with him at small just by the back door
That offer yeah into it and hunter looking for the wall bang of all things
Oh, he gets the fight and bits gonna come out on top by B3
Navi getting active in the apartment close proximity looks good for the defense. That's excellent tethering working off each other
can't get one by bit
Down to three players.
Feels like back and forth we go.
Honestly taking a glance out middle.
We'll see nothing, because Novi seemed very content
to just lean back on what has worked.
Anchors within sight.
Bits given no space. The one round fit dies.
We saw what happened.
Took an entire team to try and fill his shoes.
30 seconds to the clock. They still got enough utility to...
They want to pressure the site they can, but...
They don't have any kind of real opening.
They didn't follow through cgs go heavily onto the short side. This our trap begins to come out, but Nico gets bested
You think that's that?
Snacks isn't able to clear one off tall box. He's looking for his ticket out and has his monosie
Yeah, he desperately wants to keep this up and play as and I get the hell out of here
He's faces the smoke. They'll have to walk away from this
I think they felt like they were gonna lose when it was 3v5 in the first place, but now they have to sit with that reality
as Navi continued to keep it close.
And I mean, good amount of money, tail end of the T side.
Why not try to take some kind of a chance?
Snacks nearly pulling one out could have helped.
You were always going to have to deal with bit and pit,
but G2 not shuffling into saves quite as quickly as Navi.
Nice change up, right?
That's a deceptively hard shot.
You know, for him going up on the back of the wall
like that instead of the crouch peak,
that wonderful was expecting a miss here or there.
That's it.
So G2 pistol, two conversions, and two solid rifle
rounds after that. Actually one of those was an eco. So, go to apartments again at this time.
Check it out. They both come in through the back door. Nice nade! Oh, mobs! Oh, tradefrags efficient.
Oh, that's an incredible counter. It sets up the rifle perfectly to get an easy target after
that nade lands. Wonderful. The insurance policy. I'll be happy to get up into the apartments to
find these opening fights. I'll jail get clipped. You think with the 4v3 he doesn't
necessarily have to stick around a banana who's got support from a lexie of course always priming grenades from inside sight always
Tech talk smoke lands in front of them. They're gonna try to challenge on the edge of this jl sees out as a chance to pounce
Oh now they can actually re-aggress. They know that it's reloading snacks wants to jump on top of it even
He dies and they need to well grab one over the smoke and over the half wall
But you know a lexie is gonna be in sight probably alone
So no surprise that he could tries to chase this down smoke to the CT cross dodging flashes
There's a chance for wonderful to spam with the off
It's Claude! Look at the speed at which they're attacking this.
Of course, Monosia and Niko, they have been the duo.
Before the rotation could come over,
Wonderful never had vision and it's not going to get any easier inside of Sight.
Monosip crosses over behind that pillar, but he gets by first.
Oh, they get through it!
This is G2 making the most of the moment over on B.
Eme, are you able to come back in Claude?
They pounced on that Sight,
screwed the man disadvantage.
They knew that they had numbers if they just followed through on B.
Ena's able to cross over, and now as he's inside site, they may fall victim to his surprise.
He tries to jump, Mausie plays with him, dodges, and meet the obstacle to help.
It's this duo, the super stars of G2.
I mean, sometimes it's disappointing how much they rely on this duo, but somehow this duo delivers.
It's like unreal the amount of impact they can have between two players at an event.
They knew exactly how they wanted to operate. It felt like they didn't even have to talk to
each other here perfect tempo perfect positioning and covering each other where
there's an eco and monosy there's a way every time and we say that when they're
not even in a moment where they're kind of taking over the server but give them
one chance they capitalize mom's thrust back into what's been a pretty sticky
spot those apartment pushes look really good for Navi in terms of opening moves
and mobs wants some of that action this time it's him and Hunter climb up
They find nothing of a resistance from Navi who I think at this point can't afford to let a round slip or else G2
They got the economy against the wall and they'll be cutting for an eight round T side
I think G2 have done a good job like being even handed about which site they're going to hit
It's hard for Navi. I feel like to full stack. Yeah, good conscience without knowing that
G2 could avoid them
That's the depth to the G2 inferno T side. Yeah before and it's happening into it again
Miko sees a sliver.
Ooh, but it's perfect.
The shoulder peek is perfect from JL.
Won't know that that is the only player on site,
but if he continues to try to test it,
see if he can get some kind of a reaction.
Nobody bites down.
Eme's making a move, Hunter Swain dies.
And no trade frag despite all these players being near,
so that's really good timing from Eme
to get a key piece of map control to slow things down
and to probably create doubt, bit pushes in as well.
And Snack's just trying to make something happen on his own,
But there's no trade potential again.
Just takes too many liberties sometimes.
It pushes so much more responsibility onto the stars.
And I don't doubt them.
But with 15 seconds of fire in front of the bomb site,
it's going to transition them into a save.
Instead of grouping up and trying to hit after smokes,
he just gives them another free kill.
He might as well be a body on the way in so that they
can trade him out in some of these spots for sure.
But credit to Ben for watching this smoke.
This has been such a key smoke these days
in stopping the late A hits on lane from the CT side,
instead of using them more defensively within the site,
throwing them right in front of that boiler door.
But it feels like Snax is not putting the accurate value
on his life when he could be traded.
You know, it reminds me of that old hooksy quote,
which was like, I don't need to get any kills
and we can still lift trophies.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And sometimes I'm worried that Snax kind of embodies that.
And that's why I give so much credit to Alexi,
at least as an individual.
He always is so balanced about his approach.
He thinks about his individual level but knows he's an ITL and that is the only way a team
that has no consistent clear star every single tournament can succeed.
All five have the ability to pop off.
Big praise for the nobby active CT half.
Those three rounds inside of apartments where they've been able to get kills really
turn the tide back to potentially tie us up at six.
Very varied T side and we give G2 credit for that one, but if there's one thing that definitely
has Navi's success stamped across it, it's Apartments so far in the first 12.
Niko trying to get something going as an entire pack of players sit behind him, but no, sir.
Not yet anyways.
On a moment's notice, these tech nines could just start tearing up Turf towards B.
So Alexi looks to set up JL again, key piece to the banana control and a well-timed
blast bang gets him a Niko frag.
Excellent.
his hands to snacks nobody from the A site starts to bite down on a rotate that's
snacks again just trying to go through smoke this time he is able to cross over
the paper he's jumping around man Alexi goes in okay found it his teammates got
there in the end look at the health though so incredibly low rotate coming
over the frag grenade boy snacks sends a bullet through the smoke and finds
email between the eyes now they have monocene the cupboard zone we got
Full HP health here for Na'Vi.
They will attempt this backtake.
Just sit back, Monosy hide.
See where these rifles can give you the info, see if the trades come through.
Willys spam this.
Monos keeping his head down, that gives him a chance, bit climbs up, wonderful trades right back.
Monosy hiding back site, going all through on.
Where there's a will, there's a way.
Where there's a Monosy, there's a round win.
And they'll keep that edge.
Let's go.
Good luck.
I have long from site.
Careful too short, nothing wrong.
I like jumping.
Yes, you do.
I do, too.
Run.
Smoke, smoke.
What the fuck is this smoke?
I don't see run.
Maybe jump to the top.
Yes, jump to the top.
Yes, just stay in the top.
What?
You can see through smoke.
I'm shooting.
To ramp on the car.
Oh, here's one.
There is no car in this game.
Where'd it go?
How to play this game, fucking shit?
But how can you see through smoke?
It's shooting or what?
No.
It's always like this?
Yes.
Well, I'll do the same starting.
Bullets.
I'm picking already.
We have the hill.
Sure.
Ramp?
I'm catching too.
Ramp?
Ramp on one.
The best starting.
Flash me now.
Oh!
Oh, my shoulder!
Blitz, how are you playing this game?
I don't know.
It's amazing green, actually.
It feels so simple.
Where is my mall?
Not too long ago.
I have my bullets!
You have to reload after all!
Too long, too long!
You have to reload us around here.
Let's go, let's go.
Wait, two, two, two, two, two, two!
Oh my god!
Help!
Wait, one more, one more, one more!
This is a bit hard, it's a bit hard.
What?
Oh.
You're shitting, you're shitting!
Oh yeah.
Ah!
Check, check, check.
You push me.
Okay.
I see that guy jumping in here, then headshot.
What the fuck?
I'll be able to kill some.
What a boost.
Oh my god, Eugene.
Another taste.
What? What? What are you doing?
How's it there?
No.
Speedrun.
Let's see how the big one walks there.
Shit.
We'll see.
Wait, I have no bullets.
Wait, I have no bullets.
Nice!
Good, good, good!
Good, good, good!
Nice game!
I'm doing this for you.
Experience, experience!
Boom!
No scope!
No buy!
My game!
I will take his hope until he's easy.
Yo, yo, yo, yo!
Some beautiful calls from Alexi B to try to adapt in the middle of that CT side
But a t half from G2 that we knew would pack a punch and it's really modesty and Niko in a couple of these moments
That certainly stepped up. I mean what more do you expect? I know I know
All right for him. This could be the last half
So make sure to look alive every highlight's gonna have your voices in it
G2 up seven rounds another lead for them
Another pistol that should matter at 10 players who are desperately hungry for it.
Here we go, hunger. Hunter goes wide, gets one, traded by Niko, and it's just a bloodbath on banana.
Snacks, what can you offer us? What can you do? Nothing with the smoke in front of him.
They're all able to climb inside of the site, so that's three members of Nobby and Monacy's classic, unsilenced USP.
helping them scale with this flash it's a very honest retake it's not gonna be
impossible with them inside the site but Alexi first kill oh the two somehow
that's the adjustment he goes into the fight he chooses violence instead wait
the fight the peak never clicked faster he had a choice he could have hidden in
sight he could have sat back on block made his move but no J.O. wanted blood
yeah I thought I was gonna cost him for sure like monty obviously throwing
the flash and then running to con is the most natural thing to do but he won that
dual raw insane a couple of kills from bulbs and he's quietly had a really good
inferno so far I wonder if that USP would have been a little more accurate if
maybe it had a silence or yes possible that's true there is there is no
advantage to it except scare the hell out of professionals who are trying to
look for every advantage right is this league gonna vanish as well it's
it's already closer than Mirage. Yeah, Nabi had to play massive catch-up back on map 3.
This one they've done better to keep things close. Blasted away. Oh, the aides back and forth. No.
You know, JL gave us a great showing on Banana when the fight did come to him. Yeah, definitely.
And G2 kept that varied G side going with options both sides of the map. So it wasn't
always his fight, but when it was, he succeeded. And now, again, to the T side,
he's going to be starting to set this tone, the tempo and the mood that comes with it.
So all eyes on JL here map 4. Yeah, you work that site on Seethy side. You do the same on T
Has to be a great shot here Nico doesn't hit it
Balls another great eagle as well, but the team is establishing good. You tell me
Clip looking for a little more, but now it's multiple
What's this combo bombs getting dropped hunter sitting waiting for his chance to pull a JL
I'm just going through the flash is there
And that's Niko punching the air who is excited not frustrated they pulled it around they weren't supposed to a few shots
They go the wrong way, but mom sets up Niko's deagle and then comes through with some prowess on his own
Yes, and the perfect flash from snacks in CT spawn to give hunter that extra little bit of leeway to miss a few bullets and
Nail that MP 9 kill eventually. This is bossy going down first. It's a 4v5
situation
What a dream come true for the mom's Wow, you know, he had such high praise
As of late recently you saying like everything he does his comps are great
His plays are great his ideas and to play next to him is just a dream come true for any player
Let alone somebody who was as little established as mobs was coming into this rock. Look at him two times to kill
skills of eco himself the the second highest fragger on the team
So you go ahead and set up the best rifle or to ever do it
Who graces us with his always deadly D.G.L. And then mom's puts two of his own on the board
You did have the chance to say something very funny there, but the greatest rifle or to ever do it and Niko
We'll give balls more time. 21 years young
JL is the tip of the spear. And like you pointed out, he very aggressive CT sides on banana and he's the guy they're going to entrust to make the chaos ensue. Oh, excellent grenade here, square between three.
Obviously just playing with the jiggle. There's the presence of bodies coming out of here snacks
Oh careful snacks if you start shooting they might start shooting back
And when you take a position in smoke, you can maybe let somebody out, but nobody is able to
Follow through they just instead hold back
No, you've got JL here and still enough utility to attempt this a second time
Yeah, absolutely, and they've shaken up the CT side
They've got them convinced that that last exec was the real one
So they've thrown a lot of utility that they didn't want to just yet now of course the big advantage though is Niko's just spotting on B
They've got four here. There should be no reason they don't defend all it's off sent over towards pit
I've got anchors in the bomb site all looking good. No real opening. It's no real chance
It's able to slide down dealing with snacks, but that's all G2 converts. I'm seeing people stand up in the crowd
Now they're starting to believe in this one
And the thing was about the last map is that no team proof that they could pull out those T rounds, right?
when the comeback took place. It was very CT-sided affair.
Now it's G2 looking strong in the first half,
but E going in the second and continuing to win.
That's the thing that feels a little bit different.
Now you're going to go up against them full confidence.
G2 looking for the fourth time to touch 10 rounds first.
No coincidence that that fact is why they sit on the 2-1 map advantage.
Sure, Mirage slips by. Inferno starting to set a tone.
P250 sent back. It's the only thing that Navi actually ended up investing in, a solo P250.
And honestly, fit versus snacks.
And this is a contrast between the way that G2 play Inferno and the way that Navi do.
Navi play very light bracket all the time on Inferno, and G2 play extremely heavy
B-bracket, doubling up Arch, playing on the close wall.
I don't know stylistically what they're running into,
but both styles work for both teams.
So far, just today, the G2 coming out ahead more times than not.
I wonder what the thoughts are here for Alexi.
Of course, they're coming in and probably using some time
to think because they don't have a single flash.
They know they're unlikely to win this round.
They just want to make the most of it.
So they can catch anybody overstepping,
but I don't feel like G2 are gonna make a mistake here.
That was so little pressure.
It's a way too easy cross fire for them
to just mop it all down, down right there.
Mug kills, okay.
Moms comes through with the double.
Wow, and there it is.
They touched 10.
Honestly, with the triple under pressure,
you expected anything else.
You're a mad man.
Yeah.
G2 not gonna let that one slide by,
so add it to the tally.
Keep this show on the road.
Keep this momentum moving.
G2 come into this game never having one two maps in a series versus Navi nine straight losses
And now have one two maps and still haven't won the series
they have to
Do it all right now
Now if you bring this to a five map it is a total reset, you know
mentally for them
They probably thought this is basically done. Let's just have fun with it last map then they won they came back
It rested on the finest margins. How many leads can they survive?
Off and play for monosie
Now he going full rifles here spending all their money in jeopardy of being a by safe by safe cycle
This is around they might not even want a full commit to depending on how it goes how it starts
You know Jay, he's not in the fight, but man, he is met by resistance.
That is targeted.
One way to get a 5v4.
He has nobody to help him out in that situation.
Wonderful is over on the ramp.
I'm going to try to toy with Monacy top mid, but I don't know.
It's a dangerous game to be jumping around these corners.
Luckily, Alexi's got a good shoulder peak.
Yeah, look at Niko, though, taking all his space back.
They could go back to try to fight him.
He really wants to grab this upgrade.
Very dangerous knowing that there was always a chance Wonderful could send bullets through off the audio cue, but it's a nice skin man
Gotta go for it. Give me that give me that AK please
Wants to show off at the headshots
Speaking of which bit will have a chance to crack open an entry in mid butt interrupted by the utility
And so snacks comes through with the boiler hole bit look in the wrong direction again
It's G2 starting to lock Navi out
They don't actually
Rotate and it's because Nico still has the top he smoked all good
They'll start to move out of the way.
I mean, is there a world where G2 go for this?
It's surely not, right?
They're just staying back in apartments now.
It's a long save.
Go catch one player out there on the hunt.
That's fine.
But they know that G2 are so confident.
And again, because they're in a buy-save,
they've got to hang on to these.
They don't have money next round.
It's going to be a Lexi B and wonderful to try
to do something heroic off the back of a good game plan.
Let's see if they can come up with something.
Otherwise, it's going to be G2 all night.
If you want to be number one, you have to stand that test of time.
Counter-terrorists win.
Consecutive in their grand finals.
This was supposed to be the moment in this season where we ended the parody.
That Navi showed their number one and consistently number one.
And this is the easiest possible best of five grand final.
Based on their previous matchups that we could possibly get.
But this year has just been about parody.
Like it's, that's the one consistent feature.
We just want the same tournament winner in back-to-back events.
Yes.
That is what we're waiting for in 2024.
That's what Navi had the opportunity to do today.
And I mean, Emma had an interview before the game started and said,
we cannot disrespect them.
We have to take this seriously.
And I believe they did.
But G2 just stepped up to the challenge.
11 rounds, two away from ending this game.
Could have gone back-to-back best of fives.
Could have gone back-to-back events.
Quint have asked for a better opponent.
They need to... G2 need to fail this hold at this point.
We have armored opponents.
Two rifles here for Navi.
I love this combo though.
Niko and mobs.
That's a lot of firepower on him.
He's got 21 kills.
Absolutely looking to carry G2
to a trophy hoist and Copenhagen.
Pressure from the utility, but there's still lots of time for that.
More and more.
Look at all the bodies, all of that immense knee damage.
Niko's actually going to get burned out into the spray of Lexi.
There is no follow-through immediately, but you know Navi's still knock on this door.
Malph's just going to get support in a moment.
Time being, it's him in the back site.
Fire down at his feet, he's done, but Hunter comes in with a double.
Somehow, from behind.
We've got three players still deep to the CT spawn.
They want Ena with hands busy, but the spray's off the market.
Alexi is going to continue to connect these shots.
Alexi tries, but Monacy, it's in, on back, and yeah!
Flash, lightning strikes twice, and he comes through clutch yet again.
600K, and they got him in a bottle, baby.
He's still going for number one.
I thought that positioning behind Pillar
was going to catch him off guard, but he reacts.
So much util damage.
So much effort put forth by Alexi B.
killer instincts.
The reaction is good.
And they know.
They had Navi spending a bit too much money.
They saved on three with a thousand,
so they get a full buy in here.
They did the calculations.
It's looking solid for Navi so far,
but 12 to six, G2 on fire.
And Malb's better than ever.
But his barrel's been spotted, so down he goes.
JL continues to try and call out some sort of a route
through banana, forward for Navi.
It looks like a copy and pasted the last round,
but with better guns.
This time, they get the 5v4.
Ahead of them all is JL.
X factor in these big moments.
That's what we know it for.
Navi won the Copenhagen Major, losing more rounds than they won
because they showed grit and because JL had unbelievable
impact against all odds.
Now what we demand of him is an unparalleled level
of consistency.
Perfect moment for them to size up this A-Play.
And he gets wind of it, so he moves over.
And that smoke's got enough for him to swing up close on the wall.
Oh, the flash was good, but Alexi still gets that kill blind.
It's going to be Hunter.
It's going to be Snacks.
Can they hang on to this bomb site under a massive task?
Snacks in the open.
Swings out wide, gets caught right there.
OK.
No chance at a hold, and Navi will continue
to fight to try and extend this event.
Yep.
G2 said don't call it a comeback, but for Navi,
it's simply a five-round game.
We'll believe in it till the very end.
A little back and forth to open up on Banana.
JL trying to be the jackknife of this moment.
Peels Mobs off the play.
And even with Niko rotating over, falling to a blind Alexi.
Alexi's been getting kills through smoke with no contact.
Alexi is blind in finding it.
Absolutely one with the game as he
tries to keep his team in it.
Yeah, Mobs is the golden ticket.
Whether he gets the kills or he gets found,
that seems to dictate the round.
He's 22 and 10.
The four and higher from overseas, stepping up,
looking to lift the biggest trophy of his career,
and not relying on his star studded lineup
to do it for him.
Obviously, G2 are still taking every moment seriously,
and immediately a pause is called.
How do we pick you back off that success?
Taz thinking the opposite.
How do we stay calm knowing that we're still winning?
Blades lecture is so valuable in these kinds of moments.
This isn't one of those moments
where you get one, two chances to close.
still a lot of runway here for G2 and a lot of talent to tap into if you need it, but the
forums on its feet in anticipation of a close right here right now, but it's Navi. No one's
going to be blinking until the end of this game. So we find out on another full buy if
that was a flash in the pan, if mobs can get caught off guard again or if they don't
find him what their fate will be. Is JL enough?
He takes up the mantle of the man. It's a bolstered defense and one that both find confidence.
Yeah, they want to swing. Oh man, they're signing up for this fight.
Bob's going deep. Kent's caught by Alexi again.
He's just caught that game sense. He's got these shots lined up.
Yeah, that's obviously so close to running into Bell right there.
JL was still folding it even though Alexi saved them from that duel.
We don't know what would have happened otherwise,
but we know that Navi were ready for a push.
They're on high alert, even with the health disadvantage, so be it.
It would have been a tough spot for mobs to still just barrel stuff.
Lexi trying to step forward to support JL, to give time for E-Man.
Wonderful to get something going here on Inferno, because they've left a lot to be desired.
But right now we've got G2 moving pieces to the right direction.
Yes, always pay attention to the Niko rotation as he gets comfortable within the site.
Much like last round, Niko gets in.
This time, he's not over towards Arch, where somebody's just going to slam him back.
He is in the most committed of positions.
And it's starting to feel like Snacks may have to be that first point of contact.
The Kobatch in the bomb site.
Solid anchor. Snacks goes down as he turns away from the flash.
Hunter offers up a double. This could be it.
It's health advantage over two.
Niko lost his call.
Now they found out about Niko, but he loses his brother in sight.
And as he keeps his head down, those T's ever closer.
15 to the clock.
They're trying to respect the smoke.
Niko holds and he waits and they'll find him.
As he tries to go back and forth he steps in it's modest his chance to shine
Oh
Leaving them with only their victory at pro league
They'll take this one all day give yourself some credits on you stepped up
You rose to the challenge
Important and delivered!
Side didn't seal here for G2!
Taking down Vitality and Navi in a best of five in back-to-back days.
Blade here standing on stage, even congratulating his opponents.
Respect across the board because they delivered and showed hard.
And even though it's a surprising moment after 4 maps of getting to 10 rounds first, G2 finally
close.
Wow.
Malmstin do it, supporting Niko in that bebop site every step of the way.
Oh my lord, can you believe your eyes as Snacks himself steps forward his first notable
tournament win since ESL One New York 2018.
back into victory lane. The best duo in CS2. Two absolute stars. And all they had to do was shed a
little goat blood on the stage to get this far. Imagine this call-up. Imagine the moments from
mobs. But in what a moment. As Snacks at the helm steps forward ever closer. And calls me
It's about the stars and G2 have found another G2 first big trophy first ever
What's the Marlin to lift a trophy? What do you want to say?
First of all, like I just want to say my thing because they're amazing
I don't really have many words to say because like, you know
But like I feel really proud and I just want to do this for my parents my dad
He's really special to me my girlfriend and like for all the Guatemala watching me
I just want to say that gaming is possible and like if I can make it everyone can make it, you know
You posted a video yesterday if you're a family celebrating back home that must feel very good for them right now
Can you imagine that?
Yeah, I just want to say one thing nobody beat G to ten times in a row
snacks
2018 with mouths was the last time you lifted a trophy six years later
You're now leading a team to a trophy, but you've come under heavy criticism, but now you've done it
Now you can prove more wrong. What do you want to say? I can say only see
Really nice feeling, you know, I'm happy that we in this final. It was really important for us
I can tell you that's all I don't care what people are saying, you know
And you're ready to lead G2 to more trophies
Yes, he's gonna be more trophies for us, for sure.
Hey, this team lost two times against Na'Vi.
So third time is the charm, and I'm fucking proud of them.
I feel like the mental struggle, the mental fortitude they are showing,
And just I love this team. I would love this team as well
Manasih
You started off this tournament
But off this tournament sick, but still performing you told me before this game
You're ready. You said you felt different
You felt you were prepared for this one more than ever and you wanted this and now you stand up in your hand
I can see you almost tears in your eyes. What's the feeling the best feeling in the world, baby?
And you put up MVP numbers for our bite you stepped up massively
What felt different when you were going against Navi this time?
We just saw we just showed some difference yesterday. We are not scared
We are not afraid to make a mistake. We played as a team better than them
That would make the difference a huge difference as well
Nico chance these last couple of days first with a historic table smash and
And I just want to ask you, how was the hand for all of this? Any pain? Any bruises?
No, it was fine. At least I think it's fine. I don't know, I didn't really shoot so good at the last two maps, but
I honestly didn't think about it, but it's fine. Everything was fine.
And what does this win mean to you? The first trophy you've had since Dallas, and Dallas was obviously a crazy one.
Yeah, I mean, as you said, the last event that we have won was in Dallas.
And then we had some struggles with this lineup, especially overcoming Navi.
And I think after yesterday's game, we started believing more in ourselves.
I think the win over Vitality was super, super important to us.
And today we came swinging, today we played some really good CS as a team.
and we were calm all the time and I'm super proud of everyone that has, you know,
my teammates they all stepped up and it was needed the most. The kid, you know,
the second time on the big stage, he has carried our asses and the final map. Then, you know,
this guy, I mean, no words for this kid over here, right, he keeps delivering.
He kept, he kept us in the game with all those punches, you know, and I'm just happy
every time I see a clutch and I see he's alive. I have a relief and yeah I'm super happy right now
and Copenhagen thank you for the support. It has been amazing the last three days.
Copenhagen won last time the last ever Blast Premier full champions. It's G2.
G2 second trophy of 2024 but the first with a legendary snacks and young gun mouths at the
Helm. Turns out for Hunter and Niko, tense time was indeed the charm take-up, not only
expelling the demons of Nabi, but lifting a tier one trophy in the process.
Nobody beats D2 10 times in a row. One of the best sentences I've heard in a very long
time. I absolutely admire the way they did it as well. There's different ways of winning.
I think tonight, they left no doubt they were the better team. You know, there was
a case to be made. They could have won this game 3-0. There's also a strong
case to be made that the three first maps in the series are all the three strongest
map in the current Navi map pool so you cannot make up any excuses you cannot say
that Navi got up to a slow start and they were saving the best for the later.
Nah, T2 tonight they outskilled, they outclassed and they outplayed the best
team in the world in the form of Navi. The growth that we've seen from T2
throughout the whole tournament is low-key in the sand. When we were looking
at just an ITIS or also statistical numbers they have been putting up
Better numbers round after round game after game match after match
I love what we heard from Niko in those winning words as well giving a huge shout out to Malm's because fair play in that fourth and
Final match he was showing up hugely G2 would not have got it over the line without no no doubt about that
And he's doing it as a let's call him a rookie still you know welcome to the big boys club melt
So now one your first tier one trophy and I bet you it won't be the last the way
the way he's playing, the way he's conducting himself in particular on the T side is immaculate.
Now for Melps, we spoke about him, you know, it's assigning obviously for now, but it's
also assigning for the future what in T2.
I think if you were given even more space, even more responsibility, as he was being
left in more clutches, this man can do a lot more impact on the server.
So yes, I very much echo the sentiment of Miko.
When he's left, when he's on the server, there's always a way back for Melps, there's
always a way back for T2.
we had a brief segment today about the transfer of the year and we've touched upon both mobs
and snacks i gave the mobs a great i'm gonna correct it to a plus plus plus plus plus plus
add all the pluses you want because that is not what mouth was doing on the server today
fair play to snacks is why i love the connoventure today his last trophy back in new york in
2018 it's been a while since snacks has tasted the glory he's been under the spotlight
there's been a fair bit of criticism thrown his way but by god g2 lived in atrogy tonight
I mean when you're a winner you can be criticized as much as you want to and for now he can ignore that criticism.
There's a case to be made that's next, he'll have a lot he can improve on from an individual standpoint.
But I think the core ingredients to be the in-game leader of G2, which we see now going down the history,
is not necessarily being a great player yourself as long as you make sure Manus is feeling comfortable,
as long as you make sure Niko is feeling comfortable and now also adding mulch into that mix.
I think you're doing 90% of the job already by then.
I know we need to highlight the good parts right now, but I have to say that if
Snax and his in-game leading is not going to improve tactically because
throughout the tournament they were playing some great teams and I think they were with them
against tactically better teams, but they were winning because of individual resources.
And if that doesn't improve by the way, the volatility on that can be detrimental throughout the rest of the season.
I'm glad you brought that up because we have to be honest as well as much as I want to praise G2 as well
because I do think that they were the best team at this tournament.
It's not a story we haven't seen before.
Whenever you expected the least G2 will come into a tournament they'll sweep the ball. We'd be like, oh, this is exciting for the future
Maybe this is the time they're gonna win more tournaments in a row. They're coming into Rio coming into the major
Maybe they're one of the favorites to win
But we've seen time and time again that they lack a bit of that consistency tournament after tournament now
We see the peak level of T2 now
We see that with this current five-man roster they can win tournaments against the best teams in the world
It also allows us to set the expectations slightly higher for G2
But it's up to them to prove it one more time with a statement as well from G2
And we're looking at the rest of the season. They are still in my opinion in contention for the team of the year
We are looking at teams like Navi. We're looking at teams like vitality. Maybe team spirit there
But sorry G2 are going through something that none of these teams have and that is a rose to change mid season
And not one but two players left to be replaced by two others
I didn't hear the crowd erupt so much as I did for Munna see this entire
weekend long and fair play because he was absolutely explosive on the server
top-ranking in this Grand Final series today. It's always a joy to watch Monacy
play Karnasai. He's a stage entertainer, he's one of those players that whenever
he's joining the server even if he's having a bad game, even if he's not
having a strides there will be a moment in the game where he pops up.
There will be a crotch-wave dust of difference and honestly speaking I
mean the criticism we had of Monacy the last couple of years you
know we knew his talent, we knew the bar was set high, he could be the
best player in the world. We asked him for consistency. We asked him to be consistently
delivering in the big games at the big stages and even that is no longer a
talking point. I think Monacee is turning into one of the best players in the
world consistently which is also why he is still in contention to grab that
title which I love even more so now. We had Saibu at the tournament, we had
Dong get a tournament. Now we have Monacee who is currently arguably the
third in that race winning the tournament which means that he's
reopening that conversation one more time with IM Real coming up, with
the Major coming up. Imagine if Monacee is winning the Major. Imagine if he gets the MVP of that one as well.
Who can argue? He's not the best for these.
And this is not only about the player of the year or player of the Counter-Strike or whatever.
This is also a phase of Counter-Strike to do in a sense that everyone is looking up to be like Monacee.
You know, being young and up and coming player, lifting trophies at this early of an age,
he could very well be what's simple was to see us go.
It's one of the few times I've seen Monacy rather truly emotional when lifting that trophy, the words he gave to Banks, of course, fighting tall, but you can see just how much it means to him that this roster is coming together and has the ability to take down the novel one team in the world in a marathon series.
Everyone following Counter-Strike knows that Monacy lifts and breathes Counter-Strike. I can't remember the statistic brought up, but was it something along the lines of 18% of his life he's been on a Counter-Strike server playing Counter-Strike?
He's been grinding the game from a very, very young age, so of course he gets emotional.
This is his life, this is his living, this is what he fights for, this is why he practiced,
this is why he's playing FPL, this is why he's streaming.
To be on the big stage, to win the trophies and to hoist that credit, I guess, as one of
the best players in the world, on one of the best teams in the world.
The commitment and the drive that this guy is showing into the server, into the tournament
is just something that we haven't seen from someone for a long time.
And he's also vocal about it.
He's not shying away from interviews, from content, he's embracing it.
He's truly the face of CS2 for me right now.
I also just want to add for context right now, and again I don't want to ruin the party,
but what goes through the mind of Nico right now, we don't know whether or not he signed
a new contract with G2, with Falcons, where he's going, but how can you afford to leave
Monacy?
How can you afford to not be a duo together with Monacy?
You've been playing together for a couple of years now, you are arguably the strongest
duo in the game.
It's so fun to watch you love each other. There's no doubt about it
If you're Nico right now, do you think you're going back to the hotel?
Are you getting second bouts? Am I doing the right thing? Can I really leave my kid alone?
I wouldn't do it. I love how this victory opens up so many different conversation lines
Just to wrap up the minus you conversation shout out to him because a thousand days today on G2
I can't imagine a better way to celebrate that achievement with you
They didn't pay enough. They didn't pay enough 600k wasn't enough. He's worth more
What an investment. I mean this is overall from a business perspective now as well
This is one of the best investments in CS2.
For Nico, let's just talk about the emotions he must be feeling because that's so apt, Jacob.
Of course, it's just rumours for now. We haven't had it confirmed by Nico himself, but surely, Nico.
If you're in that situation, if that thought is even entering your mind, you'd have doubts now of your Nico, surely.
Are we opening the kind of worms the same we did with spings and vitality when they won't cologne?
He had suddenly second doubts as well and he stayed on the roster and you know,
Niko going into Falcons not going into the Falcons. He is saying it in interviews multiple times
Whenever he has G2 logo on his on his shoulder on his in his heart on the on the jersey
He is going to represent that organization and showing it throughout the MVP like performance this tournament
I don't think anyone can doubt whether or not Niko is committed to ways at in the very moment
I think he's giving it a hundred percent still in regards to G2 whether or not he signed a contract for Falcons
whether or not he can still re-sign a new contract for G2.
It is for this, you know, something we'll have to follow.
It's a very interesting conversation as well,
but in terms of his commitment to where he's at right now,
no one can doubt whether or not he's going in with his full heart.
He smashed a goddamn table yesterday, you know, playing for G2,
so for sure G2, Niko, is still a thing.
I'm curious to hear if he's signed a new contract, you know,
because if not, with the performance he showed right here again,
he can probably put an extra sale onto our set seller.
I wouldn't blame him. I think there's an emotional angle with this,
but an additional emotional angle.
Because remember how long Niko wanted to play
with his cousin in Huntsville.
The fact that they finally get to come together
and start getting those trophies
a little bit more consistently.
I think that would make me reconsider.
I honestly think that in the mind of Niko,
and I'll be brutally honest right here,
is well, they played together now for a couple of years
and T2 have never been consistently hoisting trophies.
They've had big moments, you know.
They've won tournaments before.
They had a period where it was a 21 games in a row
they were winning together.
I think they've lived that dream.
they've been together now and if Nico want to move on and try new channels I
don't blame him it's a beautiful story but to be completely honest he's been
together with honda for I believe three years now are some sort of you know so
for Nico to move on at some point there was even rumors hunter perhaps we're
going to my tailgames that are messy instead of spring so I don't blame them
for potentially moving on at some point but I think it's a beautiful
story regardless that they got to experience this together I mean they
limited a hell of a lot of big trophies together right we think of here
at the full violence think of Katabitza we think of clone I mean the
The major is the only thing really absent from Niko and Hunter's resume together.
Yeah, and they have had chances before.
I'm sure they're going to have one more, at least one more in China later this year.
And obviously this will be the finding point for the career, for the overall G2 performance
and the lineup moving forward.
Hopefully they qualify for that major.
Yeah, fingers crossed, RMRs are still coming at us, they can fast.
How does this wrap up the talk-through players conversation at the moment for you, Zyka?
Because I think you're totally right, Jacob. It kind of has blown it wide open again, right?
I mean, if Niko continues this, I don't see him not being a top one or rifer for the year, definitely.
And if Modesty keeps doing this, I think he can overtake Zybu as well.
But Zybu is still despite early exits from the events.
He's still putting up numbers that are just incomparable.
However, I do believe that this is bumping them up definitely towards the areas of well, Nico is pure counter to don't
Don't being number one is maybe not so sure. Yeah, I agree
I just love the fact that we're so deep into the season that we can still have the conversation and honestly if you were to
To bring an argument for don't I wouldn't say you're crazy if you were to bring an argument for Cyroo
I wouldn't say you crazy and if you argue that money is the best plan the world go ahead
They're so close right now and we still have two maybe three massive tournaments left to decide that race
Well G2 lifting the trophy here in Copenhagen unfortunately does mean Nabi once again lose out in the best of five grand finals
So let's get some closing thoughts courtesy of Alexi B
Right now this will certainly sting but Lexi you're kind enough to join me for one that I know is gonna feel bad right now
Can you talk me through just the feeling when you guys connected to the server say on the first map
And what you kind of noticed throughout this going up against G2
from the morning this day felt like the day it felt like we had everything in
check we were vibing we're having fun everybody felt alert before the before
we even connected so everything was fine but you know we struggled and they
played better today that's for sure you know we we still fought back a
couple times we made a nice comeback on Mirage as well but you kind of felt
We were on the back foot every single game and that's not a good sign against a team like G2
Which is for me like I feel like it's a team like once they get the momentum
It's really hard to call your way back and we felt that
And you know
Yeah, we ended up just playing poorly and we weren't the same Navi that was here previously
And we saw that a bit yesterday right at the beginning you guys weren't the same Navi
But then we saw this life from Mirage
So I looked at a margin for okay, this is the positive
this is where they can come back into it.
At that point, did you believe going into Inferno?
You know, I believe so much.
I feel like, you know, they struggled against us previously.
And imagine them feeling that they should take this game home
after winning what, 9-3 on the city side.
Then we end up making a huge comeback.
Like to their morale, I would feel like
they started to feel that we could make the comeback.
But again, we were just on the back foot on Inferno
And I don't know, it's just a lot of small details,
but at the same time,
they just end up playing better than us today, and that's it.
Now overall, you're still the best team in the world
and sometimes you'll be in the most consistent as well,
the consecutive grand finals.
But we are kind of seeing a pattern of the
which one will you win, which you lose back and forth.
Is it hard to keep going?
Is it hard to keep this level,
especially when you focus more on the team performance?
Yeah, I mean, it's hard.
You know, a week ago, we won a tier one event,
And now it feels like you lost everything, you know, so
The season is going going on fast and there's a lot of tournaments and I feel like you know the past two weeks one trophy one final loss
Obviously we're gonna try to take as much as we can from this loss
But at the same time we still have three very big events coming up. We have a boot camp coming up
so
You know, we've been grinding but at the same time
We have been pretty consistent but it's so tough after this loss to put your thoughts together
because it feels like, as I said, we won a trophy one week ago and it feels like we didn't win anything.
And that's the sad part of it. Lastly, anything you want to say to all the fans and the
Navi Nation fans supporting out there? Yeah, thanks for cheering. Sorry we didn't
stay for too long yesterday with the fans. It was like one o'clock in the evening.
We had it final today and I didn't go there now either.
I just feel super bad right now and I just want to keep improving and show up on the next tournament again.
Win or lose, there's one thing we can always guarantee from Naby.
It's Alexi keeping incredibly eloquent even in such difficult situations and fair play to him.
Literally just a week ago, lifting the trophy at EPL, making it to a grand final here.
Unable to take down G2, it has been an absolute marathon for Naby.
It's also a great insight into a player's mind, like listen, Alex, if you're right, as you said, you want to tear one trophy a week ago, you went into the final today, you lost to a world-playing G2, but you still went into the final.
There's a lot of teams right now with a bigger budget, with more staff players around you who spend more time playing Counter Strike or equally the same amount of time playing Counter Strike as you do, yet you're in that position.
So I love the fact that he has that winning mentality that he wants to win everything
But to win a trophy and to go into the grand final of the next event that in itself is a massive performance
Which I hope he's proud of maybe tomorrow when the process is settling in a little bit. What a statement interview
I mean, I really felt him there. It was like my player side was coming alive and I was like low key emotional for him
I know how the world is kind of crumbling when you see the other
team obviously lifting the trophy and
I mean, I can't really put it into words, but what I have to say in his defense is that we have not had a consecutive winner yet in CS2 when it comes to pick events.
And this is showing me that in CS2 it's a little bit hard to get an era, or like the competitive is so like bleak and so close together that it's really hard to build up consistency.
And especially with the game being still pretty fresh and new, it's really those details that really matter.
And Alexey pointed out in an interview as well that those kind of cost them a lot of rounds.
I think that's such a good point and just to touch upon some of the beautiful images
We saw obviously heartbreaking for the side of Navi
But you can see how Alexi B is illegal not only inside the center, but consoling his players outside of it when it's okay
You know this one let us go
But we've got more opportunities away and trust for the rest of the years always I'm the next opportunity
You know always talking about learning from the mistakes learning from the loss moving into the next tournament
You know week or so they'll be in Rio de Janeiro and playing Counter-Strike once more
as I said the season is moving so so fast so the only thing I worry about is them burning up you know
It's been a long season. They're playing a lot of tournaments. They have three more for this year
Obviously the major coming up real the world finals as well and a bootcamp adding into that edition
It's a very stressful time right now for Navi. So please take care of yourself and watch for your burnouts
Yeah, and out of the top situation for Navi to be facing right now
But it's also time to check in with our blast TV and VP
Despite not making it in the final
I know this is going to be a hard one for you. Wonderful. The users of BLAST TV, they voted for you to be the MVP because of the great performance you put up all tournament long.
So I am here to award you this. I know right now it feels super bad, but you showed an incredibly strong level across game after game, right?
Anything you want to say to all the fans out there who voted for you?
Just thank you, I'll try to be better because in the final I was lost, you know why, but
just thank you for your support and wait for our next tournaments.
And for the next tournaments you guys have had some very good tournaments, but you have
been playing better and better.
Do you feel like there's so much more to come for Wonderful, like we're going to
see the better Wonderful come out again and again?
Yes, every day I'm trying to be better and better, like it's always the best
step, going to my goals, G-DRAGALs, it's all.
Yeah, I mean always just a tough situation to be on the losing side rather and still be
receiving. But Andy Pitaro, I was obviously very familiar with that situation but for
wonderful, yeah, just going to be a better pill to swallow even though he put up a
stellar performance thrown through.
Yeah, and it was a stellar performance. Again, we're seeking for the star player
with a navi who can elevate himself to become that star of the future and I think
wonderful is still involving. He's still getting better, game by game, hour by hour, tournament
by tournament. So as much as it sucks for him to lose, it's a statement to his progress as a player.
And it's also about the fact that he is not reliably going to be alone when it comes to
carrying Na'Vi. Obviously, he did it throughout this tournament. It wasn't enough. Next one,
it can be another teammate. It can be very much jail. It can be pit. It can be email. It
can be literally anyone from the team. And this gives him like a kind of a back pillow
to fall on whenever he doesn't feel okay for extended period of time and he is still able
to you know put up enough impact to get them over the hunch.
How does this adapt your perception of Na'Vi then for the rest of 2024?
Does it put more demands, more constraints on how they can perform at future events?
It doesn't change anything for me at all you know they won a week ago they went into
the grand final right here I want to give them a lot of credit towards G2 for playing
good Counter-Strike and playing at a high level I don't fault Na'Vi for losing
sure they didn't play their best brand of Counter-Strike today, they still got into the finals.
So I still have the most the best team in the world. I still think they're one of the favorites to win
Rio and heading into the Major unless something happens they're still one of the favorites to win
that one as well. Yeah I mean Navi are right now still team of the year for me. Whoever wins
the Major is going to be a heavy contender for it anyway so it's still kind of it's beautiful
how open it is. We are talking about it in top players but it's also about teams.
But before we do wrap up today's conversation I think it's time to check in with our
traded glaze of the day unfortunately no broadcast for us to be announcing the
winners tomorrow you'll have to head on over to the blast from your Instagram to
check that out also head over there to vote what we got coming up first Jacob got
a little bit of elixir be matic with the m4e1s a double wall bang and a very
aggressive position in towards this one getting a nice quack you all right
we're moving into wonderful and this is exactly what we were talking about
throughout the Mirage he was putting up stellar show but this round in
particular was one of the turning points of the of the comeback and really that 1v2 I have still
no clue how let's slow it down. Hi, he's not it's like bad counterstrike into the headshot of Nika.
This is impressive. Pure filth, pure luck you know but a beautiful sequence right there for
wonderful. The winner when we announce it tomorrow is none other than Amaneci. I'll tell you that
right now his AWP throughout this game you know his performance in this grand final the ability
he has to turn around rounds especially at a moment like this 10 to 11 nothing sort of amazing
So for my money, my personal vote will go to Monizy.
You can vote for whoever you want to, but he'll probably win.
Okay, so we've had the winners on stage.
We've got that out of the way, you know.
Yo, yo, yo, got a G2 lifting the trophy.
What happens with the real winners, though,
in our GGBet predictions?
Because, uh, I think you might have to maybe share the cra-
No!
Okay, in a twisted turn of events-
I fumbled it.
Henry G will probably steal off of you.
Did he steal off of you?
No, he's fell off the scrawny.
Wait, what?
And he didn't have to steal of me,
because Mike, no, Mike...
Oh, Mike stole off a view!
What a blunder!
Where is Mike?
Where is Mike?
Mike is nowhere to be found.
This is getting personal.
I'll find him.
However, I'm hanging around though with one life.
You stay alive for that good job.
Let's go!
You did die!
I want one extra lecture there, just crumbling through the plastics.
Well, you did one better than Anders, and that's an achievement in literally every single
dance.
Whoa!
Where did you guys come from?
Jesus, you guys are hot.
They're just always here.
And you know where else they will be?
finals as well because that's how we're going to be rounding out the last
premiere year. We've got all eight teams going to be attending there. We got some
big names don't we Jacob? We do, we do. We got eight of the best teams throughout
the entirety of the season too. You know bring the blast circuit to a
culmination. Navi Vitality Spirit, Phase G2, Maus Liquid and Astralis. Let's
be completely honest there's not a team I probably would replace in regards
to that one. There's a cool storyline for each and every single one of them.
It's going to be a banger time in Singapore.
Any front runners, do you think at the moment, Steaker,
or is it an incredibly open race?
Incredibly open race, as we saw today.
Statistics don't matter when you're riding the movement.
I mean, sorry, the momentum wave.
How have you found this weekend, Steaker?
It's been an absolute pleasure having you.
I say that wholeheartedly.
It's been amazing to get your insight.
You're incredibly eloquent.
I'm sorry, I'm just gassing you up right now.
But it's been amazing, Tabby.
Thank you so much for joining us.
Thank you for having me.
It was a blast.
Well, you have to think about it this way. This was a new experience for me, but I'm all open for this new experience.
So you'll be back?
No comment.
Yeah? It's the second time I've had that happen this week.
Yeah, right?
Jacob, how has it been wrapping out Premier in Copenhagen in Denmark? It's been quite the journey.
Yeah, it's hard to believe that it's over, you know, in a way. I'm sure we'll return to Denmark at some point inside these arenas.
I think the crowd inside Forum as well did a good justice for us to come back.
I've been involved in this game for 12 years, it's been my life.
So hopefully it's a good bye and see you soon and not a good bye forever.
Well, Joe Spen, thank you so much for joining me this weekend.
Once again, as always, thank you so much to the Stella production team for putting on a fantastic show.
You're cool too for it.
Thank you! It's always where is host, not how is host.
Thank you so much Jacob.
Yeah, we're going to be seeing you in just over a month's time
for the combination of the Premier second at the World Finals.
We'll see you there.