ESLCS
LIVE: ESL Challenger Katowice 2024 - paiN Gaming vs Team Solid - Closed Qualifier SA
09-29-2024 · 7h 37m
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final day of the final qualifier of 2024. It's for ESL challenger
Kevin Sane, South America, Boggs and Pineapple Phillips with you for two more
best of threes of the qualifier season. And Nate, we had a bit of an upset in the
opening day of the qualifying system and a pretty interesting mower bracket
matchup last night.
Yes, we did. We can go ahead and pull up the bracket as well. Look at how
things shook up yesterday. As you mentioned, it was quite a surprising
Outcome by almost every metric in fact you could say the two
respective games in the upper bracket final and the lower bracket semi-final were what you would expect
You would expect their spots to be flip-flop pain gaming in red
Hey nids are those two invited teams the two teams atop the ranking in terms of world ranking on HLTV
And yet they both faced off in that elimination that lower bracket semi-final at the end of the first day of competition
Yeah, that was not a result anyone was expecting.
It came as quite a shock.
And to see both Payne and Red Canids down the lower bracket meant that one of the two of
the highest ranked teams in the entire qualifier was going home day one.
That ended up being Red Canids pretty handily as well.
Two nothing in dominance in that two nothing score line in favor of Payne, setting them
up with a rematch against Team Solid.
for Team Solid, they did well to take out Payne yesterday, but a tight 2-0 loss to Fluxo
left a lot to be desired.
A tight 2-0 loss to Astray definitely made it seem like they had some more issues that
should be ironed out.
In case we think there's something that Payne gaming can perhaps exploit at the second
time around that a team like Team Solid simply can't quite counter, of course that is
our opening matchup of the day.
We're lucky in that we didn't watch that opening matchup so this will be fresh
to us.
Of course, Flux as you mentioned is 2-0ing solid, that means they're waiting in the grand finals to contend for that one spot at ESL Challenger Caravica, waiting for the victor of this game to challenge them.
Yeah, and that's always something that tends to be an advantage, having that break period between yesterday and today, being able to watch your opposition game plan a little more and prepare.
Although something can be said about coming in cold into that grand final
There is no one map advantage or anything of that sort
The only advantage is that they didn't have to play the extra VO3
So for pain who would be I would say expected to win this qualifier if you look strictly at numbers at the stats
They're already coming in down in a disadvantage situation
Ticking out solid easily and cleanly as they probably should as they did to red canons yesterday would be their expected result
And the thing is to paint out a 13-0 against solid yesterday, and they still lost the series
In a 13-0 on map one, which if I'm not mistaken was their opponent's map pick it was
13-0ed team solids map pick to start off the series and they still lost it with their reverse sweep
13-9 on vertigo and 13-6 on inferno the recap anubis was that map was a 13-0 in the favor of pain
so
Very interesting result for them. I don't know exactly what happened again
We didn't cover that match that was over with by an extra if I'm not mistaken
I'm hoping that for the sake of pain that they have short up all those issues on those second to match
Yeah for pain. They really need to have short of those issues. It looks like they did against red canids
maybe pain 13 owed. We're like, okay, well, maybe we don't need to have as much focus. They left
their foot off the gas. And once you do let your foot off the gas, it's very hard to get back in and
focused and reset yourself. So I think for pain, it's just pedal to the metal all the way through
when it fast, when it quick, when it clean, don't worry about it and play your game. Get on and
get ready to face fluke. So get yourself a bit of a break in between these as well. There's no
accelerated schedule. So pain would have a break in between these two series regardless. But, Nate,
you have to look at the big names at pain to show up. Biguzera in particular needs to lead and he
needs to lead from the front. Biguzera lucks those two or the two you'd look through to shine.
Biguzera specifically, as you mentioned as that IGL, that man leading from the front
really can set the momentum, can set the pace and can set the mood for your team
in more ways than one. So if he's not having a good game, if he's feeling rather
Dauer if he's being relatively negative that can definitely have a significant
hampering on your team's overall success. Again with a veteran like Big Yuzera I
don't think there's going to be any question as to whether he's going to
be boisterous or if he's going to be Dauer going into the matchup. Looks as
well hoping he hits his stride snow or if a supportive player NQZ can definitely
pop off given the right map and the right opportunity. They didn't have the
pieces simply put they are the team that came in as that number one seed
They were one of the two invited teams number 12 in the world now
They have to show us that they have
Zerd and they have earned that spot because it felt like coming into this qualifier that they were the
I far favorite team to get to kind of it's a I have to agree
They should have been the team that had an easy walk to ESL challenge
You kind of it's a maybe just keep their stay in Europe and go right back
Hope that the hotel still has those same rooms open, but it's been a bit more difficult for pain and
And if they can't write the ship, that raises long term future concerns for the potential
of this roster.
Yes, they can't win domestically.
Why are they able to do it internationally and yet not on home soil?
But with that being said, why don't we get into the vetoes here and start talking about
where we're going to play because it is a little bit different and we're actually
hopping right in onto map number one.
So spoiler alert for the veto, it's up on the top right of the screen.
be there every single free time. Mirage, Anubis, and Vertigo with pain picking into Anubis and that
makes a lot of sense there. There's a lack of solid luck.
The map setup has changed normally when you have a rematch in these best of threes. It's
typically the exact same veto. Not the case here. Yesterday it was Anubis, Vertigo, and Furno.
This time it's Mirage, Anubis, Vertigo. So Anubis and Vertigo have been shifted
down one map and first will instead be Mirage. So a very similar veto, but still, Mirage is a big
spinner in the works, unless a map that both teams should know. Early contact towards A if not
staking, but the T-set is spread out all over the map, and in fact they've gone for a very
sophisticated play, a bait and switch they found, something over towards A,
Now, we have the B site in the bomb to dirt.
Full 5 vs 5.
I'm not sure why there's an X on A from CT side.
That's clearly not the case.
Smith's fit finds the opener.
Quickly traded though from the window.
And NQZ drops Ile as well.
This defensive team saw it as a slowly being picked apart.
Looks clear on the wrong side though.
A 50-50 not going his way.
There's Destiny in opening.
Destiny at double as well before Kawa's could swing and get the trade.
I don't think there's a kit in
play. Oh, there was right
outside the door. BBB though,
puts into dirt and gets Team
Solid at the pistol round.
Yeah, follow one in the pistol.
Good to the bombs. I was going
to be a victory in the end of
the 12th. So, just icing on
the cake there for teams solid
a very thoughtful and
cerebral pistol round and
around and it starts them on Mirage. Payne though wanting to flex their muscles early in this series
are going into the full four spy 357s at MP9 and the scout for NQZ. The MP9 up close and personal
at ramp has to be careful of a trade but that's exactly what you want. One kill plus damage scout
tag onto Destiny might put Kawas forward. He'll see a flash come from up top no more players
around. Dodgers in second flash sprays away for another and NQZ has a third as well
Trimming in on the round. Cowards with three totals, NQZ with one, and Misfit now one last player standing.
Pain wanted to flex the individual prowess they possess over the likes of Solid.
They have done just that as Misfit tries to shuffle AKs away expecting a possible flight.
Now just throws one over the map. That's I think a really smart play to try to control the rifles
as they will hunt him down and that one AK will not be salvageable. Still an AK and a Galil
Picked in for pain no money for solid. That's a brutal second round for this team trying to upset pain once again
And that may just be a trendsetter and a tone-setter for how pain wants to play the rest of the series
In your face aggressive coordinated that scout covering the back side of the MP9 to get that damage and trade
Very well set up from pain and again
Then maximizing the success of that SMG up close, getting it 3 kills total before it finally falls, that's the round in it of itself.
Very solid response, the POST from Pain.
We're now onto a majority of rifles with that one scout friend QZ.
Loving already proving to be very Medalson indeed.
Team solid spread out, very passive, holding for that ramp press like the Brown Pryor.
for an underpass press hopefully to come through and one spotting pass at top
middle pain and know they have every advantage play relatively aggressive
with big you down and bottom middle they aren't going to force the issue
anywhere
jokes towards a it's another bait and switch so the bombs underpass they
aren't necessarily committing towards a as of yet
Pain weren't hiding either
No holding middle or they were given one over towards a but they're still maintaining control of majority of the map
Todd will slowly begin to inch out of the crevices, but they actually get into the site
That's the question messy sprazing cowl is recovered by a seam it held below dr. G's down for the count in this fit tagged as well
So here's the players connector next white get the charm of the first
But spot one Jared a good damage there as well. He's a very careful
double-dinked by deagles to put them in after even putting four versus four but
teams all had seemed dead set on a and that might be there and doing three
players are here the bombers have down and connected yeah that should be the
round as a result who won pain take a second they do lose one rifle in the
process and that was the AK too the AK is not recovered and you want to have
the one-shot headshot machine on the CT side as much as possible then
Unfortunately for Payne they will not have it solid not going to be able to
invest anything to this next round though should mean a third in easy third for
Payne gaming a pop palace pop on the cards here for solid all fought training
through and ready to ruin Calus's day that smoke's not gonna stop them he
sees one two three popping through tries to corral the spray needs some help
And bigger said that comes through for the last pair, but overall nobody even got off the balcony there for solid and
A good read by cow is to pick up on the queues that maybe just maybe they're all gonna train out
knows their money's a big hour knows they went for the forest finds and ten out
Makes sense. They're gonna go for some sort of bomb plant play
Of course, it's all falls completely flat pain building up a CT economy very quickly
Thanks to these two near flawless frowns
Solid, still having to make concessions in their investment because of the lack of bomb
plants.
Galil for DRG was a lot to be desired.
Quite a few players lacking utility at this stage as well for this T side.
Very early lean towards A for the T side.
It is the right read, at least for the moment.
There's no one on A, it's hands off from the CT side.
Nobody will come through, Kalez will make the call.
He won't force the fight, well instead just wait for rotation.
I like to play this as a reason. I love it as well.
Player CT spawns, tries to bomb the smoke, is caught, but Kawa is through the box, finds a trade.
Kiosk before the bomb goes down, they get the key, and are forcing the issues through this door,
just waiting instead for the T-side to get overextended.
Yeah, bomb goes down here, and that's an easy blindside for Kawa to do a lot of damage.
You can't quite get the kill, but Snow will eliminate the stairs player in Destiny,
GBB won but only one as big as that of through triple box sprays him down. Kawa's is not reloaded
He's still sitting on the deagle right now the Nate will finish off. Mr.
He picked up the opp and alleh
Last man standing moves from fire to default
Back turned and now guess is the right direction here's the footsteps line up not even gonna matter
Instant headshot delivered by Kawa's the fuse comes through with enough time to get that in hop salvaged up and
and pain
Four rounds in a row off the bounce
Bit of a more chaotic round, but in the end the pain never really seemed to lose control in that situation
Which is the scariest part for solid considering they had full site control with five alive
The closest round team solidified yet. They do good damage with painter is playing the trade game
Setting up their top frags by the way, there's two heavy hitters currently how as in figures there at 10 and 8
respectively
Setting them up for success laying the trade game
Even if it is expensive it doesn't matter because they had so much money built up in the bank as I highlighted in a prior round
installs for Team solid half by facilitated by the bomb plant at least
There how let's pop on the car
How is good for one spot the second to so much damage teammates here to support as well
Just GBD. He's a delpan in the corner. He'll get a gift of one with the one dig
Right, I isolated a bit more.
A few more kills with you fairly well in putting a dent into the economy.
And Lux, quick on the flank, it's the kill with Ease, another near flawless one for Pain.
Another near flawless, and just the way that Pain is supporting on this ace side in particular,
since there really hasn't been a B round exciting the pistol from Solid, is very fun to watch.
There's always a player supporting Kawa, who's playing in a different position every single time.
And he's just holding his lines, utility's going out, pretty stock standard stuff, Kawas will go to one spot or another, he'll have teammates to support if he has contact.
And Bane are just playing a very good CT side, going through the motions, doing what they need to do, checking off the boxes, following the protocols and so on.
I left wondering what they can do, they've gone to a default now.
A 2-1-2 default, one underpass, one apse, one mid, and then two towards A, starting to get
a little bit more control through the middle side of things with the underpass player GVB
converging.
Cowas will not spot anything.
Big U was there as well.
They will both leave mid alone, Cowas going back to it now.
We'll see Snowfall in the mid window.
That will put Cowas into a position where he might want to push.
He'll spot out one, GBB peeking with Nade and Nade, Destiny re-aggressing, somehow able
to evade the crosser of Cowez, who now falls two for one, trade out in middle, favoring
solid Lux though, still here on the A site, as bigos at it towards CT as well, the AWP
of NQZ.
It's not going to factor into this unless it comes down to a 1 vs X retake for him.
It's mostly going to be on Lux here, who will be cleared out first, will not
fall, Mori Toti going in to smoke the vise in time as Bigu's mollied out of position.
Lux drops now.
Bigu has a lot of work to do, so does NQZ, who does not shoot, waits for the next opportunity.
It's all up to him now, and he'll just have to save as Bigu's out of falls without finding
one more.
Yeah, he was spotted as well, Destiny knows.
Doesn't want to commit to the fight just instead of locking him out of window.
Makes sense.
Horses his hand into a save as you mentioned
Finally team solid get back into the driver's seat. We lost five in a row on a slide
Finally get a second
Question is will this be
Sound of something more to come or will it just be a blip on the radar can they secure a second in a row?
So, good question, teams all historically struggle on their T side of Mirage, 40.6% win rate.
Both teams historically struggle on this T side specifically, but far more so.
And the thing is too, you look at the numbers for Payne, and yeah, they don't exactly have the best T side of Mirage.
With the teams they play, Malz, Virtus Pro, FaZe, G2, who just won Blast right there,
Mongols, Cloud9, Betboot, these are the teams which Paine is picking up wins on these maps
for.
So I think a 48% win rate on the T side is a little more justified, in that respect.
Also a double edged sword, how many times have we seen a team, I'm thinking specifically
of 9z in this case for South America, they go on their international stints, come
back and then struggle domestically. Because the style is just simply different. They're
more well rounded. It was kind of like an insult, but they're more well rounded, less aggressive
rebut to the international scene. Simply doesn't match up well versus the aggressive in your
face Brazilian style. Yeah. And I feel like that's a problem that's unique to South
America too. It really feels like it because in the North American teams go international
that just continue to dominate in their scene.
Mm-hmm.
Europe is basically the international scene.
I hate this.
It is the international scene.
Yeah.
Well, I think Brazil is well poised in that respect.
Early duels in middle again favor team solid two for one
trade and another secured for GBB.
The smoke of cow has dropped.
Lux was a lot to do on the B site as the anchor.
It's found one.
He knows a second is likely in apartments.
Falls back weary of a window play.
Right call.
GBB.
The Williams group is close right now.
of the answers. No. The op of NQZ at least gives himself something to work with. He actually
dropped the bomb. Yeah, 20 seconds too. This is winnable. 1v2 both coming from the same
direction at NQZ. He's been silent. This is a ramp. It's a perfect play for him to get
the clutch. A 1v2. On going down. He's watching as the smoke blows. That's the round. That
is the round done in dust, but GBB could race him down. GBB, no. He dies before
time, this means he'll get his lost bonus, there's money, but he won't be successful
in saving the round for his team.
NQZ, getting the boost in that round of dropping the bomb in the open, the smart reposition
walking while scoped.
For some of you out there who are newer to the game watching this, if you are scoped
on the op, you don't have to shift walk, it automatically shifts walks for you so
you're silent.
NQZ takes advantage of that, does not unscope the op, does not want to make
that noise walk silently into ramp plays it so so well waiting for the sound cues
to make his play it's a veteran play from NQC an experienced play and it
clutches up big-time for pain damage going against team salt as they eat the
utility the early going to make a big break round for team solid as well
really all their money is invested they're lacking some utility it loses
Also, if they don't get a bomb plant, they're gonna be on virtually a full save against a 7-2 score line for pain.
8-2, 9-2, 10-2 possible.
Yeah. Straightwalk underpass. They shift gears. Four players here. One top middle.
NQZ typing down with three player catwalk. Ooh, a whiff spray for snow. You'll recover with one, but not a second.
Op of misfit as well. Holding the line in connector. That's the op duo one.
And what looked like a desperate push from Team Solid yields a two-man advantage.
How is it, Window?
One, two?
Not quite the third, but he doesn't know he's likely there.
Destiny actually distracts for Olle, who's in Window.
He leaves the B anchor of Lux in a clutch, a 1B2 clutch at that.
Press up, Catwalk.
A little bit of utility.
That jump should be heard.
Such is the life of a B anchor.
Jungle player tucked.
He's gonna save.
Yeah, clearing ramp with no one there actually he's definitely back here, he's gonna go for
it.
It's not planted for the player jungle, so if he was on it faster, it might have been
possible.
Now Lux won't force the issue, unable to find anything with his callbacks.
Third on the round or third on the board excuse me for solid
And they have done well to whittle away this economy of paint
Incuse these those a good amount in the bank, but if it wants the off it's going to be chipped away very quickly
Their paint are kind of at the end of their economic rope as well. They lose when they're likely going to be on a save
That would give solid the opportunity to make this a decent half by most metric
Yeah, five rounds would be very good for solid six would be fantastic
Of course, it's a bit of an ask getting four in a row to close up the half
But solids unorthodox playstyle as far as pain is concerned is seeming to catch them off guard again, too
And that's the thing with barrage
It's so puggy
That that kind of style has a lot more impact
That's a great dual one by destiny to on the snow just kind of fell asleep at the wheel there
DRG and Alec Obama's powers as well.
How? Where's the comms?
Vikkuzena's not aware of the possibility
of a player charging out?
I didn't expect the play.
There's gonna be more concerned about window,
but Lux has already given that up
to another adversary.
Two versus five, NQZ and Lux are likely gonna try to save,
but I don't think it's gonna be possible.
Depths are heard by the player jungle, GVP's up cat.
Team solid.
Could have both these players dead to rights.
Up walks out free one for a GBB
So the market is known to be here DRG actually finds the kill not Alea would have expected to swing
Four to six the broken CT economy means teams thought likely have a fifth and maybe even a sixth that they can maintain the momentum
That sort of score line at half would be far from what we would have expected. There's a couple rounds prior
Yeah, pain are getting overwhelmed by hyper aggressive and incredibly fast pushes from solid a couple
tools when I'm here and there scaling into taking people out and pain are not
expecting these plays in these pushes it's the how can our enemy know what
we're doing if we don't know what we're doing and I'm not saying that so I don't
know what they're doing so I know exactly what they're doing it's
controlled chaos and it's working wonders the fast B rush to are you
going to expect that if you're pain on a full pistol round no of course you're
Who be rushes against a potential pistol stack? That's what Payton's thinking.
No one's gonna understand. It's alright, sir, not gonna expect this.
It's game within games, it's plans within plans, it's layers on layers, it's 5B chess.
And it's all in our on-pace to tie this up for a 6-6 half.
On-pace and well poised to do so.
It's funny, we talk about a matchup like this where one team is very clearly favoured in terms of stats.
For a team like Payton with international floor raises going against domestic competition.
They typically say Pain needs to get out of their own heads and play their aggressive classic style.
In fact, the opposite works for Team Solid.
Team Solid are playing their aggressive no holds barred, chaotic style.
And it's catching out Pain Gaming instead, so...
As you mentioned, the 6-6-1 half seems like a decent possibility at this stage before the seats are for the T side.
And we were expecting at 1.10-2, you know, how tired things look.
Aim trying to change things up. Loose up, Biggie Zara in towards the ladder.
I like the early call, but Destiny's wise to it.
Individual R awakening for Team Solid. 10 for Destiny, and he can beat.
Howez though, monster of A's does start things off, and Incuzie in the op as well drops
Ahlet.
I versus 3, Biggie still in ladder, this time dropping onto the bricks isn't able
to find anything, but does show presence.
A little bit of chip damage on the misfit of Snow, who works around the smoke in
ladder. The bomb rotating over towards Lux's anchor of B but he is dropped by GBB. That's
a very good start to try and bring this round back to Team Solid's favor. GBB was fantastic
against Fluke so last night picking up that pace again. B site open as Teppin hold from
Biguzeta. The off is dropped and now the APOP from Destiny works well but Biguzeta
still there biting his own time. Catches misfit off as he tries to plant it safely for apartments,
because he had a clearing out the site. Has to be careful if somebody working towards Van.
Now spot the head and finish the job. Destiny falls in the end and Payne will escape with a 7-5
half into the break. Vantage in the final round of the first half, but take a rather large
stumble to allow Team Solid a very respectable 5-7 half by most metrics. It's Pineapple
Philips and Bogdan Mike and Ola straight pressed down middle alone.
He's got three players here and is lucky to escape with his life and won't force the
issue either.
Note there's likely two holding at longer distances.
Those USPs will shine there where the Glocks will struggle so they double back towards
T spawn instead.
One player walking under at Scala.
The Eside player is now grouping up A. It is a complete A site abandonment.
You saw a far more paranoid about a potential B play instead.
This late play from Cowell is probably going to get called out by the player top cat.
Even if it does though, the rotations are going to have to come through.
The smoke's going to telegraph that it's going to be an A play. That's a brilliant shot from GBB on CT.
They want to take a booth.
All A chimes in with another one. Lux and QZ combined to trade him back.
No bomb plant yet for the T's, but they can plant it out for a ramp spot.
a very nice and open plant. As they come through CT, NQC is bailed out by Lux's GBB, tried to tunnel vision onto the planter.
Now, Khaos is coming through as well. Lux adds another and a third from Bricks! Lux pops off, Khaos finally strikes!
And Payne's pistol round sees their lead grow to three.
And we'll see if there's anything more to come here from this pain gaming team side.
That was a confident pistol round from pain and from Lux in particular great shots there to carry pain over the line
Here we saw a shot. I was wondering when Lux would begin to awaken
At a slow start that's because he is the B anchor and we didn't see any B site takes in the half prior
So I'm not going to do their best pain impression
They're not going to buy in the second they walk down middle for the USP's
Mac10 is overwhelmed, but Lux is here to shine once more as A.K.
Nets 4 in this one, and one Mac10 drop is more than acceptable for the pain gaming round 2.
9 to 5.
I'll give you what will you offer when you drop the Mac10.
He'll buy his own A.K. instead.
Full M4s, but no utility.
Two players, or no kits, since there's plenty of utility.
Perfect amount.
enough
Like in kits and a lot of helmets on a la in this
A lot of helmets. Maybe something to keep an eye on Mac 10s galil and play
And that's one of those things which you have to really be aware of
Destiny trying to regain window control big is that a boosted up and in
Wins that fight relatively clean as well only taking one shot. That is a clean dual one by the pain in game leader
And he slips into CT as well to cut off any rotations from Solid.
Bomb seeming to go towards B, since it's in Apartments. Three players there.
Misfit will catch off big data though, that's a bit of a timing that goes against Begu,
and that opens up a lot of space here for Pain.
That's one of the rifles down as well.
Cowaz, as I'll lay down, but takes a lot of damage in that dual GBB,
He's still on the catch, down to timing, and Lux will win that fight, not to clean this, but he'll still survive, and he's easy, swings, macked, and spraying, leaving DRG, the last man standing alone on A, bomb planted, and taking away for Payne a 10th round all but secure, just with the final mail, let's put in the coffin by Lux.
And Payne moved to three away from Anubis, where they 13-0ed solid last night.
They'll look to try and close out this series quickly and easily and get ready for fluke so
I'm gonna give them quite the break as well
Next game isn't slid into a start for what three and a half hours
As of right now, I believe you're right. Yeah, that's probably what if they can 13. Oh map to three hours
We're seeing some seldom used weapons in round 16, to half buy for team saw, and they're
trying to get crafty, chaotic, where they really found success last half.
They got a Uva shotgun for DRG Glam and MP9 and a couple pistols, NQZ drops DRG, no shotguns
to NAND again, it's going to occur here, parasite found, Misfit can't connect the
USP shots and alias across the map going for a quick flank but
Flank is anything but quick now
Didn't belong for the world given this corner hold from NQZ
She's going to walk palace instead
Regardless of if he gets a kill or not
This is going to be an 11th question is if he gets a kill can he save the weapon?
He might just be given this kill on two cowards who meets him up in palace
Cowards wins the fight
And paid 11 to 5 now up on solid not around dropped yet on this tea side
Mm-hmm and pretty confident as well though. They're finally going to face a test
It's a test again. No kit and play
Team solid have looked rather flat on the right for rounds
That has his op. Where's he going to go with it? That's my biggest question
Holding stairs
In.
Proud a little bit, but a clear lean towards B is the call.
You've underpassed spots GBB for free.
One of the heavy hitters of Solid removed early and without incident.
Only one player left to defend the B site.
Now, on it.
It's one.
No rotations are coming through for support still alone on this site.
An advantage for Solid.
His pain worked their way into B.
Snow and Tring over at Smoke will fade, but Snow will not kill Ale.
NQZ's fire and bullets will finish the job.
NQZ spots the body of a leaf.
Lux will eliminate DRG in the meantime, living level without a 2v2.
NQZ does not fail on Destiny either, leaving it down to Lux against the AWP.
The bomb has dropped, and so it's misfits off.
The leg shot enough.
and saw it finally putting a route to the board on the CT side, the only problem being...
I'm a survivor.
Exactly.
One man left.
You really have to talk about the economic woes on the CT side.
We're paying, but we do have to talk about them now.
Very difficult to maintain your economy when everything is so expensive.
All clouds are more expensive.
Pits aren't a factor for the T side.
Famosas are what?
2050? That's $200 to get all our supplies a little.
everything costs a lot of money with only one surviving you really can't do
much anything including toadies hampered they're two from mosses again
there's a kit at least leaving much to be desired the kit is important that
opt for misfit critical as we saw in the last round it's what won them the
round destiny around that smoke favor him no it won't Lux jump spotting
drops in the easy as GBB falls to big as that of the flood of T's entry in
towards this ace site. Still have to deal with DRG and out. They'll know he's here now
but he's only good for one. All his attempts at salvaging something has
met with a bullet to the brain and Misfit will have to save here with
pain going up by six, getting 12 on the board and having map point into
round number 19 that's a great angle from Lux that is wow this fits on his
foot maybe you shot from okay coming through there they don't want to let
them say they know the economy is bad I thought it was the shot from ticket
that's why I was confused I think it was top of triple box I don't think that
thought came through. It was a flight. I don't think that was possible. Yeah, I don't think it is.
This fits Scout, 3 FMosses, an MP9, no kit, and next thing I'll help us out that that's an issue
at this point. Lean towards B, and it can affect a near-complete lean. One player playing
past the middle, and everybody else towards apartment. It's going to be a straight no
for those players. Two players are here to defend, but one is an MP9. You don't have a
lot of utility either. Still have to take at the choke point. In rotations, we'll come
through. GBZ at first. Cowell is burning alive as he drops into the molotov. His timing
not quite perfect he has 5 HP left.
He'll try to find something despite his low HP but instead it's GBB to double down, the
MP9 to chime in and this choke point proves too metalsome for pain just the RGL of Big
Yuzera leading from the back on this flank.
Not in one.
Four more to find than 32 HP.
Not instill confidence, no bomb as insult to injury.
question is does he save or does he try to do damage it looks like he's trying to
save I would say doing damage is probably worth more at this point but
could he realistically get anything done is the other question what he has
equipped is more than the value of his loss bonus so I see that logic as well
no utility makes it harder yeah I guess just save it nobody from solid wants to
hunt and I think for pain no more be rushes wasn't even a rush they just
slow down right at the checkpoint. Yeah, no more attempted B rushes. If you have that
much of an advantage, I feel like a B scrim, kind of it limits your your ability. What
makes you so much better. It kind of takes that all away and evens the plane of fuel.
Well the 7th team solid stay alive. Get some much needed upgrades as well. 3 AKs op.
One M4 stay and play in full utility.
Far better investment coming into this one.
Pain.
Enough money.
Just leave reinvest as well.
I can use the A's off AK surrounding.
Negression down middle.
Was the name of the game for Team Solid.
They quickly shift gears back towards connector.
No casualties.
No real damage to be spoken of as of yet.
An A lean for pain but still covering all their bases.
holding underpass slash B, Lux top middle showing presence, balanced default lean towards A.
And one already dropped, two now falling for Pain as one palace and one ramp player including
the bomb.
Now a third as snow gets met with the yacht trying to recover the objective.
Timeout Pain after this round call a timeout, third lost in the sauce and they have to
recover the plot. It's the last couple of rounds of a disaster is for Payne. Okay,
one kill back, cool. Doesn't really matter. So I'll be finding there funny, and
that's a concerning thing for Payne to worry about. Don't let it become too
egregious. Next round you should have an investment. Stop it there. Both players
saving. A good amount of time to wait, 20 seconds left. Team Solid aren't
fortune the issue either. They know they have to take it one round at a time. They want to keep
their economy in a good spot so they don't have to make compromises going forward. They'll be able
to save you. So, they'll buy in again. Don't know if there will be an Op for NQZ and Paid will
call a timeout here. A very veteran in-game leader invigorates at this point. He's going to call
All that pause, talk this over, figure out why this isn't working, and it really was not
working.
What's the game plan now?
You have the op and utility for NQZ, which leads me to believe unless he drops it over
he's going to be supportive op-ing early on.
Snow only has a smoke.
Snow also only has three kills.
He does.
He's been bullied quite a bit on catwalk with some opportunities, that was on the
first half.
Mm-hmm second half and you know this is a typical role is to be supportive
Surprised we aren't seeing more you told he drops to him
Smoke drop for himself. Oh, he actually used one and then picked it up from bigger
Any QZ is the one to start off winning the operas do a blue that was towards middle big first to find
Walk through underpass for three and a top mid hold for two on the pain side
smoke top calm but bomb is very far removed it's in T.A.P.S. and if Olle wants to
force the issue here if he wants to go for this flank I just find the bomb
GBB window looking for this boost up doesn't quite spot it will he expect
it he spams through the smoke his spam mode won't be met in return
eight for the smoke GBB and though it's DRG instead to find one but do they
expect this second cow as towering in the corner Olle next to bat in
apartment spayers no better and Calus was unexpected. He finds one with his two man advantage. GBB
trying to defend his B site gets one but a good trade and good spacing from Lux ensures that the
two man advantage remains even just Destiny. He's had an okay map as far as the NQZ is simply
holding from a better angle. He secures the kill and it is a victory for Payne, a rather
difficult long-winded one but a victory nonetheless. Yeah it was a lot
shakier than it probably should have been for Payne especially considering
they just recently took out red cane hits 13-3 on this map but overall for Payne
I feel like they just kind of got caught up in the unorthodox and more
aggressive haphazard style which saw it adopted to try and find success which
it did give them some success against this Payne roster and Payne were kind
of second guessing some of their decisions a little bit and overall it came down to the
individuals and pain had the individual skill to topple solid on the map.
Lux, Kawas, and Big Ozzetta all around 3-4 kills from each other in that 20 kill range
and for solid it was an admirable attempt, an admirable performance but the fact of
the matter is should solid be taking down pain in the best of three?
No.
Should they be taking down pain in consecutive best of threes in consecutive days?
No, I think Payne had that depth of strap book required.
I think they have the more experienced roster and we definitely saw that shine through here
with the individuals hitting their shots.
We're now off to map number two after a brief break.
Of course, that is a noobus.
That is the map that Payne won yesterday, 13-0.
The question is, will the performance be the same or will Solid find their footing
once again and pull off the reverse sweep?
We're gonna take that brief break and when we return we will find our answer on that second map. Stay tuned
We'll see you soon back ladies and gentlemen coming hot off the heels of the first map of this best of three
Pain taking that map their opponents map take 13 8 its pineapple felts and bogs on the Mike
Bogs having lost this first map team solid
Do you think they have a chance of going forward given the fact that they lost this map?
13-0 yesterday in their prior head-to-head.
Realistically no. Is there always a chance, technically yes. As long as there is a game, there is technically a chance.
But is it a realistically achievable chance? Not really.
One solid already lost their map pick, but it was a map that should be more even between these two teams than Anubis.
Anubis is one of Payne's best maps at 19 and 7. They played it a ton. It's their most played map,
their most successful map as far as times played and wins, some big wins as well.
So for Payne, Anubis is a great map for them. For Solid, it's 10 and 9. 10 and 8 if you get rid
of that loss to Payne last night. It's a middling map against domestic competition. Payne
play this map at the highest level. So just based off of that alone, pain should have no
business losing it. But that is also I'm sure what Xner and Phi said about that series yesterday
where pain 13 owed solid on anubis and then went on to lose the best of three. So will
solid be able to pull something off? I don't know. It's possible. It's definitely possible.
Should it happen? No. Will it happen? I'm not no Stradamus or a prophet. So I can't
tell you. Very surprised yesterday they went for that pick as well given the
record of pain now I get it it is one of Solids most played maps as well they
aren't gonna get ancient through because it's the permaband of pain that just
makes sense though it seemed like a newest was the right pick quote-unquote
because they have a 10 and 9 record but again getting trounced on a map that
you are confidently going into a series on is never something to instill
confidence in fact it instilled so much confidence in pain that they went for
the pick instead in this best of three and again just given the performance on
that first map I don't see much going in the way of solid it felt like the
individuals of pain were simply outclassing the likes of solid sure solid
a desperate got aggressive got some rounds here and there and some spats I
think two or three runs in a row is really how they got the bulk of their
rounds but simply don't see them being able to overcome the overwhelming
advantage that Payne have on a new bus?
I agree. Payne should have this map locked.
It will be a 13-0 again, probably not.
But I would say a 13-5 would probably be the highest scoreline.
Payne would be accepting.
At this point, if it was anything more, anything closer, I think Payne would
become very worried about this and have to really have some introspection
about their game and about how they're playing this qualifier.
But as it stands right now, we can put away the possibilities and get
into the actualities and see what exactly is going to happen here solid on the t side
pain on the ct side mid presence not denied just yet nqz tapping away but it's snow who gets one
nqz with two blocks will come through to help out no casualties yet and that none will happen
for pain as big as that i will chime in with one more to wrap up the round a succinct pistol
that will start off well for pain on their map of pick.
finding a victory, but Destiny takes him into oblivion.
Cowah's trying to farm some money to go forward with,
is instead caught early.
Cowah's going to be redeemed by his teammates.
Lux gets two.
Him for a deadly one-tap machine at this point of the game.
Sprays away the third.
The point of the corner is caught by the need of snow,
and I'll let lurking out teammates.
I'm good timing, but the lack of firepower simply
not allow him to find anything. How it falls, but that's all it would find in round two.
That's just the SMG as well. So an overall good result for pain gaming. If you're going
to have a casualty, you might as well lose the one gun that's the easiest to reinvest
into and the one gun that you don't necessarily need to take into the next round for pain.
Now they actually face a test.
They'll have full rifles.
And so we'll solve their utility a little bit lacking.
Only one smoke left at this stage.
A few Molotovs.
Three to be exact is nice.
And then it's in the area from Snow to keep Team Solidette based.
A 4-1, it leaned towards the B site.
Now a 4-0 lead as GBB is found out by Bigazetta.
The flash is coming through.
The Molotov's raining in.
Snow finally falls over on the flat.
As luck swings out from E box to drop Ale.
The counter flash from Big O Zeta enabling him to peek back in, NQZ has a gap and that's
open, no one can drop him in front of it, Lux gets pushed and he will at least take
down two and a half of another before hitting the deck.
B versus two to favor pain but not for long.
With shots like that connecting if they do from DRG they won't yet.
And I'm all adobbed to isolate Evox, Force's DRG out into B main itself.
They have an idea where Destiny is as well, huddled on plat but they don't clear
it out properly.
Destiny has a huge opportunity now to lock this all down.
One temple, one from CT side, and Peter taking the sweep time.
Destiny's got another.
And DRG, the last onto Bigazena's position, was known.
First gun round goes the way of solid.
It's a little tenuous at the end, but a great 2vx.
Great hold from Destiny around the pillar.
Lucky to find the first.
The second one was expertly played as well, dancing around,
not giving anybody an easy shot.
Actually peeking with confidence to find the penultimate kill
of the round.
It's being solid.
You have to make compromises because only a pair of players survive Misfit on a Mech
10, but that is a moot point because pain are on a save for the most part.
Four USPs, one Flash, and one hero rifle for the IGL of Biguzera.
Gonna play on A.
What time being it's the right call?
I think it boosts up around the pillar.
expected. Looks like he will but he'll still win the first.
Molotov will compel his teammate forward, he's starting to support as best he can at range
but he's been tagged quite low. Swing comes from the USP and Viggy Zera's caught by the
spreading Molotov. NQZ on the pistol simply doesn't have the stopping power required.
So now it's just a pair of pistols versus four that rifles not recoverable. Both
outside heaven at this point playing for exits and playing for damage.
One more kill would be nice for pain, but it's not very likely and they're running away.
Not even going to contest this, so it's not going to happen this round.
But here's the thing.
Right now for pain, they've let team solid tie it up.
A map which pain won yesterday, 13-0.
One extra kill is not bad, two kills on the USPs is a decent result.
But to go back to the other point.
If you let an underdog stick around long enough, they will bite you and they will burn you.
I've had coaches tell me both sides of the coin.
Being the favorite, don't let them hang around.
They will find a way to win.
As the underdog, hang around long enough, you'll find a way to win.
More times than not, if you let the underdog hang around, they will find a way to win.
need to keep the lead and then to grow it as fast where solid are going to become
even more confident. We saw them bring it close on Mirage, but now it's the boogie
man of a map. Solid keep it close here early. Painter not gonna be able to do that.
Oh, and the spam. It's as big as you trying to get funky with the SMG. The
maid finishes off Lux and I'll get just snow on the back of the site. That's
the round done. Three kills that go completely unanswered. It's a bit of a
Damage to Misfit and GBB is all Pain Gaming can find as you can tell Destiny is already reading this exactly
Quickly flanking around towards and he knows that Pain won't attempt this round
Now with NQZ on the op and so this is a ripe opportunity to go for the hunt
You walk it up first up to challenge NQZ
I didn't win this duel, especially now with the swing he chose to take
All four or three the four I should say are now coming from CT spawn
That was heard by Calas.
Because head over, yes he does, and that's to his unbilling.
NQZ won't be hunted down.
He has enough time to survive in that little cave.
Only one surviving of the two possible.
With the economy in a bad way as it is.
Pain in me to play around this off, but I need to pass it back and forth as each player dies.
It's their only chance in this round.
The op shoots once, finds nothing, no eats a nade, and so does NQZ down below half, and
a brilliant counter-utility from Solid, and they'll force the op into the open, it gets
nothing at all, the one-hope dash!
With a P250 around the corner, might actually add up to more, lots of damage, but no kills
for painting by the one.
Kawa's long-term duel with Destiny.
Destiny will do the challenge in the end and Destiny will grab a second as well for in a row for solid.
As they continue to put on the pressure.
Misfit has that op, NQZ has another.
Cowhez, a goose egg in the kill department after such a strong performance in the previous map and for pain.
This technical pause is a godsend to slow down the growing momentum of solid and try to recollect mentally
Yes, it is no box. There is one difference between the head-to-head yesterday and today that we neglected to mention
That is the fact that this was team solid speak yesterday
Cover that we didn't cover the fact that pain did start on the offense. They started on the T side
Which makes sense. Everybody knows this map is T sided especially for these two teams
So you would expect Payne to have a slower start on the CT side, but this slow of a start I was not anticipating.
They still have a respectable CT side record.
I believe it's just sub 50, let me double check.
Yep, 48.9.
Again, as you mentioned, against international top tier 1 opponents.
I would have thought maybe a smoother ride in nearly goings of the first half, but not the case.
Necpa is cancelled, full buy for both teams, NQZ lacking utility though and NQZ has gotten
kills but he hasn't looked too inspiring on the off.
Yeah, I would say his rifle re-has been far superior to his AWPing.
Misfit rather, has had more flashy off plays and has not had the same impact on the rifle.
I like his angle, it's a good idea and he'll probably land the first if he does
get peeked there.
very good at landing those first shots. I like this idea from Pain to get a little more
utility aggressive if the problem is. There's a buck 13 on the clock, and they only have
one molotov and one smoke left.
A lot left on CT side, but they do have flashes, they overpeach at those choke points. Biguzera
flashed in. First security, that's got combined fire and team in as well. They spot the
second. Don't get the kill, in fact, Powez falls. Thank you, Zee catches one towards
the exit sign. They're now stuck with two angles to worry about. Biguzera trying
rotate around to catch the player exit. Ale talking through. Belabored spray so much damage but
Ale is the one to come out on pump. Now he gives us a lot to do on the site and with too many
angles he's frazzled and caught out after missing a shot. Advantage wrestled away from pain as the
bomb hits dirt. Lux's in snow, however, still. Strong potential opportunity to go for the
retake it but without the utility they think better of it.
Doubling back and to save their M4s for later, let's look for exits, the fifth on the board
for Team Solid, and they have to calm me behind them now, things are looking a little bit
worse for wear for pain gaming.
As we mentioned, worse on the CT than the T by a significant margin but two is
not enough.
Two is definitely not enough.
But if you're a solid fan right now, you're thinking two is all they get, two is all they
get, but two is definitely not enough.
It is almost disastrous at this stage, five rounds in a row of loss for Pain with hardly
resistance put up in these last few rounds either.
Solid's T-Set is overwhelming the Pain defense, which now has to work with three MP9s,
The AK and the M4 are saved.
You're gonna have to presumably go aggressive with the M4, at least to make them work in
an efficient way.
Do an A main, and then you have to go after them.
I'll lay though, lurking out B.
Through his smoke catches one, he walks through to the second site.
Those are both rifles.
Not for nothing.
75 damage combined.
A simple walk through a smoke.
Point is on, Destiny finds one of the SMGs, Payne, this was a half-buy, but they need time
out going into the next.
No doubt at this point.
They're down by four, six already guaranteed for Team Solid.
Talk this out because that right there was an inexcusable loss of the round by a walk-through
smoke.
Oh yeah, it's a disastrous loss and it's almost a summation of how Payne had been
losing these rounds Nate. It's been rough. It's been so so rough for me and they're
just getting overwhelmed. They're just getting peaked in losing aim
duels and it's like what we saw on Mirage but multiplied and amplified.
There's one saving grace here big user got those two MP9 kills that means he
him drop an AWP with the lost bonus, his NQZ his best opportunity, but that glaring issue
that you pointed out a couple rounds prior, how as on zero kills when he was one of the
heavy hitters in the first map, he needs to be activated.
You need to be activated, you need to get started!
And there's his first, you called upon him Nate, he's answered for one, still alive,
able to reload, more utility, reigning in on towards the ace site, chaos on the site
But Kawa's reign supreme with three still alive as snow is the one to fall GBB traded by Big Luzera and misfit
Looking at his six watching his backside
Expecting a flank which will not come
But paid
needed Kawa's to show up and
He delivered with a hat trick and a third round for pain as well to stem the bleeding
Try and close this gap if you're paying you're looking for a 6-6 scoreline a 7-5
But I think be a good result considering what it sits at now, but you're paying gaming
You should be vying for that six-all
But you definitely need more performances like that from cow is in the rest of the squad
This you do
There
This fish is trying to save but he's so paranoid about this flake
He doesn't want to walk away because there's so many angles to worry about
Finally decides to do so
He should be allowed to survive as well in gaming their goal right now is to win the round that also keep as many players as alive as possible
build up a CT Bank
Because this is far from over solid have built up a bank of their own
They have plenty of coin in the coffer to
Ford more than a couple investments in spite of loss
Can pain keep up the pressure? That is the big question right now.
Can pain continue to squeeze solid for the last few rounds of these half of this
half or if solid can get the dominant scoreline going into the second half?
This round becomes so important. Smoke blows up, no peek from MQZ, shot doesn't
connect for misfit. Just a little shot across the bow letting him know it's
there. But I'm still worried for pain on the CT half at any rate.
I haven't seen their T-Side yet so I don't know what to expect today, because today is
a different day than yesterday, and which pain gaming are we going to see?
I'm made, boxwalks running into it, doesn't want to be in front of the smoke as it fades.
If you run through it, it would go a long way to pain's economy, a lot of doing this
round.
Less than a minute left and no real decisions have been made by solid.
Yeah, they're following something we saw them do against Fluxo yesterday, where
or they would just kind of mill about and do nothing until about 20 seconds.
And B-Split is clearly the name of the game at this point.
Two towards Hanal, two towards B-Main with the bomb.
We have one now, lurked up middle.
GBB will be flashed in to start this off. Lux is blind.
He'll get away. He's got the information.
GBB falls. Big one. Big first for Lux to find.
He can get the second as well into the desk, then he misfits.
Working on middle finds. One destiny and second.
Snow off for some resistance, but only a little bit.
big user now to defend the site. DRG swings, DRG wins that duel, and that should be the
bomb plant as well. NQZ in the 1v2, but with an unwieldy op does he go for it. We'll test
the waters. He'll wait to see if an opening is presented, but if one isn't in the next
10 to 15, he'll probably be forced to go for the save. He's spotted. He knows where
one is. He seems content to go for this quick shot under the first, but he takes
a dig. He jumps around for more and needs to land the shot. Misfit! Catches NQZ,
jumping around with a knife as time began to become a problem. And so at 7-3 now, on
the T side of an U-Bus, I'm not gonna say a red carpet to an 8th, as NQZ will get an
off again from pain, they'll buy around this. But if so, it DO get an 8th. A 9-3
is all but secured. And to harken back to what you said is 2-enough, is 3-enough,
I would answer the same way I did at 2 and say no.
A lot of pressure on the pistol.
When you realize that Payne got the first and the second for the pistol and the...
...Tay Browned.
The paint's dismal picture where the CT side NQZ flanking up middle.
They're watching for him though and he loses the offer's duel in the weirdest fashion I've ever seen on this map.
Pushing mid alone with the AWP and caught outside B main at a minute twenty in the round.
Yeah, that is one of the plays of all time.
You have a rifle, it's a great idea.
Yeah, with an AWP it becomes a completely questionable play, but Kawa's has met Destiny and eliminated him on entry into the A site.
Another trying to work his way into GBB, Kawa's at a flash out in hand though, wide open peek for that.
At least to levade the Nade, which we'll keep him alive for now.
Utility raining in, Biguzena finishes off DRG, counter flash is coming through from solid, take the site now.
Kawa's smoked off in heaven, will back away as Biguzena doubles up, Nisfit falls as well.
Two big kills from the captain, as Lux and Snow begin to work through camera.
Kawa still holding up towards heaven, being a nuisance, but he backs very far away,
giving GBB all the space, distracting GBB from the push coming in from camera.
Good little communication and team play there from Payne as they clear out Ale last towards main.
And Payne will grab four at the very least. Will we see five for the favorites here on the CT side
though the money is going to be there in spades for team solid but for pain they
only lost one so their buys gonna be pretty strong it'd be fairly solid
pun intended yep wasn't it first well take quarter yeah you plant it don't
don't lie to the people at home hold up have an op for everyone QZ both the
shoppers have upgraded pistols. This is pretty much as fair as I could get.
Even as I could get.
B lane for Team Solid in the 5-round of the first half. Two in the main.
Two in Canals, and one I think going late in the main.
First kill secured through the smoke of DeepWalks and missed it on the up, finds another Snow.
Overwhelmed, not expecting that when he's alone on the site.
And another collapse from pain.
Two versus five, they have to attempt it. It's the last round of the first half,
But with Callas dying in a main, leaves just the up of NQZ and he's clearly flustered, missing
a first shot that he normally doesn't.
One versus five times with a wall and found by GBB, 8-4 dominance for Team Solid as we
hit the halftime break.
We're back in and Solid are definitely back in this series, eight rounds on their T side
of Anubis trying to take the math pick of pain and bring it to another third.
and Pineapple Phillips with you for these two South American matchups.
Fluxo winning the grand final to try and qualify for ESL Challenger.
Kind of it's a innate double-dual Beretta raid bosses for solid.
No kit for the CT side.
No P250 for the T-Side.
An awful lot of U-Tilt.
Three players holding onto pieces of utility for pain,
and they have two smokes, four flashbangs.
Biggie was dropping the smoke, but we should have bought Kevlar.
Unless he's saving for op, which would be weird.
No, we don't.
We don't do that anymore.
That's not something you do.
This is an oversight that could come to bite them.
All five in B main.
DBB is the one at bat with the dualies.
Yeah, we get five or get another one.
We get out and he'll find the first, not the second.
Okay, splits the goalpost on what I expected.
misfit next to the baton e-box. Nice shot on the first, falling back can't quite get the second,
the stairs prove too meddlesome. Three versus three, the smoke's now guising the site for a bomb plant.
DRG though, fucking up canals, is looking ready to take the fight with the dual, these NQZ take
destination. DRG does good damage but no outright kill, Ale. Pushed yet no armor either,
NQZ's the one to do him in. I would say a needed pistol round for Payne to shift the momentum back
into their favor given the disappointing first half. Yeah and also to keep them within striking
distance as well and keep Solid away from edging closer towards that 13th round.
Pistol round had a lot of importance and Payne will win it. Solid will not go for a four
spy from the looks of it either so Payne should draw within two. Getting six here would be
be good. Try and bring this back.
Mach 10, Galils, and AK pairs rounding out the buy for pain.
An okay amount of utility, but relatively light across the board. Lux and Snow have a lot,
but nobody else really has it in their mouth.
Exit out towards B main. Kawa sprays away for two.
Almost eliminates DRG as well, but that will be a gun which will be watched for by
bigger Zeta as the rest of the squad moves in towards A. No rotation is drawn by that
contact either. And NQZ will get one snow the next. DRG trying to recover the
galil unsuccessful funds death and there's that second on the board for
pain but the first real test again of this half the one that they failed in the
first half the gun round coming up now no op for misfit or for NQZ the
Mac 10 still available for snow but a gun round not that's going to break
pains map but if they lose it we'll put them in a rough spot moving forward
second round of this half eerily similar to the second round of last only one
player falling on pain it's cowas
gentleman should be how it's played
first contact out of a main lots of damage Johnny from the first attack
the second I need do a lot more as well no not quite enough he's trying to
Just distract and so chaos spamming with the glock
Those teammates make moves elsewhere big you getting mid control our two coming temple
Let's be ready for this shot
Swing comes through
Spam is so good big you Sarah tag one down to 18 spots another if you know there's two here now
He does he finishes off the first
You man advantage secured now and cows is well poised in middle
Flash in, he spots DRG, awkward jewel for this K1S, but it is against a Galil, it doesn't matter.
One for Lux, one for Cowez, and Ale, the last alive on beat, might have one, should have one, on to Lux.
Staring, I think she wants two, he's greedy. Knows the bomb's coming, this is an opportunity.
Here's the steps, but whole is the trigger too early.
Once the second, can't quite get it, NQZ wins the duel there.
Near flawless for pain as they draw this, this game two within one.
And now Team Solid is the team that should be feeling a little bit flustered and a little bit on the back foot.
Because things are quickly falling out of their favor.
Yeah, Solid are starting to flounder.
And the thing is, they got over some off-road.
T side was a little rough for Solid.
And for Payne.
Pin are really starting to exude the pressure now.
Dominating aggressively.
So what are we gonna try to do the very same?
That flash will actually yield one kill, can't quite get past snow, but it'll go down two
for one trade out of a main as a very good result.
The bomb is not at the feet of Pin yet either.
Big is having to run all the way back towards rugs to be able to gather that in.
His Lux will try to hold out any E-Boxed Pressure
He'll just look at him onto GBB who will take him down after Aleph falls
Still has that rifle, GBB, Big Oop Rossing fighting for the bomb and for the life in the round
Illuminating DRG with a headshot, leaving it all down to the one they know is in Canals, GBB
Does he take a fairy out? He will. He'll go towards A itself
And now that I think he's just gonna stay
There's no real chance for a retake no kit. He's too far removed
He might go for it, but
Odds are no. He'll just save and play exits. Maybe
This pain should be able to tie this up at eight
But a very scary round especially as they lost two players to pistols very early on
It's scary. I'm probably the most expensive one yet closest one yet. It's all the more surprising because it was that half
BBB I go for exits, but it would be good to save this body armor is good
Probably doesn't even need to buy a helmet given the riflery of pain gaming
Save a rifle as well and that makes you can probably drop an op with the loss bonus
Big use error though seems to know exactly what his player is he's lost the shoulder
He gets the kill must have spotted him shouldering towards long
So everything I said about that save is now a moot point
Tied ballgame ate a piece misfit will be able to buy an op of his own
I think a good utility as well. So maybe that wasn't as big of a concern as I thought
But no AK, no one shot headshot possible for Team Solid now.
At least for Solid I don't have to worry about having helmets of their own.
It's AKs and an AWP across the board for pain.
You know, there's a nice start by NQZ onto GBB, the heaviest hitter for Solid in this map.
And something to get NQZ going with the AWP as well was a good thing.
But to go back to what I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted by a nice AWP kill
Well, remember that Anubis game we were watching in NA about a month ago, Nate, where we were
like, oh yeah, it doesn't have the helmet.
Probably won't matter.
Came down to a 1 HP, 180 headshot flick.
I do.
To lose the round.
I will.
Lots of fights in towards Canal.
Back to this actual game, not the past.
Two versus three from Misfit and Ale, both toward CT spawn.
Yuzera probably heard that rotation as well from Malhe, on point and B. Both are here but
they aren't moving. Looks like X is again the name of the game, as it is burned by Misfits
abandoned mints of long, both heading towards A heaven. Yuzera seems to be wise to it
as well, already beginning his hunt. Makes sense at this point for Payne to try and
and drop everybody possible.
He and Kaoaz will both have a chance to do so.
That's it quick.
Good damage but not to kill.
Explains they're far enough away now
that Kaoaz should not be an issue.
I might find the op, no.
Both missed their mark.
Namegaming, wrestle away the lead.
I don't think they've had since they ended
but round four of the first half.
Yeah, round four.
This is a far more critical juncture for them.
This is where it's essentially make a break for solid.
Pain can get up to eleven here off of a victory.
That's two rounds away from putting this one to bed.
A little bit of utility going into B. Nothing significant.
This fit avoiding the flames on the pool, which if we use Greek fire as a kind of strike,
I'm not sure his head shows though in Lux.
deal with that quite easily. Lux looking for more around that smoke will end up backing away,
going for a little bit of probing and prodding, but not wanting to commit towards a site take
just yet NQZ out in middle. DRG dead to rights. Now a double man advantage here for Paine with
50 seconds to go. And the bomb influx. Biguzeta. A mid pick onto Ale this time.
And now a wide open A site. The bomb is going to make its run through in the back of Kawa's.
And that should just about single the end of round 18 here and we should see another one for pain 10 on the board and
Solid just trying to save again, but at some point the timeout needs to come through rounds need to be won
But op for misfit will be picked up here though unless it's stopped by snow
pain like
Yesterday call us as far on the P side up drops by snow
Both dropped by snow that means no weapons saved and a likely half-buy instead of the full buy
Around number 19 of team solid
Say that but destiny does go for the investment very quickly impulsively I dare say
Yeah, you could go you could say impulsively although you can't sell and this day and age of counter-strike
They're all gonna go in the RG and destiny M4s
It's a heavy half-buy
It's also the three-quarter by
This fed has enough for the op though.
Everyone else will be led on Util.
That's the only problem.
Ooh!
That's not a big group.
Yeah.
Eagle finds one, unanswered.
Here are D-spots, one to be made, but you spotted also in Conjure.
Each of these would in the game do at least for the moment.
It's a second secured and going unanswered.
Finally, the individual is being picked off alone by Team Solid.
Not a moment too soon either.
NQZ finds an in-road,
When that dream is short-lived, TRG immediately trades with Lux, NQZ, does away with the op
picks up an AK instead.
Now they'll have to play it together.
2 vs 4 for Snow and NQZ appears, E-Box is the name of the game as well.
Two players are here, they can entry in and find them both.
That would give them a way back into the round and give them the advantage.
They're slowly being pressed in upon from both sides.
Two in E-Box, two in A-Main, they need to make their play quickly.
They're starting to move there way quickly in towards the beast. I've not quick enough the bomb dropped
NQZ falling as all his MP9 cuts him down snow gets the bomb down, but it's time to clutch up here for
One two isolated the second spotted as well snow six rounds in the magazine all the top on those positions destiny swings
But snow hits the headshot and is able to come up with a massive round for pain
do stymie solids chances of coming back into this one.
Misfit goes back in with an off.
The M4 is coming around again, but snow stands tall.
A huge round from a more supportive player and solid.
Down by three, two rounds away from elimination in this qualifier.
They're last ditched by forthcoming.
One kit for DRG, utility is solid, but it's not ideal.
Their best chance at around in the second half and it's taking away from them ripped away from them by the supporting player snow
Good 1v2 from him on the plat of B
This last real chance on the investment
Looks like a straight B split is on the cards for pain
They're not really going for any people 30 mid round plays out. They'll come 3 and he walks bottom TV's good
A lot of two before Lux is not blinded here Junas get the trade. No Lux finds a second somehow against all
It's almost a third, the player burning alive, destiny down to 17 and Cowboys catches the flank, it's a chaotic round
But one that now ends even footing two versus two, the off does he accept the player main?
No, he does not good trade from Big Euzera, but he's now low on HP, much like Destiny
Who finds himself in a one versus one. Big Euzera, he's going to race around towards A, but Destiny's also going for a very quick
rotation through B main to mid
Actually Big Euzera has swapped weapons. He's on an op
This is going to hurt him more than it helps this players on low HP
And out
This thing does not have that information. I know he does not have that information
He's playing as if destiny's on full
Granted destiny also doesn't know big is it 28?
We asked that I was low after that engagement. It's to me. Definitely the call 50 plus all on timing
Destiny's hiding heaven 10 seconds left for you has to make the play. In fact, Destiny goes for the peek.
Figure out if he needs to rotate or not. Timing gives Solid their first round of the second half.
With only one surviving, their economy is going to be hindered. Pain gaming though as well. Relatively low on money given how difficult the last couple rounds have been.
Yeah, a timeout used by Solid 2. They don't feel confident in the manner of which they won that last round, and I don't blame them. I wouldn't feel confident in that either.
I think that's a good timeout to take.
Their pie is not ideal either with the two MP9s.
All I know. Going for a Fommess and a Molotov.
Okay. They want a little more firepower. That's...
I kind of... I... See where they're coming from?
That's an awful big risk though, because utility is so important on this map.
But the firepower difference is the FAMAS that much better than the MP9 is the other
question I have.
Where is Alec?
A aggressive?
Maybe for a canal fight, but GBP's all the way down a deep and backstabbed by Big
Ozzetta walking up middle uncontested.
And now Ale has to retreat, his FAMAS running back to site with an M4 behind it, solid in
an awkward spot low on the util now, no flashes left, one Molotov left, destiny at the very
least finishing off big as anna, but he's traded instantly by Kao as DRG Min in the
meantime, met by Lux, Misfit and Ale, last two standing, four team solid.
What do they have to go over this otherwise it's gonna be 9-12?
They have to.
They have to.
Cross?
Oh no.
That is a big duel to lose and this is it felt favored in that one.
Worried about the player's sight instead he's caught looking.
All I was gonna try to save but at this point will it really do anything in the
next round?
Doesn't seem likely.
Especially not if all he saves is the FAMAS.
The FAMAS that I was wondering about coming into the round, what is up with this FAMAS
over the MP9, is it worth it?
In the end, we don't get an answer, because it's gone, removed from the next round.
It fires no bullets at the pain, one away from a matchup against Fluxo, and two maps
away there by from a spot at ESL Childricate of its two FAMASs, four solid, three MP9s
across the board against the full investment of pain. Solid backs against the wall. There
is no way out but through. Utility early, being used towards B. No kills yet. An
A-Site actually have banned it by solid.
It may get revealed as they give a lurk and snow for pain.
But they seem very headstrong on this B-take.
Flank's coming in fast, it's been heard too I think.
Bombs going back, it's down for one, there's the op of NQZ.
The chaos is about to ensue.
In towards E-Box, Wux goes down for nothing.
But NQZ, another big op shot, opening up a window of opportunity towards the A-Site.
Snow has discovered his open and free.
Biguzera is going to be heard, but he will bypass the window and not fall.
Aggressive rotation take.
He's not long for the world with the doolies in hand, caught by the FAMAS of Destiny.
So Team Solid will attempt this retake.
Apple man.
A very quick flanking, A-Main.
Snow has a flank of his own, totally unexpected.
He'll find nothing yet.
Destiny pulls up the FAMAS in the nick of time.
I guess it makes sense if Big U's air is going for that aggressive rotation, they should
note somebody's through A. Still a very heads up play for the FAMAS,
please Big U and 1B3.
Off the first spot, the second can't get the second though.
DRG gets the trade, and it's solid to stay alive with a 10th round on the board.
With only two surviving again, their economy is going to be hamstrung.
They're going to have to make concessions and compromises.
The RG could drop it off, but I don't think that's likely.
See what the CT side goes for, and if they can counter the likes of NQZ with a lack of
sniper rifle.
Yeah, NQZ did really well in that last round, but it didn't end up amounting to enough.
The aggressive, fast, and quite reckless play from Solid worked out well for them,
But that's kind of what was working for them on Mirage as well.
Reckless haphazard throw everything against Payne.
What's the worst that can happen?
Solot is playing with house money.
And they're just trying to do what they can't stay alive and they can topple Payne again.
Cool.
If not, they already beat him once.
They made it into the final day of this qualifier, taking out Payne gaming, which
Did anyone expect them to? No.
They've kept it close here in the second series too.
But that's not Solid's objective. Their objective is to win.
And they don't care how they win, they just want to win.
What's it do?
High-close utility for Team Solid.
And again, no op as I mentioned.
Tukawa's compromise Galil.
Lots of players in the middle for the CT side this time around.
The re here.
There's a lot of potential control of the extremities.
Too pain, but they aren't really going for that.
Walk the middle of the call. It's going to be duals early. Biggie wins the first.
They're up close spam through the wall. It's back and forth and NQZ wins it.
Misfit finds Biggie in the meanwhile, but advantage is secured.
Tal was on low HP because of that nade though.
Lux, good control of A.
Misfit will try to reach it heaven and stop this, but I think the steps are heard.
Talob Fort missed opportunity by Lux.
This falls away. NQZ has often been so good. He finds another.
In exit sign, Cowan is finally fouled, but Misfit can't do more than one.
It's just GBB, Heaven 1, found Lux in the off angle, not expected on the second.
It wasn't clean at the end, it was far more back and forth, far more scrappy.
But Payne do sweep the series cleanly, 13-8 on Mirage, 13-10 on Anibis.
Yeah, not clean, but they got the job done. It wasn't ideal for Payne,
but now they go on to face more familiar competition,
more structured and settled competition in Fluxo.
And for Solid, they battled hard. They battled with everything they had.
They kept Fluke so close and a 2-0 loss last night. They took down Payne last night.
They kept Payne close today again. And it's a very good battle from
Solid. I would like to see them with a little more structure and set play, but hey,
they did what they needed to do to try and beat Payne. That's what they tried to do.
And they kept entertaining, they kept it close. Hats off to them for making it a game.
In pain, they limp across the finish line into that grand final.
Yeah, I mean, so all you can do is hold their heads high. They came through the open qualifier.
They were, I hate to say it, I hate to say it, make it sound so disparaging, but they were by far the bottom seed.
Number 121, the next closest was number 69 in FlukeSo.
So the fact that they were able to go toe to toe with these teams, able to take a series versus pain,
is nothing but to look at positively because they realistically weren't coming in to qualify for Katowice.
They were coming into this to play against some top tier talent and they definitely brought the pain, brought the heat.
It just wasn't enough to get them through to the Grand Finals.
Yeah, it was close. They battled hard. They battled well.
And I'm sure we'll be seeing more of Solid moving into 2025.
It's kind of crazy to say we're already talking about 2025, but this is the last qualifier scheduled for 2024.
Solid commiserations to you, but I'm sure we'll be seeing you next year for pain
We'll be seeing them in about an hour and a half maybe two hours or so give or take
But it's gonna be an interesting one against fluke so now and fluke so after watching that might be feeling a little more
Confident than they were otherwise. Yeah, they've seen that pain can bleed
They lost the series yesterday. They struggled a little bit in this one again
13-8 13-10 is not the most convincing of score lines
But pain at least by taking it to zero do have some time to rest and recollect themselves as you mentioned
It's gonna be about two hours till that next series. It's a not an accelerated schedule
It's slated to start at 430 Pacific time
Probably about 10 minutes before that for the pregame show but until then we are going to be taking a break when we return
We will have the grand finals and we will decide who will represent South America at ESL challenger kind of it's a
Will it be pain? Will it be fluke? So we'll answer that question in about two hours.
Time to decide who is going to Kedavitsa and who has to stay at home and
watch from the sidelines. Boggs and Pineapple Phillips with you to bring you this
grand final in the South American close qualifier for ESL challenger Kedavitsa
and Nate, it's two teams that we could have reasonably seen in the playoffs
but the roots may be much more unconventional for both.
The route is more unconventional work, unexpected than you would think given the other two teams
in the qualifier.
We can probably pull up the bracket very briefly to see how these teams got here.
Of course, I know what you're hinting at, Payne came through the lower bracket.
We saw them best solid in their rematch earlier in the day.
We also saw them stumble in their opening matchup and of course, right the ship first
eliminating red canons and then as I mentioned today, eliminating solid who earned their
spot in the grand final.
So they had an easier go at it.
They bested the red cane is in a slight upset in the opener.
Eat team solid to zero in the upper bracket final yesterday evening.
And of course, earned a buy in the lower bracket final got to watch
their potential adversaries duke it out and take a break
while they waited for the grand final here in now.
Yeah, definitely something that will look a lot better here for
Fluxo rested and recharged looking at pain and seeing that they can bleed more importantly as well
I think you put it very well in our wrap-up to that earlier matchup today and
The fact that pain struggled against solid is going to give Fluxo a lot of confidence
Fluxo, they had a bit of a messier game against solid as well
But here's the thing Fluxo are not pain
Fluxo are not playing multiple tournaments playing against FaZe and G2 and Heroic and Falcons and Mongols and Eternal 5
against all of these teams, Navi's on there too and Payne's most recently played matches,
Fluxo are staying mostly domestic. So for Fluxo, they're staying a team like Solid who Fluxo
should be beating most Sundays and looking at Payne thinking, hey, they're beatable. They're
vulnerable. We can win this. Yeah, Fluxo should be confident not only because of how close the
last series was earlier in the day, but also because of that best of three yesterday,
because we keep on hearkening back to it.
Payne lost to Solid, 1-2.
They took the first map with a statement 13-0,
then lost to the second two maps, including their own map Pick,
who fall into that lower bracket at the outset of this qualifier.
So Flukesow rightly earned their spot in the grand final.
They're technically coming in from the higher horse,
but the bigger question to me is will Flukesow be playing Solid
in spite of the fact that they have not played that first series today,
series today because Payne should be coming into the series still warm from earlier in the day.
Yeah, Fluke's though did start off a little bit slow on every single map they played yesterday,
primarily against Red Canids in that opening series, a little less slow against solid. They
were able to get their footing quicker. But looking at a team like Red Canids, who is more
close to pain than solid or Fluke's though as far as ranking is concerned, Fluke's though
struggle to adapt? Will they have the same struggles early on on this series on the first map in
particular? And if so, how quickly can they stem the bleeding? Because you don't want to give pain
too much confidence because this is a pain squad that looks a little weaker, a little more shaken.
And speaking of which, we don't have too long of a runway into the series. So why don't we get
into the veto here and start breaking this one down a little more in depth? Pain got to pick
second as they had the higher seed overall coming into the qualifier. Flux O'Banna knew,
but I think it's a smart move pain banned ancient. It's a smart move both banning their promo bands making a lot of sense
And in the prevent also coincidentally their opponents most played maps or their abouts
So really does work out for both teams in that respect first pick for flukes. Oh, they go for mirage
Perhaps they think they're confident given the performance versus solid earlier in the day for pain
They played that in their opening round as well
That was a 13-8 there and of course it is a very solid map for Fluxo with a
18 and 4 record compared to the still solid but less so 10 and 6 or Payne at number 2 the pick of Payne
They're gonna go for dust 2 interesting call their record on it though is impeccable 10 and 1 and as you mentioned before
It is against a lot of international talent
So quite a solid map for them final set of bands nuke and inferno makes sense for both teams respectively
That means pain want to send us off to the 51st floor of vertigo if the third map is required
Yeah, that third map is where things will get really messy considering that pain lost it to solid yesterday
So there's that weakness being shown again from the pain squad the favorites
You would say statistically coming into this matchup for fluke so picking into mirage. It's a good map for them
It's an underdogs Haven. It's an aim map primarily will fluke so have the
I'm not going to say lack of structure, but that inexperience to be able to slot into such an aggressive and
Unpredictable play style that solid we're able to because if you look at the fluke so roster as well
There's a lot of experience
former fury aigl in art for more fury a member in Kai former pain member in Zevi
Nix and Pierre-Riar are the two that don't really have the same experience internationally
that the former three do, and will they be able to set aside the structure, the rigidity,
and the preconceived notions that everyone at Payne's level knows, and Art's level, etc.,
knows how to play this game and play looser and catch Payne off guard?
Because if Fluxo play to a proper style of Counter-Strike, do they have what it
it takes to hold off paint.
It's a good question.
We saw earlier the way that solid got a vast majority of the rounds was when
they loosened things up.
So I pushed through the smoke on B main of a new bus, for example, to really
start a stint of rounds, a lot of aggression going off the back of lucky
picks, et cetera, very quick snapshot, snap second decisions.
They really gave solid the opportunity to come back in that series,
make those scorelines respectable.
So if a fluke so can pull that off or fluke so even have the
the visuals are shining at another level. Maybe they'll have a chance, but I am
worried for that second map. I don't think Dust2 is something that can feasibly
pull off. They have a 4-7 record, Fluxo, and in one for Payne. Payne again, as you
mentioned, far better opponents, so that means that they probably need to start
things off right with a victory on Mirage. Yeah, the Dust2 opponents, their
victories coming, their notable victories coming against W7M and Vikings.
Losses against Red Condense twice, Bestia, three times for Fluxo. Meanwhile,
the one loss for pain was at the hands of imperial wins against small teams you
know minor competition, Virtus.Pro, Heroic, 9z in the international scene, that's
no big win right? Those are no, that's who who's Virtus.Pro? Who's 9z? Who's
Heroic? Yeah, so given the fact those are the opponents they're beating and the
fact that their record is even more stellar than their opponents really
doesn't set a pretty picture for Fluxo heading into that second map.
Barrage though saw pain can get battered a bit 13 8 was the score versus solid today
Additionally, it's a very solid map for fluke so they're actually plus 55% on both sides 55 for the T
61.5 for the CT. I do not imagine their T side will be as seller this time around
They do have to start on that T side as well. So we'll see if they can get the ball rolling quickly
Again, I think it relies mostly on mirage and vertigo both things have okay records on vertigo
pain the far better but again I think across the board this whole wall of fire
was heavily favored in the pain's direction. Yeah even if the statistics
don't exactly line up in pain's favor they should still have the favorite
ability of overall ranking, recent experience overseas and international
competition and a roster firepower. That is where pain really shouldn't
have an issue. The one thing that really can throw a spanner in the works
Flux is the unpredictability and crazy factor that you get from a team like Solid.
You wouldn't get that from Red Canids and Pain dealt with them expertly and swiftly
last night.
You probably won't get that as much from Flux, although Art throughout his tenure with
Fury was always keen to add in a little bit of craziness, but there was always a method
to the Art Madness.
And if Pain are able to pick into that method, they will be able to pick apart
the madness a little bit more. I think art though will be the X factor for Fluxo if they
are to win this. His mind is going to have to be working overtime. He's going to be
have to getting individual kills as well, given that's his playstyle and his calling
style. But if art can find a way to blend rigidity and tactical prowess with unpredictability
and free flowing play, then pain may be in for a bit of a surprise, especially on
mirage. Yeah, I feel like I agree in that art needs to be hitting a
shot. I feel Zevi also really needs to ride with the likes of
NQC kind of saw it on a new bus specifically. He kind of took
over for pain in the later stages of that map. Really, it has
to be all of the individuals waking up. We saw some stellar
series yesterday from Nix. It was historically a rather quiet
player. He and Kai are normally very quiet. They both had
moments where they were atop the scoreboard yesterday.
We're gonna need to see more of the same today. If they
want to take it against the team of the pedigree of pain and speaking of it looked pretty solid
today some worrying signs cow was wasn't as consistent as you would hope he was having
some hit situations snow as well was very slow on mirage well hopefully he will be
more successful in his endeavors this time around versus fluke so Lux was there and because
he was there big user also very solid throughout the series question is will fluke so play
like they did yesterday.
That's a big question. And for Fluxo too, do they want to play like they did yesterday?
As far as structure is concerned, will that work against Payne again? Do they have a change
in game plan to go in against Payne? Do they want to play a stock standard style against
a team which should have them outclassed across the board? Or do they want to, especially
with a couple new players, that's the other thing we haven't mentioned, Virria, really
really new to this, uh, Fluxo roster, Nix is relatively newer as well. And overall this
Fluxo team, do they have the structure, we saw a lack of it against both Red Canids and
Solid to try and structure fight against Payne? Do they have the fluidity? Do not have that
structure? I feel like Fluxo are in a point where they're in a spot where they're good
enough to beat the likes of Red Canids. Solid obviously is well added into that.
some of the teams that are more domestically inclined, but do they have that next jump to face off against the international challenger?
It's a very good question and because of those two recent roster additions, as you mentioned, the head-to-head kind of goes out the window.
The head-to-head was actually kind of interesting. They last played in July. They actually had two series, one for a South American and one for Thunderpick.
They split, one went the way Pain 2-0, one went the way of Fluxo 2-0, and both were fairly
one sided as well, so they weren't going blow for blow back in the day when these rosters
were different.
However, as you mentioned, Fluxo making those two big changes, that is going to be the
X factor, because Pythioc, historically, is supposed to be a star player, and of
course the other additions also should be hopefully slotting in at least decently
well.
And again, I just have to wait to see what happens in the server.
If Fluxo aren't warmed up, if they aren't ready, if they're a little slow on the start, that might be all-paying need to take this series.
Well, it seems that the teams are not ready to start just yet. We're going to get ready and toss it to a break, but don't go anywhere, folks.
Oh, never mind. We are coming back into it pretty quickly. Looks like we've had more than enough to talk to, and the teams are ready to go, despite their late start.
And again, I like how you bring that fact up again, will flukesaw start slow?
Will pain be able to take advantage of a potential slow start and lock flukesaw out
before we actually get into the meat and potatoes of this series?
A lot of question marks surrounding flukesaw in particular.
There's a lot of question marks surrounding pain as well.
But the fact of the matter is, a lot of discussion has almost been putting a lot of the onus on flukesaw to win this series.
I'm just going to use the top of the box to touch when you touch the top of the box.
Right, no it's not.
Look so, T side of their map pick.
Slower start, but a play towards a smoke stairs, a smoke jungle.
Cross out of right-hand palace.
Cow is under balcony.
Dooley's in hand.
A lot of bullets required, but it's the first.
MQZ is second.
Lucian to Cow is, but he's still alive.
And dancing to the blurry of angles.
MQZ runs to the smoke as he was teammates towards the connector.
And that should be the round where he's done in Dust, that if Fluxo can't take the space
immediately off those smoke grenades, they will be punished at the choke point, Kai the
last alive in Palace, as four against him.
Got the only kill for his team in the round, but he needs four more, he's the B250 Super
Soldier.
He's just dancing around hoping to be given an opportunity, which is not being given.
Finally, something.
The duly on top of the balcony, but this should be it.
So many angles being held up by so many players that two are going to swing off
contact on the first. There's the swing.
Vy's playing as well as he could in this kind of situation, but there's simply not a real
feasible opportunity for him. Spots the first on site, dances around, again, that game gaming
on playing very coars- Finally! Snow springs the trap, or was it snow? No, it was NQZ
on the jump-fuck box to spring the trap. Pain gaming. Long-winded end to the pistol
round in their favor.
Yeah, but a pistol round win, no bomb plan for Fluke, so means things are going to look
a little bit better for this pain side moving forward, and for pain you want that confidence
to build.
You want to have a stronger look and a stronger result, and they are starting to look like
they're going to have a stronger result and a stronger win.
Of course, things may be a little bit more tenuous once the guns come out, but the
The CT side start also conducive to a positive beginning, easier than the T's, but with
MQs you're only going one-for-one with an M4 that's not exactly great.
It should be recovered by Snow on a Fama, so you'll mow down too.
He'll go grab that, but that still means the rifle's dropped.
The FAMAS will not move over as Luxe and Biguzeta still on the MP9s, which will
mean that this round here against the AK's of Fluxo will become a little bit more rough
before the CT side, unless they want to go for something aggressive with the MP9s, maybe
a ramp push, a palace play, something underpass, something that's going to be a little unexpected
for Fluxo to deal with. They do have a Galil as well on the T side, no players locking
a helmet on pain. But those MP9s, despite that op of NQZ, something to really keep
an eye on, will see nothing through that smoke obliteration with the shot through
through the smoke or through the wall, we'll catch Pierrilla, down to 16 HP, and so for
Fluke so, they start off a little bit on the back foot here.
A little bit on the back foot, PD has the middle at least, showing presence there,
but Pain Gaming showing us that variety in their CT side, abandoning middle in this
one.
Focusing on connector, and the site's being stead.
Lux on Catwalk needs to be careful, and MP9 is going to struggle at range.
Might just challenge him from the bench
Alive and around the smoke he almost finds Kai
AK bests him a headshot is all it requires
Op of NQZ now is going to be
Difficult to wield alone on B. I keep these players at arms distance at least
Snow though is ready for a quick rotation as required 40 seconds left flukes
I was kind of burning things down to a low time count
I need to make their decision. It looks like B's the call.
I think QZ is still here by the way.
It's an opportunity.
Swinging from snow though, at least find one on catwalk.
And NQZ has rotated.
And there's pressure too for me.
15 seconds.
Biggie bought a little bit of time.
Oh, it all comes down to this. The drop onto Zevi.
And now NQZ at man trying to stay alive.
He'll shotgun Nix as well.
Kawas is here too.
And he defends onto Kai, Hiryah, spotted, and left alone on A to do nothing in this round.
We'll pick it up.
Great recovery from NQZ.
Snow's one kill, massive as well to buy time.
And so, we go into this, the 3-0 lead, no bomb plants yet for Fluxo.
More and more rough.
Or in more rough as time goes on.
Worry about them losing track of time.
I believe we saw it yesterday as well if I'm not mistaken.
They play Mirage twice.
Actually playing it in all three series they have in this closed qualifier.
Half-by with one hero rifle for PDA.
Of course that saved weapon.
In-game they are playing respectfully as a result.
Makes sense.
PDA already dropped AK down on the ground.
It has not been recovered either.
He's in connector.
Ooh, he'll go from Zevi.
I just find a response to bring us back to even footing.
They have a lot of interesting angles to worry about now, because they've given up Catwalk.
And they've also given up Khan.
They have the adjustments already in hand.
Lux pushing the apartments, getting control of this extremity.
Bring up Snow on Catwalk to fully focus on that area.
Good spot from Lux as well. He nearly falls, but he gets the bomb.
Andy survives with one HP.
Art on Catwalk should not be long for the world.
The world line-sided by Snoop, the question was would he have a better map than he did
earlier in the last series?
I think he already has more kills than he did in the last series.
I round four.
Top of NQZ, cemented the round with four surviving.
Aime, firm control of this first map.
Next real test here for Flukezo.
They have the off-out for Zevi, Galil for art, Kai, Nyx and Pythia, AK's in hand, a good
amount of utility as well overall, only Zevi and Pythia are really lacking anything utility-wise.
NQZ, off-shot through the smoke, reveals nothing, damages no one.
Pretty standard CT set up here for pain, Lux soloing for now, getting grouped up
with by that off of NQZ.
Using a mid, but using a B, which is an interesting thing to note.
Biguzeta will make his way over towards mid and just kind of keep an eye on things, both under and top.
Passive and scared of Fluxo right now. Holding away 1, 2, 2 default.
Hoping for a pick and hoping for a push. None of which are forthcoming.
So scared that around 5, Biguzera has 0 kills and 0 deaths.
Yeah.
That's a feat.
Mm-hmm. I almost want to see him go the whole entire game at 0-0.
I mean, hey, they won the last Mirage game they played with Snow at 3 and 15, so...
Anything is possible.
At the same time, I don't think he'd be happy with the 0-0 score line.
No, it would be funny.
It would be hilarious.
And at the same time too, he is the in-game leader. That would just mean he called a brilliant game.
Yep.
Typically, we organize things on two metrics. Are we winning? Is it fun?
Yes, there's Kawa's to screen out for one, and a second as well, bigger than I will spoil
our fun and double down.
So he's 2-0 now.
He decided to go for the fun metric, and I don't blame him.
No kills, no fun.
It isn't.
I've survived means the CT economy is going to continue to grow, easily reinvesting
into the utility.
The minimum amount of cash is cowed at 4.6k, which is a lot in the bank, especially for the CT side.
Luxo being prevented from getting that bomb to dirt or on pistols yet again.
Have they gotten a bomb plant in this map thus far?
No.
No, they haven't.
But they are far away from finding Victor.
Oh yeah, and that was a gun round too from Luxo, and it ended like a pistol.
No damage, no kills.
They're going in fast fiscal rush towards Lux who will get overwhelmed with a good flash
from Kai to support him.
Ah, Biguzedda, sprays away.
Here's the footsteps on Catwalk, knows what to expect in deals with Arch, trying to force
a little bit of a split.
That's a nice kill through the smoke onto Snow, but Nix, found by Biguzedda.
Level things out at three on three.
Bigu.
Dropping down.
Is he going to Haps?
I think he might be calling for a save.
You know he's gonna group up the market with everybody
That's an odd call because they had the cat pressure too and they're all gonna go through one singular choke point market door and window technically too, but
It's still a bit of an interesting situation of all it's off the force out one and they'll spray away through the smoke of
Lion's Eye by Zabby maybe more no biggie one more now trying to save as he will end up going down bomb at this point
12 HP. I don't know if he's gonna be able to get away enough to survive
He will live, Kai will not, but a disappointing round for Pain as prior to that there had been
no bomb plants and no real chances for Fluxo to even get into a round.
It's just an overwhelm of the site and again I don't like all three players going through
market.
It really limits what you can do on a retake.
Try to play it together so you don't lose a rifle and inadvertently give it away
to one of those pistol players but in the end it doesn't matter, you're right.
Half-buy is the first run of the board for Fluke-So,
it also gives them enough capital for an AWP,
Zevi pulling that big weapon out,
that you can buy with likes of NQZs at a stellar start to this map.
And it looks like Painter trying to change things up yet again.
Double press in towards ramp, there's only one player there.
That's Kai holding, I think, passively up top.
Again, complete abandonment of middle for Painter and the other goons,
knowing that they have conditioned Fluke-So to play it passively.
Top Con, smoke window, helmet control will be taken.
It's the NQZ already rotating around for the Molotov and going CT to hold the jungle wrap.
Thank you.
Also transitioning to spotting the Molotov at Ramplethrough and a piece of utility.
A-Split is the call and NQZ finds one through the dwindling smoke biddy-ah-cut.
New gun taken down, but a very heads-up read from ART catches a trade onto Kawa's under
balcony.
Thank you.
Need to choose a direction to fight.
There's one in ramp.
It's actually out!
It's one, Zevi gets a second and the A-Site defense collapses, Snow is slowly rotating CT spawn, he's already doubling back, it looks to be a save for Payne gaming.
They allotted their economy a couple rounds prior, with these two losses in a row, it's looking like a far more dire situation.
Some compromises will likely have to be made because of it.
That round from Pain reminds me of a lot of the rounds they lost against Solid earlier today.
And not in the way that Fluxor are playing, but the way that Pain play it.
Pain are trying too hard to be different in a lot of these rounds.
They're putting themselves in positions where they're essentially having to win a duel to even stay alive and even out on a trade count.
And they're not even getting past the first hurdle.
then the cascade just follows down.
It's a domino effect with pain players getting caught out trying to re-attain
some sort of control trying to trade out. They're getting blindsided from left,
from right, from center, from top, and pain are outplaying themselves right now.
Almost feels like they need to remember the golden rule.
Just keep it simple and go from there. An attempted trade onto art will
not work on two tries. Big Rosetta removed for that initial kill.
Now a flood in towards B from Fluxo who are picking up the pace here. I like this adaptation from Fluxo as well.
Once you get something going, just pull on scale forward. Lux is burnt into the smoke, you'll actually circumnavigate it, and get around with any easy falls victim.
In the meantime, Lux able to trade and snows come through for one onto Kai.
Or onto Nix rather, but Lux eventually falls.
Snow caught as well Cal as a winnable one versus three, but maybe a little bit too early on that spray
Can't get by the up and now three rounds in a row for flukes are off the drop
If caught within two of pain and pains money is gone and broke it a half by here hero m4 for luck
Maybe possible
But overall it's gonna be a pretty disastrous buy for the CT side and for a pain
It's time out time into round number 10 because flukes are gonna be within one
Yes they are.
A miraculous return to form for them as they find three in a row.
They finally break the CT common.
You aren't, I thought, pain.
Why to hit cruise control?
They step off the gas entirely.
Two hero rifles for Lux and NQZ.
Because the individuals are still hitting shots.
They're still across the board doing pretty well on the pain side.
Just losing the fights at critical junctures.
Hiding, holding underpass up close, unexpected angle.
No one's there to challenge Munder.
Will he be ready for this catwalk? Is the question.
Spockman, he's been boosted over the smoke. Good for one, the rifle recovered as well.
Player on catwalk, strax and lux trying to seize the day, whiffs the spray!
Snow will get the trade, but that's only the even things back up. Big Yuzera bullied on catwalk, won't find anything with that p2k.
It's actually Nyx flying to headshot him.
Snow and Kawa should be transitioning to save at this point.
Kawa's go middle, get one of the dropped A1S's or the AK.
AK, I think Catlock, there it is, two AKs, in fact, there won't be any contention from
these two pain gaming players as they both try to hold onto the AKs.
They are starting to heat up as well.
Good sign.
Very good sign for Fluke, so.
Paintease, oh go ahead.
They say their, their, he side is no slouch and their CT side is even better Fluke,
so.
Six should be more than enough.
You were going the exact opposite I was going.
Really I was in pain's tea side struggled against solid they need more than this bad
Who says at the same coin realistically speaking?
Suddenly not paying a pretty picture for pain who one five in our own now on a four-wrapped slide
We have a good investment now off friend QC's and a fact. He's been a solid with that weapon
And we are seeing the big adjustment. I wanted to see more presence in middle
They use their jumping up catwalk looking for something looking to challenge
and then he's over towards Pickett, to also support if required.
That's a good little move towards Spigot, but Big Eusetta lives to tell the tale.
He'll retreat up the ladder into its safety.
Flukesow slowing things down right now in the mid-round.
They've been going faster for the last few rounds,
trying to put pain into a spot where they're going for fights again,
which has worked out for Fluxo recently.
Fluxo has to have a lot of utilities.
Well, Pain are burning through their belts quickly.
Well, we are starting to get into the later stages of this round.
A hit will have to come through sooner rather than later.
And it looks like a B plays on the cards.
The fake towards A, 35 seconds to go.
Fluxo need to make their play end quickly.
Or one kill from Big U or Lux can exactly ruin everything.
Cowes is watching for the flank.
Smokes flashes all of fake and Cowes is going to take the bait here.
But Big Oos at his jump spot sees the bomb and all three.
Playing around the balcony, has support from Lux, back wood.
Snow gets another one, he'll go one for one, but Lux is there for a second!
Big Oos pops again!
And Nix will just have to back away as the fake fails for Fluxo.
And Payne, six rounds he gained.
Seven now, I think a necessity for them on the CT side, but the money more than good enough for flukes with a buy into this again
Zebby will have that up
And that would not be surprised if we see another faster-paced play coming in from the T's
Yeah, don't go too complicated
The fake did not work out. Honestly, I'm seeing a straight A-Lean thus far. It's not a bad idea
Three more aggressive towards the middle. They do typically retreat a while before they take control.
NQZ jumping underpass to hold with the oblong for an opening.
Big use air though is the one to start things off. Spamming in con.
I said the aggression mid might not be a bad idea, but it's shut down entirely.
The op of NQZ patient in underpass content knowing the big use air holds the top line,
finds a third, completely blindsides them.
Zevi, die. Final two. Try and do something. I'll mistook you right at the end of their control.
I wouldn't be surprised if we see a save at this stage. Especially for that op. The minute is a long time to wait.
Nix has money, but nobody else does. Art's gonna be in that danger zone for a rebuy.
I don't think paint are gonna hunt though. They don't have a lot of money either.
And they'll want to have a full belt of utility full rifles and everything else into the next round to the last round of the half
But one thing too pain have really simplified the defense in the last couple of rounds Nate
But they're not going for these chip trick plays these awkward fights and pushes. It's more simplified. It's more standard counter strike
Basic utility flash supports nothing over aggressive. There seems to be a trade when it comes down to it
And they're not over pushing for info
They're playing a much safer game, while still maintaining some form of aggressiveness and control.
And it's a good balance right now, and Flukesaw have not been able to counter it.
Might not be able to either, as there's only one round left in the half.
Aim got to that 70, said the probability required.
That was a funny Molotov from Big U.
7-4.
8 seems possible with the concessions that Flukesaw will need to make.
The individuals have arrived here and there for Fluke Cell.
There's a chance that they could upend our expectations in spite of the Galils.
Actually, this buy is far better than I expected it to be.
I was expecting at least one Mac 10 or a Tec 9.
Come back to what we started this half with.
A lot of interest put on the sites for the defense and more or less hands off in middle.
And to be weary of going back to this kind of play because he still has
exploited it before that opening the art of all people and I just have on the
board Kai just narrowly missing the spot onto snow a half second too late or we
would have had a not a free headshot because it's still a skill shot to hit
but it would have been a good opportunity to level things out at
four players each. Look at the T spawn control from Bigis Eta and Cowas as well.
Bigu's going through but this could be a false positive leaning in towards a B hit
as mid open no information there. You're calling it Nate it's a problem which
has been exploited before by Fluxo. They're looking to work their way into
A. Cowas's position makes this a bit better for Payne. He has almost a
power position for a plant. It's not something you'd expect to see. Snow is
gonna get the spot into jungle and that's going to reveal a lot but now
Nix is expecting somebody here. It's a great read from him. Kawa's can't pop up and grab the kill.
He'll toss a smoke instead to buy himself a little bit of space to work with.
But this should be a bomb plan for Flux. Although the bomb's on the op and it's fighting out
towards ramp. Kawa's taking damage but still not down. Finally drops as snow gets pushed in
and is able to eliminate Kai. They think about pushing up, but instead play the smart and
long game over the smoke on the Pieria. Lux catches Nix. They know where Zevi is
is giving that kill onto Snow and Zebby.
Flash dodges it.
Two players around the corner.
One dies, Biggie trades an 8-4 half
for pain into the break.
Oh, that's nice.
Like I might be stuck in a dream.
Stay here till the day breaks.
Feeling like I never want to move until the sunrise.
Strictly first half ends with pain gaming ahead by 4.
8-4 is the score as they enter the T side, the more difficult side of Mirage, Pineapple
Phillips and Boggs on the mic, Fluxo with some ground to make up, going for a very traditional
investment.
Four sets of Kevlar smoke, hit for Nix.
On the other side, we have two sets of utility spread out across three players, NQZ dropping
his Molotov over to Big U-Zera.
No super soldiers for either team, and it looks like a very heavy A site lean for pain gaming
as this row smoke connector, and race out of the ramp into an empty bomb site.
Yeah, it was a mid and B play from Flukesaw, and the bluff gets called, it's a fast
sprint out, and Snow getting that bomb down.
Well, we'll start the 5 man hold here for Pain. Have to be careful not to give these 1v1s to the USPs.
That is Case and Point Exhibit A from Zevion to Kha'az.
Ben QZ though, long flank on the through top middle, has some help in towards bottom mid.
Kill's now starting to level up. Zevion with 2 more!
Oh, Dobb! Zevion's bringing this back here for Pain, for Flukesaw rather.
As he's charging in, taps the bomb, does not know, snow is behind triple box. No kit for Zevion.
No, buying time! Contacted! Winning the duel in the end! But Fluke so, exactly why?
You don't want to peek 1 vs 1 when you're holding against USPs on Glocks, on T side, on Pistol.
They made it close. Yes, it took some individual prowess from Zevi, but the thing is,
USP 1 shot headshot, you don't want to peek into that fight if you have the advantage.
Glocks are great close range mid range. Why force the issue onto the fights?
I get it maybe pained want to go and have some dinner or something, but
That almost ended really bad
Then pain going for your rifle centric second round by three glills and a K and a Mac 10
I need to make sure their bonus round is as scary as possible
Think you need to be careful bottom mid are a bunch of players here. If I do the five stack middle from the US peas
invested nothing
Now they're basically all on catwalk with one going market
The long flank might be in order this could overwhelm one player
More than one or two kills would be a lot to ask
the outspotted
back down
NQZ doesn't know the numbers that lie outside of tea apartments. It's just gonna be exits here if
that
Pain don't need to push out Lux can go for some money
And I support that call long-range Mac 10 kill close range Mac 10 kill mid-range Mac 10 not gonna work out and
Lux on low HP will back away not wanting to risk his life
Good discipline there get a couple of
Not quite a couple thousand, but 1200 bucks is pretty solid
and now for pain
They have their galils. They're Mac 10 the AK
No helmets on nicks or art or Pyrrha. No armor at all
for Zebby. Not a kit. Minimal utility. As far as Molotovs are concerned, two incendiaries,
a good company of smokes, minimal flashbangs, a couple of HEs, and a missed cat jump running
through the Molotov is high while blind down to 73 HP. Smoke will enable him to hide and
then eventually cross up into Khan and A safely, but pain or bisect in the map.
Putting their mid A-split on the table, smokes Molotovs into Khan, and now the mid control
starting to really come through.
Moving up towards Khan as the A-players to ramp one palace, wait out for the set time.
Xevi trying to peek with that AWP, sees nothing.
Pierrya here, on stairs, is the main point of contact, has to stand tall.
The Fade does not favor him, a great flash from Lux, and big Ozzera entries onto Kai
as well.
from Ticket for Booth, will spray down one, tries to go for more, but he cannot get more
than the one.
The op shot on Zevvie reveals its position, and it will have to be saved city for Fluxo
about to go down by seven.
As the bomb gets planted by NQZ, Zevvie ennix into apartments to huddle and hide.
And Nate Payne are establishing dominance here early on again on the T side this
time.
Two rounds away from the map.
round away from guaranteed OT. And the leagues ahead of their opponents.
Seems like Fluxo find themselves on the back foot early, make the correct read and the
correct adjustment, come back for a couple. But Payne simply had that depth of knowledge,
that depth that comes with building up that team chemistry, which Fluxo simply do not
have. Again, Fluxo adding two new players recently. We haven't had that time. Three
We will survive for pain, both the Fluxo players will survive as well for their efforts as
if you could drop an M4 or a Famos to buy some utility.
They could force buy a round that's like they almost have to, wouldn't give them enough
room to go down 4-12, so they'll go all-in.
The guy has a bit of money in the bank, no one else really does.
2M4s, 2MP9s, an OP, of course that being saved, while pain have full rifles and
an op of their own on NQZ. Missed window smoke, gives it a beauty out of the opportunity to
peer into middle. The pain seemed to be leaning for a straight B play. There's an op on Kat,
Nix's jump spotting. They can get ahead of the utility. They can just take control of
the site. They failed doing this versus solid, but this time around they get out with
little fuss. Swing comes through, Nix is good for one, Nix is good for two on
On the MP9, Zevi on Catwalk might just find one as well, pain to find themselves in a difficult
spot just below the window, marooned with no map control.
Zevi should have snow dead to the right to be pressed to the issue, the player jail is
caught.
Good one for Snow, the op as well, only legs and QZ doesn't take him out of the round.
Big U is on a flint and has activated, one secured, a second on Catwalk should
be expected.
Grounded down far from over, next to Big U's here as Heroic, Sky finds one, Big
Big U a trade via the guy in market but both remaining T-side players are lit and they line
up no the upshot misses and QZ drops down for another chance at Bat.
Big U finds Kai, Zevi is known to be far back on the calak timing is against him and
this pair brings it back from the break.
Big U Xerva's flank paying off in a big way.
flank from Big U, long in having its impact, but the impact won the round for pain.
If Big U doesn't activate that flank, there's no way that Snow and NQZ are able to battle
their way out of that.
Snow getting that kill as well into jail is huge.
That opens up the possibility of that flank having so much impact.
And that's the individuals of Ayn just showcasing what they need to do.
NQZ blinded burning, gets told to get out of the Molotov, backs out of there.
Snow tucks in towards underpass stairs, hoping to catch somebody pushing forward.
Kai may just give it to him. He's aggressing through kitchen. Big is at a to group up with snow as well.
Hoping somebody goes probing a little bit too aggressively for a flukesaw up against the wall on their map pick.
Map number two being dust two as well, a great map for pain.
And that'll let NQZ's AWP have a lot of impact, although I will like to see Zevi on the AWP for Fluke so
if they can even get it into his hands, he has not had the AWP all too often.
Last round of Glass Cannon made his life all the more difficult.
And this little game of chicken up an apartment, great flash dodge by Kai.
He read that so well, he'll be able to get one for one, but gets a lot of damage off of it on the second player as well.
Be not quite open either for pain and they're not going to force the issue here.
They're going to play a little bit slower and I like that call.
You don't need to rush the site off of that pick.
Draw some rotations so little chaos, let Kao'ez and Lux do something.
Lux though only dies, leaving a lot onto Kao'ez's shoulders as he creeps out of a ramp.
Expecting the player in hell.
Has a clean fight on it as well, but he's gonna go towards jungle one blind great watch from big u3 versus 3
Do they clear hell though? They haven't cleared it out just yet somehow some way nix is still alive
He'll get one, but only one big you trade grabs the bomb, but he has his knife out
He's taught by piri off one and two for piri off as fluxo will stay alive here
And not go out on their own map dick just yet money good enough for another buy from pain
But a narrow victory for Fluxo means they have to reinvest significantly as well.
Their utility looking strong though won't have the op for Zevi, couple of MP9s for Nixon
Art, but otherwise a decent CT buy.
Kits on 4 too, that's something we like to see.
The pain are still in control.
They are.
I'm interested in that last round, NQC found the trade on the opening against Kai.
It was given an AK by big user. It went for the fight and they're brought back to the op
Mm-hmm the very weird shifting of rifles there
So still not out of the woods with two MP9s in hand no op either
rival NQZ
Paying gaming's economy has been expended at this point into this round
If Fluxo can hold on for another round, they should get a seventh off the back of this one
Of course, they have to win the first to get the second, but do a lot for their economy.
Starts with one.
Yeah, something they can get the save or they can clean against the save.
I'll have five.
Finally be able to get full rifles, maybe even an AWP, would be a big bolstering to their
chances in this map.
Zeffy's good with the rifle, he's better with the AWP, so you definitely want to
get him on the big green gun. Lux though catches Kai. That's an unlucky start for
Fluxo. Traded back at these big ones that are removed. He's been an impactful
player for paying. Lux trying to scale forward and getting more damage done.
Art forced into Sandwich. He's not gobbled up as Piriah. Another one.
Molotov forces Art out of the open. He'll burn alive. Three versus three now.
Zevi long range duel. Fixed the awkward fight. Eats a lot of damage and
Piriah removed by NQZ's op. Zevi flashes for Nix and now in the two
versus two, next goes up, he goes down,
and 20 HPs heavy trying to clutch this one up
and keep Fluxo alive and map one their pick of Mirage.
Does not been good for Fluxo, a four round streak,
halfway through the first half has been all
they've really been able to put on the board,
and it will be all they're able to really do
as Snow shuts down the last little creep and pain.
I won't say it was the smoothest map for them,
but the score line was good.
It was relatively clean overall.
And aside from that little hiccup,
those four rounds they lost in a row,
that was a very good performance from Payne.
A very solid performance with the majority
of the individuals carrying more than their own weight.
I think it was Cowiz, maybe struggling a little bit,
lagging behind the others,
but otherwise everybody's hitting shots.
Everybody was playing above or at their expectations,
depending on if they're a star player or not.
And it did feel like across the board,
Payne were outclassing individually
and as a team, their opponents in Fluxo.
I have to agree, Payne looked like they had
the better cohesion, the better aim, the better reads,
and that is what you expect when you have a team
that's ranked 12th in the world
playing one of these qualifiers,
they should be taking it with relative ease.
But Fluxo have at least one more chance
to try and stem the bleeding.
Dust two's up next, and we'll be headed to that
right on the other side of this break.
Ladies and gentlemen, coming hot off the heels
of that first map of Mirage,
pain taking that 13-5 a relatively one-sided affair for them, Pineapple Philips and Boggs
on the mic. Boggs, our pre-game analysis, said that Fluksos' path to an upset started
and hinged upon Mirage. Now that has fallen by the wayside, where do we think they can
find salvation in this series?
Oh, that's a tough question, Nate, because you look at the statistics, a 4-7 record
for Fluxo on Dust2. Losses twice against Red Canids recently, Bestia three times recently.
They're only notable teams that feed it on the map, W7M and Vikings, neither of which
we're qualifying for this qualifier. Over on Pain, their one loss came to Imperial,
and that is surrounded by an island of wins, including teams the caliber of Virtus Pro,
Heroic, and 9Z. It's going to be incredibly tough for Fluxo to take on Pain on this
map of dust to what salvation they have lies in the oping prowess of Zevi and the rightfully
imperial showing up from the beginning to give flukes of the opportunity to get Zevi's
op in hand and then start something strong. They do start on the CT side. So getting that
op out round number three round number four is imperative. Yeah, I was going to say I
think more so Zevi is required than PD out short. PDA is the star, but a lot
relies on your AWPer especially on a map like Dust2.
He had an okay performance on Mirage but as you mentioned just rarely getting the AWP out,
rarely having a chance to really shine in his intended role.
That cannot be the case on Dust2, I have to agree with you.
He needs to have armor, he needs to have an AWP and he needs to be given the space required
to really make the plays his team needs.
Because I think right now, sure, everybody could step up individually, art could start to hit shots.
But what it really comes down to is those stars.
Those stars need to be enabled and you be played around and played correctly.
And from there, they might have a shot again, as you mentioned stats,
simply paint a dismal picture for Fluxo in this second map.
They really do paint a dismal picture for Fluxo.
And the first map also adds to that as well. Fluxo won four rounds on the
T side. They came in a bunch.
They came with pain, getting a little over aggressive,
a little too smart for their own good, trying to be too fancy.
Payne simplified their game, started winning their aim duels again, being in favorable positions too when those aim duels as well,
not being out in the open, able to be killed by three different angles, and Fluxo only won one round on that CT side,
and that was a bit of a weird one as well at that.
So, for Fluxo, just looking at what we saw in this game so far, looking at what we saw from them yesterday as well.
Structurally, they don't stack up with pain.
Individually, they can, but they haven't showed that over these two days so far.
They're going to need to find another level entirely to be able to take this pain team
to a third.
Yeah, I have to agree with you, especially after seeing that first map.
13-5, as you mentioned, there's that four-round streak for them in the first half to give
them something to stand on, but they completely collapsed once pain hit the D-side, which
is the more difficult side as well. So, just to wrap up that we are heading to now, it is the CT side at
least for Fluke, so something for them to try to build upon, but we need to see a newly reinvigorated
team if they want to send us off to Vertigo. Cat is live, Kai has upgraded Dually's,
Ilya has some utility, brought a piece over to Zevi as well. Pain. Again, two sets of
of Utodi spread out across four and a P250 Super Soldier through Lux to try and fight at
range over towards Long.
Nick's trying to tap away, cannot come up with anything positive yet, backs towards Gandalf.
Zevi gets the opener actually onto Snow, but Gandalf has been sent down to fight the
Balrog NQZ doubles it up as well
4 versus 3 now for pain as the CT's try to flood in for the retake kai's able to get one up close with those
Dulys and cows will be right around the corner met with a nice head shot
Leaving it all down to Lux P250 raid boss sure, but three on the other side cannot connect the shots for the first
The tap is on it's not even planted for him and
Lux would just do what damage he can here might even be better off to save the armor art deals with him
And Fluke's a critical pistol round to get their first lead in this series. The bomb plant though is the big question
And whether or not pain will buy off the back of it will have a lot of importance on to the rest of this round
What was it planted? It was planted back big bucks. Why? I?
Do not know and I asked myself the same question
Lux was staying in pit with the explicit purpose of playing the bomb at range on the p250
Just playing default box. There was more than enough space bought, more than enough space afforded, especially once they found Gandalf.
So miscommunications early perhaps for pain, and normally they're more than happy to go for the second round of mesh, especially with a bomb plant, but this time around they're playing it more passive, more cautious.
Cowaz and Lux going for Deagle's, a flash for Biguzera.
It's because NQZ gets an op next round.
Yeah. You can see an op from NQZ, because you got those two kills.
You're on prior.
You're gonna be 9's 3M Force to rebuke this straight out middle for a bunch of the pistols.
Seeing how much space they're being given, they actually jump up towards Catwalk instead.
I don't hate this, but they're gonna struggle versus Kai and Zevi's M Force.
A Deagle can always make a difference.
If it finds one, they can scale off of that and grab another.
Zevi will also be a little bit late unless he gets the call as he tries to come back.
My face removes the first, Nate is stopping up the rest, spraying wildly while blind only
gets two, and the bomb plant will come through here, which never mind, that's the longest
three and a half seconds I've ever seen.
I thought that NQZ was going to be able to get that to dirt, he was not able to.
Silence thereby is heavy.
But Fluke so.
2-0 up, have to deal with the buy now and have to deal with that op of NQZ.
That's going to be the real big test here.
What that op can do.
What can that op do?
There's no op to rival.
A good tag early on.
Gone to art.
That boost up in towards underpass middle.
Turned off that damage.
Good maid from Catwalk though.
Gives away almost as much in return on the snow and big you.
And a fiery hot start from Zevion the rifle.
Pushing long as the call for ACP's, and putting a lot of emphasis.
This is in fact all of the emphasis on middle.
That was just hiding behind long doors and pasting so he had to be a little bit too inquisitive.
Thank you. Around that smoke.
May have one or may fall. It's Piriya to get the drop on him.
Thank you. Not ready for an aggressive peek like that.
And there's some good rifling from Piriya early but it's traded back onto Kai by Lux.
Who tries to pick up the pieces and pick up some pieces as well.
Molotov to clear out the ram.
Expecting somebody else, but as he swaps to Utilities,
Xavi meets him with a two-tap Dirt and half NGZ around with the AWP.
Answers back and kinda nice off-shot.
Man, going aggressive can't hit that close flick.
But it's all but shut down on the retake here as Art on 26 HP walled out in CT.
Snow and Cowas might be low on health, but Art 1 does not know that too.
He's going to have to retreat here.
Pain will find themselves there first on the first gun round of this one.
And the money for Fluxo is not going to be ideal here, Art's going to grab an AK, have armor to save that with.
Pain will be able to reinvest as well, they get that off back for NQZ more importantly.
But for Fluxo, they fall at the first hurdle.
And even the lead here is going to be very difficult with this lack of economy.
It's going to be very difficult, they did well to find damage, but they couldn't quite get it across the line.
Is she going to force by with art on a P250?
I don't hate it.
I hate that was.
Yeah.
The video though completely lacking utility.
Four players without helmets.
That is a non-factor however.
And no kits in play.
So she'll be trying to win this by attrition, by duels.
And very respectful.
One player at lower times it's a big U, but everybody else towards top middle, or even
towards spawn.
So just through smoke towards X-Box, flush mid doors, mid 25 and not a lot of control
to be spoken of as of yet.
The player stack on Catwalk is definitely a play from Luxo, in-gaming or sidestepping
that part of the map, but going for a B-play, just leaving cows outside long as he's been,
The rest of the team rooping up into its tunnels.
Ready to pop in, the smoke will be a bit late, although Art will still win one, and maybe even a second fight.
Indeed, a second fight.
They go up one by one by one.
Snow's able to trade, but he's traded right back in a moment.
Three for one for Flukesaw.
That is brilliant stuff, but at the same time, the spacing was off for pain,
giving Art the ability to win two of those fights.
One while blind.
And the late peek from Snow just exposing himself, NQZ now on a 1 versus 4 to do some damage.
And that's going to be an op for Zevi.
Surely that Flukesaw can bring into the next round if they're able to take down NQZ, which...
...appears? Flukesaw don't want to hunt.
And I guess with that economy, it makes it...
Oh yeah, they got full AKs.
That makes a lot more sense now.
They'll just save their AKs and be content to leave that over to Payne in the next round.
But a shaky start for Payne on this T side.
and for Fluxo the individuals are coming alive. Zevi in particular hasn't even had an opiate. He's up to seven kills.
Kiria's rifle has been good as well. Art has been solid and
Nix hasn't even been needed.
As a little bit concerned though
about pain gaming to rank slow T side default three players not even in middle just outside of long doors
about half a minute
They actually slowly pushed down a little, but they don't show much of any presence towards Catwalk.
Let's get control and then make a decision.
Half-buy around the saved op. Interesting call given the fact that NQZ has zero in the bank.
So are happy playing their own game. They've not been challenged long.
They're taking a lot of control there very quickly.
I'm wondering when Pain will finally decide to go for an early pop out of that direction.
As far as Fluxo has been spoiling that expertly, that is a missed smoke from Payne to be popping on top of the box.
They're left in the round with no contact being taken by either team.
Payne slowing it down on Cat, now moving out into middle looking for an up opening which has not been given.
The discipline style of CT defense for Fluxo right now, Nate goes in!
that distracts the upper but Lux trades it back. Art may fall if he does the bomb can go down.
There's the trade Lux stab in the back though and Cowan's gets two from behind.
It's not necessarily a winnable round but the economic damage is substantial.
Cowan's will live with an AK. Nix will survive with one of his own and Cowan's
might even be able to get that off back for NQZ. Indeed he does. He'll drop that to NQZ.
Probably Mach 10 armor this next round but the economic damage is amends to Fluke.
So who are going to have to struggle to get everything back in there will not be much residual bank account for them
And they're gonna double off set up this one with no utility
Essentially for art and Zevi a smoke for both in a flash for Zevi no helmet for art
This is a bold move cotton
Game has been full of surprises thus far back 10 for cow as well
Well, our tunnels, excuse me, the focal point once more for pain.
The idiot is close, he'll throw a smoke at it at 30, getting that control slowly, makes
it boost it up long again.
He's not really even challenged in this position yet, he actually has zero kills.
I should tell you how few times they've gone long.
Somebody else who has zero kills is as big as Eta.
It's even more concerning.
Finally a long play, but Nix is in a very interesting spot.
Good for one only one.
Good trade in the Mac 10 now as an upgrade. I gotta race forward to try and play the corner
Flash, good dink but not the kill the AK skill discs against the M4
Flash over long still defenders here too
Xavi's off misses the mark now he has to play a lot closer and a lot more fraught one for one
That was a good trade to maintain the advantage
Yeah, still on catwalk. He's still looking to regain control of the site
Art is here as well, going far more unwieldy in a retake.
Drop the car should have one head to right, yes it does.
Art at this point should be saving.
Yeah, there's no realistic chance back in for Art here.
The question is, does he hold onto his op or does he drop it over to Zevi?
He should drop it.
Shoot is the key word there.
Will we see Art channel his inner Zeus? That is the question.
We'll see. The other thing is too, actually considering the lack of armor, he probably should keep it.
Unless they go all in here. Which, Zevi and Art on double eek.
Maybe you go all in. Yeah, so I think they are going to go for the full force.
Art will keep the up. It's the spawn base.
Okay, he had the long spawn and Zevi's following.
So I think it's going to be get, kill, or not swap off.
Probably going to be the call here.
And early engagement out long.
Not going to end up with anything either direction.
The off, but now in Zevi's hands.
So they go for the spawn play. I respect it.
Doesn't pan out yet.
So go into a more standard CT side setup.
Kai's going to get all this information on the sound.
And, Zedby's actually gonna fall down with that off,
Nix fix it up next in line,
but he also actually nevermind, it's Kai who falls instead.
As that opens up the B side of the map,
there's information there's multiple players towards A.
Pain can push the gas here
and get on towards a free B site.
Now with Pierria falling, it is wide open indeed.
Art on scopes makes noise.
Nix is spotted and removed.
Art will fall as well.
Pain a flawless anti-force by shutting down flukesow now closing the gap to one round trying to get a lead here in the next couple
Making that flawless definitely helps their t-side economy helps their confidence
Wondering what that pain gaming smoke is if it's a missed lineup. It just pops right outside mid doors
You saw in blue. Yeah, no idea what that is. I'm assuming it's a club
and they made
I'm sorry there's no more than once.
Unless that's an actual set smoke to cover their back side from Cat?
Sure.
I'm with you.
Thank you.
A mixed bag of damage around the smoke is tagged quite low so now we'll get the first
instead.
Lots of damage being taken by Payne, maybe that would keep this relatively clean.
Another D, an NQZ, a beheads one.
Lots of damage, PDA finally opens it up finding one.
Art is now alone and burned in the corner of elevator 4-4 could have been a far more expensive round
Instead of only one rifle is felled
Hey, did them a while to get on the board and now at a tideball game
Yeah, that's I ballgame for pain right now
helping their cause on this T side of dust to they are
More CT side it is you might expect
62.7% on the CT side 56.2 on T
It's not a bad T-side by any means, but still, they favor the defense decently significantly.
And for Fluke so, their CT side actually happens to be the worst.
46.5% versus 51.9%, Art around the car though will put an end to statistics and they get one kill, only one however.
That opens up the B site, but it's gonna have to be held out by the-
Oh my gosh, NQZ!
Silenced M4, one spot he knew it could be, and gets Flair credits for the headshot too.
Still holding off this B site, which was what I was about to say before he hit that shot.
He has to hold out B before all these rotations come, and the rotations are coming through.
Now Lux is actually on the outside of tunnels, trying to break his way in.
Now spotting these players is probably going to try and flash his way out and go to A.
Oh wait for Kawa to come on through. Long range of benign dual one, forced down and Kawa's caught as well.
He'll get all down to NQZ, has two, needs two more. They know he's on the B side proper.
He knows roughly where they are. The AWP is not a good weapon to use in this situation,
but at least it is a one-shot kill for his HP indeed. Flash over top, peeks early, and he's done.
Flukesaw will maintain the round, but Pain make it really, really close and very, very costly.
Not costly, especially for a CT side. Pain, though.
You know that renders all over the place. No, it shouldn't have been that chaotic in that...
probably danger. So they will call a tactical timeout, try to tighten things up.
Flank was far too disjointed, at that point far too expected.
needs to be more tightened up, more quick, more ready.
We'll have to send the talk things out.
We'll have a full buy still, the pain side. As will Fluxo,
who are still lacking a bit of utility, but full buy for certain.
Zeviz op has looked quite solid, then again so has NQZs.
Both are top the board for the receptive teams.
On number 10, not alive, in which direction do pain go?
spread out underpass and long to hold its colors of course in three tunnels
including the op of NQZ trying to find an opening on this B site three more
rounds in the half smoke blooms bottom mid as pain worked their way around just
trying to set up locks will double up on the spray though that's a massive double
entry out middle the boost gets knocked down and toppled B site is open
They don't know it yet, but they will soon as snow begins to clear towards the site through upper tunnels.
Buck's going to Catwalk, spots a leg, but doesn't click on the head.
It's a quick shot from Zevi. Nix is answered back by NQZ's hop.
The bomb is actually going to end up on A here, which is quite an interesting conundrum for pain.
The A site is where Zevi's hop remains, but Tau has a little bit of an finicky movement there.
Will throw Zevi's crosshair off to lead him along and up to shoot.
And Kai walks right into the waiting arms of big is that a five all here in the last two rounds of the first half dust to the pick up
pain
Luke so lost their own map pick a mirage 13 five and their money
It's horrible. They can't buy a full round
All but guaranteeing pain at least getting six on the T side
Isn't what you would have expected to given how this map started
The fours are gonna start, or one start?
I think those are four one, yeah.
That's a five five, and like we have five six.
One scout for art, one deagle for pideos all they invest.
Heavy, working up mid though, could timing one.
All five for pain going out long, this is quite the commitment, especially against
pistols.
You have a cow as on that flank watch is that he's pretty close quarter. Yes, but he's still caught no damage done
Second is expected
Isn't going to force the issue
And
So slowly getting control of long in fact all four flukesau players now are flanking cow as finds a second
Third box of fourth gets that and here's the fifth. It's a clean ace
In the anti eco for cow as you rocket to the top of the board
clean and collected from him and Payne now well poised to potentially take the
lead steal the lead in this first half that would be massive for Payne to be
able to steal away a lead given their slow start on this map where Fluxo
were looking good Payne just steady as she goes not even needing big was at a
much at all he only has three kills and a half it's no only has four but
The Lux cow has an MQZ, really putting up the pressure.
Zevvie's first off hit towards Kat, this round goes awry.
And Lux, who had another one on to Piriah, out lower tunnels.
He's tagged down low, but it does not matter.
Opening pick goes the way of the T side.
Kai, beginning to try and gain some cat control.
Molotov is late, but MQZ's on the angle.
Bligoo will get his gun out in time, spotting Kai out,
and shutting him down a little bit late.
But again, not expecting somebody in front of that Molotov
too early. Two picks for the price of none for pain as they still work around the map,
beginning to slowly take long controls. All three remaining Fluxo players push towards
middle. Fluxo trying to regain some sort of semblance of control. Nix clearing up towards
lower tunnels. Spotted by Lux who's not able to get the kill but do they expect the
second player here in snow? No they don't actually avoid it and it go towards A reading
to play well. Flash goes high, push comes across the smoke, and Snow comes in from behind
with one, maybe two. No, he's shut down, but Big Uzzetta has the last pair, seven to five
for Payne, into the second half.
Slow start for Payne, ends with a slight lead, seven to five heading into their CT side
of Dust2, their map pick. It's Pineapple Phillips and Boggs on the mic, and a tech
to start off the second half. Hopefully things aren't too crazy. Nope, nevermind, we're already
cancelled into the action. Payne, slow start ends with that and the narrow lead. They already
took their opponents' map, pick 13-5. Victory here. They book their spot at ESL Challenger,
Katowice. That would be a big opportunity for them to get some more international experience.
A team like Pain, hungry for more of that. They definitely have had some, but they would love more, especially with the major looming around the corner as well.
Everyone trying to get as much opportunity against the best as they can. Fluxo. All up long. No contention from Pain. A lot of mid control from this side.
side, almost similar to what Fluxo did on their own CT pistol half, but there's
more convergence, more proactivity coming in from this pain side. That smoke on
Kat's gonna clue in quite a bit of information. Nade will go through, flashes
in, Molotovs as well, sight under the control of a Fluxo. In come the pain
gaming boys, one for one trade, team kill as well as the dual Beretta
shooting everything that moves kills going back and forth snow into a one versus one as the chaos and
dust settles snow runs out of ammunition he's able to get a quick reload off in time spamming away
but nix will survive and win the war of attrition flukesaw winning both pistol rounds now should
give themselves a foundation to try and close out dust too and take us to vertigo the third
map if we have to require it, but pain are going for a force. Five sevens for Snow and
Cow as a deagle for Lux, a scout for NQZ, and Biguzera opting in for the UMP mate. Had
no money for an MP9 if you wanted to get a helmet. And so we see the UMP which seems
to have a little more favoritism to players playing long range angles.
Scout from NQZ does good damage relatively early on Dezevi.
TGs are kind of spread out across the map currently.
I think you mentioned that UMP up close in the jump-up box of Catwalk.
Pretty solid spot for it to play.
I'm wondering if he's gonna jump with it.
Why, LuXoR thinking about going to Catwalk as well.
Left in the round.
How much contact being taken beyond that scout shot.
That doesn't appear to be the name of the game and QZ is set up at cars is a very
solid setup for this CT side he can tag them as I cross big you can peek off
contact 38 seconds left a fake for a B-split of course no one's buying it
jump up for PDA spotted tag he and the kind is not been spotted by the car it
gets the first I'm in QZ second secured by that wrap in from CT spawn what
It looked like a potent setup is dismantled clearly.
Plank on the player long already.
Tags Cal-Wes down to 40.
Crown is done at this point.
These players will be saving their Kevlar for the following.
The question is, if Cal-Wes will get far enough away from these scrappy duels because
Fluke-So, or at least Art, seems keen on hunting a couple of players down.
Yeah, this is becoming a little bit rougher here for our pain as they just struggle
to stay alive here with their setup that looked good in the initial outstart of the round,
falling apart and becoming a bit of a non-sequitur.
So the hunt is on for these pistols, the SMG looking for extra cash it will not find.
And a tie scoreline heading into round 15 here.
No buy for pain, they'll go with what they had for the last round saved.
5-7's the deagle. NQZ will save everything he has for an op in the next round. And for
pain, a couple of kills, maybe grab a rifle. Things can get a little more expensive for
the T side, that's about what they're looking for. For Fluxo, it's just get the round
clean and that's a good start.
One of those saves heads to Kevlar.
Check the spotter to end mouthfell.
Thank you, Zia, not going to be long for the world as far as he just sits around at the mall top.
The shopping power is not there.
Eagle, end 5-7.
Smoke on the cross, they might just save that Kevlar as well.
So we'll retake the lead, 8-7.
Question is, will they hunt these two players down?
The SMG is worth hunting, with don't use a rifle.
It's not worth losing a Galil or an AK, take out pistols and armor.
And even the MAC-10 is not really going to go too far forward.
Gets a spot, but how much further are they willing to commit to this hunt?
Art's getting supported here, he'll drop down, it's been heard.
Maybe actually get a second player coming through.
The Deagle from Lox actually connects on nothing.
That's a...
Alba 5-7's also not doing anything either!
Finally does some damage to that smoke, and Snow's gonna just try and hide!
Smoke bomb keeps him alive!
Man, I'm still curious how Art managed to survive unscathed for that long.
It seemed like he was going to be tagged, if not bagged, early on in that overall engagement.
But with that aside, this is the first real test for Fluxo on the T side,
And the first test they have to pass if they want to take us to a third.
First real big test.
To prove that they have not only that early sprint, but also that marathon mentality required to come back.
NQZ.
The body middle around the smoke.
He's nothing.
There's a player Xbox so he needs to be careful.
Opt.
Slowly working its way in.
Flashbang compels him to leave.
Said he misses the shot.
Q is here to support as well.
Catwalk control taken by Fluxo.
A might be again at the site of choice for the T side.
Kawas and Pit.
If he goes two for one, that's huge.
First peek works out.
He's able to escape.
Tosses smoke to maybe enable him to cross away.
That's a question mark for Fluxo.
They don't know where he's gone.
Expecting somebody towards the corner as well.
Snow shows it's a really good trade by Nix
and a great read by Fluxo.
Kawas now in a very awkward spot.
as Fire reigns in on his position as well, unsupported.
Big Ozzetta coming in late, that smoke will fade momentarily.
Big Ozzetta's spot, but his cow is to get the kill,
and I believe they know somebody tucked into blue as well.
Zebby now reveals himself with the kill.
Zebby though, working around,
hit and finished,
and Pain only losing two players in this round,
denying the bomb plant, getting the extra AWP as well.
Very solid first gun round on the CT side.
all of the first gun rounds. That was all the opportunity to potentially break this piece
out economy. Never mind, maybe another round will be required. We'll see how low they get.
Devil off in effect. Snow picking up a secondary.
Towards long as the call flukes are changing the pace. Biggie with a molotov will be cooking
up. I don't think so. They're going to race out ahead of it. Biggie will take the
duel around the smoke. One secured a bit. Hap has it, but he gets the kill. AK
picked up now. A second, not quite, but so much damage done. However, flukes
So do come out on top of this engagement with two kills.
NQZ, his up wasn't taking the fight.
Instead it fell back car.
He needs to be careful because he has been exploited here
a couple of times.
He does not have a smoke to save his life
if Amal is off his throne.
Will Amali be thrown in his position?
Will they go long A?
It seems to be not the case as Luxor are backing away
from long and working their way towards mid
and potentially cat.
spot the retreat of Snow at secondary op over towards B. I don't know if the op will be communicated back or not
If that's something that God noticed locks the timing as he backs away
Might actually save his life if he can get to a better position
But no gone out not gonna save him from a shot from Zevi and using out a car the last line of defense
This is the first trial and misses the second onto elbow as well
would have been flanked in by ART regardless but not even getting a kill out of that situation is disastrous for pain so
We'll try to save the hunt is already on Kai in lower tunnels
Probably continue his push and arts going through T spawn. They have to know where snow is triangulated his position
He'll at least deal with one
Spets the second cannot quite get it done though and so the double ops get nothing at all and
Luke so maintain their trepidatious lead
but they're getting closer and closer to putting this one over.
Inching forward more and more, now resetting the CT economy to get a tenth off the back of that.
Just paying gaming's half-by-magic comes into effect.
Two Deagles, 5'7", P250, and a scout for Kawa is not for NQZ.
Is anyone spotting towards the underpass? Good tag onto Lux.
Slow around from Fluxo on this T side.
I'm liking how Fluxo have kept up with pain on this map of Dust2.
There's no real frills to Fluxo's game.
It's just play together, use flashes well, use smokes well, and isolate these pain players.
It hasn't even really necessarily been a skill diff, it's just been a read diff overall.
As this late press middle though could be an X factor if the ascent defenders can buy enough time
big if
They're really forcing the issue could teach a place. Yeah T spawn late rotation could do them in as well
Pediatrics one as you expect the second doesn't seem like it. He's going so he's back towards underpass. Yeah
You do the mix on fall back against the player long doors instead now stuck between two but he just by time 30
as a bomb is at long doors. A good dink on the pedi-op, but just out of the one shot headshot range.
This player right side middle should be all they need. NPD is near clear. He's dead to rights.
No, with the AK in hand, can't even find one. Kai's shots are impeccable right now.
Head secured. Lead re-established for Fluxo. Pain, a rifle by hand, but this rifle by
needs to get extended to more than one victory. Get this round, get the next at least.
It really remained viable in this one.
Yeah, Painter's struggling here on their map pick, and it's a map they've only lost once
that lost came to Imperial as a while ago as well.
Flukes are really maintaining the pressure, they're handling it well, they're making
good adjustments off of information they've gained.
And Painter kinda going back to these same setups, which I can't even say are tried
and true, as it hasn't necessarily been working all too much.
Bucks does a little bit of chip damage on his heavy top middle, but it's not
in a matter all too much. That op of NQZ also has not been as impactful as you would like
if you are pain. The rifle of Kawa's, aside from that ace at 10 kills, Lux has 13, everyone
relatively close on the pain side. But the moments at which these kills are coming through
are not necessarily the most impactful. Snow's already down for the count as well, and that's
gonna force Lux into an aggressive position towards upper tunnels through that smoke. He'll
spot out Kai, but Kai will not be taunted. Bigos out of two on the other side, top by one, and then
the other. Kai was an NQZ, forced to save with 58 seconds on the clock, which will shrink as the
bomb goes down. But Fluke's so up to 11 now, only two away from Vertigo, and a very good look from
Fluke. So when some of the worrying signs from pain we saw in Raj, and also against Solid
throughout their series earlier today are really coming back to haunt them and this adaptation
from Fluke so this mental fortitude as well from them is absolutely incredible.
This is what these two must survive. They have to already one down and QZ probably can't survive
with the op not against as many players hunting them down. One goes to cure two, secured three.
We're about two angles now and so he'll use a smoke instead.
Some spots from the other off kill friend, QZ, making it work in the pit, the spam does
not connect.
And so at least he will survive.
Pain.
He needs something, second tactical pause used.
On the cusp of a buy, Enki's he can throw up a rifle.
And we can get from mosses and SMGs across the board, but still far from ideal compared
to the investment of Fluxo.
It's far from ideal as maybe even a bit of an understatement.
It's pretty rough.
Two MP9s on a long, never mind that one MP9 on a long range map like Dust2,
a 5-7, the saved op, a USP and a P2K and a timeout.
Two MP9s now.
Cowas will get one.
Bigu is investing nothing?
Alright, are they saving for double up again?
Okay, Deagle armor, smoke, late buy up from Big U.
Maybe he was just too busy giving the play, giving the run down the game plan.
I don't know if Lux got spotted as he slinks into lower tunnels as well.
That could be a big impact.
Pyotr, yeah, flashing up, expecting something, but not really clear.
He was fighting for Cat.
EnQZ is tagged down low, Big U falls down.
They don't know Lux is here.
Can he get more than one go?
EnQZ naded and Lux goes high as Kai goes low.
Chavez pushes out, met by the shot from Art, leaving Snow in a 1 versus 4 to try what he
can to get the job done.
What can he do besides tank bullets on the spray?
That's the most promising for Snow as he may be finished off by Kai in the end.
One more round for Flukesow and we go to Vertigo.
They've all but taken us to a third.
And Payne are reeling, unable to get anything done individually, but a lot of that is
by putting themselves in spots where they're not necessarily favored in these duels,
but if Fluxo are taking complete advantage of it, working around and becoming more and more confident as time goes on,
the individuals are shining arts at 15, kills up there with Kai and Zevi at 14.
Pyrriaz done his job, but he hasn't needed to be the star.
The op actually hasn't even been the most impactful thing for Zevi.
It's his riflery that's been more important.
And this tea side from Fluxo.
Fluid when it needs to be
Strategic and rigid when it doesn't
Disciplined and overall very solid that the first real blunder we've seen from this fluke so tea side in quite a while
That might give pain a leg to stand on to bring this back and try to crawl for overtime
But it's for that needs to be there for pain
If we want to see bonus counter strike here
And they're desperate, that allows them to push literally every direction.
I would get the directed push, Catwalk and Lower Tunnels, sounds like a really deadly
combo.
The swing from the MP9 should have been a lot earlier in towards tunnels for example.
But they pushed everywhere, long, B tunnels, proper, lower, and Catwalk, two on Catwalk.
That's spreading yourself too thin.
Flukes obviously right at it, they're pushing everywhere, they're desperate.
It's not set them up well going up against the wall essentially, it's 12 to 8, they
after when 4 in a row as you mentioned. NQZ gives them a boon, they still need more.
4 vs 5 is still most certainly winnable for the likes of Fluxo.
Luckily you told him from the CT side too.
Not existent.
Snow gets team mollied as well, that's awkward. He will still finish off Kai, takes a lot
of damage as well. And now, coming in from CT spawn, the spray from Biggis Eta might
just keep the under window player alive. NQZ's AWP will shine again, leaving
Zevi and Art who have ops of their own to try and pull this back, not the best of guns to use in the situation.
Although Bigger Zeta is about to give Art an opportunity who he fails on as well.
And on time Zevi will live, but Pain will win the round, stay alive, draw closer to three now, shy of Fluxo's Mark.
But not a confident round for Pain in my opinion, they rely on an early pick and then
a bit of a scattered Fluxo play.
Yeah, looks a little bit more frazzled there.
Still three more attempts for them to close it out in regulation.
Boost up for the op in towards underpass.
There's the head pain game focusing on long and B-proper.
NQZ will eventually double back, but it's big use here to find the opening with a
nade onto art.
Nice first to find.
A G.L. take it down.
Over-aggressive.
Top of NQZ holds middle. Looks like Catwalk's gonna be the name of the game for the bulk of this Fluxo team.
You're already up top.
One lower tons and one Xbox jumping up now that you get three.
You got fun side things.
Aim, gotta put more emphasis on long instead.
Hold that down.
Ensure this take is only from one direction.
Bid split coming through but Bigger Zeta deals with one and a half of them Luxes there to support him from up top.
Pyryan Kai, who's isolated out in CT will try to bring this back and do some
economic damage at the very least. Kai may actually bring this back to a
winnable situation for Fluxo as well, already dealing with the first two he had
an opportunity on. NQZ's car position has not exactly been the strongest
either, and there's an op for Kai now to use. One shot death machine, NQZ
needs to hit these shots. We'll get cleared by the op of Kai who spots him
and wins the fight he's not an offer but he is right now bomb's gonna go down two
versus two retake a stay alive for pain who are hemorrhaging in money and about
to face vertigo barring a heroic effort from snow and the Luxe. Piria backs away
to support his teammate on the off in Kai who backs to long more defensible
position in general for Piria to hold flashes for Luxe to go up catwalk
from snow, but they're a bit early. Lux clearing up, seeing nothing time as of the
essence. What a what a shot from Kyrion just pops on up, hits the head, reverse
whack-a-mole. And Fluke so get us to a third, a great performance from them.
Everybody showing up, good calls and good reads from Art. That tea side from
Fluke so absolutely immaculate. Love what I see from them in this second
map in the recovery from a dismal mirage to this?
Fantastic.
For the exemplary, their stats did say
they were better on T side,
but I did not expect it to be that solid.
Not one pain are known to be very defensively
sided on this map.
They make a statement, they only lose two rounds
while winning eight in this second half.
And that is a remarkable return to form
that gives them a lot of breathing room
and a lot of confidence going into this third and final.
A ton of confidence for Fluxo going into the third map.
It's a map which Payne lost to Solid yesterday.
They have shown vulnerable abilities on in recent times.
And right now, the door is wide open for Fluxo to qualify
for ESL Challenger Katowice.
Can they get it over the line, though?
They survived a walloping on their own map pick.
They stole away Payne's home of Dust 2.
The 51st floor will settle this one.
So don't go anywhere.
We'll be right back with Vertigo in just a second.
One, please speak, because my mind is full of you, so I choose you.
One final map for the final qualifier of 2024.
It's the South American closed qualifier for ESL challenger,
Kettavitsa, Payne and Fluxo, splitting each other's map picks.
I'm Boggs, he's Pineapple Phillips.
We'll figure out who's qualifying for Kettavitsa,
but Nate, before we get to this map, it's going to Vertigo.
And I feel like this is going to add more injury to our situation where pain started out great.
A bit of a slide, only four rounds really on Mirage.
Dust two, they never really got their footing going.
And the real storyline is how Fluxo are improving game over game, round over round against this Pain roster.
Yeah, they're never really ceasing to impress me.
The first map was kind of a slide, really not great.
And I said, their hopes and their aspirations lived and died by that one.
Given the fact they lost it in such a one-sided affair, I figured it would be done.
I figured it would be Curtains, probably a 2-0, but you never know.
But they reinvigorated themselves on Dust2.
13-9, they really earned it, especially on that T side where they only dropped two rounds total while winning 8.
That was the stat line I touted earlier.
Very self-performance for them there.
I think a lot of what Vertigo has in store for us changes upon who starts where.
There's going to be a knife round, Victor is probably going to choose CT side and both teams are CT sided, especially Fluxo who sit at a 43.1% win rate on the T side.
That would be a very difficult start for them on this decider.
Oh, yeah, Fluxo if they start on that side, it's going to be pretty rough for them.
But the thing is too, do we really trust the statistics that far given that pain should not have had any trouble on a map like dust to consider they toppled
Vertus Pro, Heroic and 9z in recent memory on that map.
And this pain roster that we've seen throughout this qualifier has looked a far cry from what you would expect of a pain that has taken down teams of the highest pedigree in the international circuit.
So right now this pain, I don't know if we can really think of them as
The pain that what is 11 and 4 on vertigo. I don't know if we can look at pain and say that a win against mouse
Sharks, Virtus Pro, Falcons, Made in Brazil. Yes, that's all there
But will they play like that pain in this one map with everything on the line and
And from what I've seen this qualifier, I have not been convinced by this pain roster, far from it.
It seems like a team that is paper mache, a paper tiger.
A team with some glaring issues.
And I think we talked about it a lot more specifically yesterday, and that when teams become international in the South American and the Brazilian scene, they begin to struggle domestically.
It seems like pain is having some of those same pains here and now.
It wasn't the case versus solid in the rematch because they simply have the depth and the
chemistry to outmatch the opponent like that, but against Fluxo, I think it's a far bigger
issue that, and a far bigger question that needs to be raised.
Now I will say you can kind of throw out the stats for Dust2 simply because it is
a relatively new map in terms of the changes they made.
That jump up catwalk still kind of being figured out, still kind of being utilized
by various teams.
No one really knows how to play it exactly quite yet, you know.
The evolution of the international scene versus the South American scene could
be entirely different. Vertigo, while it is more entrenched, it's been changed not as recently
as Dust2. It still had some relatively recent and very large changes, like the door open
towards Side Hall in Elevator, the side, you call it, scaffolding, not scaffolding, the
walk on the side, the catwalk. There's the word I was looking for, over on A. A
lot of changes on the map which could throw pain for a loop if they aren't well-prepared
and ready to play against Fluxo. I can't remember if either team played it yesterday. I believe
Fluxo did. Fluxo also did. Yes. Fluxo won it, I believe. They did convincingly 13-4 versus
Red Canons. There are definitely no selectors on the map. You mentioned that it was played
yesterday by Payne. It was, it was a 13-9 loss to Solid. And I think those two scorelines
do paint a relatively decent image for Fluxo heading into this decider?
Yeah, I'm leading bullish to Fluxo right now. I am liking what I'm seeing from them, and
I'm liking how this team is coming together and coalescing as a unit. The leadership
of Art has that experience to bring this team into a more international style when required,
But Art always has that flair, that unpredictability, that wild card factor that he'll bring to
the table.
Certain rounds, something will be just off enough to throw teams off of their balance,
and it catches teams off guard.
Pain, falling victim to that on Dust 2, was a very well-called map by Art, and right
now for Pain, they are up against it.
They are the team without the momentum.
Fluxo are the underdog.
They've taken a map off of Pain.
brought it to the third. If you're a Flukesaw or a Flukesaw fan, I would not be hesitant to be excited
about this map. Very much, I would say 50-50 in my mind at the very least. Art, start things off
right for Flukesaw as well. He's on a P250, not a Super Soldier. He does have that upgraded pistol.
The pin gaming have bitten quickly on this A ramp aggression. Flukesaw have already begun to
double back.
The Leafpedia, as a canary in the coal mine in case any aggression comes through from
pain, the flukes will have been very fanciful with their T-side pistol strategy.
Yeah, they have, it's been quite cerebral, and I'm seeing from the flukes of pistol
rounds, they're trying to bait out peaks, they're trying to bait out aggressions,
they're trying to force pain into some awkward spots where they can take advantage of
it.
So far, Pierre-Ria now trying to create a little bit of decoy space over on the A site.
We'll be grouped up with end, Fuxa will end with his A take.
Four players to defend and it's Redwell.
They hear all the sound cues and what a shot from NQZ with the Dual Berettas.
Big Ozzetta still up top as well, NQZ all but dead as he still sprays away, haphazardly
trying to buy time.
Nice from Big Ozzetta, Lux's Dual Berettas chiming in as well.
T side pistol round being plucked apart at range, maybe too many motions, too many moving parts,
too much WD-40, not enough duct tape, mate, as Kai debrings his own teammate and whatever little
chance they had of running around fades away with that. Finally getting their comeuppance,
I criticized them early on for these very fancy over-the-top convoluted pistol rounds,
but they really hadn't been punished yet. I'm harkening back to Mirage when they went for the double fake over Doryo B.
I do finally get their comeuppance now as pain take away the pistol in spite of losing the opening engagement.
Fluke's are not even getting a bomb plant means they're gonna be on a near full save.
One P250 for art.
Nothing more to rival from mosses the MP9s and that M4 from pain.
Should be a second on the board here for pain with how much fuss.
P250 from Art, if it finds a kill, cool, the clock gets a kill, cool, if not, no major worry, no major fuss.
One leg spotted by Bigazetta, gets a lot of damage done.
Cowez comes in with the MP9 of his own and opens up with $600 to the CT bank accounts.
And Fluxory getting pretty wavy again.
Pendulum swings back from A to B.
Lux has to be careful, he's in a very vulnerable position.
Exposed on the stairwell, 1, 2, 3, the lineup helps amount significantly, and it'll swap to the Gilgorettas for the 4th to grab after a very belabored spray, and only on 4HP, lucky to get out of there alive.
Very lucky the aim punch helps at the end.
Clean, second from Pain.
Luke's O though.
He doesn't really invest much, but hoping for at least a killer to really do some economic damage.
It's not the end of the world that nothing comes through.
Fluxo, full AK is lacking ability utility specifically on Fidia.
Everybody else is doing okay.
Slowing things down. Where's the T side looking? Mostly towards B.
Hard to challenge up the ramp versus snow.
He's the one to take the opening engagement.
Dropping Kai.
Lifting utility damage towards A as well. Fluxo kind of just playing passive and getting picked apart slowly.
Yeah, it's a far cry from what we saw from them throughout the course of Dust 2.
There doesn't seem to be much impetus from this Fluxo team.
Very slow, methodical, but not an end to the aim right now.
Which is kind of meandering about.
And, unless something changes quickly,
Pain are going to regain their confidence.
Okay, that's a gift from Biguzetta.
Tried it back, sure, but it still maintains the man advantage for Pain,
taking out a pretty key player for Fluxo as well.
And the boost is up and discovered.
Now it is though, an NQZ talent, both looking to get out of there alive.
The side push from Art needs a kill, and it does not get anything neat as critical.
And Payton just about locking down this third round.
And Nick's lurking on B, but at this point he's playing for pride.
20 seconds left, no bomb on his back, and no bomb anywhere close.
It's gonna race away, try to get to B site.
Payton and Gaming are rearing this well.
Snow to ensure the full B site isn't taken next racing Ford gets one only one been trade from snow and Zevi heard seven seconds
Let's he's gonna double back try to save this AK
In fact, he's so low on HP the only real through the call
rifle upgrade for Lux and snow as well gets an AK
Three nothing three surviving for pain as they continue to maintain the momentum and also continue to build that CT economy
Yeah, that CT economy always something to keep an eye on something that is critical to watch
Pain doing a good job of keeping it good for now
Zevi has the Molotov bloom and is facing this somehow not tagged by any of that
One thing which will never be explained how they work is Molotov's encounter straight one of the universe is great questions
Lots of you totally expended towards B stairs for no real control from pain
just trying to zone out Fluxo and keep them at bay. A boost here for Zevi. What
does he see? Nothing. Nothing is still info. He has to do a lot here as the hero
rifle. Fluxo being a little less slow, but now starting to chunk down on the
damage. Zevi spots one, but this is going to reveal the positioning of the
Fluxo side and the AK does nothing it's tossed over to Kai and they'll try again
here with 57 seconds to go. Fluxo again very slow almost aimless on this T side.
If an aim is just really transparent and really passive they're all it be. They're all just
kind of cower behind the smoke. They don't have a clear idea on how to get through it.
25 seconds left this is what they just have to go.
One spot though there for Lux who spams away
He comes through to the flash is good the player on backsets only good for one
Cowell is still around the site, but these are gonna be interesting for so
Scaled for where these shoes they can't get these quite cleanly in time is up
Cowell is the spray transfer onto Kai for one heart tag down out of 28 can't get anything either
Dang close taking down Cowell as we can't get it across the line
4-0 for Pain, AK Upgrades Recovered, Fluxo another chance at Bat, but it's been a worrying
start to the map.
They've looked aimless, they've looked scared, and that is not what you want to see coming
off that victory on map 2.
As excited as I was for Fluxo going into this map, given how they played on Dust 2, my
excitement is all but withered.
This is a pretty dismal look from Fluxo again, almost at that beginning of the
where we saw a very fast string for pain and a little bit of a slip, but overall pain never really lost control of that map
and maybe we'll see
Dust2 is just a blip on the radar, but I want to see more from FlukeZo
I want to see this team have more impact in the round. In the game
I want to see a close one here between these two sides, but bigos, he had a cow as doubling down
Good support flashes from the oper NQZ, meaning that FlukeZo have three players down for nothing
55 damage taken by, er, health remaining on Lux, 45 damage taken,
34 damage taken by Big Ozzana.
Just not half as much as they need.
Snow does drop a counter utility coming through,
rotations coming in through the CC side, Lux.
Also falling, maybe an in-road here for Fluxo, fake bomb plant by Kai.
We'll have to go back and get it down eventually. There is no need to drop on his position.
They are making this one a little bit messy and now with Kai getting a second on the round
it's huge opportunity.
Nix running out of ammunition six in the bag.
Sprays!
Sprays!
And as prayers fall on deaf ears, they can't escape with that fifth.
As their lead continues to grow and flukes out.
They make something out of a very poor start, but that something is summed up by a bomb
plant.
Far from enough.
Far from enough, that's the way I put it.
Finally getting a bomb plant, at least.
That lost my ability to get something on the board.
Three Galils, two AKs.
The PDA has been silent.
Art's been silent.
Zevi's been silent.
Those are the three you would look to for quite a bit of heavy lifting.
While everybody from pain doing enough.
Lux atop the board with Galas.
Ismul and potentially on the cards now for Fluke Soap.
Lux only furthers the insult to injury.
refining Kai early. The only player really doing anything on this two-sided Fluxo.
AQZ drops a second that's next to the only other player doing anything.
Art and Xavier at 1 a piece, Pitya yet to get on the board. That's the final trio
remaining. They get a duo as Pitya is also caught. Final two were boosting up.
At this point Fluxo feel overdue for a timeout.
Fluxor are due for a timeout but if they take it into the next round Nate
they won't have guns. It'll be on a half-buy. Maybe a three-quarter buy if
They want to invest around the AK and the now two AKs as heavy upgrades from the
Galil, but it's a poor look from Fluxo and a very disappointing look from them too.
They took out red Canids very easily, 13-4 on this map.
Payne lost a solid on this map, 13-9.
This is yesterday's scoreline.
And Fluxo also are not the team that have played a previous best of three today
they're the rested squad and
They're the team that's looking like they played a full-on full-length best of three, which pain only played two maps in that one
Fluxo look battered
Those are tired fatigued
Not doing the due diligence. They're not running their defaults
They're just kind of grouping up, waiting, and getting picked apart.
Tactical time I used, I mentioned it wouldn't look good in this round because it should be a save.
They might just force around these two, not recovered, but saved rifles.
That was a half buy instead, over something different.
Question is what can they do that's different?
They change the pace, go quick.
You can have a clear direction in mind.
Then you get mid control and go for a split.
There's a lot of things they can do that they haven't tried.
The question is what are they comfortable with and what reads do they have?
What is the read?
What is the play?
Tech nines will have to do something. You can't just rely on the AK's
Art tries to get flashed in but NQZ will have an off shot on the first locks deals with art Oz for the second kill
Taking a lot of damage are those two
Pain players, but it's not gonna matter because it was a clean fight on the Piriah
Nix and Zevi the last two alive
9 for Nick's AK for Zevi and Biguzeta down to a timing. Will he live or die? The smoke
will fade eventually and Bigu backs away from it. Zevi at least takes out NQZ, that's the
opt-down low HP player removed creating a little bit more space for Fluxo. Now Nick's
with an M4 in hand might just have a little bit more of an opportunity as Cow is expecting
You know he doesn't count his can on escape either, but around the corner is Bigazetta.
Leaving it up to Zevi, full HP, but no bomb, not enough time.
33 seconds to go.
It's going to be in middle two as you can tell.
Yep.
It should be done in dust and maybe one kill.
They might just let him save too.
No one need that either.
Keep three up, recover that up.
Seven nothing though.
The statement start to this half from pain.
I mentioned whoever started CT should have a pretty decent advantage given that both
these teams are CT-sided and I knew Fluxo statistically struggled on the T side, but
I did not think it would be this.
I did not think the worst case for Fluxo would be a 7-0 start or an 0-7 start rather.
But that's where we're at.
Another question is even with 4 or 5 won't be enough.
It's the absolute best case.
And right now they're looking uninspired. Uninspired, unmotivated. They look dead.
NQZ starts it off well as well with the offshot on to Pierria who's 8-0 and 8-0!
That's brutal. Star 1 is injured. Yeah.
Also can't forget that part. All the team for what? Six days?
Mm-hmm.
Six days.
Debbie, lines and in red, fixed down, cow is after a belabored duel.
A minute eight left from the round and no clear direction still for Fluxo.
We're just trying to find the picks and trying to probe for information.
Simply not a winning mentality at this point.
I'm going to say a change of pace, something for them to try and catch pain out on timing.
Instead of Fluxo to slow things down further,
further shrink back into their own shells.
NQZ aggressively offing. This is a quick shot and we'll have to fall away.
Good utility end, rifle damage coming through from the rest of the game though.
Big Ozzetta with one. NQZ finally lands his kill, goes back for more, and catches the shoulder of Nix.
Leaving Art on 9 HP to do what he can, and what can he do with 16 seconds to go?
Let's die, get one onto NQZ, that's good. It's not a winnable round considering everything.
And now at the time being what it is, there is literally no chance Art wins it.
He doesn't even get the extra damage.
And eight in a row.
Eight zero lead for pain.
I'm not going to say the word right now, but it is looking like a possibility that pain
can achieve something they have not since the opening map of this qualifier for them.
Two is such a quick fashion.
Wouldn't be an interesting statement.
Mm-hmm.
It's no actually beaten out of B.
I got past them somehow and that's a free kill through the wood panel.
Finally an opening to go in the way of Fluxo.
It's a weird half-buy with two rifles and some pistols.
Still a long way for them to go to get back into this.
The disparity in weapons is really going to hinder them.
And he's obviously feeling very confident trying to jump on top of double.
Stick around white instead.
Why just get one for his troubles?
They won't expect him to be this aggressive.
Woohoo! Unsecured.
He'll fall back as well. Back to even footing.
So committing to this A site play, and that's an over extension from Lux, who's finally humbled.
NQZ again going to the same fight, the same stomping grounds. It's his teammate, instead, Cow, who has to find a chaos around the smokes as the name of this round.
Leave this back to even footing. It's giving Fluxo opportunities that they shouldn't have on this half-buy.
Pain may be taking their feet off the gas a little bit. That's a great opening onto NQZ as well as Pyrriah opens his account
Nice drive by Calaz around and bailed out by Bigazeta. Calaz wins for the next one. Cannot quite get Pyrriah
But it's the damage needed. One shot HP for Pyrriah. Bigazeta one shot because Pyrriah is the AWP.
It all comes down to timing now.
And Bigazeta can actually just play this slow. He doesn't have to peek. The bomb has to get planted.
And as I go down he waits and he knows that Pierre-Riaz, a dead man walking, wins the fight, grabs the kit,
fakes the jump off the edge just to give us a little bit of something to think about, grabs all the utility in the sight,
and a knife on the board for pain.
They are running away with Vertigo right now.
and Fluke so if come close a couple of times but close only counts and horseshoes
and hand grenades and Counter-Strike is neither no it's not nine nil fluke so
this all by off the back of the plant and the close round but again even if
they're on par with weaponry what can they do they've yet to impress us
even one bit. Hey, is that a bonnet? How is the one to do with the dual gunner? Another
early opening going the way of Fluxo. This time around to give the rifle where we
to back it up. I though is tagged quite low so he needs to be weary, needs to be
careful. No beginning to get a little aggressive out middle. Won't do anything
because that is damaging the spray. Well chunk players out a little bit more.
Snow is found out in the middle though, his aggression called. Because that
around the smoke watched for by Zevian pain getting overly aggressive over zealous
being plucked apart slowly but surely by fluke so we're just letting pain walk into them looks to
be the first round yeah and it's just impatience from pain really easily fixed Alice caught
NQZ just throws up off the map, honestly.
That would do.
I gets the bomb down.
NQZ just holding for exits.
Everything flanked though.
It's just a matter of seconds.
There it is.
Art is the one to do them in.
And so it won't be two 13-Os in this qualifier for pain, but there's still eons ahead of their adversaries.
9 to 1.
That should be a little bit of a humbling moment.
should you remind them keep their front of the gas keep it tight don't get over
aggressive please you have been and put this one to bed yeah need a little bit
more here from pain to close it out but they also just have to not over-aggress
they have to play their game still and Lux might actually be taken down here
without a kill as he goes forward Nick's catches him around that smoke and
And so, down a man, Payne will have to try and stabilize,
but usually when Payne get in the situation,
they start peeking aggressively elsewhere.
They get picked apart by a team waiting for these peeks.
That's exactly what Fluxo are shaping up to do.
They're waiting for these pushes.
They're waiting for the re-aggressions and the info plays.
And they're goading Payne into going for these
one-for-one duels which Fluxo usually have
somebody else around to at least maintain
a man advantage with the trade.
This is time Payne aren't over addressing.
to hold in their ground knowing that flukesaw are doddling as they are, 45 seconds left.
Flukesaw overtake around for a deep play.
So is jump spotting though, ready to buy more time with the Molotov against the spot.
They'll run away, smoke.
Drop his Molotov here in another couple seconds if I'm not mistaken.
Palace though, being pressured in the middle is caught by the Nade.
Now Biggie needs to rotate, Snow's caught by the players forcing the issue through
the smoke.
Nade are falling flat now.
Flukesaw found the winning recipe. It's again NQZ in a one versus five
The issue is Payne's economy has been broken. They're not gonna have a buy for the last round of this first half
It means Flukesaw could get three in a row. NQZ at least making it a little bit expensive
Finding two on his off, but they're still trying to hunt him down
Look back at the garage, Nate.
What was it an 8-4?
8-4, but those four rounds all came like these have for Fluxo.
End as well.
Okay, I think it was 5-4, wasn't it?
It was 5-4 and then the one round they got
third round to the second half.
But it's just the manner in which the rounds were won for Fluxo.
Freaky.
And they were given openings.
Even with these last three it's going to be a stretch for Fluxo.
So to get that final so earn it pain scrounge together what they can MP9s and
pistols okay I close the story TPC on the MP9 gifts the spray metal girder
instead and Zevi finds cow was both SMGs down which are going to scale in
towards a mop things up clean as well matters in the last round of the
half when found two more to go looks inside all finds one but Zevi dropped
Snow 1v4 cannot secure it. Fluxo a streak of three to end the half as we hit the half-time break.
Kind of a slide from Payne in the tail end of their first half, but still a stellar by most metrics.
Nine in three score line as they hit the T side. It's pineapple Phillips and Boggs on the mic.
Fluxo did all to do to hold on to their aspirations in this one. It's the third and final.
Victor will book their spot. ESL challenger Katavica represents South America alongside
made in brazil who were invited smoke flash on art in zevi
dualies for kai two sets of utility spread out on nqz and biguzera for the pain gaming offensive
slow start art gets a spot falls back sandbags and will just walk up ramp slowly clearing things
out on the contact play before they throw their execute as they're spotted smoke for sandbags
I'm not sure where the first smoke went, but Molotov will force R to use his and he will
try to survive as full on chaos around that smoke.
Everyone's just focused on R knowing he's there and they're trying to remove his position,
but he's sitting in the smoke, getting chunked away and eventually falls down as Snow is
the one to get that kill, but that's buying time for so many rotations to come through
from the CT side.
smoke is not going to be enough. Zevi up on the boost trying to tap away forcing kills
through the smoke doing damage but snow was added a second one to the round. The bomb getting
planted now means that at least for pain the bomb plant is ticking away. That's extra money
to force buy to the next round which usually has a lot more teeth on that T-set of the
glil only being $1,800. Piria finally eliminates snow but bigos at a one for one with Zevi
man advantage maintained by pain. Piria nicks trying to get back into this one. I don't
see a kit down either for them so time is of the essence. And Pyrrhaea sent over the
edge leaving Nix in a 1 versus 3 which he has no time to even get the objective accomplished.
And so we'll end ourselves here with a 10th round of a board for Payne, these extra kills,
Pyrrhaegh victories if that for Nix. And Fluke so, a pistol round they had to win
does not connect. And Payne moved to 3 rounds from a ticket to Kavitsa.
I'm just wondering if they force round 2 just because of how far behind they find themselves.
It's going to be a better idea.
Yeah.
They aren't budging.
It makes it at least get an upgrade pistol so you can do something with the Kevlar.
Do something.
There we go.
Five stars and that's all they write, all they invest.
Two Mac10s, three rifles for pain.
And some contact around the map.
Playing reasonably slow waiting for the CTs to show their hand because they know it's going to happen.
it's gonna be aggressive. It was the B site stack explained by the aggression of the 5-7.
Pain aren't immediately going towards A in the meanwhile, they're just still looking around
waiting to catch out rotations that are over-aggressive and too far forward.
Pistols, the USP's and the BT-50. Up against the Mach 10, two falling to Lux, 1200 in the bank.
As he opens up this A site, clearing it out one by one, one corner by another,
spots out another, gets dinked, but does not get the kill.
The Mach 10, though, still makes its money back, and then some, also revealing the fact that the B-Side is pretty much open.
Ains that pain can get the bomb down for free, let that clock start ticking, and Gluxo will go for what they can.
Try to steal away a rifle or two.
Want to see cowas on the hunt with the Mach 10.
Build up more money for this T-Side.
Let's go.
Over Ron needs to get bailed out and he'll actually get all three.
NQZ comes in a little bit too late.
Snowdeals into trouble himself.
Paying up by eight now.
Two away from qualifying.
This is the last chance buy from Fluctso.
All they have has been invested here.
M4s across the board.
One helmet against a Galil, a Mach 10, and three AKs.
No diffuse kit.
Utility.
They have four or five smokes.
Only one incendiary though.
something to keep an eye on. The nades are there, the flashpings are a little
limited if it does come down to a retake, but if you are Fluxo, you don't
even want to let it get to a retake. You almost can't let it get to a retake. That
means your money's gonna be so bad for the next round anyways, and for Fluxo it
might even be early save time too, but being down 9 if you can get 12 out of
this round, there's a so little margin for error for Fluxo to get back into
this game. Yeah, the need to win it cleanly ideally in that bomb plant
done as you mentioned that would indicate that a strong hold on the site. Three up is
the absolute minimum to maintain their M4s in play. Really four or five is the
goal. And I've shown presence across the map they're going to look towards a ramp
though good flash over. One player in ladder throwing some flash spings as
well. This solid defense video boosted up like this spot.
Here on site as well, so we're going to end one in the elevator.
Spam comes in towards site, big Uzera does infinity, ah, Zevi good for one.
The art is quite low on site, and there's very little utility remaining for this CT side.
Back to town on site, can't quite find art, but Lux does find Zevi instead in the meanwhile.
Plant will come through, Art will stop it, but that's a short-lived, one-and-done position.
Player elevator, Laurel on ammo, still recovers and finds Lux.
We're back to even footing.
The bomb has been recovered and both pain players are doubling back ramp for a quick rotation B.
This 2v2 is still an opportunity for pain to really begin prepping to fly to Poland.
As they'll walk in towards A or B rather, but a good shot from Kain through the smoke he'll trace NQZ.
Fluke so, stay alive by a thread. Only two guns move forward into the next round.
Pain will have enough to buy up again, although Lux is at 1,700, built by Armour and a Mach 10 from the Lux of Things, maybe Tech 9 on the utility, that'll be the case instead.
But Fluxo, finding a way to stay alive, most important for them, it's still an incredibly long road back in.
Seven more rounds to tie things up at 11, they need eight to get 12 and they can only afford to lose one in nine.
My still isn't great either you're hurting for both teams arts on a empty nine
Lux is on a tech knife
Russian up ramp is the call the nearly overwhelmed video who just barely gets away
Rather quick a play is on the cards for pain good digs and pity I was awakening individually
Ain't now kind of stymied slowing down waiting for the utility to come through before making their decision boost up
over the wall
The only season to elevator
Flukes O'Gope for some sort of press or some sort of ill-advised peek.
Arts chunking damage, but still no casualties for Flukes OCT's side.
40 seconds to go, Pain still ready to go towards A, utility now beginning to fly in.
Pain have used all that they have, besides one flashbang, and Bigazette is ready to
toss that in as well for a side haul pop now thinks better of it and we'll let it
fly it's dodged by Kai but he's there and he's all about getting the eye as well
they don't clear Kai though and he's becoming an impact player snow trades
him back big who's got a 1 versus 2 14 seconds to go low HP on one loop
frostfire setup and he's too televisioned on art next waits for him to
cross into the open delivers the killing blow but again only two players
surviving for flukes. So this time though, they have reset the economy of pain back to pistols.
No bomb plant means no even half by investment from the T side. And this gives flukes so a chance to build up some bank on the CT side of things.
For flukes for pain, beginning to show some weaknesses again. We saw the tail end of last half. All of dust too. And that little four round slide of mirage.
Got him.
Getting somewhere, there's some control and there's a waiting.
Throwing the totie, but not doing much with it.
Around the stack, outside of B.
Whoa, that's a little run across.
It's no ambiguous, see nothing.
There are hands off passive play towards B.
Also a very proactive potential rotation from Kai if needed.
At 15,
the pistol's going.
The latter potentially over towards the middle.
Kai is here.
He is alone.
I is here. He is alone.
It could be overwhelmed, but he's playing a nice long-range angle.
I will start things off with a pair and
Nix is there to help him out. Zevi 2. Snow will get one onto Kai and a lot of damage onto Zevi 2,
but should not come up with anything else other than that one kill. That shall be all they find.
Now, for pain, they get their guns again, but I would not mind to time out into this next round.
The gap has been closed. Fluxo have doubled their rounds. They've gotten up to six.
Fluxo are waking up individually as well.
Nixon's heavy at 12.
Kai is 14.
Wearing prospect.
Okay.
No, they're doubling down, combining fire drops, Kai, and Zed.
Two of the players I mentioned are waking up individually.
A third for Biguzera is the tide suddenly shift.
Deathcow is the penultimate. Just Art alone, he's in side hall.
I think he's known to be here as well, he's around this location.
1 vs 5 for an A1S, his team's economy still isn't great either, it's only at 800.
Pancheon had this round 10 times out of 10, NQZ holding, caught looking, now the bomb's
on B, it'll go down. Art will likely try to save, question is how aggressively will
Pancheon hunt?
Noah's passive hunting, he's just holding an angle.
Cow is beginning to move for a bit more impact and pressure as well, but he's low on health
so he can't overextend.
It appears that pain are going to be very passive in their hunt.
Hold a couple choke points.
Start filling out the areas around the map as time gets lower and lower that if used
becomes less and less possible.
See if they can catch art trying to reposition in the save.
Don't overextend.
Don't take a fight.
need to necessarily. The money is not great for this T side. They will have match point
here. Bomb goes off. Art will save. And the money for Flukezo. Because of those casualties
they sustained round after round on their streak. It's utterly abysmal.
So these can't really even justify M4s on a couple. Oh and the MP9s instead. Zevi,
What does he get?
An MP9 that's on the ground.
Enough utility. They have kits.
We're going against a full fleet of AKs.
Even if the form-pane was in the round prior, it's going to be a hard ask for Fluxo to find much more.
Prades, NQZ finds Pidia, Art finds Big U, but NQZ is the one that has to double down.
Finding a pair.
Four versus three found in a transition over towards B.
No one is here to defend this site.
And the closest is an MP9 and Nix.
Kai is here now as well, the M4.
Which means what can these two players do?
Both back gen, both trying to flash no way in, but Kai's already close.
MP9 good for one Kai, a second Kawa's though.
Dropped the capatriot and Lux up top.
Box finds the second.
Good damage done to Lux means that this plant might...
He too isn't doing no, he avoids the Molotov,
but his teammate falls, Zevi, 40 HP versus Lux on 24.
24
This is for all the marbles for survival first look so
Seviest kit
This one to bed. Yeah, no kit in play
Times of the essence is halfway gone and is no idea where Lux might be lurking should have a vague idea
He's on site clearing out the back pillar. Oh timings everything starts running
Attaps the bombs does not expect to play a back site and that is what seals his fate and his team's fate might I add
13-6 in favor of Payne. It requires all three maps, but they do get across the
line. They do right their wrongs from the start of this qualifier and they do
punch their ticket to ESL Challenger Katowice. Congratulations to Payne.
It was rocky. It was messy. It was not the way they wanted, but they do qualify
for ESL Challenger Katowice in the end. For Fluxo, they showed a lot of promise.
toppling red canids in the opening day was a very good result and taking pain to three was good. I think
Fluxo may have been able to do a little bit better. I thought their T side in particular of this last
map was rather flat and I would like to see a little bit more from it but overall from Fluxo,
new players coming through, month and five day old players being slotted into the roster means
that they're not exactly going to have the strat book that they would like to. They're not
going to have the tactical depth that they would need and they took the fight to pain
overall but paying they were the favorites 12th seed in the 12th ranked in the world coming into
this tournament into this qualifier and while they didn't dominate necessarily they got the job done
and that's really what matters lower bracket or upper bracket the ticket still works the same
yeah pain still make it through in spite of their stumbles in spite of looking weak and like
they are mortal because they were mortally wounded both by solid and by fluke so they still
do not let the expectations get upended. Congratulations to them. Fluxo can be happy
with the performance they put up, but as you mentioned, they should be kicking themselves
over those tee sides, consistently getting lost, consistently running out of time and
losing track of time. But these are things that you should fix. Again, with two new players,
it is understandable. It gives them time and it gives them confidence in the hopes that
this team will work out. However, that does it for our coverage of ESL Challenger,
Katowice is South American close qualifier again congratulations to Payne. On behalf of my co-commentator Boggs myself and the rest of our production crew
Have a good night, and we'll see you next time with more ESL Challenger action. Take care