Wow.
"Even in these moments, when we were down 14-3, everyone was believing" told an elated kyxsan to BLAST.tv. "The most important thing was that everyone was believing the whole time".
Apeks pulled off an absolutely colossal comeback from 3-14 down on the CT side of Ancient to win something of a grudge match - at least for nawwk.
The Swedish sniper was benched by NIP when NIP signed device and told BLAST.tv yesterday that "it'll be nice to knock NIP out. It's karma".
Karma's got a crazy sense of humour.
It's poetic that the game ended with a huge 1v2 from nawwk, and it was a microcosm of what happened for the whole second half. NIP had multiple clutches that were lost from small errors that turn into a big snowball of momentum.
"I guess it was just destiny for me to clutch like that," the sniper told BLAST.tv. "It was destiny for me to knock them out."
Even in that 1v2, REZ was under half a second away from defusing the bomb and got off to fight nawwk, leaving himself no time to defuse.
"It was a big moment for him... I'm so happy for him, proving everybody wrong" said kyxsan, as if he was a proud dad.
One of the Apeks players - we believe kyxsan - was heard shouting "who the fuck are you benching" across the room after winning it, in case you thought we were over-egging the rivalry.
"It felt great, it's indescribable" nawwk said through a big grin,
What's shocking is that it was the perceived bigger team who completely lost their nerve. One might expect NIP to be the more experienced and comfortable under pressure, but as the rounds stacked up, NIP crumbled and collapsed.
Even nawwk could sense it: "They played scared the entire BO3... I could feel it".
kyxsan wouldn't take credit for it, but he certainly hinted that his calling was a part of it.
"It felt nice that the team was trusting my calls, even if I was calling something different from what was planned before.
Look man, you can gloat a bit. You just outcalled Aleksib to qualify for top eight at a Major. We won't judge.
He wasn't alone with big step-up performances. jL picked up a crazy 3K down the stretch, and jkaem had impact over and over again, dropping 32 on map one and map two, both of which went to OT.
Apeks held strongest in overtime twice, and will deservedly walk out in front of the crowd at the Accor Arena against Team Liquid on Friday.
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