FURIA, G2 and FaZe all crumble to 0-2 - Legends Stage Round Two Recap
Every day at the Major there is a team in crisis, and the whole goal is to not be that team.
Today's crisis team was set to be FURIA - but they were joined in the 0-2 bracket by not just G2, but FaZe Clan too.
Yes, seriously.
Toothless in Paris
What is going on at FURIA?
Two losses, zero T side rounds and a seemingly lack of speed, energy and aggression leave them facing down the barrel, desperate for salvation.
An okay CT side was quickly forgotten as headtr1ck ripped their offence to pieces, taking 16 names and dying just once on the CT side.
This is a bizarrely toothless FURIA team, and things aren't looking good for them as they face elimination tomorrow against... G2.
Yeah.
Michal Konkol"We kind of destroyed their confidence on the T side of Nuke," k0nfig told us. "They are a little bit underperforming, they can definitely play better".
That's... one way of putting it, yeah.
"We are making bad decisions, sometimes we don't have as many nades as we want" was the response from drop, who was surprisingly upbeat.
"In practice we are doing well... I hope in the BO3s we can show something better".
Bad News Eagles break G2's spirit
Well well well.
It's not just FaZe Clan who Bad News Eagles haunt. The Eagles swoop down and steal away Ancient despite NiKo going crazy on the T side.
5-10 down at the half, but BNE did what they did best. Overwhelm, outplay, overcome. NiKo ended the game on 31 kills, but nobody else on his team could reach 20.
The noise in here was deafening.
Michal Konkol"It's just a normal job for us, to be honest" said rigoN, trying his best not to laugh. "We are at the Major and we are just doing our job".
"We know our Ancient T side is pretty good, but our CT side is lacking right now," he told BLAST.tv. Which seems pretty self-evident - but we wouldn't judge you for getting destroyed by NiKo in that form.
There was less laughter in HooXi's voice. "Disappointed... yeah, nothing else really. I just feel really disappointed".
"Against Vitality it felt a little bit like nerves, but against Bad News Eagles it felt a lot like we played not to lose".
Out of the flames, and Into the Breach
CYPHER wasn't massively happy to be facing FaZe, but he was certainly happy after.
FaZe Clan are no stranger to an 0-2, but they'll be hoping for a better showing than in Rio.
When Thomas was buying an auto-sniper in round eight, it's clear something... strange was brewing, and FaZe never really seemed to wake up.
CYPHER has continued his run as a serious threat and looks more and more like a player capable of playing at the top level.
Michal KonkolCYPHER told BLAST.tv: "I am fucking over the moon. I can't believe it".
Don't think you're the only one, CYPHER.
"I just said "how we win this game is we just hit headshots and we run at people", and that's what we did".
A perfect summation, really.
The full Monte, part two
Every single time, Monte continue to dazzle and surprise in equal measure.
Backs against the wall they pulled back a deficit to push fnatic to thirty - and a few extra - and outfought them.
BOROS, the world's newest superstar, showed just why he's quickly risen to prominence with 32 eye-popping frags, matching nicoodoz blow-for-blow.
That leaves Monte in a 2-0 game, while fnatic will have an earlier start in a 1-1 game tomorrow.
Stephanie Lindgren"Kind of good, let's keep it going!" was DemQQ's appraisal of his own emotions following the win. Which... yeah, fair enough.
"You can't expect this, it can happen to any team" and "It's best of ones, anyone can beat anyone" were the two mantras he repeated, as if it was nothing to do with him.
Newsflash: it was. Monte are pretty damn good.
mezii, on the other hand, was more reflective: "We didn't speak, or communicate, very well at all during the game".
"Before you would probably see them as a tier two or tier three team... they've already shown here that they can beat pretty much any team here".
A hero's entrance
Heroic cleanly make their way to the 2-0 bracket as they flew past Apeks on Mirage.
Apeks started off strong but once Heroic got a hold of the game, their vicegrip was just too much to handle.
It was by no means a poor showing from Apeks, and more a destructive one from Heroic.
Michal KonkolSjuush told us: "It was a little bit of a shaky start where... I don't know, we didn't keep that calm", which is a remarkable thing to hear from a team as experienced and composed as Heroic.
He did go on, however, to explain that they "had a talk" and settled down, and put the win down to that.
"I think it was a closer game even than the score suggested" was STYKO's take on the game.
"On our CT side we just sort of crumbled because of some stupid mistakes".
YEKINDAR goes berserk
Team Liquid appear unstoppable since their 0-2 start in the Challengers Stage, as they obliterated NAVI's Inferno defence, in large part down to a ridiculous showing from YEKINDAR.
Liquid's Latvian laser laid down the law in Banana as he chewed through the NAVI hold time and time again.
It marks his highest rating ever in a Major game.
While IGLing.
All seems a long time ago now // Stephanie Lindgren"We should be in our comfort zone now, in the best of threes" NAF told BLAST.tv. "Mareks {YEKINDAR} was making some really good calls... he understands the CIS teams really well".
Vive le France
Vitality won a back-and-forth game against a resilient ENCE to put themselves within touching distance of the playoffs.
Spinx took the spotlight against his old team with a stellar performance, while ZywOo was typically dominant.
Vitality look superb at the moment, and it's testament to how strong ENCE are that they matched them for the most part.
Michal Konkol"Two wins today, both 16-13, we've struggled recently with close games but we managed to close it out so, feels good".
The energy radiates off of apEX. "It feels so good because best of one can be a bit random, it can go a bit fast if you lose-" apEX ponders, as though choosing the perfect word.
"-fucked up rounds. I think best of three is better for us."
Thank god he found the perfect word.
9INE lives needed
9INE may have gone 3-0 in the previous stage, but are now on the brink of going out 0-3.
GamerLegion took a lead early on but 9INE battled back to make it close, before falling just short.
That was even without siuhy putting up his - by now - famous carry jobs from the IGL role.
Stephanie Lindgren"Stat-wise I didn't do that good, but I still think we played pretty good overall," Keoz told BLAST.tv. "Feels good to not be down 0-2... feels really good right now."
"I know we can do much better than this" BLAST.tv heard from a dejected hades. "We had really slow starts, made some easy mistakes, and it feels like we're not mentally here, yet.
They'll have to get here quickly. They face FaZe Clan in a
