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Crosshair, Menus upgraded in the new CSGO Update

Abhishek Dave
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Crosshair, Menus upgraded in the new CSGO Update

Users were greeted with a 400 MB update last morning from Valve for their FPS game Counter Strike: Global Offensive.

On the update were mechanism changes for Snipers, new buy menus, and a much-needed crosshair settings. This update brought more significant changes to the game than any other updates in the recent past.

Buy Menu

The buy Wheel has been upgraded to give a new look and some more information. Now you can know what weapons you can purchase by just hovering on the main buy menu. The model you’re equipped with also poses with the gun you’re hovering your cursor on.

New Crosshair Option

The pro-console coders now have no appreciation, thanks to Valve’s update on the crosshair settings. Users can now use on-screen instructions to adjust their settings which was a huge deal from console prior to this. Although there were third-party workshop maps available, an official setting from Valve was due.

Thanks to this update, the crosshair setting is now a part of the structured main menu of CSGO.

AWP Movements

Minor update to the speed of the movement post-a-shot has been pushed too along with the mega update. Prior to the update, the speed of the model moving just after taking an AWP shot was quicker, which has now been reduced. No cheeky peeks now!

Conclusively, the update has been pretty significant. Full patch notes here.

NiP eliminate Cloud9 from IEM Katowice

Souhit Dey
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NiP eliminate Cloud9 from IEM Katowice

NiP managed to beat Cloud9 2-0 in the first round of Group A lower bracket, today in IEM Katowice.

With their victory over Cloud9, NiP will keep the hopes of their fans alive in the tournament. The same can’t be said for Cloud9 as they will be the first to be eliminated from the IEM event.

Cloud9 had chosen Overpass as the first map of the day. The map of their choice didn’t go well for the North Americans as the NiP roster stormed over them and secured a massive lead, dropping only a single round in the first half. This lead escalated to a swift 16-2 victory for the Swedes.

The second map in the best-of-three series was Vertigo, the choice of NiP. Things didn’t change much for Cloud9 on Vertigo, as they only managed to secure three rounds allowing NiP to take a 13-3 lead in the first half. Their efforts to comeback in the second half weren’t good enough as NiP quickly secured the map with a 16-9 victory. Thus, the series went in favour of NiP with a final score of 2-0 against Cloud9.

Currently, NiP still needs two more BO3 victories to secure their position in the playoffs at the event.

Four years after launch, Rainbow Six Siege sets record on Steam

Pranav Nalawade
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Four years after launch, Rainbow Six Siege sets record on Steam

Ubisoft’s popular tactical shooter game Rainbow Six Siege just had the best week ever on Steam with the game reaching as high 178,824 concurrent players on 23rd Feb, Sunday. The game had broken its old record of highest player count by more than 2K players and with the upcoming Operation Void Edge coming in March the player count might even go upwards of 180K players.

The game is in its 5th year of development and since its launch in 2015 the game has more than 55 million registered users across Xbox, Playstation and PC platform. The game is also on sale on PC with discounts ranging from 45% to 60% on different editions,

The current player count beats Ubisoft’s previous March 2018 record which saw the inclusion of a limited-time Outbreak mode and drew upto 176,208 concurrent players. Although, one thing to keep in mind is that the current player count only reflects Steam users and since 2019 the game is also available on Epic Games Store and has grown significantly on Uplay aswell.

Ubisoft, which recently announced the game’s 5th year update during the Six Invitational 2020 tournament, added Rainbow Six Siege: Operation Void Edge, which belongs to the first season of the new update, to its test servers on February 17. This update, which is currently active on test servers, will be added to the game next March.

Void Edge operation will include things like new operators, map renewals, new elite skin and operator balance. Click on this link for more information about the new season of the game.

Rainbow Six Siege: Free To Play soon?

Pranav Nalawade
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Rainbow Six Siege: Free To Play soon?

In an interview with PCGamer, Rainbow Six Seige director Leroy Athanassoff talked about the internal discussions that the development team is having over the possibility of game going free-2-play.

Rainbow Six Seige is an online tactical shooter game that costs $20 for the base version to upwards of $85 for the ultimate edition. The game also features different in-game monetization deals such as premium crates, annual/season pass, boosters, alpha packs, etc. The developer team believes that the game is sufficiently monetized and can still fund development costs from in-game monetizations after going free-2-play.

The team at Ubisoft believes that making game free-2-play will make the game more accessible for everyone. Last year Valve made CS:GO free-2-play and due to this the game now boasts the highest number of active players on steam with more than 850K concurrent players and is still increasing.

The free-2-play model is very exciting and might help R6S increase its player base even further, but the free-2-play model also witnesses a sharp rise in smurfing and cheating activities. Most free-2-play games are plagued with these issues and the developer team at R6S is actively working on a solution to this problem.

Leroy Athanassoff said:

“You need certain features ready to be a good and successful free-to-play game. One of those features is a good solution to smurfing. What’s important for us is that we find out as soon as possible that a player is highly skilled in the things that matter The problem right now is that you can play a certain amount of matches with Copper players while you’re a Diamond.”

Currently, R6S employs an MMR system, where the emphasis on win rate and players are later adjusted accordingly. This system isn’t flawless and gives rise to highly skilled players intentionally losing games with a very high Kill-Death ratio to keep their MMR low.

Leroy says the team is currently looking to implement an auto-detection method that will ban identify these types of players and ban their accounts.

Meet Simone Lim, 7-Year-Old Girl, the Pokémon Esports Champion

The Crew
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Meet Simone Lim, 7-Year-Old Girl, the Pokémon Esports Champion

Simone Lim has become a seven-year-old Pokémon esports champion. She competed in the recent 2020 Pokémon Oceania International Championships VGC Junior Division and is now the new champion.

In order to win, Lim had to beat the defending champion, Justin Miranda-Radbord, who currently holds the record as 21-time Regional Champion and is almost twice Lim’s age. This was no easy feat but is incredibly impressive when you realize that this is Lim’s first year of competing.

Simone Lim, Pokémon esports champion

Lim ranked in the top four players in the Malaysian Regionals and at the Singapore Special Event. However, it’s her story in the finals of the Junior Division that tells a story worth making a movie out of.

Lim won the first match against the reigning champion, but then she lost the second. As you’d expect with all sports movies, Lim managed to come back in the third round for a big win and become the champion.

One of the best parts of the entire match is Lim’s win. She just sits there smiling with glee, clearly just happy to be there. I bet her smile wouldn’t have been wiped off even if she had lost that third and final match.

At age seven, her accomplishment is incredible, and she shyly explained in a post-match interview that she knew her opponent would use protect, but that she was nervous about the move. She continued to thank her friends, family, and coaches and will be continuing on to the World Championships in August.

Content fetched through a feed, no editorial team were a part of this.

Natus Vincere overcome FAZE Clan; no other upsets on Day 1 | IEM Katowice 2020

Abhishek Bajaj
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Natus Vincere overcome FAZE Clan; no other upsets on Day 1 | IEM Katowice 2020

IEM Katowice 2020 kicked off its Group A matches with the first bout of double headers; with Astralis taking on Cloud9 and Ninjas in Pyjamas going up against Team Vitality. Astralis and Vitality both had to put the ghosts of BLAST Premier behind.

Cloud9 surrendered their own map pick Overpass with ease but had a healthy lead on Train before Astralis mounted a comeback on the defence to secure a comfortable 2-0.

NiP and Vitality was more competitive, with both teams exchanging blows and rounds. Vitality though, played out a great T side on Vertigo to take NiP’s map pick 16-12. Coming to their own map pick, Nuke, the French organization continued championing the offence, gaining 8 rounds. Vitality shut down NiP well on the defence to complete a 2-0 sweep, setting up a mouth-watering Upper Bracket semi-final clash with Astralis. NiP on the other hand, will now fight for their life against Cloud9 in the Lower Bracket.

In the other side of the Upper Bracket in Group A, Natus Vincere took on FAZE Clan in perhaps, the most awaited first round clash in the Group. Fnatic took on Renegades in the other one. Fnatic ran over the Australians on their map pick Dust 2 with a 16-4 scoreline. Things looked to be heading towards the decider though, as Renegades raced to a 14-6 lead on Inferno. But, fnatic mounted a comeback to lap up the map 16-14 and the series 2-0.

Natus Vincere started strongly on Nuke, with a 7-1 scoreline in favour of the CIS giants. FAZE Clan though, finished the half 8-7 thanks to a mini-comeback. Na’Vi managed just two more rounds on Nuke as FAZE Clan shut their offence down to take their own map pick.

On to Na’Vi’s map pick Dust2, things looked dire for Aleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev & co., with FAZE on a 13-9 lead and on the offence. s1mple though, showed signs of breaking out of the shell he was in upto that point and as he started lapping up kills, his team started shutting down FAZE with renewed vigour. Natus Vincere completed the comeback to take the map 16-14 and push it on to Overpass, the decider.

On the decider, Na’Vi played a great T side and an aggressive CT side, something FAZE Clan were at fault of not doing so. Na’Vi persevered and pushed FAZE Clan down to the Lower Bracket in Group A, where the North American organization will now face Renegades. Natus Vincere are now set to face fnatic in the Upper Bracket semi-finals.

The first set of Group B fixtures started earlier than expected thanks to a sequence of 2-0s in Group A, with mousesports and TYLOO the ones facing each other. TYLOO’s map pick Inferno was a one-sided affair, albeit for mousesports, who closed out the map 16-5. TYLOO fared better on Dust2, managing 8 rounds in the first half itself. But, once mousesports came on to the defence, they shut down TYLOO, closing out the map 16-10 and series 2-0.

The last fixture of the day saw 100 Thieves and G2 go head-to-head. The two had already matched up quite well at BLAST Premier, with the French-majority stack coming out victorious back then.

What was expected to be another even match ended up in a blowout, with 100 Thieves able to win a paltry 5 rounds over two maps, with G2 setting up a match with mousesports while 100 Thieves will fight for survival against TYLOO.

NaVi beat FaZe Clan to win their opening match of IEM Katowice 2020

Sarjyo Mukherjee
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NaVi beat FaZe Clan to win their opening match of IEM Katowice 2020

Natus Vincere comes back from a map deficit to take their opening match against FaZe Clan.

MAP 1: Nuke (FaZe Clan’s Pick)

NaVi kicked off their IEM Katowice 2020 campaign with a pistol round mauling. Boombl4 stabbed Olof down the vent thus dropping the bomb after rain and coldzera met a bullet to the face, forcing NiKo and broky into a 2v4 situation which they were unable to convert. NaVi cleaned up a 2nd round eco from FaZe as we met a technical paused before the 3rd commenced. While the momentum quickly shifted towards NaVi for the initial seconds in the 3rd but cold along with rain picked up the scattered pieces and got FaZe Clan’s first round on board. NaVi got back on the board in the following round. FaZe found time against them on multiple occasions which cost them few extremely close rounds. The next round for FaZe came in the 8th round when they managed to fake their presence in outer and they rush into a fully stacked A site to bringing the score 6-2 favoring the CIS squad. NaVicame back with an eco victory as electronic took down two fully equipped players with a P2000 and the round was nothing short a disaster for FaZe. But FaZe were quick to find their footing in the remaining rounds of the first half. electronic was like a raid boss during these rounds, getting multiple kills on several occasions forcing FaZe to reevaluate their situation. FaZe managed to get themselves a turn of events from how things kicked off, as they won the T side of Nuke with an 8-7 scoreline.

FaZe managed a successful retake in the pistol round with the help of a kit on broky which allowed them to take their time to take back the site. FaZe cleaned up a 2nd round force buy from NaVi after they managed to run down the clock before the Russians could punch in the digits in the 3rd round, thus hitting the double digit mark. NaVi managed to damage the economy of FaZe as they won the first buy round of the 2nd half but FaZe’s deagles yielded the results as cold, NiKo and rain popped heads to bring the eco to them and the score stood 13-8 favoring the Europeans. FaZe Clan took a phenomenal gamble in the 24th round, after losing NiKo in outer, FaZe stacked 4 of their players in the upper bombsite and NaVi walked right in, only to get smashed by a rock-solid defense, thus reaching map point while NaVi were still at their 9th round. broky showed up in aces in the final round after clutching a 1v2 against Boombl4 and Perfecto, he managed to take down Boombl4 with a quick flick and being aware of Perfecto’s position, he managed to stick the defuse at an off-angle, the molly was a little too late from Perfecto as broky held the defuse all the way through to bring in their map pick home with a 16-9 scoreline.

MAP 2: Dust 2 (Natus Vincere’s Pick)

Like Nuke, Natus Vincere started their map pick with a pistol round win and they had the answer to the Euro-Latin American defense until the 4th round. FaZe Clan hit the board in 4th round after having their Deagles caused massive damage to NaVi in the 3rd. They leveled the scorecard in the following round continued their momentum until the 10th round where NaVi found themselves back on the board. FaZe answered back with a successful retake of the A bomb as the flask from coldzera and broky were instrumental in backing up the A defense. NiKo was up to his usual tricks, hitting flashy shots but odds were against them as they lost rounds even after getting important frags. FaZe found themselves on eco in the final round of the first half which was brought down close yet again as rain picked up two headshots after coldzera got one of his own as the half concluded 8-7 yet again favoring the Russians.

FaZe Clan came in all guns blazing on their T side, as they leveled the score with a well-precedented B rush, as NiKo and broky got two frags each. The lead came in for FaZe in the second half with a fairly clean 2nd round victory against pistols and a scout on s1mple. NaVi got close to winning in the 19th round where they were at a man advantage in a B site retake with NiKo stationed in the platform with a Krieg and broky beside the bomb with an AWP. NiKo managed 1 kill and was traded by the 2nd player in the tunnel, while broky picked up electronic with the CZ, he failed to get s1mple, but he had bought enough time by then that s1mple had to leave the defuse and was unable to save his sniper. s1mple was dialed into the game in the second half after the first didn’t quite work for him to the extent he would love. The momentum soon swayed towards NaVi as they won back to back rounds as the leveled the score 13-13, while the 26th round saw NiKo and coldzera bring a 2v4 to a 1v1 with merely deagles. In the following round FaZe bombarded the A bombsite with a 3K from NiKo and later got knife onto flamie while he running away to save. NaVi took an economic gamble in the 28th round, hoping to hold FaZe back from reaching the map and series point and it perfectly worked out for them, as s1mple’s came alive with a 3K with the AWP and things were equalized once again, as both teams shared 14 rounds each. FaZe failed to answer their defense in the following two rounds. The final round of the second map saw FaZe force a catwalk rush with an AWP, AK, two deagles and a Galil, while they were successful for the most part, perfecto was able to make up for his mistake from over at Nuke with a crucial clutch against broky and olofmeister preventing any overtime action in Dust 2 as things go over to Overpass for the decider.

MAP 3: Overpass (Deciding Map)

NaVi were quick to a split towards B in the first round, and forced FaZe into a retake, which they were successful in as a couple of swift headshots came their way on the retake. NaVi forced into two consecutive rounds after the pistol round but they had nothing but economic damage for the showing. The first 4 rounds came in for FaZe with simple textbook Counter Strike, while 5th round witnessed the first proper gun round of Overpass which again went in favor of FaZe. NaVi had their backs against the wall in the round when they called for a tactical timeout after being 6 rounds behind FaZe. The tactical timeout worked out for them, as NaVi were on the board in the 7th round. FaZe were back on board in the 10th after NaVi managed to stitch together 3 rounds, they had a solid defense in B bombsite where the execute from NaVi faced a swift shutdown. FaZe weren’t given any ground to stand on during the midrounds, it was the final two rounds where they were able to put up digits in the scoreboard as the first half of the final map concluded 9-6 favoring the Europeans.

FaZe opted for a B rush on the start of their offense and they walked right into the stack, where flamie grabbed a 4K to shut down the players coming out of monster. The first gun round was yet again shut down by the NaVi SMGs. FaZe had no answer to the NaVi defense as they kept on going towards the B bombsite. FaZe’s next round came when NaVi were already on 14, a late rotate towards B got them a plant while they had to survive through a solid retake attempt to bring home the round, as FaZe hit double digits. As FaZe were back on the board, NaVi managed to shut down two consecutive B pushes to bring the map home.

Fnatic pull off insane comeback on Inferno to take down Renegades 2-0 in Katowice

Bhavya Shah
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Fnatic pull off insane comeback on Inferno to take down Renegades 2-0 in Katowice

Renegades picked up Dust II while the Swedes went ahead with Inferno. Overpass was set to be the decider of Group A upper-bracket quarter-final encounter between Renegades and fnatic.

Dust II being Renegades’ pick, fnatic chose the favourable CT side. Fnatic quickly picked up a pistol round with Golden’s triple-kill towards middle. Fnatic won the following anti-eco and the first buy-round as well. Fnatic took the 4-0 lead. Renegades finally got the scoreboard ticking as malta and dexter got early picks in the fifth round. Fnatic secured the following force-buy due to flusha and brollan’s heroics towards the A-site.

Fnatic destroyed Renegades’ economy and further extended their lead 10-1. Renegades showcased early aggression towards middle with dexter getting a couple of picks, the rest of them rushed A-short and secured their second round on the board. Later down the half, Aussies were impeccably dominated, fnatic led the half 13-2.

Renegades picked up the pistol round of the second half without any casualties. However, they lost the follow-up round while fnatic executed B-site through middle and tunnels. Renegades forced in the twenty-seventh round and won it on the back of Hatz’ triple-kill. Later on, fnatic walked away without giving anymore rounds to the Aussies and secured the first map 16-4.

The second map being fnatic’s pick – Inferno, Renegades began their campaign on the defense. Fnatic went for a quick A-site hit though Aussies held their ground and picked up the pistol round. Brollan swiftly rushed A-short and cleaned up a couple of players towards arch to get the first round on the board. Scoreboard turned 2-1 in the favour of Renegades though. Both teams traded rounds subsequently while fnatic crumbled against upgraded pistols. Hatz got a triple-kill in the seventh round while Renegades took 4-3 lead.

Renegades grabbed four rounds on the trot to extend their lead 7-3 with all-round performance. Golden and flusha delivered fnatic their fourth round with a late B-site execution. Back and forth, Renegades chimed in with 8-4 lead. Brollan, in the fourteenth round, got three crucial entries to clear A-site. The first half ended 10-5. Renegades, on the T-side, grabbed the pistol round as malta killed three on entry towards arch though JW killed four Ts as they hunted him down.

The following force buy got fnatic back into the game as Renegades’ bank was in shambles though scoreboard led 11-6 for the latter. The back and forth exchange halted as Renegades got three back to back rounds and took 14-6 lead. Fnatic won ten rounds in succession to finally shut down the Aussies and grab the series 2-0. Brollan and JW annihilated Renegades. The Swedes have advanced to Group A upper-bracket semi-finale alongside Team Vitality and Astralis. On the other hand, Renegades moves to lower-bracket with the likes of Cloud9 and NiP.

Vitality defeat NiP 2-0 in IEM Katowice 2020 opener

Bhavya Shah
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Vitality defeat NiP 2-0 in IEM Katowice 2020 opener

The Intel Extreme Masters: Katowice 2020 opener began on Vertigo – NiP’s pick. On the other side, Vitality went forward with Nuke and Inferno was left over to be the decider.

Ninjas bagged the pistol round with A-site execute, all props to Plopski’s quad-kill. NiP moved forward with a quick 3-0 lead. Frenchmen got an early two-men advantage in the first buy round and picked up their first round. nawwk with a double-kill early into the fifth round towards B-site, secured 4-1 lead for the Swedes.

NiP added a couple of more rounds against Vitality’s eco and following force-buy. Vitality finally picked up around all credits to early aggression by Alex and Shox. NiP picked up tenth round as the Frenchmen fell against upgraded pistols and nawwk picked up three kills. Pistol and armour buys overpowered rifles a couple of times here and there while the first half ended 8-7 slightly favouring NiP.

Team Vitality rushed B site and ZyWoo picked up a triple-kill to tie scoreboard at 8-8. Vitality picked up following two rounds to lead 10-8. NiP and Vitality traded a couple of rounds, scoreboard turned 12-10 inclined to Vitality. Ninjas then went on a spree to grab two crucial rounds to tie the scoreboard 12-12.

Shox clutched the twenty-fifth round 1vs2 in a post-plant situation to finally grab 13-12 lead for his side. NiP crumbled further and Vitality picked the first map 16-12.

NiP picked CT side and grabbed the pistol round on the back ofq Lekr0 and twist’s double-kills on the upper bombsite. Vitality forced in the following round though NiP merely secured the second round. Vitality forced once again rushing the upper bombsite and ZyWoo got a quad-kill and 1vs2 clutch to put the first round on the board, breaking NiP’s economy. Vitality picked up a 3-2 lead after winning against NiP’s force-buy and following eco round.

NiP finally had their rifles out, though Vitality’s chaotic outside execute stunned the Swedes. Vitality picked anti-eco round making no mistakes and secured 5-2 lead on T-side. Ninjas finally picked up a round on the back on Plopski’s triple-kill at ramp. Both teams traded rounds and scoreboard favoured French 6-4. NiP picked up another round and the French economy was in shambles. Scored tied at 6-6 as NiP picked yet another round on the defence. Rounds were further traded back and forth as Vitality slightly won the first half 8-7 on the offense.

Vitality eventually moved to the defensive side and swiftly secured the pistol round on the back of ZyWoo’s triple-kill. Vitality secured 11-7 lead on a four-round winning spree. NiP came back with a force-buy in the nineteenth round and destroyed French economy. NiP bounced back grabbing a couple of rounds against force-buys and the scoreboard turned 11-10.

Alex got a triple and a quad-kill in the following rounds to extend their lead 13-10. NiP tumbled down against the fierce Frenchmen. The Swedes couldn’t grab around further. Vitality grabbed the serious 2-0 and advanced to Group A upper bracket semi-finale against Astralis. Vitality’s IGL Alex led the squad upfront with 1.43 rating and +18 K/D difference. NiP, on the contrary, is relegated to lower-bracket of Group A alongside Cloud9.

Astralis crush Cloud9 in Katowice, advance to Group A upper-bracket semi-finale

Bharat Kotwani
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Astralis crush Cloud9 in Katowice, advance to Group A upper-bracket semi-finale

The Danish side yet proved themselves to be the big fish in the pool as they hammered the American Giants by beating them 2-0 in the Group A series opener in Katowice.

Astralis started the series opener with two quick Glock kills from Emil “Magisk” Reif which saw Cloud9’s attack cripple. But Johnny “jT” Theodosiou and his men did call their shots on point as they did enforce an Anti-economy round which saw them penetrate into Astralis’s aggressive defence. Things looked to deeply worsen for the Danes as Cloud9 saw themselves to be in the driver’s seat when jT once again opened up B site for business with his Krieg to help his team lead with a scoreline of 4-1. But the odds seemed to shift in Astralis’s favour as Cloud9 started to concede a plethora of rounds where we witnessed Nicolai ‘device’ Reedtz stop a thirsty Terrorist rush by grabbing a 4k with his five-seven in the middle giving his team a healthy 11-4 lead over the North American Organization. Coming from the switch, we did again got to witness a similar kind of situation where Cloud9 got away with yet another Anti-Eco plan in their 17th round but Johnny “jT” Theodosiou and his men did look destitute and listless as de_overpass was finally claimed by the Danish Power with a scoreline of 16-7.

Astralis started the match off on the right foot, securing a quick 3-0 lead after picking up their T-side pistol with a B execution. But yet again the NA giants couldn’t live with the humiliation as they raced off with a healthy lead much thanks to the collective efforts from Johnny “jT” Theodosiou and his men which does include a whopping 1v4 clutch defuse from Ricky ‘floppy’ Kemery in the 14th round. A scrappy period of play ensued as neither team could stamp their authority on the game with Astralis bagging the final round of the first half to bring the scoreline to 7-8 on their T side. But with fire still in their bellies, Cloud9 started to storm the entire map with some amazing picks from Josh ‘oSee’ Ohm and Ian ‘motm’ Hardy which saw Cloud9 climb up to a lead of 11 to 9. Earlier Xyp9x did take down 3 to seal off the pistol round on their CT but it was soon overshadowed by the North American Force which had started to make the Danes regret on their own map pick. We did get to witness yet another tactical plays from floppy where he did clutch out a 1v3 on the offence but again the team failed to serve vengeance as they fell short of 3 rounds to force Overtime on the Danish side which saw the later clinch their map pick with a scoreline of 16-12 thus sealing off the series by 2-0.

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