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Week 4 of Stage 2 took place last week, as all four regions neared their respective ends of Stage 2.
Following most of these games were interviews with the victorious teams, so for those that missed them, we've summarised the best quotes and responses from the players below.
Jump to:
- EU League -- "It was purely counter to Shaiiko"
- NA League -- "I call the weirdest thing known to mankind, the whole team listens to it and usually it works"
- Brasileirão -- "On Coastline you have so many different playstyles... that's why this map is so fun"
- APAC Leagues -- "All I can say is that Nova is on a rest and he might come back later"
EU League
Firstly, after a rough start, Empire won their third game running against Team Secret to create a three-point gap between them in fourth and their fellow Russians of V.p in fifth.
Here's what Danil "JoyStiCK" Gabov had to say about their 7-5 win over Secret on Consulate:
Following this, Jack "Doki" Robertson said this about why he continues to play Ash despite her dramatic drop off in pick rate in every other region:
Additionally, he corrected Dezachu on potential Na'Vi changes:
Finally, of note was the massive matchup between Team BDS and G2 Esports as the teams sat in first and third in the league. An impressive 7-4 win on Clubhouse from G2 meant they overtook BDS and leapt into second, also allowing Na'Vi to take first place.
Jake "Virtue" Grannan then came on for the interview with Milosh:
NA League
Over in North America, the pick of the matches was clearly SSG's 7-2 victory over TSM, who were still playing with Pojoman subbed-in for Geo.
Considering TSM's dominance earlier in the stage -- including a 7-0 win over DarkZero -- this second loss in a row in such a dominant fashion was certainly a statement from SSG, who booked a flight to Mexico with this win.
In the lone interview of the night, here's what SSG's newest player and current NAL Stage 2 stats leader Matthew "Hotancold" Stevens had to say about the result:
As well as this, The Soniqs beat Oxygen Esports 7-3 in a meeting between the two Stage 1 leaders, while XSET and DG beat Mirage and bc respectively.
Brasileirão
Latiin America, meanwhile, had a truly wild Saturday as the underdogs took point after point from the league leaders. Santos Esports beat Team Liquid 8-7, Team oNe took down FaZe Clan 7-3, and W7M Gaming beat Black Dragons 8-6.
Starting with these first two games, Santos marked their second win of the stage, which puts them within a chance of an Elite Six Cup spot. That win came primarily thanks to Rhyze, who went 17-9 on Ash and Jager.
The team's manager and analyst of Mario "Furi" Sobreira said this about the win:
For Team oNe, this win (along with a Sunday victory over MIBR) meant that the team booked a spot in the Elite Six Cup, as they currently sit in fourth place.
Here's what Lorenzo "Lagonis" Volpi said in the interview about their map pick:
The following day was less of a whirlwind, as NiP, FaZe, oNe, and Liquid all won their games. That has created a three-way tie for first place on 32 points, though Team Liquid has played one less game than the other two.
The combined points total across both Stages as used to determine the Elite Six participants in LATAM.
Just looking at this stage alone, however, indicates Team oNe as the standout team in second, while FURIA drops to sixth.
APAC Leagues
Closing things out, we had the APAC Leagues, though APAC South kicked off the action in this super-week.
Elevate secured two important victories this week to climb to second place, while Invictus Gaming first stunned league leaders Qconfirm 7-1 before then crumbling 2-7 against 7th Heaven.
Meanwhile, ORDER and the Chiefs both got their first regular-time wins of the season, while their fellow Australians on Wildcard Gaming would have been disappointed with just one point from both their games.
Following his team's dominating win over the league leaders, Invictus Gaming captain Lunarmetal shared about his team's struggles in translating scrim performance into actual games and the insights learned from playing at the first Six Invitational in Europe.
Raven: Do you feel like this is now 'you guys'? Like, is this a sustainable standard that you have set to be able to continue in Stage 2?
Meanwhile, APAC North had some heart-pumping action, starting its super-week with 8-6 victories for Talon Esports and DWG KIA over T1 and GUTS Gaming, respectively.
While Cyclops Athlete Gaming (CAG) shook off the FAV Gaming pursuit with a dominating 7-3, Cloud9 then incredibly denied Fnatic a comeback victory from 6-3, as Harp3r slammed the door shut on the Australians with a 1v4 clutch in Round 15.
The next play day, CAG continued their flawless run with a 7-5 over T1, while DWG KIA, GUTS Gaming, and Fnatic beat Talon, Cloud9, and FAV by identical 7-4 margins.
In the post-match interview after the 8-7 win over Fnatic, Harp3r shed light on why his team has been struggling since its return from the Six Invitational 2021, having been flying high before it.
Harp3r then went onto speak about his incredible 1v4 clutch.
Week 4 will kick off its games tonight with an added EUL and BR6 playday on top of the usual NA and APAC League games.
SiegeGG will be covering all these tournaments as usual so check back for stats, news, and highlights for your favorite teams!