Image via Ubisoft
After a year of near misses, Elevate made their global debut on Tuesday against DarkZero. After both Korean teams put on a show, Elevate then ended day one for the region by keeping APAC’s then-flawless record intact with a win over the North American roster.
This 2-0 was a result that not even the Elevate players expected as Elevate managed to adapt to DZ fairly effectively. According to Paramin "sprOnigiri" Suwanwattana in a Ubisoft-organized press conference, after DZ’s Nick "njr" Rapier secured 13 kills in their offensive rounds on map one, Elevate decided to stop roaming alone, stopped peeking, and played a lot more defensively, leading to a 7-4 win; “that's the key to winning [against] DarkZero,” Onigiri said.
On map two, Chalet, Onigiri stated that “DarkZero know how we play on attack and they set up their defense very well” as DZ’s prep-work seemed to be paying off.
Many APAC fans have seen this happen before as Elevate has got incredibly close to attending both the Mexico and Sweden Major but lost out when it mattered most. Elevate admitted this stating that they “choke a lot when we have a man advantage” due to excessive peeks. This time was different, however, as they closed it out and won in an 8-7 scoreline.
The key difference here was their attitude during the match; “we keep the moody [sic] funny [...] we say to each other: it's just like another day in Ranked so doesn't have to be so serious”. This is an approach that works uniquely well for Elevate precisely due to their debutant status with them stating that “to be honest we don't expect much from SI … before SI our highest goal of our team was to reach SI and we made it”.
"...To be honest we don't expect much from SI. Just like I said we just played SI just like another day in Ranked. Because, before SI our highest goal of our team was to reach SI and we made it."
Qualifying for the Six Invitational has led the pressure that’s been the team’s number one issue all year to finally lift when it matters the most.
Looking forward, Elevate’s next game is against FURIA, a team they highlighted as a team of issue in their group. In what’s high praise considering how well they’ve been playing, Onigiri compared FURIA’s playstyle to that of DAMWON KIA’s due to their “very sharp gunskill” and their affinity to wide peeking. Nevertheless, they stayed confident stating they are careful not to underestimate their opponents and that “we're gonna keep preparing today and hope the best for tomorrow”.
This matchup will take place at 4pm CET on the A stream. A win of any kind over FURIA could guarantee Elevate a spot in the playoffs should BDS lose to TSM in the concurrent game.