NA Day 2: Noble stands strong, Obey falls short

Game 1: Noble 6 - 2 SK

Map: Coastline

Noble: Krazy, Breezy, Heavy, Acid, Yeti

SK: Hotancold, Mint, Nyx, Pojoman, Jarvis

 

 

Building on their victory from week 1, Noble showed the world that they are here to stay. SK on the other hand, while still attempting to solidify their 5th roster spot, have failed to find their footing yet here in Season 8. SK would start this matchup by removing Glaz and Vigil from the field, while Noble chose to eliminate Lion and Mira.

Heavy started things off right in round 1 removing SK’s smoke, and his teammates would quickly follow that up with four more and a flawless victory to set the tone for our first matchup. SK was able to respond in round 2 however as Hotancold would find kills at the start and finish of the round. Within 30 seconds of spawning HnC was outside on the VIP balcony to pick off the always dangerous Blackbeard, and then in a 3v2 situation in the kitchen found himself a double kill to deny the plant from Noble.

From there on out though Noble would tighten their grip and only allow one more victory from SK. Noble showed some great chemistry in this match picking up solid kill trades and just slaying well overall. They now go into day 2 of this super week as one of the few remaining North American undefeated teams.

 

Game 2: Mousesports 6 - 3 Rogue

Map: Coastline

Mousesports: Beastly, Vandal, Hyper, Neptunez, Vertcl

Rogue: Bryan, Easilyy, Slashug, Ecl9pse, Geoo

 

Our second match of the day featured two teams with a result that most would not have expected. Mousesports have struggled recently with upsetting performances not only from last season of Pro League but also a 13-16th finish at DreamHack Austin. Rogue however have looked strong, being the reigning North American champions, and taking a week 1 victory over SK. For this matchup we go back to Coastline and while Rogue decided to ban Blackbeard and Valkyrie, Mouse would take out Glaz and Echo.

Rogue started this game strong in round 1 taking map control fairly easily and in similar fashion to our first match, finishes with a flawless round. Mousesports however would answer back with force and take the next 3 wins, giving Rogue a very hard time with their roamers ability to annoy and distract. After switching sides Mouse would continue to show just how much slaying power they have with Vertcl and Vandal basically taking over the game. Round 6 was very close with Easilyy nearly ending the round on time after denying a defuser plant but Hyper came to the rescue with a last second trade to secure the win. Immediately after that, Rogue would squeeze out one more round win on a nice late rotation from Slashug, however Mouse would find two more decisive wins to take the map 6-3.

Vertcl and Vandal put the team on their back with their slaying power today combining for a scoreline of 23-11. Rogue still looked solid, they found success when able to adequately deal with roamers, but when your opponents are fragging out like they did, it’s tough to find a victory.

 

Game 3: Spacestation 6 - 2 Obey

Map: Clubhouse

Spacestation: Shuttle, Chala, Thinkingnade, Redeemer, Rampy

Obey: Skys, Mahman, Bosco, Benji, Adam

 

 

For the first time in Season 8 of North American Pro League we found ourselves on a newly renovated Clubhouse. Obey was looking for redemption this week after taking a hard loss to EG, but SSG was trying to hold onto their momentum after defeating the newly promoted Cloud9 6-0. Obey decided to remove Thermite and Mira from this matchup, while SSG banned Glaz and Valkyrie.

The first two rounds of this matchup would go to a 1v1 where Chala would find himself as the hero. First in round 1 he would find a kill onto Benji who was just moments away from destroying the planted defuser, and in the very next round would also win an almost identical clutch situation. Obey would finally find some luck going to defend the cash room, where Mahman would have his time to shine with a ninja defuse under cover of the bomb in a 1v3 situation. Once SSG switched to defense in round 6, the match would quickly come to its conclusion. In their first defense of cash room they allowed a relatively easy defuser plant but both sides started trading kills immediately after. Down to a 1v1 situation Thinkingnade got onto the defuser to bait Adam into pushing through connector where he would pull up and find the kill onto the last remaining attacker to take the round.

Finishing out the map, Chala would once again make waves proving to be a thorn in the side of Obey’s attack. With SSG defending bedroom, Chala was able to waste time in cash and get a nice wall bang kill in the process. Obey didn’t put together a meaningful push before there were 30 seconds remaining, and SSG took the map 6-2.

 

Game 4: Evil Geniuses 5 - 5 Cloud9

Map: Clubhouse

Evil Geniuses: Necrox, Yung, BC, NVK, Canadian

Cloud9: Laxing, Foxa, Goddess, Shlongii, Retro

 

 

For the final match of the day Cloud9 was looking to prove that their promotion to pro league was not a fluke, however a strong and consistent Evil Geniuses squad stood in their way. EG would start by banning Thermite and our first Smoke ban, while C9 removed Thatcher and Mira.

C9 came out swinging with a bulldozer strategy bringing Montagne and Blackbeard right through the dirt tunnel into EG’s Church defense. This gave them a 2 round head start but EG would halt their plans with a move to cash room where Yung would find a nice 4k clutch on Maestro. Feeling confident, EG went back to church with an old school tunnel hold featuring some Mute jammers, ADS devices, and a deployable shield to stop the Monty push at all costs. That set up combined with an early pick onto Blackbeard allowed them to tie up the game, and then take the lead going into Cloud9’s defensive side.

The two squads then traded rounds back and forth. Round 7 being a solid push and flawless victory for EG, while in round 8 C9 would allow a plant in the gym and get a nice retake after finding two remaining EG players outside. The final two rounds would go to a bar defense where C9 would live and die by Echo. In round 9 Canadian would eliminate both Yokai drones relatively quickly to allow for a familiar plant under cover of Glaz and smokes. However in round 10 Laxing would put his Yokai’s to excellent use by denying pushes from the attack, and then clutching a 1v2 with EG trying to rush to get the defuser planted. The two sides give us our first 5-5 tie for North America this season, in what should be a huge confidence for C9 after their 6-0 loss in week 1.

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Be sure to catch Day 2 of this North American super week on the official Twitch and YouTube channels at 8pm EDT. To see all the upcoming games’ schedules, go to our Matches page, and check out completed games’ stats by clicking on the individual games.