The North America League 2025 Stage 2 kicked off yesterday with the first five matches of the split, which included victories for Shopify Rebellion, Spacestation, DarkZero Esports, M80, and ENVY.
Here's everything you need to know about yesterday's matches:
Shopify Rebellion 8-7 Wildcard
Shopify Rebellion's BO1 streak this season is still alive as the American roster kicked off Stage 2 with a maximum overtime victory against Wildcard.
The match was highly entertaining as it included plenty of individual plays, including five clutches, two 4Ks, and even an ace by Shopify Rebellion's Jaylen "Ambi" Turk.
Shopify Rebellion had a brilliant start to the game as the team coached by Seth "supr" Hoffman won the first three rounds of the clash. Eventually, Wildcard shortened the distance after winning the following two rounds, the latter one being a 1v1 clutch by Joan "bbySharKK" Benito. However, Shopify managed to get one round back after a 1v1 clutch by their IGL, Troy "Canadian" Jaroslawski.
While the first half of the game had already been really intense and full of skilled individual plays, the second half was, somehow, even better. After Wildcard won their first defence, Shopify's Ambi restored his team's two-round lead with an ace. Then, Wildcard tied the score with back-to-back 1v2 clutches by bbyShark and Leonardo "dash" Lopes. Surprisingly, Wildcard reached match point before Shopify Rebellion thanks to a 3K by Jacob "Bae" Dowling.
Unfortunately for Wildcard, Shopify Rebellion pushed the match to overtime and, although Wildcard won the first of the three extra rounds, a 1v2 clutch by Ambi gave them some momentum. Finally, Shopify Rebellion clinched the two points in the very last round of the game.
With 19 kills, three opening kills, one clutch, and one ace, Ambi averaged a SiegeGG rating of 1.43. He was extremely aggressive for Shopify Rebellion and was who really made the difference. Meanwhile, Wildcard's best player was Bae, with a SiegeGG rating of 1.35 and a KOST of 80.
You can check out the stats of Shopify Rebellion's victory against Wildcard here.
Spacestation 7-5 STANDBY LFO
Spacestation kicked off their Stage 2 campaign with a 7-5 win against STANDBY LFO after a well-fought series on Kafe.
The astronauts managed to win four of their six attacking rounds, with the last one being a 1v3 clutch by Ethan "Nuers" James. On a map like Kafe, where every attack counts, winning four attacks usually is enough to end up taking a comfortable win. Well, this wasn't exactly the case.
Despite being behind, STANDBY LFO managed to put Spacestation between a rock and a hard place as the Americans caught up on the astronauts as the tie was still on the scoreboard after ten rounds. Unfortunately for the orgless mix, Spacestation reacted just in time as they ended up clinching the three points.
Spacestation's Liam "Ashn" Paz was the best player of the match with a SiegeGG rating of 1.49, followed by his teammate Nuers, with a SiegeGG rating of 1.29. Meanwhile, STANDBY LFO's best player was Edwardo "Eddy" Díaz with a SiegeGG rating of 1.27.
You can check out the stats of Spacestation's victory against STANDBY LFO here.
Cloud9 6-8 DarkZero Esports
Cloud9 were two match points away from upsetting DarkZero Esports as the purple roster had to produce a brilliant comeback to end up claiming the win.
DarkZero Esports had a shaky start to the game as the first round of the match fell to their side after a Nick "njr" Rapier 1v2 clutch with Thermite. Shortly after, the Americans added a second round to their tally; the game was going as many had expected.
However, after a poor start to the game, Cloud9 took full control of the match. The team's Warden players George "Silent" Hernández and Jesse "Gity" Auger stole the show with a 4K and a 1v1 clutch in rounds three and four, respectively. Then, two back-to-back 2K and 3Ks by Gity saw Cloud9 building a two-round lead right before swapping sides.
Logically, with DarkZero Esports on defense in the second half of the game, the viewers expected the purple roster to slowly catch up on Cloud9. That was what it happened at the start, as a 3K by njr saw them reducing the distance to just one round. However, another 2K by Gity restored Cloud9's two-round lead.
The same happened immediately after: another successful DarkZero Esports defensive round was followed by another successful Cloud9 attacking round. All of a sudden, Cloud9 was one round away from claiming all three points.
Unfortunately for Cloud9, it wasn't meant to be. Roberto "Panbazou" Feliciano stole the show in the latter stages of the game while playing Azami, with a 3K and a 2K in the last two rounds of regulation. It all came down to a 1v1 on round twelve, which was won by Ben "CTZN" McMillan. After that, and with DarkZero Esports kicking off overtime on defense, Cloud9 simply fell apart.
You can check out the stats of DarkZero Esports' victory against Cloud9 here.
M80 7-5 Oxygen Esports
Three months after M80's dramatic end to Stage 1, Fabian "Fabian" Hällsten's players are back to winning ways as they kicked off Stage 2 with a 7-5 win against Oxygen Esports.
M80's Matthew "Hotancold" Stevens dominated the spotlight in the early stages of the game as the American got 3Ks on rounds one and three, with the latter one being part of a 1v1 clutch. Eventually, the former Spacestation player stole the show again on round six as he claimed a 4K to put a tie on the scoreboard; meaning M80 had won half of their attacking rounds on Kafe.
Despite M80 having the upper hand after swapping sides, Pablo "Gryxr" Rebeil restored Oxygen's hope with a 1v1 clutch on their first attacking round on the Russian map. Unfortunately for them, M80 knew exactly how to get the best out of their Kafe defenses and ended up claiming the three points after winning four of the last five rounds.
The BLAST R6 Major Manchester champions Hotancold and Ayden "dfuzr" Gabari were the best players of the match with SiegeGG ratings of 1.63 and 1.31. Meanwhile, Oxygen Esports' best player was Gryxr, with a SiegeGG rating of 1.00, closely followed up by Evan "Yoggah" Nelson, with a SiegeGG rating of 0.94.
You can check out the stats of M80's victory against Oxygen Esports here.
Team Cruelty 0-7 ENVY
The first game day of the North America League 2025 Stage 2 ended with a flawless ENVY victory against the Mexican lineup of Team Cruelty.
It was total domination from the Americans on Skyscraper as they comfortably won their six defenses on the Japanese map. Their final defense showed Team Cruelty's desperation as the Mexicans were easily stopped despite pushing the site with Montagne and Blitz. With the 0-6 on the scoreboard, ENVY ended up taking the win after a Nick "Snake" Janis 4K while playing Deimos.
The former TSM player was precisely the best player of the match as the American averaged a SiegeGG rating of 2.17 after getting a K-D of 13-2 (+11) and an entry balance of 2-0 (+2).
You can check out the stats of ENVY's victory against Team Cruelty here.