On Day 4 of the NAL, Parabellum and Mirage both tried to prove they're top contenders, Oxygen and beastcoast hoped to get their first win, and Soniqs and TSM fought for first place.
Firstly, here are the final scores by the end of the day:
- DarkZero Esports 7 - 5 Parabellum Esports
- Astralis 7 - 4 beastcoast
- Soniqs 8 - 6 TSM FTX
- XSET 7-5 Oxygen Esports
- Spacestation Gaming 7-5 Mirage
Play of the day: Melted 1v2
While “only” a 1v2 clutch, this triple kill from Melted is remarkable as he was in what should have been a no-win scenario. He made his way past a post-plant crossfire set up by two World Champion players to win this round, which turned out to be necessary to take the game eventually to overtime.
Player of the day: Forrest
A whopping 22 kills from Astralis’ Forrest helped carry his team to an overtime win against beastcoast on Villa. The next-best fragger on his team had less than half his count on 10 kills, with Forrest’s 22 including seven entry kills to zero entry deaths.
Surprise of the day: beastcoast
While they still lost, few would have expected beastcoast to put up the fight they did against Astralis and it seemed like they only failed to get the full three points due to a superhuman effort from Forrest.
Top moments of the day
Finally, here’s a quickfire rundown of other notable moments in the NAL on Wednesday:
TSM stop the comeback with a rush plant
After going up 6-1, TSM won the match of the week against Soniqs with a rushed plant onto the Archives objective. This came after two Soniqs wins in a row and the result pushes TSM level with Soniqs at the top of the standings on nine points.
Achieved: We just didn’t see [Geo on the team] as a fit no more. We didn’t think he liked it here playing with us no more. There’s just a lot of indifferences, communication and stuff, so there was a few things. We also wanted some fresh blood too, and I think that really helped us. Pick up some new people, see how they play the game, and add that fire again cause our last team with Chala and Geo were all together for two years and I think we got a bit complaint -- not just those two but all of us -- and i think adding two new gunners to the team definitely spices it up and revamps it.
Canadian gets a triple on his iconic Pulse
Using a shotgun, Canadian almost got a quadruple-kill as he destroyed Parabellum’s attacks on the red stairs.
Dpfire, Shuttle, and J90 at 0-15
After five rounds against beastcoast, Dpfire, Shuttle, and J90 were all at 0-5 as Astralis trailed 1-4 while defending Villa.
Round six then saw them improve to 3-17 as a collective, while Dpfire had recovered to 4-5 at the end of round seven, though Shuttle was still at 0-8.
DarkZero finally ban Border against Parabellum
After three games on Border in a row for Parabellum, DZ used their last ban to get rid of the map to go to Kafe.
DZ beat PBLM 7-3 last stage on Kafe and Parabellum has a five-loss streak on the map. DZ won again with a 7-5 scoreline.
Supr: When they went to defence, DZ was able to get three quick rounds on attack, and it was basically by out-patience-ing Parabellum. They would get a pick and then immediately get going. Parabellum in round 10-11 I believe they slowed it down a little bit. Even in that 2v5 they had to scramble cause they had no time. Literally if they just sat there and made DZ do something they were winning rounds. They go to round 12 they get early picks again and DZ spiralled that attack. The way DZ attacked that map really countered the way that Parabellum tried to play.
Beastcoast on a losing streak
Beascoast have now lost seven of their last eight games, dating back to June. The only game they won was against TSM in the final game of Stage 2.
Next week, they play Soniqs and Oxygen, with the latter game being their best remaining chance for a win.
Just 12 kills in six rounds, one opening kill in 10 for Soniqs
Soniqs were completely flattened in their game against TSM as they were averaging just two kills per round during the first half and were completely eliminated on entry, particularly by Beaulo.
Best Kill of the Day?
Good drone work from Achieved netted him what was both the easiest kill of the play day, which he rubbed in with a few extra taps of the Skeleton Key shotgun.
TSM and Soniqs on nine points lead the table after the head-to-head
Considering TSM are in first place and have already beaten the team in second, it would take a remarkable collapse for them to miss out on the November Major. If they do qualify, this will be the first Six Major they attend with their full roster since 2019.
Below them, Soniqs and the winners between DZ and SSG next Tuesday are most likely to get two more spots, leaving a massive fight for the final spots.
