Wildcard started their Lower Bracket run in Munich with a 2-0 victory against Ninjas in Pyjamas. This defeat means Brazil's only representative left in the competition is FaZe Clan, who will play against Team Falcons tomorrow.
- Check out our stats for the Wildcard 2-0 Ninjas in Pyjamas match here
The North American squad surprised the viewers with a one-sided 7-2 win on the shinobi’s map pick, Clubhouse. Finally, the Brazilians were close to forcing the third map, Kafe Dostoyevsky; unfortunately for them Wildcard ended up taking a maximum overtime win.
Wildcard’s dominance over the ninjas on Clubhouse wasn’t expected at all. The North Americans managed to win four of their six attacks, giving them the upper hand when switching sides. Eventually, Wildcard didn’t have to suffer at all to close out the map.
“We were expecting that pick,” Joan “bbySharKK” Benito admitted in a SiegeGG pre-match interview. “For us, the maps for today would have been literally Club and Sky,” he added.
Overall, Wildcard felt really comfortable against the Brazilians on Clubhouse. The ninjas’ defensive strategies seemed to be easy to read as they couldn’t catch Wildcard off-guard.
Precisely, the Frenchman used “comfortable” as the word to define his first professional season. Despite playing abroad, in North America, the European has proved he’s not afraid to swim alongside North America – and the world’s – biggest sharks.
“I am feeling very comfortable, having a good mindset before the match, nothing else,” the Frenchman admitted.
Although comfortable is a word that can certainly be used to talk about Clubhouse, we couldn’t say the same about Skyscraper. The North Americans were off to a great start and eventually reached match point by round nine – meaning the roster had three match points in hand. Spoiler, they couldn’t transform any… and that was mainly due to the ninjas’ Clash ban.
Before the veto, Wildcard had been using Clash to slow down the Brazilians’ attacking plays. However, without the shield operator, the task got really difficult. The ninjas’ Deimos plays were too good in some rounds and the North Americans were constantly hurt by them. They had to react.
“Lagonis told us to play the Clash because it would be really annoying… and it was really annoying,” the French said. “When they banned the Clash it got a little bit more complicated since we had to be curious by ourselves, so, sometimes, checking, going on cams, but they were playing Dokka a lot, so it was a little bit hard.”
“Sometimes it wasn’t that simple but at the end we have been able to bounce back and close it,” the Frenchman added.
In such a young squad like Wildcard’s, having experience is key to finding the balance. When individual talent is mixed with experience, confidence, and adaptability, that’s when a team can start thinking about being successful. Wildcard, so far, have been showing that – in their second international event.
One of the pillars of Wildcard in Munich has been Lorenzo “Lagonis” Volpi. The Brazilian, Six Mexico Major champion and former Team Liquid player, is in a position where he can use his knowledge as a player to address the issues that Wildcard suffers, not just inside but also outside of the server. Having him behind the players on the stage has been a boost for the lineup.
“His experience brought us a lot, he knows exactly how I play, how do I like to play, how I can perform inside the servers,” the Frenchman said. “I think I played really well with the Oryx and it’s in great part because of him, it worked in the end.”
“I don’t really know… I just know it’s going to be a tough match. We have scrimmed a lot across the regions… but, yeah, I don’t really know. I am just going to play the game I usually play and will be… I think we’re going to win the game,” the Frenchman concluded.
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