Straight from the LATAM SI 2023 Closed Qualifiers, LOS oNe are showing in Montreal, Canada, why the Global Standings format is getting a tweak heading into the next season.
Keeping in mind that four of the five players in the team had their professional debuts less than a year ago, LOS oNe's season has been excellent so far. Yet, their performances have largely gone unnoticed due to a rough run of luck.
While they qualified for the Charlotte Major, things soon started to go wrong. In Stage 2, they missed out on the Berlin Major by just one point. Meanwhile, in Stage 3, oNe finished just outside the top four after having the worst round difference in a quadruple tie for second place.
After the conclusion of the Brasileirao, oNe finished in third place overall -- only behind Team Liquid and w7m esports. However, due to the region's SI Points distribution method, the roster finished the season outside the Global Standing's Top 16.
Nevertheless, following a BR SI 2023 Open Qualifier win and after defeating FURIA Esports at the LATAM SI 2023 Closed Qualifier, LOS oNe deservedly qualified for the biggest tournament of the year.
Now, the international scene is witnessing a team that arguably should have had thousands of eyes on them months ago. Their opening 2-1 victory against CAG was followed by a 2-1 victory against the Jönköping Major champions Team BDS.
"We are feeling very confident and happy as we won the first two matches, but the focus is to keep our play style until the end of the group stage," shared Renato "rhZ" Costa in a post-match interview with SiegeGG.
According to the Brazilian player, the team focuses on playing like they do "in scrims".
"Sometimes we play the way we want with no pressure so the team's communication still (is) like the game was 0-0, no pressure," he continued.
After LOS oNe's victory on the second map of the series against BDS today, everything was set to be decided on Chalet. RhZ admitted the team "played really well" on defense, as Chalet is usually attacker-sided.
"BDS was playing the way we like but we were struggling on the last attack step to execute, even in scrims," he said.
The Brazilian had a great start on Chalet, winning the first four defenses after completing three clutches in a row -- one from rhZ, one from Leonardo "Dash" Lopes, and an outrageous one from Gabriel "Maia" Maia.
"That round (Maia's clutch) I destroyed Elemzje on dinner's hatch and died with bad timing on blue and 1v4 is really hard to win," said rhZ. "But, when Maia got two kills I was like 'ok he won', I think it was the best play at the moment in SI."
This match was certainly not for the faint-hearted as a result. Across the entire series, both teams produced a combined amount of 11 clutches, with Loïc "BriD" Chongthep getting three alone.
With that start, LOS oNe found themselves 4-0 ahead of the Frenchmen. But a timely timeout for BDS woke the Jönköping Major champions up before it became too late. And in the blink of an eye, Team BDS won five rounds.
Nevertheless, the Brazilians hung on and recovered after a timeout themselves, taking a vital three points after winning the map by a narrow 8-6 margin.
LOS oNe head into Day 4 as the Group C leaders despite having only played two matches. Their two opponents left are Astralis and Oxygen Esports -- both North American.
"Now we play against two NAL teams and the play style is really different than CAG and BDS, we just played" rhZ said. "We kinda know how to play against them and now we need to put it in practice and see if it will work as we expect."