After a decisive match, NRG Esports NRG Esports North America Rank #3 FiNESSE Pujan Mehta s0m Sam Oh Verno Andrew Maust mada Adam Pampuch Ethan Ethan Arnold beat ZETA DIVISION ZETA DIVISION Japan Rank #2 Dep Yuma Hashimoto SugarZ3ro Shota Watanabe CLZ Hikaru Mizutani SyouTa Shota Aoki Xdll Yuto Mizomori with a redeeming 2-0.

Many predicted the two teams would face each other at Champions, but in the Group B decider instead of its elimination game. NRG once again found themselves struggling in their opener against Bilibili Gaming Bilibili Gaming China Rank #4 B3ar Yang Zhanxiong (杨瞻雄) whzy Wang Haozhe (王昊哲) Levius Lu Yinzhong (卢胤中) rushia Wang Xiaojie (王晓杰) nephh Marcus Tan Knight Liu Yuxiang (刘宇翔) , while ZETA faced tournament favorites FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #3 Sayonara Ștefan Mîtcu stand-in Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder in theirs, both games ending 2-0.

This match was also a bit of a grudge match for ZETA, since the NRG core, previously on OpTic Gaming OpTic Gaming Inactive , were the team to ultimately halt ZETA's miracle run during last year's Masters: Reykjavík.

Bind began with teams trading thrifty rounds, however once rifles came into play ZETA took the lead by the end of the half. ZETA's double duelist team comp appeared to be tailor-made for an attack, with heavy post-plant potential. However they found no success, with the Dep - TENNN duelist pairing dying first a combined eight times, while only getting the first elimination three times. Laz pushed ZETA onto map point with the first ace of the series, but NRG brought the map to overtime soon after and ultimately won 15-13.

Laz aces to reach map point

Meanwhile, NRG also started their map pick in dominant fashion, taking an early 4-0 lead that was only halted by another ZETA ace. NRG's Harbor-Viper comp proved to be too much for ZETA, who attempted crunches, retakes, and early aggression to no avail.

Dep grants ZETA their only round on Haven

The attack was more of the same. NRG won both rounds to close out the map 13-1. Round 14 did come down to a 1v1, but Victor managed to close it out in the end.

Overall, the gameplan and adaptation from NRG as a whole was stellar, but the star of the show was certainly ardiis . He got 27 kills on the first map, 19 eliminations and a 1.77 rating on his signature Jett in the second map, as well as a massive 14 first kills across both maps.

The victory set NRG up for a rematch against Bilibili Gaming to decide which team advances to playoffs.

“I think we just overcomplicated things against Bilibili,” ardiis said after their victory. “I think we just play simple, play what we know. We're better players, a better team.”

But ardiis warned Bilibili that NRG won't be repeating those mistakes. “You guys are going home, 100%.”