Just days after pulling off a record-tying comeback in VCT plays, NRG NRG North America Rank #1 s0m Sam Oh brawk Brock Somerhalder mada Adam Pampuch skuba Logan Jenkins Ethan Ethan Arnold added to their legacy as the comeback kings, overcoming a seven-round deficit in map three of a 2-1 victory over DRX DRX Korea Rank #1 Flicker Kim Tae-hee (김태희) Flashback Cho Min-hyuk (조민혁) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) free1ng No Ha-jun (노하준) HYUNMIN Song Hyun-min (송현민) Estrella Park Gun (박건) BeYN Kang Ha-bin (강하빈) to qualify for the Champions Paris playoffs.

The series opened on DRX's pick of Haven. The Korean squad continued with its double Duelist approach, with HYUNMIN seemingly a permanent Waylay player while Flashback on the primary Duelist role. On this map, Flashback was on Neon, while the rest of the team was rounded out by Omen, Cypher, and Sova. NRG played the more meta double-Controller comp, pairing Viper and Omen, with mada on Neon.

NRG opted to start on defense, and appeared to play just about neck and neck to DRX, picking up 39 kills as a team in the half to DRX's 41 kills in the half, but finding themselves down 8-4. DRX won the first four rounds of the map, then dropped three before winning a further four. DRX played their own defender side to near perfection, dropping no rounds on that side of the map en route to a 13-4 victory.

Clean from DRX to open up the series.

Both teams went for zero-Sentinel Omen-Viper comps on NRG's pick of Corrode. DRX went back to the Yoru-Waylay double Duelist pairing, while NRG had a double Initiator approach with brawk and Ethan on their iconic Sova and KAY/O. DRX started on attack, following up HYUNMIN's disruptive entries with Flashback's Yoru utility. DRX used yet another fast start to reach a 5-0 lead, grabbing the first three pistol, anti-eco, and bonus rounds of the series. After getting an Odin into brawk's hands and eventually building up the economy to get mada an Operator, NRG clawed back enough rounds to enter halftime down just 7-5.

Mr. Ace? mada gets his first 5K on the international stage.

After an NRG pistol, DRX eco, and then an NRG would-be bonus, the two sides went back and forth. The first six rounds of the half were split 3-3, with the wins alternating. DRX, up 11-8, was just two rounds away from closing out the series and reaching the playoffs of a Champions event once again, but five straight NRG rounds made that a distant possibility. Playing away from and around Flashback's Operator, and the tight layering of ultimates made the final stages of the map clean for NRG, leading to a 13-11 win.

Despite Flashback's 26 and HYUNMIN's 17 kills on the map, DRX was not able to capitalize. Meanwhile, mada's team-high 22 led the way for NRG, who had Controller players s0m and skuba tally on 18 each as well.

NRG had the choice between Bind and Lotus for the final map, and chose to play Lotus. The map began disastrously for NRG. While NRG continued with the Omen-Viper comp, DRX continued with Yoru Waylay while shifting brawk onto Vyse. After yet another string of three straight losses, DRX steamrolled forward, reaching a 7-0 lead. BeYN went a perfect 14-0 during the run, but perfection was snapped as NRG won four of the next five rounds to make it a salvageable 8-4 deficit at halftime. Head coach bonkar explained after the match that a change in approach to play more proactively was what stopped the DRX winning streak.

NRG went on a run of their own, winning four straight out of halftime to even up the score. DRX responded with three straight, once again reaching an 11-8 scoreline to come within two rounds of closing out the series. A map to remember from brawk, who was often seen with the Odin in hand, led NRG to yet another comeback, closing out the series 13-11.

DRX fails to capitalize off of the Dimensional Drift and NRG reaches match point.

brawk had a game-high 28 kills, while Flashback's 25 and BeYN's 21 were not enough, while HYUNMIN added a further 19. Flashback may feel as though he could not have done much more, as his 66 over the entire series was a server-high, while mada led the way for NRG with 55.

Up next

NRG will move on to the playoffs, and will have at least eight days of rest before needing to play again. While they claim the top seed out of Group C, DRX will take on the winner of the Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #7 paTiTek Patryk Fabrowski nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin trexx Nikita Cherednichenko Keiko Georgio Sanassy kamo Kamil Frąckowiak vs. EDward Gaming EDward Gaming China Rank #3 ZmjjKK Zheng Yongkang (郑永康) nobody Wang Senxu (王森旭) CHICHOO Wan Shunzhi (万顺治) Smoggy Zhang Zhao (张钊) Jieni7 Zhang Juntai (张君泰) Elimination match in the Decider match.

Champions Paris will continue tomorrow with the following matches: