Envy Envy Inactive Marved Jimmy Nguyen Victor Victor Wong crashies Austin Roberts FiNESSE Pujan Mehta yay Jaccob Whiteaker defeated XSET XSET Inactive 2-0 in the lower bracket semifinal of the North America Stage 3: Challengers Playoffs.

By winning the match Envy qualified for North America's third and final spot in Masters: Berlin, joining Sentinels and 100 Thieves in representing the region.

As good as XSET is, Envy couldn't have asked for a more favorable matchup to stake their LAN hopes on.

"I enjoy playing a style like this because it makes sense. Everything they do sort of makes sense," Envy in-game leader Pujan "FiNESSE" Mehta said. "I kind of understand how they're moving around on the map, and we're able to read and understand things a lot easier. And I'm able to make more precise calls than I would versus a team like FaZe."

Reads only get you so far when you're up against players as clutch as Brendan "BcJ" Jensen.

But even so, XSET are one of the best teams in North America and wouldn't go down without a fight. And Envy weren't quite playing at full strength.

"I feel good, but like physically bad. I think I'm a little bit sick," new Envy pickup Jaccob "yay" Whiteaker said after the match. "I'm not gonna lie, I had to take a ton of Advil for the last few games because I literally was struggling to look at my crosshair. I was getting dizzy and stuff."

yay's teammates weren't completely aware of his struggles. He admitted he didn't want to lower the team's confidence by telling them he wasn't feeling well, so he told him he was feeling alright during the match. Even so Envy was needed to work to make it to their first LAN together.

Envy held off XSET in a tight 13-11 opening bout on Ascent. Envy won eight straight rounds during the middle stages of the map to take an 11-6 lead, but XSET responded by winning five straight of their own. Envy rebounded and won the final two rounds to head into Haven with a 1-0 match lead.

Just a reminder, yay was "struggling to look at [his] crosshair" and was "getting dizzy and stuff" when he hit these shots.

yay didn't dominate the server like he normally does on the first map and Austin "crashies" Roberts instead took on yay's normal role of leading the team in frags. But the match wasn't destined to remain an underperformance for yay. After all, he had cold medicine.

"I think the Advil finally kicked in on the second map," yay said.

While yay finished the first map with a K/D differential of -5, he finished the second map with a +9. His ACS was more than 100 points higher on the second map than it was on the first. He averaged 40 more damage per round.

The combination of his Advil-fueled hero plays and strong anchoring from Envy's other new addition, Jimmy "Marved" Nguyen, allowed Envy to quickly amass an 8-2 lead to begin Haven. The squad maintained their advantage and finished out the map 13-7 to seal the match 2-0.

yay quite literally threw the dagger at XSET's LAN dreams.

XSET's own flashy prodigy felt he could have performed better in the match.

"I can't speak for my whole team, they played well. But I know that for myself, I was in my own head for a lot of the match," Zachary "zekken" Patrone said. "I was just, I guess, scared? Scared is not really the word — nervous, and like hesitant to do stuff. So I know that's what went wrong for me. And that's why I played poorly in the first map, and then on the second map, as I started feeling a little more confident, so it started going a little bit better, but that's what sort of was bringing me down during the match."

He explained that whether things go well or go poorly, he feels he only gets better as a match goes on.

"I don't think momentum and winning a bunch of rounds in a row is what does it for me," zekken said. "I think it just sort of ramps up as the match goes on, whether we're winning or losing."

But XSET still have plenty to look forward to. The team's current roster, just like Envy, hasn't been together too long. The team is growing under the leadership of veteran IGL Rory "dephh" Jackson — particularly zekken, who is just 16.

"I think that our roster has a lot of potential," zekken said. "Our synergy is only going to get better. So as time goes on, we're only going to continue to get better. And for me as I get more experienced and I continue to play in these sort of situations where there's a lot on the line, I think I can only get more comfortable with it. And the more comfortable I am I think I'll just start performing better overall."

While XSET might be out of the tournament, there's still more to play for Envy. The team is guaranteed a top-three finish, ensuring Envy will break free of their fourth-place curse in regional playoffs. Envy finished fourth in both Masters 1 and the Stage 2 Challengers Finals.

No round was ever truly over for Envy throughout the series.

They don't have to just settle for breaking the curse, however. Envy still has the opportunity to dream bigger. The team plays in tomorrow's lower bracket final against 100 Thieves to determine which team gets a rematch against Sentinels in the grand final.

Envy just needs to make sure it stays in the lobby for the entire match.

"Is it best-of-five?" yay responded when he was asked about his upcoming Bo5 lower bracket final.

"I need to see, I need to see. I don't believe you... It is. It actually is, oh my gosh. You're delivering this news to me? I mean don't get me wrong, I like Bo5s, but that's going to be a long day."

His teammates will just need to make sure he has enough Advil to last five maps if he's still sick tomorrow morning.

bleghfarec contributed to this story with interviews of FNS and yay.