NA's second seed NRG Esports NRG Esports North America Rank #2 FiNESSE Pujan Mehta s0m Sam Oh Verno Andrew Maust mada Adam Pampuch Ethan Ethan Arnold faced off against EMEA's fourth Natus Vincere Natus Vincere Europe Rank #19 ANGE1 Kyrylo Karasov Shao Andrey Kiprsky in a protracted three-map duel. The cores of both teams have faced off once before, at the lower finals at Masters Copenhagen 2022 under the banners of OpTic Gaming OpTic Gaming Inactive (NRG) and FunPlus Phoenix FunPlus Phoenix Inactive SUYGETSU Dmitry Ilyushin Zyppan Pontus Eek ANGE1 Kyrylo Karasov Shao Andrey Kiprsky ardiis Ardis Svarenieks (NAVI). Then, it was FPX finding a 3-1 victory, going on to win the entire event.

In today's game, there was one key difference: Ardis "ardiis" Svarenieks, who had been on the Copenhagen-winning roster last year was now on NRG instead. NRG defeated NAVI 2-1, with the second map heading into overtime. Eventually NRG emerged the victors, and will face off against T1 for a chance to make it to the playoffs.

Even after his team's defeat, IGL Kyrylo "ANGE1" Karasov, who once said he loves playing against teams from the Americas, stood by his words.

“[NRG] played very well. In fact, they played better than us so they won,” ANGE1 said. “It was fun playing against them, they were very skilled, pulled off some insane clutches. I'm not taking my words back, it's fun to play against the Americas teams.”

After the map veto, the first map of play, chosen by NAVI, was Ascent. A map where NAVI did have a higher win percentage compared to their American rivals. However, NRG, starting off on defense, quickly found their footing. NAVI won the first two rounds, but NRG pulled off six successful retakes and defuses immediately following. NAVI bounced back and won the last four to end the half 6-6.

In the second half, NAVI once again won the pistol and anti eco but that was all they would find. NRG would steamroll through the remainder of the map, powered by two 4Ks from Ardiis. They would win seven rounds in a row to take Ascent 13-8.

Crashies doing Crashies things, nothing new to see here.

“[NAVI] do a good job of disrupting — which you have to give them credit for,” NRG IGL Pujan "FiNESSE" Mehta said. “It made it difficult for us to win rounds cleanly all the time. They're a good team and they made it hard for us.”

Map two seemed to once again be in NRG's favor. Lotus, their map pick, saw them build up an early lead of 6-0. But in the last few rounds, NAVI were able to counter NRG's attack and ended the half 8-4 in the latter's favor. The second half saw rounds go back and forth between the two teams. NRG had the lead, 11-9 but NAVI won three in a row to hit match point first. NRG were able to push the map into OT but afterward, it was NAVI who would take the series to map three, off of a 4K from SUYGETSU .

The decider map was Split, where NRG, starting on attack, had a dominant first half. They would win the first six rounds in a row before NAVI found their first, and closed the half 10-2. NAVI showed signs of life in the second half, winning four of their own but NRG would find the last three they needed to take the map 13-6 and the series 2-1.

For the North American squad, ardiis and Victor had some of the highest impacts across the series: both players had 16 first kills between them. crashies also had some of the nastiest clutches throughout the series and six first kills of his own. Every player on the team had a positive kill differential.

NRG player trio Don't mess with these three, they don't miss. (Photo by Lee Aiksoon/Riot Games)

On the NAVI squad, cNed had a monstrous 18 first kills, but despite that, the rest of the team seemed to have trouble matching the NRG squad. In particular, Shao and ANGE1 looked a little lost in-game.

With this win, NRG will face off against APAC third seed T1 T1 Korea Rank #3 stax Kim Gu-taek (김구택) Meteor Kim Tae-O (김태오) Sylvan Ko Young-sub (고영섭) BuZz Yu Byung-chul (유병철) iZu Ham Woo-ju (함우주) in a qualifier game. If they win, they make the playoffs.

“I think [T1 is] a good team and they have good fundamentals. They'll stick to their game plan so it'll be a difficult game,” said FNS.

As for NAVI, they have the lower bracket games, where first they will play EDward Gaming EDward Gaming China Rank #1 S1Mon Hsien Meng-Hsun (谢孟勋) ZmjjKK Zheng Yongkang (郑永康) nobody Wang Senxu (王森旭) CHICHOO Wan Shunzhi (万顺治) Smoggy Zhang Zhao (张钊) , and if they win, the loser of NRG vs T1. ANGE1 says he's not too concerned about adapting to EDG's aggressive playstyle.

“I've seen how we play, I've even played them a lot in scrims during LOCK//IN,” ANGE1 said. “I like playing against them. I think it will be a fun match, let's see.”