On the second-to-last day of VCT Americas Kickoff, NRG NRG North America Rank #1 keiko Georgio Sanassy brawk Brock Somerhalder mada Adam Pampuch skuba Logan Jenkins Ethan Ethan Arnold has defeated 100 Thieves 100 Thieves North America Rank #3 Cryocells Matthew Panganiban Asuna Peter Mazuryk vora Jordan Pulwer Timotino Timothée Lavigne Dupont bang Sean Bezerra 2-0, advancing to the Lower Final where they will now be one best-of-five series away from qualifying for Masters Santiago.

The series was played out on 100T's pick of Pearl and NRG's pick of Abyss. NRG won Pearl 13-3, and then won Abyss 13-8.

A well-rounded performance was led by Duelist player mada , who has spearheaded the team's solo Waylay approach. His 38 kills, including an 8-1 first duels record, were paramount in the team stamping its dominance on the day, proving NRG to be a step above 100T.

A clash of approaches played out on Pearl, and ended with domination. 100 Thieves stuck with its usual approach, with a solo Waylay comp complemented by two Initiators and Cryocells on Veto. Meanwhile, NRG fielded its comp, which blends old school with new school. A double-Initiator comp, with brawk on Sova and Ethan on Tejo, was rounded out with mada on Waylay and Keiko on Killjoy.

Armed with plenty of post-plant utility, NRG thrived on attack, picking up the first seven rounds of the series while barely allowing Timotino to dust off his Operator. 100T relied on some heroics late in the half, with bang and vora each claiming 4Ks to help push the team to three defense rounds.

mada showing off to claim four kills.

NRG completed a shutout on defense, with the likes of brawk and Ethan going off to lead NRG to a 13-3 win on the map.

The series moved to NRG's pick of Abyss, the map on which 100T defeated Cloud9 Cloud9 North America Rank #5 Xeppaa Erick Bach v1c Victor Truong Zellsis Jordan Montemurro penny Erik Penny OXY Francis Hoang 13-2 to advance to this match. Both teams had their IGLs on Tejo and their Duelists as solo Waylays, the similarities stopped there. While 100T opted for a comp with Chamber, Astra, and KAY/O, NRG went with Viper, Omen, and Sova.

While 100T appeared ot have strong moments on the map, NRG appeared to play in better rhythm with one another. Well-played retakes and playing composed when having man advantages spelled a relatively mistake-free map for NRG. The reigning world champions shifted onto attack with a 7-5 lead.

Once on attack, NRG used skuba 's Toxic Screen, placed in A main, to gain free space. Nearly every NRG attack round ended with the bomb down on A. The wall forced defending 100T players to be wary of the threat of a lurk, discouraging quick rotations away from A while also inviting rotations onto A due to the numbers that NRG could explode onto site with. Additionally, NRG, as one of the teams to pioneer the strat, used the Poison Cloud in mid to break through into vents as part of crunches onto the A site.

NRG lost the pistol round to start the second half, and dropped just one more round en route to a comfortable 13-8 win on Abyss and a 2-0 series win.

The winning moment.

mada's 38 kills were the runaway highest on the map, with teammate keiko the only other player with more than 30. skuba's 1.31 rating was the highest in the server over the course of both maps. vora finished the day with 25 kills in the losing effort, while Cryo's 22 were next-best for 100T.

Up next

100 Thieves misses out on Santiago with a fifth-place Kickoff finish, while NRG lives to fight on. They will watch the Middle Final to await their opponents, set to take on the losing team between G2 Esports G2 Esports North America Rank #2 jawgemo Alexander Mor BABYBAY Andrej Francisty trent Trent Cairns valyn Jacob Batio leaf Nathan Orf and MIBR MIBR Brazil Rank #1 zekken Zachary Patrone tex Ian Botsch Mazino Roberto Rivas Verno Andrew Maust aspas Erick Santos in the Lower Final.

VCT Americas Kickoff will continue with the following matches: