NRG's deep map pool

#1

Flame4Game

One thing that I haven't heard people talk about with NRG is that the champs map pool actually didn't favor them that much.

Counting EWC, they have a 86% win rate on Pearl (6-1), a 82% win rate on Icebox (9-2), and a 75% win rate on Split (3-1), in 2025, meaning some of their best maps were out of rotation.
In contrast, going into Champs, they had a 0% win rate on Sunset (0-5), a 0% win rate on Abyss (0-1), a 25% win rate on Ascent (1-3), and a 33% win rate on Bind (2-4). Only Corrode and Lotus were elite-tier, and Haven was still kind of a toss up.

Despite this, they still turned their Abyss, running the same comp as kickoff btw, into arguably their 3rd best map at Champs. They also managed to avoid Bind entirely, go one-for-one with Fnatic on Ascent, and clinch Sunset in map 5 of the Grand Finals, when it mattered. They were ZERO AND FIVE, by far their worst map of the season.

I think this goes to show how deep bonkar's preparation was for them, he was clearly an integral piece of NRG's success in planning out map strategy. By the end of champs they were comfortable enough on basically 6/7 maps to challenge any team in the world.

#2

Ronyko23

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All that essay. Nrg gonna dip. Just be happy with champs roster def gonna implode next year..

#6

catNmouse

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edg will implode before any other team

#3

espeon

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comfortable on how many maps ?

#4

waseetali9

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icebox is gonna be worse cuz what is keiko gonna play viper? kj?

#8

Flame4Game

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He's played KJ for TL before, I suppose that.
Or they can play something like:

keiko chamber, mada jett, skuba Viper, Ethan KAY/O or Omen, Brawk Sova

#10

waseetali9

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tbh it was not a very good killjoy although there were other issues with roles within the team
keiko will most likely play harbor or omen

#11

Flame4Game

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i was wondering if the roles work if he plays harbor/omen.

keiko Omen
skuba Viper
brawk kj?
Ethan Sova?
mada jett

Or play no duelist and have mada play chamber/kj?

keiko Omen
skuba Viper
brawk Sova
Ethan KAY/O
mada chamber/kj

#12

catNmouse

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first option is more likely to happen

brawk can play kj on haven and icebox if needed

#13

waseetali9

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double smokes with him on harbor with no sent or skuba or brawk senti

#14

Flame4Game

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it's more so that brawk is by far the best sova player, ethan really doesn't play sova, otherwise they would have changed their haven comp to be more like their Lotus comp.
so if brawk is on sova, skuba on senti, there's no one to play viper if keiko is second smokes.
If you're playing no senti then it works out really well but most icebox comps have kj simply because otherwise dealing with mid lurks is too hard, i wouldn't expect them to go that route.

#5

catNmouse

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a 0% win rate on Abyss (0-1)

wasn’t their perma ban so it isn’t fair to count it

#7

fatdaddy

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If you listen to the Bonkar interview on PlatChat, they were actually very comfortable on both Bind and Sunset. They kept banning Bind but supposedly they had a stacked playbook for when it didnt make sense to ban it anymore. They just never got to that point.

#9

Flame4Game

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wait fr? I didn't even know that, that makes it even more insane