00 Nation eliminate the Aussies
The only representative from Oceania, VERTEX came into the North American showdown hoping to represent their region on the world stage. Unfortunately, the game didn't pan out in their interest as 00 NATION cut them off early. The final match of the quarterfinals, the two teams laid out their map vetos to bring us to Nuke, Mirage, and Inferno, if necessary.
VERTEX chose the first battleground of Nuke, which meant 00 Nation were able to begin on the favorable CT-side. With that advantage, the Brazilians took their CT-side pistol and the following two rounds as well. The Brazilian side started as they meant to go on with IGL Epitacio "TACO" de Melo winning a 1v1 in the pistol to get things started.
The Aussies failed to get anything going on the T-side of their map pick with 00 Nation dominating them taking eight of the opening ten rounds. VERTEX came back into the game with a string of clean A site hits to give themselves a respectable 5-10 deficit switching to the favored CT-side.
A smart pistol round from 00 Nation made it 2/2 for the map and gave themselves the weapon advantage heading into the following force-buy. However, the Brazilian side threw away their advantage and were left on pistols for the following round to give the Australian side a chance to get back into the map.
Despite looking dominant on the CT-side, the Brazilians struggled to penetrate the Aussie's defense until their Argentinian AWPer Santino "try" Rigal pulled out a 3k to clean out the A site and give 00 Nation their second round of the T half. The veteran of the VERTEX side Liam "malta" Schembri managed to stop 00 Nation from repeating their A site shenanigans with just an MP9, to force the T-side back onto pistols.
The Australian side nearly let slip the anti-eco but managed to scrape through to bring themselves to within two rounds of the Brazilian side. Former best player in the world, Marcelo "coldzera" David has refound some form on the newest iteration of 00 Nation after being lost for a couple of years. He came up clutch against Complexity in their Rio qualification match at the RMR and he once again was proving a thorn in opponent's sides as he slipped between the gaps in VERTEX's defense to steal another round.
The Brazilian squad managed to close out the map with some methodical and slow deconstructions of the Aussie's defense, something that is beginning to develop as part of the 00 Nation style. The next map would be Mirage, 00 Nation's pick and one they certainly would feel comfortable closing out the game.
It would be so easy for the Brazilian side though and true to form for the tournament the underdogs gave the favourites a good run for their money. After winning the pistol on CT-side VERTEX managed to go toe for toe with 00 Nation's T-side finishing out the half 7-8. Moving onto the less favoured T-side VERTEX continued to put up a fight but a string of rounds for the Brazilians left them at 12-8.
The Aussie's would not roll over and accept defeat, biting back to put together their own string of rounds to close the gap and tie the game at 12-12. With 00 Nation forced onto a half-buy VERTEX looked set to take the lead but a massive play with the deagle by Bruno "latto" Rebelatto meant the Brazilians stole the round and regained the lead.
00 Nation locked down the A site courtesy of another big individual play, this time from coldzera out of the sandwich position. The Brazilians were gifted match point after VERTEX saved to make sure they had a buy to fight for overtime. It would once again be latto showing up to close out the match, shutting down the Australians last gasp short push with a crisp 3k.
00NATIONVERTEX| 00NATION |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Santino 'try' Rigal |
49 - 30 | +19 | 81.0 | 74.5% | 1.34 |
 Marcelo 'coldzera' David |
43 - 30 | +13 | 79.3 | 72.7% | 1.20 |
| Bruno 'latto' Rebelatto |
34 - 30 | +4 | 73.9 | 72.7% | 1.08 |
| Eduardo 'dumau' Wolkmer |
37 - 33 | +4 | 75.8 | 70.9% | 1.03 |
| Epitacio 'TACO' de Melo |
29 - 36 | -7 | 67.9 | 74.5% | 0.99 |
| VERTEX |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Jordan 'pz' White |
37 - 38 | -1 | 69.5 | 69.1% | 1.02 |
 Christian 'ADDICT' Pendleton |
33 - 39 | -6 | 73.5 | 72.7% | 1.01 |
| Toby 'BRACE' Barnes |
33 - 40 | -7 | 63.1 | 60.0% | 0.83 |
| Marvin 'Forleks' Tran |
31 - 36 | -5 | 56.9 | 58.2% | 0.81 |
| Liam 'malta' Schembri |
22 - 40 | -18 | 60.4 | 63.6% | 0.73 |
