The Guard proved that they are a top tier contender in the ALGS Pro League with a victory in Day 2 of the NA ALGS Pro League. Dominating Worlds Edge, the recently acquired trio performed with an unbelievable consistency making end game after end game.
They beat out FaZe Clan who finished 2nd on their official ALGS debut. Elsewhere, it was a very difficult night of action for both NRG and Sentinels, they finished 16th and 15th respectively.
Teams are competing in a triple round robin format to earn a top 10 overall finish and secure a place in the Split 1 ALGS Playoffs.
The Guard personify consistency on Worlds Edge
In the era of teams dropping 20 kill wins, it’s easy to forget about the fundamentals of playing zone. It relies on knowing zones, predicting where it will end and then holding down that position until the end of the game. Then, to make sure you are picking up points along the way, trying to snag any kills as teams fight around you.
On Worlds Edge especially, The Guard run the perfect set up for this. Using Valk, Crypto and Wattson they have all the tools they need to be successful in that style. Valk to get into zone as fast as possible, Crypto to scout positions, scan beacons remotely and gather information on surrounding teams, then Wattson to protect your position and provide shield healing from her Pylon.
RKN in Raleigh (Photo EA/Joe Brady)
Then The Guard have the perfect roster. RKN, who performed fantastically in Raleigh, an incredibly intelligent IGL with some of the best zone knowledge in the game. Combined with Rambeau and Keoon who have top tier fighting mechanics. To some players, Rambeau is literally known as ‘a turret’.
As easy as 1,2,3 for The Guard
The result of all these ingredients? A incredible Worlds Edge performance that saw The Guard take first, second and third across the three games. Notably, these were three very different zones too. One ending in Lava Fissure, one in Lava Siphon and one in Geyser. There was no gifting of favourable zones for The Guard.
Rambeau in Raleigh (Photo@ EA/Joe Brady)
The Lava Siphon game was the best of the three for The Guard. They cleaned up the final fight to secure the victory. RKN told the ALGS broadcast post game that The Guard have a bit of a history of “playing for second” – so their play to let the other teams engage, clean up and claim the victory shows that the roster is working on their mistakes and improving. They earned the right to be the last team to move thanks to amazing positioning and team fighting. This allowed them to take a fight with 100 Thieves, win it and turn their attention to the remaining teams.
ALGS Pro League A vs C standings
Guard – 67FaZe – 56Team Liquid – 54Complexity – 49Spacestation – 49
Full standings and previous weeks here.
Strong debut by FaZe Clan
It was also a strong ALGS debut for FaZe. Having struggled in both the Oversight playoffs and MFAM Gauntlet there was some considerable pressure on the roster to improve their performances.
After a pretty dismal Storm Point showing that saw them pick up just 8 points across 3 games, it looked like a repeat performance was on the cards. Yet, they found some inspiration on Worlds Edge.
Using Gibraltar, who has fell out of the meta, the trio of Alb, Snip3down and SlurpeeG dropped 26 kills across the 3 Worlds Edge games. This saw them leap up all the way into 2nd on the days leaderboard.
Albralelie in Raleigh (Photo EA/Joe Brady)
Great control of height
There is a lot of experience on this FaZe roster, and it showed in game 4. They took full advantage of the terrain in Lava Siphon to manufacture a comfortable victory. By clearing, then keeping the height they were essentially shooting fish in a barrel by the end of the game. Teams, including todays winners The Guard, were literally powerless to stop FaZe because of the advantageous position they had earned themselves in the zone.
Now that FaZe have shown what they are capable of, the pressure will be on to perform on Sunday and build up a run of strong results.
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