X10 Crit delivered a second massive blow to the North American region to cap off the group stage of VCT Champions, defeating Team Envy in three maps after falling on map one to send the NA squad home and secure the eighth and final playoffs spot.
X10 took early advantage of Envy’s comp choice of Reyna and Jett on Icebox, getting onto sites during their attack half with little utility to contend with. But Envy was able to rally from a 1-4 start, with both Marved and crashies delivering some crucial rounds on defense. X10 still took a 7-5 lead into halftime.
Envy continued to build that momentum in the second half, with an FNS 1v1 clutch in their bonus round leading to a 9-7 Envy lead. An aggressive triple push from X10 on A halted the Envy momentum, and a Patiphan Reyna 4K tied the map at 9-9, before they traded rounds to go to 10-10. Then Envy won a backbreaking thrifty round, punishing X10 for swinging too wide in the close A site. A broke X10 had no answer for Envy, who took the last three straight rounds to secure X10’s pick of Icebox 13-10.
For the second straight half, Envy won the first three rounds on attack including their bonus, riding the coattails of yay after his quiet game on Icebox. He had an astounding 13 kills in just the first five rounds, all going to Envy. An eco round got X10 on the board thanks to Patiphan, reversing economic momentum and letting X10 go from 0-5 to 5-5. The two sides traded rounds to force a 6-6 tie before halftime.
X10 took an 8-6 lead from the pistol and anti-eco round before Envy responded in the bonus. X10 bounced back instantly with two great A takes, winning their entry frags and using utility around the map to pull off defenders. They followed this up with a genius Astra/Killjoy ultimate combo, and Crws denied the defuse to break the Envy economy again. Envy found almost no momentum since their hot start, falling to X10 13-8 on Split to send the series to Haven.
Envy rallied from Split collapse immediately, building a lead on the defensive side of Haven with a strong defense of the A site. Both crashies and yay delivered huge rounds for their team in both pre-plant and retake scenarios, pushing Envy up to a 9-3 lead at the half.
X10 withstood Envy in the pistol and the subsequent force buy, playing loosely like they weren’t on the brink of elimination, and eventually prompting an Envy timeout after reducing their lead from 9-3 to 9-7. Sushiboys kept hitting shots after the timeout, but another clutch from crashies stopped the bleeding for Envy. X10’s fearless pushes continued to trouble Envy, eventually tying the map at 11-11. An insane triple spray from Crws at A sewer put X10 on series point at 12-11, before yay bailed out Envy in the last round of regulation with a huge double to open up the C site, sending the map to OT.
X10 broke though the Envy A stack on their OT attack round to take a 13-12. Envy attempted a C split but ran into the Patiphan buzzsaw, with the Jett star delivering the massive triple to push the dagger into Envy.
Just like Sentinels, Envy fell in the series despite taking the opening map. With the win, the Southeast Asia region will send two teams to playoffs in X10 and Team Secret. X10 will face Gambit in the quarterfinals taking place at 11am CT on Thursday, Dec. 9.
