The Americas 3rd Seed team stepped up when it mattered in this series against the VCT China 2nd Seed side, Xi Lai Gaming, dominating them in this series only allowing them 12 rounds in total.
Map 1 went to Haven, where both teams went to the solo Duelist composition of Neon/ Sova/ Viper/ Killjoy/ Omen popularised by Gen.G in 2024, where they managed 2 grand finals with this dominant composition.
Despite having mirror compositions, there was a clear difference in the preparation and game plan from NRG and especially Bonkar, who specialises in this area of the game. NRG took Haven 13-2 leaving little to no speculation of who was the better team on Haven.
Map 2 took to Abyss, where Xi Lai Gaming leaned towards a Double Duelist, Double Controller composition, whilst NRG relied on their Double Initiator, Double Controller Composition, where their players are most comfortable including 2x Champions winning Initiator Ethan, and Champions MVP Initiator brawk.
They showed up in this series, however, it was keiko that performed the best on Abyss on the Omen, where he dropped 23 kills against the Chinese team, controlling rotations and holding angles that could not be taken off of him.
NRG closed out Abyss 13-11, closer than Haven, but not enough for an overtime battle, where NRG could have struggled against the firepower of Double Duelists.
keiko was undoubtedly the star of the series, dropping 35 kills across the series on the Viper and Omen. It seems that he has taken the full-time Controller role for NRG, despite how impressive he was last year on the Duelist for Team Liquid, it looks like Bonkar (NRG Head Coach) has opted to keep the British player on the Controller for the foreseeable future.
NRG will advance into the 1-0 level of the Swiss Stage at Masters Santiago, whilst Xi Lai Gaming will drop the the 0-1 level whilst they await their next opponents.
Valorant Digest 
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