Cloud9 talent Mitch "mitch" Semago has praised the team's coaching staff following their hard-fought win over Version1 in the VALORANT North America Stage One Challengers play-offs.
In the next match in the VCT NA Challengers, meanwhile, OpTic Gaming are 8/11 to beat The Guard, who are 1/1 to come out on top.
Cloud9 and Version1 were the standout teams in the group stage of the NA Challengers with both finishing top of their respective groups with 5-0 records.
Lower-bracket showdown
But Version1 lost their first play-off match to Luminosity in the upper bracket and dropped down to the lower bracket along with Cloud9, who lost their second play-off match against OpTic.
The sides then found themselves in a high-profile lower-bracket second round clash and it was a tense affair.
It was a chaotic contest and Version1 surprisingly drew first blood on Breeze, taking the first map before a comeback from Cloud9, who performed slightly better than their opponents in pistol rounds.
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With Version1 having undergone a few roster changes, Cloud9 were expected to come out on top, but the fact they made hard work of the victory has left some doubting their credentials.
"Mitch", however, praised his team for their recent preparations for the NA Challengers play-offs, heaping praise on coaches James "JamezIRL" Macaulay and Yoon "Autumn" Eu-teum in particular.
Coaches inspire mitch
Regarding his team's performance, "mitch" said: "We did our homework, 'JamezIRL' and 'Autumn' are incredible coaches.
"They prepare a lot of stuff for us. I think we came in pretty confident. We played our own game plan and executed it pretty well."
