A high-slaying performance from Keznit has helped to keep Kru Esports’ tournament hopes alive at Champions 2022
Kru Esports have kept their tournament hopes alive by beating Xerxia Esports at Champions 2022. Their 2 - 1 win over their APAC opponents means they will be facing the loser of group C Winners match between FPX and XSET. And, unfortunately, this is the end of the road for Xerxia in Istanbul.
"We showed the other day against FPX that, that match was a 50/50 for us. We know that everyone looks at us as the underdogs. And we know that we have the potential to do the same as we did at the last Champions. In fact I believe we can do better than we did last year."
Kru are not going down without a fight at Champions
It was a solid performance all around for Kru Esports in the Group C Elimination match. Despite their loss against FPX in their first match, the LATAM team bounced back in tremendous fashion to dispatch Xerxia from the tournament. They came soaring out of the gate on Icebox to take a commanding 9 - 3 lead after the first half. With two of Xerxia's round wins coming off the back of three clutch defuse plays. But it only served to minimize the damage as Kru eventually took the map 13 - 4.
Xerxia managed to come up with a statement win of their own on Haven. Thanks to a highly aggressive composition they opted for, which included Panyawat "Sushiboys" Subsiriroj going with Neon. A move which seemed to catch Kru completely off-guard as a result of their non-duelist composition which saw Angelo "keznit" Mori using Fade instead of usual Raze pick. Resulting in Xerxia winning the map 13 - 7.
It seemed like things were going to get very interesting between the two teams as they headed to Ascent for Map 3. And it seemed like that was the case after a very scrappy first half; which ended with Kru taking a narrow 7 - 5 lead. However, after Kru manged a very convincing win on the second pistol of the map, it was clear that all of Xerxia's momentum from the previous map had completely disappeared. Leaving Kru to walk away the clear victors in this contest; taking Ascent 13 - 6 and the series 2 - 1 to keep their hopes alive at Champions 2022.
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Keznit unleashed his full fury against Xerxia at Champions
Everyone from Kru had a fantastic performance in their match against Xerxia. But Keznit was the standout player for his side today. Kru's star duelist was a force to be reckoned with across all three maps. Especially on Ascent where his phenomenal use of Jett caused untold amounts of mayhem against Xerxia.
Even on Haven where they were playing an unfavorable comp, he still managed to shine at times with Fade thanks to some solid utility usage. Culminating in him finishing the series with an overwhelming 57 kills; with Mazino being the only one close to his kill count at 45. So it came as no surprise when he was named the match MVP for his side
While they will be in for a pretty close series with whoever drops down to face them in the Group C Decider, if all five of the players can perform like they did against Xerxia, then Kru might really fancy their chances of making it to the playoffs here at Champions 2022.
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