FaZe sweep Liquid to win ESL One New York 2017
The grand final began on Liquid's pick of Inferno, and FaZe started off strong taking the pistol and the followup rounds. The international squad seemed completely unstoppable, with Finn "karrigan" Andersen and Nikola "NiKo" Kovač dominating from the CT side. Liquid didn't even manage to kill karrigan until round 12, and even then, they failed to secure a single T round in the entire first half.
However, some pristine play from Russel "Twistzz" van Dulken shut down the 16-0 dream and got 3 rounds on the board for Liquid, until karrigan and Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács said no and closed out map one 16-3.
Overpass kicked off with a strong pistol round from Liquid with a big 3K from Jonathan "EliGE" Jablanowski, taking their first lead of the series. FaZe did good damage in round two with the now very popular CZ-75 and Desert Eagle, but Liquid secured their economy with a close win. FaZe then tries a fast B execute, which started with a quick 3 kills from Liquid, but NiKo fought back and won the 1v1 vs EliGE to put FaZe on the board. They easily convert their round win and suppress the reset, putting themselves in the driver seat. Despite an eco win from Liquid, NiKo and GuardiaN kept on their rampage and didn't allow Liquid to take another round the entire half, even though EliGE put up kills in many lost rounds.
Håvard "rain" Nygaard started off the second half with an insane 4K at long A, putting FaZe onto 12 rounds and in prime position to take map 2. The defense on the A site was impenetrable and Liquid was unable to win the force buy, but thanks to a nice B rush with pistols, Liquid won round 18. Liquid finally managed to convert a round and forced FaZe onto an eco with a fast B play from Nick "nitr0" Cannella, giving NA fans some hope. The next rounds in the game were very back and forth, with no team gaining a decisive advantage, until some great picks from Josh "jdm" Marzano got Liquid multiple rounds in a row and put them onto 10 rounds. Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz and jdm continued to pull out key frags at long and the A site and Liquid continued the comeback, going all the way to the final round. In the end, NiKo was too much, and the Bosnian superstar shut down Liquid with a masterful spraydown in monster.
Mirage began with yet another FaZe pistol round and the following two rounds thanks to more amazing play from rain, putting FaZe ever so closer to the ESL One title. The first gun round went the way of Liquid with a strong B play taking down GuardiaN and karrigan almost immediately and thanks to some heroics from Twistzz, winning a 1v2 on the B site, Liquid converted the round. However, the AWPs of GuardiaN and Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer were too much, and Liquid were put back onto square one. FaZe kept their bombsites on lockdown, and extended their lead to 4 rounds, until Twistzz once again saved Liquid and gave them a 3rd round. Liquid couldn't seem to string any rounds together, and fell to the FaZe machine, who chugged along to 10 rounds, no thanks to stanislaw's near 1v3 clutch. The next round again went down to the wire, but this time EliGE was in the 1v2, and he secured another round for his team from well positioned kills with the AWP.
rain once again kicked off the second half with a multi-kill in the pistol, inching FaZe ever closer to the series win. Big CZ-75 play from nitr0 and EliGE in round 17 put Liquid into a 3v1, but rain showed that he is the master of the clutch, and shut down the hopes of Liquid. Team Liquid's final rounds of the final were characterized by getting destroyed by rain and NiKo, who ran over the American team, and quickly got up to 15 rounds. NiKo put the final nail in the coffin, and secures this FaZe roster their first title, not dropping a map throughout the entire tournament.
LiquidFaZe| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
50 - 56 | -6 | 74.9 | 56.5% | 0.97 |
 Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
40 - 52 | -12 | 58.7 | 58.0% | 0.82 |
| Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguz |
32 - 58 | -26 | 65.3 | 55.1% | 0.69 |
| Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
28 - 56 | -28 | 49.7 | 55.1% | 0.59 |
| Josh 'jdm64' Marzano |
22 - 55 | -33 | 47.0 | 55.1% | 0.57 |
| FaZe |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač |
68 - 31 | +37 | 111.5 | 85.5% | 1.74 |
 Håvard 'rain' Nygaard |
56 - 37 | +19 | 90.9 | 81.2% | 1.39 |
 Finn 'karrigan' Andersen |
49 - 30 | +19 | 72.7 | 76.8% | 1.25 |
 Ladislav 'GuardiaN' Kovács |
52 - 36 | +16 | 71.0 | 78.3% | 1.19 |
 Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjer |
51 - 38 | +13 | 75.2 | 78.3% | 1.16 |
