FaZe ease past Cloud9; to face NiP in IEM Oakland Grand Finals
The first round of Train set the tone for the series, as we saw both teams push ivy and an early duel commence. Back and forth trading saw Olof "olofmeister" Kajiber and Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham facing off in a one-on-one, but a rotation back through ladder allowed olof to catch Skadoodle staring in the opposite direction. Two deagle frags apiece from Timothy "autimatic" Ta and Jake "Stewie2k" Yip saw Cloud9 immediately answer back with a round of their own. The back-and-forth didn't stop there as Finn "karrigan" Anderson secured four frags for himself, pulling the momentum back in favor of FaZe.
Once again Cloud9 fought back with Will "RUSH" Wierzba opening up B site with three kills of his own, but the trading of rounds continued — two deagle kills from Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovacs and three from Nikola "NiKo" Kovac saw a B site retake come to fruition. Stewie and autimatic pushed back once again by finding two frags each, and this time FaZe had no money to fall back on. Despite their lack of economy, olofmeister was able to pick up a quick CZ frag and pick up an AK, allowing him to take an additional two kills and the round for FaZe.
The trading of rounds was finally brought to an end by NiKo and rain, who each found two kills to stabilize the economy for their side. Cloud9 took the first eco and pause of the map in round nine, and went on to try taking round ten; unfortunately, their post-plant setup was lackluster and rain was able to take three kills on the retake. Three entry frags from Cloud9 on their next buy round made it seem like they had the round on lock, but a late pick from GuardiaN left the North Americans with no time to plant the bomb. The Europeans worked their way up to 11 rounds, but the last round was taken by Stewie2k as he picked up three frags for his team to end the half 11-4.
The second pistol round going the way of FaZe all but confirmed the end of the map, and the standard 3-0 lead putting them immediately up to 14 rounds gave Cloud9 no opening. The North American squad was able to claw back two rounds before FaZe claimed match point, and went on to take two more afterward. Unfortunately for Cloud9 the match far out of their hands at this point, and FaZe closed it out on Cloud9's map pick 16-8.
At first Overpass seemed like it wouldn't be off to as rocky of a start as Train — FaZe took the pistol round and ensuing anti-eco without much issue. An opening deagle frag in Cloud9's save from autimatic and a follow up Zeus kill from Stewie threw FaZe into a panic, giving both players the opportunity to take another frag each. Converting this round with just pistols gave Cloud9 a good shot into the following round, but Håvard "rain" Nygaard absolutely demolished three players on the entry with his deagle. Once again the rounds went back-and-forth as Skadoodle and Tarik "tarik" Celik combined to lock down the B site, but rain and GuardiaN took two frags apiece to once again pull the next round into the favor of FaZe. Cloud9 continued to fight in the subsequent round, and late picks led to FaZe saving their guns as they ran out of time to clear sites. Another two deagle kills from rain opened up A site once again, and FaZe converted yet another disadvantageous round for themselves.
NiKo, in a repeat performance of what ended the back-and-forth on Train, found two opening picks for FaZe to finally end the trade of rounds between the two teams. The North Americans would go on to only take one more round in the half — surviving with only two players despite being in a five-on-two led to their economy being crushed immediately after their round win. FaZe closed the half out 11-4 once again.
The second pistol round once again went the way of FaZe, sealing Cloud9's fate in Oakland. The third round of the half came close for Cloud9 as autimatic found three frags, but olofmeister outpositioned Skadoodle in the one-on-one that ensued to clinch the round for his side. Cloud9 replied with two rounds of their own, but a saved AWP from GuardiaN found two opening picks for FaZe in round 21 while the Europeans were saving. NiKo took two of his own with a deagle to secure match point for FaZe, and the next round was a formality as they closed out the match 16-6.
FaZeCloud9| FaZe |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Ladislav 'GuardiaN' Kovács |
41 - 25 | +16 | 84.2 | 84.8% | 1.42 |
 Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač |
38 - 32 | +6 | 97.9 | 67.4% | 1.28 |
 Finn 'karrigan' Andersen |
30 - 28 | +2 | 72.8 | 78.3% | 1.18 |
 Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjer |
34 - 26 | +8 | 73.2 | 71.7% | 1.18 |
 Håvard 'rain' Nygaard |
35 - 32 | +3 | 80.6 | 67.4% | 1.16 |
| Cloud9 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Jake 'Stewie2K' Yip |
31 - 35 | -4 | 76.8 | 69.6% | 1.04 |
| Tarik 'tarik' Celik |
32 - 36 | -4 | 80.4 | 60.9% | 0.98 |
| Timothy 'autimatic' Ta |
28 - 39 | -11 | 72.5 | 58.7% | 0.86 |
| Tyler 'Skadoodle' Latham |
26 - 34 | -8 | 61.5 | 63.0% | 0.75 |
| William 'RUSH' Wierzba |
24 - 34 | -10 | 62.5 | 52.2% | 0.70 |
FaZe will take on the Ninjas in Pyjamas in the Grand Finals of IEM Oakland tomorrow, where they'll look to extend their dominant 14-2 record over the Swedes.
