What to expect from FaZe v. FURIA

After making their way past Fnatic, FURIA now find themselves facing another International squad in their ESL Pro League journey. FaZe have looked sharp so far at Pro League only dropping two close maps against Vitality, both of which went to Overtime, and will be a step up in competition for FURIA who so far have not played a top 10 ranked side.

FURIA yet to be tested

In the group stage FURIA beat Imperial, scraped past Movistar Riders and BIG all whom are ranked outside the top 15. Their loss to MOUZ exploited some of the team's flaws and despite a good win against Fnatic it was far from easy. One of the key positives going into the match will be the success of Andrei "arT" Piovezan's trademark aggression against Fnatic, the IGL found 15 opening kills for his team and these advantages will be key against a FaZe team packed with talent.

• arT 62% success rate on opening duels vs Fnatic

• KSCERATO 1.29 rating at the event, tied fourth

• FURIA yet to play a top 10 team

FaZe finding their flow again

Much has been made of FaZe's drop-off in performance since their historic trophy run, with their last title coming at IEM Cologne last year. 2023 has started off steady, if not spectacular, for the International roster and their match against Vitality proved that they are still one of the best. As always for FaZe their individual talent has been on display this event with not a single player having below a 1.1 rating, even Finn "Karrigan" Andersen. However, that is no doubt inflated by the way the team stomped through Rooster and NIP, and whilst they played Vitality incredibly close they still lost and will need to show they can win against top opposition before they dream again of trophies.

• Ropz 1.43 T side rating at event, third best

• broky 2.14 rating in pistol rounds

• FaZe have not played a Brazilian team since last EPL, a 2-1 win over MIBR

Previous Matchups

FaZe currently hold a 8-5 lead over FURIA in the head to head, but the last time they played each other was way back in ESL Pro League Season 15, where they played twice with the International side winning both games.

Likely Vetoes

Whilst the first bans should be relatively simple, the map pool for the two teams kind of aligns after that with both teams being strong on Mirage, Inferno and Nuke. I would expect FURIA to try and unsettle FaZe by picking a map the International squad have shown less on such as Anubis.

• FURIA ban Overpass, haven't played it at all this year

• FaZe ban Vertigo, it's their perma-ban

• FURIA pick Anubis, FaZe only played it once this event losing to Vitality

• FaZe pick Inferno, on a five map winstreak on Inferno

• Nuke or Mirage, both are maps the teams will be happy to play but might not want to waste a pick on