FaZe cruise past Cloud9 to go 2-0
The last match on the main stream saw Cloud9 facing off against FaZe in a rematch of the Boston Major finals. A different pool of maps awaited them as they were set to clash on Cache, Inferno, and Train.
FaZe took the early lead on Cache as the first pistol round went their way off of a quick mid take. From here the standard anti-eco rounds ensued, granting FaZe a 3-0 lead as the first gun round began. Cloud9 were unable to hold against FaZe's quick B-split, but found their opening in the following round as Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham found two frags with a saved AWP.
A reset immediately followed as FaZe began to click into gear, racking up round after round to demolish Cloud9's site holds. Finn "karrigan" Anderson called a master-class T side as his team outmaneuvered Cloud9 throughout the half, granting the Europeans a 14-1 half lead.
The second pistol round treated Cloud9 no better as Nikola "NiKo" Kovač demolished the North Americans, finding four frags to lockdown the match for FaZe. With FaZe already on match point the first map was swiftly brought to a close 16-1.
FaZe's dominant streak continued as Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovacs opened up Inferno's pistol round with three kills, continuing his hot streak into the anti-eco by finding an ace. With Cloud9 on an early third round buy from a bomb plant in the pistol round, GuardiaN immediately upgraded to an AWP; alas, the buy proved fruitless as Cloud9 quickly took control of A site, granting them their second round of the series and crushing FaZe's economy early in the half.
FaZe weren't able to answer back in the ensuing round, but two frags on a saved rifle from GuardiaN gave the Europeans an opening which was seized by Håvard "rain" Nygaard, who found two kills of his own. This boon granted FaZe an additional two rounds as Cloud9 struggled to get their economy in check, at which point two entry frags from Timothy "autimatic" Ta allowed Cloud9 to take their third round.
Once again the North Americans found themselves reset as rain shut down an A site hit, securing four kills for himself to push FaZe up to seven rounds. Again autimatic found an opening for Cloud9 as he took down three FaZe players, but this time Cloud9 were able to stabilize by chaining together their round wins to move up to six rounds. FaZe found their answer to close out the half 9-6 in their favor, with karrigan securing a triple kill in the 15th round.
A fast-paced pistol round saw FaZe rapidly run up mid and take CT spawn control within 30 seconds of the round starting, granting them a quick victory on their T side pistol. With the Europeans set to swing a 12-6 lead, Cloud9's force-buy needed to yield fruit. Two initial frags from Tarik "tarik" Celik proved to be the catalyst for Cloud9 taking the round as FaZe crumbled to their force-buy, but three kills from Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer once again shut down Cloud9's hopes of an early comeback.
From here it was smooth sailing as FaZe had full control of Cloud9's economy, picking apart the North Americans to close out the match 16-8.
FaZeCloud9| FaZe |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač |
37 - 20 | +17 | 99.5 | 87.8% | 1.62 |
 Ladislav 'GuardiaN' Kovács |
37 - 13 | +24 | 83.6 | 82.9% | 1.56 |
 Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjer |
34 - 20 | +14 | 94.6 | 85.4% | 1.52 |
 Håvard 'rain' Nygaard |
33 - 19 | +14 | 88.5 | 75.6% | 1.34 |
 Finn 'karrigan' Andersen |
32 - 18 | +14 | 73.8 | 87.8% | 1.32 |
| Cloud9 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Timothy 'autimatic' Ta |
25 - 38 | -13 | 72.1 | 56.1% | 0.81 |
| Tyler 'Skadoodle' Latham |
18 - 29 | -11 | 50.2 | 48.8% | 0.64 |
| William 'RUSH' Wierzba |
14 - 33 | -19 | 47.5 | 58.5% | 0.54 |
| Jake 'Stewie2K' Yip |
17 - 35 | -18 | 49.6 | 51.2% | 0.53 |
| Tarik 'tarik' Celik |
15 - 38 | -23 | 52.1 | 43.9% | 0.46 |
FaZe now sit at a 2-0 scoreline, needing just one more win to move forward into the playoffs. Cloud9 reside at 1-1, and will face a team with the same scoreline as them as they look to advance into the playoffs themselves.
