Showcasing an excellent display of Counter-Strike 2 in front of a live audience, FaZe and MOUZ duked it out in the semi-finals of IEM Katowice 2024 in hopes of securing a spot at the grand finals. The former managed to come out on top after a dominating 2–0 series win over their opposition.
Here’s everything that went down in the series.
Map Veto
- FaZe removed Vertigo
- MOUZ removed Anubis
- FaZe picked Nuke
- MOUZ picked Ancient
- FaZe removed Overpass
- MOUZ removed Inferno
- Mirage was left over
Map 1: Nuke (Pick – FaZe; Win – FaZe; Final Score – 13-3)
FaZe kicked off the semi finals of IEM Katowice 2024 with a comfortable pistol round win on the T-side of Nuke. A failed force-buy attempt from MOUZ on the second round of the map enabled FaZe to grab three more rounds before the former could put up their first point on the board. A stunning 4K from David “frozen” Čerňanský enabled FaZe to regain composure in the following round. MOUZ could only grab two more rounds in the half before FaZe closed out the half with a significant lead of 9-3 in their favor.
FaZe carried over their momentum to the CT-side of Nuke as well, and left no room for mistakes as they grabbed three consecutive rounds to conclude the game with a score of 13-3.
Map 2: Ancient (Pick – MOUZ; Win – FaZe; Final Score – 13-11)
FaZe dominated the first half of Ancient with back-to-back round wins on the CT-side of the map. It wasn’t until the ninth round that MOUZ could grab their first round win in the map. They managed to sneak in another round win before FaZe closed the half with a gigantic lead of 10-2.
The second half of Ancient saw MOUZ striking back hard. Despite losing the pistol round and falling behind 2-11, a force-buy and a quick Deagle 3K from Jimi “Jimpphat” Salo enabled them to secure the following round and get a strong economic advantage over FaZe. The comeback story of MOUZ continued for the next series of rounds as FaZe struggled to get a single round win in the half. It wasn’t long before the gap between the two teams was reduced to a mere 2 rounds as the scoreboard read 11-9 in favor of FaZe. However, FaZe wasn’t about to give up so easily as they secured the 21st round of the game and found themselves at match point. MOUZ tried to retaliate in the following rounds, and even managed to grab two more in a row, but failed to take the game to overtime as FaZe closed the game with a final score of 13-11.
With this victory, FaZe secure a slot at the IEM Katowice 2024 grand finals, where they’ll take on the victors of the upcoming series – Team Spirit vs Team Falcons.
