FaZe Clan send Gambit Esports packing in a Best of three affair and advance onto the event’s Semi-final clash against yet another CIS team, Natus Vincere.
Match details
- Gambit Esports vs FaZe Clan
- Event : IEM Cologne 2021
- Event Type: LAN w/o crowd
- Date: 17/07/2021
Map Veto
- FaZe removed Vertigo
- Gambit removed Nuke
- FaZe picked Ancient
- Gambit picked Overpass
- FaZe removed Dust2
- Gambit removed Mirage
- Inferno was left over
Map 1: Ancient (FaZe Clan 16-13 Gambit)
Gambit Esports started off on the right foot, securing a quick 4-0 lead after picking up their CT-side pistol with a successful A-site retake. In FaZe Clan’s first gun round, Timofey “interz” Yakushin and Abay “Hobbit” Khassenov further extended their team’s lead after converting yet another retake into a round win. The wrath of the Counter-Terrorists saw FaZe go down into a spiral as they managed to win just four rounds in their first half.
After getting their economy back on track, FaZe held off their opponents four rounds in a row, bringing the deficit to 8-11. The European mixture then looked to be in prime position to break Gambit’s economy after a combined effort from Håvard “rain” Nygaard and Olof “olofmeister” locked the CIS tacticians out of the B-site who rushed in an attempt to plant the C4 in the 24th round. The momentum was further flamed by Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken who was able to keep Gambit at bay in the aftermath of a triple kill A site anchor. With Hobbit and his men looking destitute and listless, FaZe Clan successfully pulled off the rout and won their map pick by the scoreline of 16-13.
Map 2: Overpass (Gambit 22-20 Faze Clan)
Starting out on the defense, FaZe Clan were on the back foot from the get-go and struggled to find a way through the water-tight Gambit assault for a large portion of the first half as the CIS men rallied to a comfortable lead of 7-2. A combined effort from Olofmeister and Twistzz in the 10th round saw FaZe claw back into the first half, eventually winding up the same with the scoreline of 7-8 on the board.
Coming from the break, it was until the 20th round that both sides traded rounds back and forth but in the end, Gambit Esports raced over to a comfortable lead of 15-10 over Karrigan and his men thanks to a complete B-site shutdown by Timofey “interz” Yakushin who notched up 3 kills with his M4.
With the fuel still left in their tank, FaZe Clan were successful in forcing a double-overtime over the CIS side in an aftermath of Helvijs “broky” Saukants’ heroics with his AWP and some classic game reads from Finn “karrigan” Andersen, FaZe’s, In-game leader.
Gambit Esports however managed to secure their map pick as they managed to lock FaZe Clan out of the B-site in the 24th round of Overpass.
Map 3: Inferno (FaZe Clan 16-9 Gambit)
It all came down to the Decider where Gambit went on to get that 4-0 lead including the gun round. FaZe Clan quickly recovered from the trail as Karrigan opened up B-site for business and steered his side to their first-round win. It was indeed an invite to the looming disaster over Gambit Esports as the European mixture soon bagged 9 rounds in their favor, ending the first half with a lead of 3 rounds over Hobbit and his troops.
As mentioned above, the looming disaster upon the CIS side soon came to life as Gambit were being locked out from every bomb site, they tried to secure. Karrigan’s aggression over the B-site on his team’s defense completely fortified Gambit out, eventually halting the offensive guys and their plans. With less room for error, it was Olofmeister who successfully anchored the A site as his teammates converted the retake into a series win.
FaZe will now lock horns against Natus Vincere in the Semi-final of IEM Cologne, to be played on July 17 at 19:45 CET.
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