ECS S4 Finals and the ELEAGUE Boston Major are must-wins for FaZe in as much as they are presented with a chance to win two significant titles, one being a much coveted and ever-illusive major - effectively Counter-Strike's World Championship analog, without any of the dangers which have prevented FaZe from winning five of the seven offline events they have competed at with this line-up. Bizarre as it might sound to describe a major as "a gimmie", for a team of FaZe's ability and trajectory, it is not only a gimme but a must-win.
Early Challenges?
At both tournaments, FaZe get to dodge more than just their primary foils of SK. Only four teams have a winning record against FaZe: SK Gaming, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Virtus.Pro and Gambit. None of those four teams will be in attendance at ECS and NiP will not be at the major and SK are forced to use their previous player, felps.
One could certainly make the case that all of those opponents except SK are far from locks to defeat FaZe anyway. Gambit scored their key Bo3 series win early, at the first event for both team's new line-up (Dreamhack Malmo). Since then the teams are tied in map wins and FaZe won the one Bo3 between them, in the EPICENTER group stage. NiP lived up to the moment of the IEM XII Oakland final in epic fashion, beating out FaZe in a full five map series, but the much closer margins of NiP's wins, in contrast to their heavy losses, coupled with the Swedish sides complete inability to replicate anywhere close to that force before or since somewhat rules out FaZe needing to worry about a repeat of Oakland each time they face, in the same manner as they fine the game playing out in similar fashion against SK each time they battle.
Likewise, Virtus.pro'sCENTER form was an outlier and the Polish teams fails to qualify for tournaments involving an online component anyway, so their fear of Snax and company is likely not significant to any future match-up. So for FaZe, it is not these teams missing the event which matters as much, but the lack of teams with any history of beating FaZe does heavily skew the likelihood of NiKo and the gang of taking ECS outright.
Throw in that Astralis, a team who were not beating FaZe with their main line-up but who were a side capable of joining that group of teams who have, cannot field device, their star player and primary AWPer, at ECS and possibly the major too, and FaZe's chances only increase.
Proving #1 Team
FaZe have been a consistently excellent team since overcoming the growing pains of that initial tournament, reaching the final of four of the next six offline events and winning two of them. SK have clearly been a point of weakness for them, but with no SK in attendance at ECS and them unable to field the current line-up at major, FaZe can delay their solution to the SK problem a few events. ECS and the major are more about finding out just how dominant FaZe can be in a world without SK.
If they can take advantage of the external factors which have increased their likelihood of winning these two events and adding to their trophy haul, then when focus returns to the SK match-up it will be clearer that FaZe must find a way past SK or hope for other teams to beat them in order to be the best team of this era. If FaZe should suffer a fall and fail to win one of these events
, then it we will learn a lot more about their weaknesses and limitations as a team, which have rarely been on display previously, and not least since at ECS the upset will have to come from an entirely new angle of a new challenger besting them.
ECS and the ELEAGUE Boston Major are must-wins for FaZe and as close to "a gimmie" as any elite team will get in the modern era of Counter-Strike.
Day 1 Results And FaZe NiKo's 40 Kills
On Overpass, FaZe put up a much tougher fight, as both teams traded rounds throughout the entire game. Even though the Danes lost multiple anti-eco and other winnable rounds, they still won many of the crucial gun rounds. They also shut down many of FaZe's star players, with Nikola "NiKo" Kovac being the only big performer, especially since he'd just come off of a 40-kill win against Team Liquid. RUBINO had the biggest impact in Astralis' 16-13 win, while also dropping 32 kills and a 116.6 average damage per round. FaZe Clan won their 1st match against Team Liquid with 16-12 but go on to lose against Astralis with 13-16.
Liquid added to their lead by picking up the second pistol round of the game with a clean A execution. FaZe then hit back on a force-buy and kept their defense very tight, eventually taking the lead without dropping any more rounds, with Nikola "NiKo" Kovač doing a huge chunk of the work for the team.
Down 10-12, Liquid were finally able to break FaZe's streak, but they could not find the equaliser as they got shut down by NiKo, who by now had 37 kills to his name. The North Americans still tried to get back in the game, but the Europeans remained in control and locked down the map, 16-12 and with NiKo pulling off exact 40-Kills.
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