FaZe Clan, with Håvard “rain” Nygaard, are in the playoffs of ESL Pro League Season 22 after eliminating Aurora and securing the last spot of the next round of play. With a roster that has had little time to practice, FaZe have pulled a rabbit out of the hat to qualify.
VETO
- FaZe removed Overpass
- Aurora removed Ancient
- FaZe picked Mirage
- Aurora picked Train
- FaZe removed Inferno
- Aurora removed Nuke
- Dust2 was left over
Map 1: Mirage; Pick: FaZe; Winner: FaZe
The first round win for FaZe came with the first gun round after Aurora converted their CT pistol. Failing to keep the momentum, Aurora put together a streak of rounds that left FaZe behind, who had to recover later in the half to switch sides with a close scoreline of 7-5. A decent first half from Aurora was completely ruined by their poor offense, which led to FaZe winning all of the rounds in the second half, bar one, to bring home their map pick with a 13-8 scoreline. In a server full of sharpshooters, it was a cerebral Karrigan whose 17 kills led the charts for FaZe.
Map 2: Train; Pick: Aurora; Winner: Aurora
Start on the defence with pistol round win, the FaZe defence fumbled right from the 3rd round of the map as the Turkish side went on to win all of the remaining rounds of the half and switching sides with a 10-2 scoreline. The second half of the map did not favour FaZe as Aurora pulled in the three rounds they needed to push the game to the third map. With a 13-2 win, Aurora secured a dominant victory and advanced to the next map in the series.
Map 3; Dust 2; Pick: Decider; Winner: FaZe
A 5-0 start to the map from FaZe brushed off the beating they took on the previous map to begin with. The dominant start slowed down as Aurora recovered later into the half, with the first half concluding with a 7-5 scoreline favouring FaZe. Aurora started strong in the second map, where FaZe’s lead was levelled and surpassed early on before they got hold of the defence and kept a flawless streak to end the first half and close the series. From 10-8 down, FaZe won 5 rounds in a row to come back and close the map to lock in the playoffs. 23 kills from FrozeN and a supreme AWPing display from broky helped FaZe overcome the tough challenge to close out the map.
Aurora is the shadow of the team that became a force to be reckoned with under the Eternal Fire banner. Though their form has gone down, nothing can take this brilliant win away from FaZe, who have managed to put in a respectable display despite playing under duress with little time to practise.