FaZe Clan and Fnatic survive by the skin of their teeth and now will be one win away from making it to the next stage of the event after beating RED Candis and NRG. Standing with a 2-2 scoreline, their fate will be decided in their next game in the StarLadder Budapest Major Stage 1.
Fnatic stunned NRG
With both teams showing up with a mixed track record in the event, NRG started the series on a better note. Pulling in 9 rounds on their defense, Fnatic was left with 3 rounds to mount a comeback, where 4 rounds from NRG on their offense closed the opening map with a dominant scoreline. Having faced a stunning defeat, Fnatic managed to start the 2nd map with better form, winning 8 rounds on the defense in the first half, and the close 2nd half made a 3rd map possible. Continuing their form from the previous map, Fnatic closed the first half with an 8-4 scoreline, but NRG pushed them to their limits in the second half, but Fnatic edged out a win thanks to their buffer from the first half to win the series.
FaZe pulled off a stunning comeback against Red Candis
RED Cadis started the series by thrashing FaZe on their own map pick. A disaster of an offense, followed by an equally poor defense, gave the Brazilians an early lead in the series with a dominant 13-7 scoreline. Nuke, starting with FaZe on the defense, saw the first half yield a levelled scoreline, and with the second half failing to separate both sides, we saw the game get pushed to overtime. RED Candis started the first OT with a flawless defense but failed to win a single round on the offense, leading to FaZe pulling off a comeback from the face of 3 series points. The second OT is where FaZe pulled ahead, and with 3 back-to-back rounds on the offense, a frozeN masterclass gifted FaZe a 3rd map. Inferno, being the final map of the series, saw the real FaZe Clan come out where they managed to pull in 8 rounds on the offense and having lost a single round on their defense, a 13-5 dominant scoreline saw FaZe book their spot in the next round of Stage 1.
Two back-to-back reverse sweeps from FaZe and Fnatic ensured that two of the most notable organisations in Counter-Strike esports advanced to the next round of the most prestigious tournament. Unfortunately for RED Candis and NRG, their run at the Major ended today, but all the teams they faced will be in their memories, given the tough contests they put up.