Virtus.pro outmaneuver FaZe

The first match of Group D at the $250,000 DreamHack Masters Malmö event paired together Virtus.pro and FaZe, currently the #5 and #15 ranked teams in the world respectively.

With both sides having last met offline in a group decider best-of-one match at IEM Katowice that went the way of the Poles (16-13 on Mirage), the showdown in Malmö instead took place on Train. The game was also Fabien "⁠kioShiMa⁠" Fiey's debut for FaZe after being signed to the team earlier this week.

It was Virtus.pro who got the ball rolling with an aggressive A-site take on their T pistolround that worked, which moved the team ahead to a 3-0 scoreline. The first gunround meanwhile went the way of FaZe who used conventional and proven defensive tactics to stop VP's aggression.

Janusz "⁠Snax⁠" Pogorzelski jumped ahead early in the game as the impact player and, led by his fragging, Virtus.pro stopped FaZe's momentum and moved ahead to a 6-1 lead. Strong positional play by Ricardo "⁠fox⁠" Pacheco meanwhile put FaZe back on the board in the next round as he won a crucial one versus one against Paweł "⁠byali⁠" Bieliński.

Buoyed by this clutch, and by the defensive plays of Philip "⁠aizy⁠" Aistrup (including a one versus two win), FaZe managed to garner a few more rounds in the first half although reckless pushes by Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard later in the half allowed VP to get their foot through the door again and in the end the Poles finished the half up 10-5.

An extreme push by Wiktor "⁠TaZ⁠" Wojtas and Filip "⁠NEO⁠" Kubski dismantled FaZe outside of the B-site on the second pistolround, with the former player being boosted behind the European team and allowing him to pincer them and shut down their T-side execute.

This loss created a domino effect for FaZe as they lost the subsequent eco rounds and the first second-half gunround; with the score at 15-5, FaZe finally executed successfully onto the A-site which gave Joakim "⁠jkaem⁠" Myrbostad and team some breathing room.

This breathing room came too little, too late and a defensive on B-site by TaZ and crew ultimately shut down FaZe and gave the Polish team the map 16-8.

DreamHack Masters Malmö 2016Best of 1

Virtus.pro

Matchpage

16

8

12th April 2016

FaZe

16

Train

8

Virtus.pro	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Janusz 'Snax' PogorzelskiSnax	27 - 13	+14	100.5	79.2%	1.77
Paweł 'byali' Bielińskibyali	23 - 17	+6	119.3	83.3%	1.52
Filip 'NEO' KubskiNEO	18 - 15	+3	85.5	79.2%	1.18
Wiktor 'TaZ' WojtasTaZ	16 - 18	-2	67.7	70.8%	1.04
Jarosław 'pashaBiceps' JarząbkowskipashaBiceps	10 - 21	-11	47.4	58.3%	0.59

FaZe	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Ricardo 'fox' Pachecofox	26 - 17	+9	110.9	87.5%	1.63
Philip 'aizy' Aistrupaizy	22 - 20	+2	100.0	79.2%	1.26
Håvard 'rain' Nygaardrain	12 - 18	-6	63.4	66.7%	0.82
Joakim 'jkaem' Myrbostadjkaem	11 - 20	-9	52.7	58.3%	0.68
Fabien 'kioShiMa' FieykioShiMa	12 - 19	-7	52.2	62.5%	0.66

The final match of the day is Group D's second game which will be a duel between Tempo Storm and Envy, with the Brazilian team having last won against Nathan "⁠NBK-⁠" Schmitt & co. 16-7 on Mirage at IEM Katowice.

stich writes for HLTV.org and can be found on Twitter