FaZe beat Na`Vi to secure final spot in Boston

The first semi-final of the Major kicked off on Inferno, Natus Vincere's map pick, with a triple-kill from Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač helping FaZe to secure their CT-side pistol. Surprisingly, the Ukrainians forced for two straight rounds, without any luck, with FaZe increasing their lead to 5-0. 

It was thanks to a 1v2 clutch from Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev that Natus Vincere got their first round on the board. Still, they could not follow it up and had to deal with an economic reset, with FaZe setting themselves up for an 8-1 lead.

That was a wake-up call for Natus Vincere, who finally managed to string rounds together thanks to a 1v2 clutch and a triple-kill from Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev in the following two rounds. That was the start of a good run from the Ukrainian team, who brought the deficit to a minimum.

Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen's squad would not let a comeback, however, and switched to the Terrorist side determined to regain control of the game. After winning the pistol round and both anti-ecos, FaZe ran all over the Na`Vi defence and lost just two rounds before locking down the map.

NiKo & co. are through to the Major grand final

FaZe's map pick, Mirage, started with s1mple securing the CT pistol for his team with a 1v3 clutch, and following that up with two more triple-kills in the subsequent anti-ecos. But after buying up, the landscape of the game changed dramatically as FaZe quickly turned things around.

Even though Danylo "⁠Zeus⁠" Teslenko came up huge in the sixth round by finding four enemies with nothing but CZs, the European mixture instantly responded with a trio of successful rounds. After that, FaZe continued to hold Natus Vincere back, losing only one more round to bag a 10-5 half-time lead.

In the second half, Natus Vincere found a lifeline in the series after picking up the pistol round. However, that would to be too little, too late, as FaZe quickly wrapped things up to book their place in the ELEAGUE Major grand final.

ELEAGUE Major 2018Best of 3

FaZe

Matchpage

2

0

27th January 2018

Natus Vincere

16

Inferno

9

16

Mirage

7

FaZe	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Nikola 'NiKo' KovačNiKo	43 - 23	+20	98.9	81.2%	1.51
Håvard 'rain' Nygaardrain	37 - 30	+7	101.2	87.5%	1.47
Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjerolofmeister	40 - 30	+10	83.4	85.4%	1.34
Ladislav 'GuardiaN' KovácsGuardiaN	39 - 27	+12	73.5	85.4%	1.33
Finn 'karrigan' Andersenkarrigan	32 - 29	+3	64.0	72.9%	1.05

Natus Vincere	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostylievs1mple	40 - 39	+1	85.8	68.8%	1.07
Egor 'flamie' Vasilyevflamie	29 - 40	-11	67.9	60.4%	0.82
Ioann 'Edward' SukharievEdward	21 - 37	-16	59.6	70.8%	0.79
Danylo 'Zeus' TeslenkoZeus	23 - 38	-15	63.2	56.2%	0.74
Denis 'electroNic' SharipovelectroNic	26 - 37	-11	62.3	58.3%	0.73