FaZe dominate fnatic to advance to Cologne semi-finals

With a dominant showing on two out of three maps, FaZe beat fnatic 2-1 (Overpass 16-4, Mirage 11-16, Inferno 16-1) to advance to ESL One Cologne semi-finals, while the Swedes have to settle for a quarter-finals spot.

fnatic picked Overpass to start off the series, but they soon came to regret that decision as FaZe quickly racked up a massive lead as Counter-Terrorists following Jorgen "⁠cromen⁠" Robertsen's 1v2 clutch in the pistol round.

The Norwegian continued to hammer on fnatic, adding several multi-kills and another clutch to his name, while his compatriot Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard aggressed towards A and gave his team early openings.

The Swedish squad grabbed the last round of the half as a consolation prize and proceeded to add the second pistol round to their tally despite cromen's attempts in a 2v4 situation. However, it was only a matter of time before FaZe ended their pain, with Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač securing map point at 15-3 with a triple while rain finished things off with a double at 16-4.

Mirage followed and this time it was fnatic who grabbed an early lead as CT despite losing the second-round forcebuy, as they replied right back and made it 5-1. FaZe started to find gaps in the A site over and over, soon equalizing the score at 6-6, but fnatic ran away with the remaining three on the back of a quad-kill from Robin "⁠flusha⁠" Rönnquist and two doubles from Freddy "⁠KRIMZ⁠" Johansson.

Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen & co. secured the second pistol round as well as the first gunround on the offense, grabbing their first lead on the map at 10-9. However, fnatic replied with four in a row, with William "⁠draken⁠" Sundin clutching a 1v1 along the way, to get within touching distance of the third map.

rain saved a 1v3 attempt from KRIMZ at 10-14, but FaZe quickly found themselves up against the ropes when fnatic clinched map point and sent their opponents on low economy to grab map two at 16-11.

The third map saw a repeat of Overpass, with Ladislav "⁠GuardiaN⁠" Kovács and rain taking turns dominating their opponents on the Counter-Terrorist side. It all started with an ace from the Slovakian on banana, which led to a 9-0 scoreline in favor of the European squad.

fnatic then replied with one, but FaZe were immediately back on the horse as GuardiaN grabbed four multi-kills in the last five rounds to end the half 14-1. With the AWPer adding a triple in the second pistol round, it was all she wrote for fnatic, who couldn't win the second-round forcebuy.