G2 shock FaZe in three-map clash

The French side completed the upset in their opening match at ESL One New York 2018 by beating FaZe 2-1.

The series kicked off on Inferno, where G2 got off to a great start by winning the first pistol round as terrorists on the back of a quad-kill from Kenny "⁠kennyS⁠" Schrub. They won the following anti-eco but couldn't convert the third round as Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač brought down three with the Desert Eagle.

FaZe took advantage of this and tied things up and then took off to eventually reach a 6-2 lead before Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon managed a triple-kill on A in the ninth round. The French fought themselves all the way back in the map and eventually tied the match up 7-7, but it would still be Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen's men who came out on top in the first half as they won the last round before the switch.

Now on the defense, G2 also won the second pistol round to tie up the map again as well as two anti-ecos to lead by a pair. Kévin "⁠Ex6TenZ⁠" Droolans troops looked much more comfortable as the French cruised ahead to a 13-9 lead before Olof "⁠olofmeister⁠" Kajbjer showed off his capabilities with a quad-kill 1v2 clutch round to put FaZe on double digits. The European mixture also won the next three to tie up the map once again.

With only pistols, G2 managed to fend off a B hit from FaZe in the 27th round, which prompted a last-second dash to the finish line as the French ended up winning Inferno 16-13.

olofmeister propelled his team to a win in the first pistol round as terrorists on their own map pick, Mirage, as the Swede took down three with the Glock. The veteran naded down two in the following anti-eco, which FaZe won as well as the third.

Now with guns, Ex6TenZ' men fired back and put themselves on the board with two straight rounds, but FaZe kept in control of things and pulled ahead, only conceding two more rounds to the French in the first half, which they won 11-4.

The domination continued in the second half as NiKo and co. easily won the second pistol rounds as CTs. G2 did win the next round on the back of a double-kill with the SSG 08 by Edouard "⁠SmithZz⁠" Dubourdeaux, but the European stars eventually closed out Mirage 16-5 to tie up the series 1-1.

G2 got off to a perfect start on the deciding map, Cache, as the T-sided frenchmen won the pistol round, the following two anti-ecos and the first gun round from FaZe. Ex6TenZ' men made it to 5-0 before their opponents put themselves on the board, the French cruising ahead to lead 10-2. karrigan's men found their footing towards the end of the first half, as they won three in a row to end up at five before the switch.

G2 took the last pistol round of the match as CTs to put themselves in a comfortable position to close out the series with only four rounds to go. kennyS and co. won one more, but with their backs against the wall, FaZe won the next three to bring themselves to eight rounds. Finding even more ways to get into the bomb sites, the European mixture kept the game alive by taking even more rounds, eventually tying up the game 14-14.

In the end, though, the match was G2's to take, as the French side put the lid on it by winning the last two rounds to make it 16-14 on Cache and 2-1 in the series.