NRG see off FaZe in New York

NRG live to fight another day at ESL One New York after defeating FaZe 2-0 in Group B's elimination match.

The opening match of the day started on Inferno, NRG's map choice, with the North Americans cruising to a 5-0 lead as Terrorists. FaZe then finally got on the board, following a quad-kill by Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen, and they set up a strong defence after that, eventually equalising the score at 5-5.

After calling a timeout, NRG brought FaZe's streak to an end, punishing the CTs' weak B setup, and they rode that momentum to secure an 8-5 lead. FaZe would not let the game snowball out of control, however, and tightened up their defence to bring the deficit to a solitary round.

FaZe began the second half on the wrong foot, losing two men early on in the pistol round, but they still managed to turn it around with double kills from Ladislav "⁠GuardiaN⁠" Kovács and Olof "⁠olofmeister⁠" Kajbjer. Their fantastic run on the Terrorist side continued in the gun rounds, with NRG struggling to string more than two rounds together, which crippled their economy.

The European team put NRG against the ropes and eventually hit map point at 15-12, but then the North American team's stars came to life. Vincent "⁠Brehze⁠" Cayonte and Tsvetelin "⁠CeRq⁠" Dimitrov stepped up to the plate and piled the pressure on FaZe, who could not seal the deal in the remaining rounds of regulation.

With the tide now swinging in their favour, NRG dug deep and took control of proceedings, winning two rounds in both halves to seal a hard-fought victory before heading into FaZe's pick.

Brehze opened up the action on Mirage with a quad kill in the pistol round to put NRG in the lead, but FaZe replied immediately following two Desert Eagle headshots by karrigan and a triple kill by Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard.

FaZe went on to secure the next two rounds to grab a 3-1 lead, but they lost control of the game once NRG had money to work with. A 1v3 clutch by GuardiaN still breathed new life into the struggling Europeans, but a six-round streak by NRG saw them close out the half with a 10-5 lead.

A trio of frags by Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač shut down the NRG offense in the pistol round and kept FaZe in the game. The CTs followed that up with both anti-ecos, but once NRG had money in the bank things quickly went sour for the Europeans, whose sole gun round win was immediately countered, leaving them without any cash to prevent the home side from running away with the game.