Cloud9 edge out FaZe at ELEAGUE Invitational

After two tightly contested maps, Cloud9 took down FaZe (19-15 Overpass, 19-16 Mirage) to move on to the upper-bracket final at the ELEAGUE CS:GO Invitational.

William "⁠RUSH⁠" Wierzba and Fabien "⁠kioShiMa⁠" Fiey combined for all five frags to win Cloud9 the pistol round on Overpass, their map pick. They added onto their lead, moving onto a 6-0 advantage, after kioShiMa denied Ladislav "⁠GuardiaN⁠" Kovács's 1v2 clutch attempt on B. FaZe finally got on the board as Olof "⁠olofmeister⁠" Kajbjer took down three opponents on the B site defense and took it from 9-0 to 10-3 quickly.

However, with another clutch attempt denied, Robin "⁠flusha⁠" Rönnquist killing Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač who was on four kills, Cloud9 ended the half 12-3. Cloud9 won their second pistol round of the map to go up 14-3, putting FaZe on the ropes. However, the following round, a back-and-forth one, was won by Dauren "⁠AdreN⁠" Kystaubayev, and that instigated a comeback from the European side. They went up to 14-9, but then fumbled a 3v2 which allowed Cloud9 to reach map point.

Despite RUSH's 30 kills in regulation, Cloud9 wasn't able to cleanly close it out, with FaZe miraculously forcing overtime. Then, Cloud9 hit a higher gear, and finished off the map with perfect play in added rounds, 19-15.

The majorly-American team added yet another pistol round win to their name, but the start of Mirage was still heavily contested. Playing as Terrorists, FaZe went on a streak of four rounds won, then Cloud9 won a force buy, while FaZe shortly replied with a successful force buy of their own (5-4).

With kioShiMa, Timothy "⁠autimatic⁠" Ta, and Jordan "⁠Zellsis⁠" Montemurro weilding AWPs, Cloud9 started shutting down their opponents convincingly, reaching a 9-5 advantage. FaZe grabbed their sixth round by finishing on B after an early exchange on mid, but they then lost yet another pistol round, allowing Cloud9 to reach double digits.

In the first rifle round, RUSH opened up A on a quick A-split, setting his team up for victory, 13-6. GuardiaN's AWP kept FaZe in it, bringing it back to 15-9, before NiKo's mid push netted him a hat-trick of frags to extend the game further. They eventually forced overtime, olofmeister's double entry in the last round of regulation pushing his team over the line.

However, just like on Overpass, after struggling in the second half, Cloud9 looked dominant from the start of overtime, eventually closing Mirage out 19-16, and taking the series 2-0.