FaZe beat BIG, move on to ELEAGUE Invitational final

FaZe have defeated BIG 2-1 (Cache 16-14, Train 14-16, Inferno 16-10) to move on to the grand final of ELEAGUE CS:GO Invitational, in which they are set to rematch Cloud9.

BIG chose Cache to start off the series and they were the ones to find a way to a 2-0 lead following a pistol round win on the T side, but that was soon gone as FaZe quickly replied in the gunrounds, with Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard picking up multikills left and right. Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač & co. managed to go on a great run with nine out of the next 10 rounds, as only Ismailcan "⁠XANTARES⁠" Dörtkardeş's triple in an eco round broke through the defense for BIG, and they ended up closing out the first half with a hefty 10-5 lead.

FaZe went on to grab the pistol round, while BIG closed the gap back to four on the back of key plays from Johannes "⁠tabseN⁠" Wodarz and Owen "⁠smooya⁠" Butterfield, with the latter clutching a 1v2 in the 18th round.

The effort seemed in vain when Olof "⁠olofmeister⁠" Kajbjer and Dauren "⁠AdreN⁠" Kystaubayev turned around a 2v5, pushing their team to 14-8, but BIG still had life left in them. With four out of the next five rounds going their way, Fatih "⁠gob b⁠" Dayik's side soon threatened with the prospect of overtime as they took the match to the 30th round after a forcebuy from FaZe backfired, but Ladislav "⁠GuardiaN⁠" Kovács's triple in a 2v3 situation in the last round sealed the deal at 16-14.

Train began with BIG setting themselves up for a great CT side by bagging the first five rounds, and they continued to dominate after FaZe found their first in the sixth, as the economy reset came in and tabseN's team stood strong with a 9-1 lead. Towards the end of the half, FaZe woke up with three out of the last five rounds, which put them at a 4-11 deficit before switching over to the defense.

A clean 5v5 retake on B saw FaZe pick up the second pistol round to start climbing back into contention for the map and they didn't let BIG capitalize on winning the first gunround, reaching double digits after several more retake scenarios. Huge pickoffs from smooya helped BIG turn things back in their favor with three in a row for match point and, after a couple of unsuccessful attempts, equalize the series with a 16-14 win.

Inferno was left as the decider and yet again BIG got off to the better start, leading 3-0 on the back of a pistol round win as Terrorists. However, that's where their successful run ended, as the rest of the half was firmly in the hands of FaZe, who mounted an amazing defense for a comfortable 11-4 half.

NiKo's squad ran away with the second pistol round, as well, but BIG quickly replied to reduce their deficit to five. FaZe reached the 13th round with a single pick on the B bombsite before their opponents answered with two in a row. In the end, gob b & co. were too far behind to catch up, as FaZe scraped the last few rounds together for a 16-10 victory.