FaZe through to ESL Pro League Finals; Heroic and devils.one stay alive

FaZe have secured their place at the ESL Pro League Season 9 Finals after topping Group B, while HEROIC and devils.one move on to the second group stage following a tiebreaking scenario, which sees Ninjas in Pyjamas eliminated in fourth place.

FaZe continued their strong run in London on day three of Group B, heading into their last match against Ninjas in Pyjamas with a 2-0 record and looking convincing on the first half of Mirage, as they led 12-3 on the defense. The opening map turned out much more difficult than anticipated, after all, as the Swedish side held on until the very last round of regulation, when Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač's team dealt the final blow.

As the match turned to Dust2, FaZe looked unstoppable with Olof "⁠olofmeister⁠" Kajbjer and NiKo leading the way, securing a 16-4, 2-0 victory for an overall 3-0 record in the group, locking down their spot at the Finals.

Although the single finals spot had already been decided, devils.one and HEROIC had lots to play for, as they were both in danger of placing fourth, which would see them eliminated.

The two teams went blow for blow from the get-go on Train, with HEROIC pulling ahead on their defense at the end of the half, picking up a 9-6 lead. With a second-round break in the second half, Adam "⁠friberg⁠" Friberg & co. extended it to 12-7, but they soon found themselves unable to break through as devils.one strengthened their CT side. Wiktor "⁠TaZ⁠" Wojtas's squad ended the opening map with a 9-2 run, securing Train 16-14.

On Overpass, the story was quite the opposite. The Poles were the ones to start strong on the defense, with a 10-2 scoreline looking likely to turn into a 2-0 series, but HEROIC fought back from the end of the first half with three in a row and continued to do so when sides switched. There, although they were down 7-13 at one point, Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer's side equalized the series with nine rounds in a row, including a 1v2 clutch on the B bombsite from friberg.

It came down to Nuke, where HEROIC looked to rack up a great defense with a 7-3 start, but in the end only came away with an 8-7 half, which turned out to be just too little to close out on the offense. devils.one were in the driving seat after running away with the beginning of the second half, but a valiant effort to stay in contention saw the Danish squad push the deciding map to overtime.

After one set of overtime wasn't enough to determine a victor as both teams went 3-0 as CT, HEROIC pulled off a 4-0 run in the second set to save their lives in the league.

FaZe's 3-0 record puts them through to the finals directly, while a three-way tie between HEROIC, devils.one, and Ninjas in Pyjamas sees the Danish side finish second thanks to an extra map win overall and TaZ's team third on the back of a head-to-head victory against the Swedes, who finish fourth and are eliminated.