Grayhound eliminate FaZe, fnatic knock out Chiefs

Grayhound have eliminated FaZe from IEM Sydney with a 2-1 victory, while fnatic knocked out Chiefs 2-1, with the two winning sides set to meet in Group B's lower bracket final.

The first two series of the day saw two elimination matches take place in Group B's lower bracket semi-finals, with the main stream featuring FaZe versus Grayhound.

The Australian side picked Inferno as the first map and got off to a good start despite losing the pistol round, with some solid entrying from Christopher "⁠dexter⁠" Nong and Erdenetsogt "⁠erkaSt⁠" Gantulga putting them in a 5-2 lead on the Terrorist side. FaZe responded with four in a row, courtesy of three multikills from Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard, before the two sides went back and forth to end the half 8-7 in favor of the European team.

Ollie "⁠DickStacy⁠" Tierney's quad-kill equalized the scoreline in the second half, but Grayhound couldn't capitalize on the pistol round win while FaZe ran away with another four-round streak for 12-8. From there on, however, the defense looked impenetrable, as the Australian team went on a huge 8-0 run, turning around a couple of 3v5 situations to add insult to injury en route to a 16-12 win on the opening map.

Dust2 followed with FaZe looking determined to equalize the series, conceding just one out of the first seven rounds on the defense. Grayhound stepped up in the latter portion of the first half, but they still found themselves trailing 5-10 after facing a troublesome double-AWP setup from Ladislav "⁠GuardiaN⁠" Kovács and Olof "⁠olofmeister⁠" Kajbjer.

Janko "⁠YNk⁠" Paunović's men quickly reached 13 rounds after rain's quad-kill gave them the second pistol round, and although Grayhound put up a valiant effort to come back from the big deficit, FaZe eventually came out victorious at 16-12.

The deciding Overpass saw Grayhound put together a solid offense after they lost the pistol round, with DickStacy finding key openings to keep his team in control and head over to the favored defense at 9-6. Adding a pistol round on top, the Australians were up 11-6 and they looked to finish off the upset when the two teams split the next six rounds. There was still life left in FaZe, who took the match to all 30 rounds on the decider, but clutch play from erkaSt in the last round sealed the deal at 16-14, 2-1.

In the other Australian-European battle, another potential upset was brewing. fnatic got away with the better start on Dust2, leading 5-0 on the offense, but it was Chiefs who ended up with the advantage at halftime on the back of a strong run led by Chris "⁠ofnu⁠" Hanley.

The Swedes closed the gap with a second-round break on the defense, at one point holding a 13-11 lead, but they were unable to close it out despite the advantage, with Chiefs running out victorious at 16-14.

fnatic entered Mirage with another early lead on the T side, but it got away from them once again, with Chiefs stepping up after getting off to a 1-5 start. The Australian team ended up securing the better half, with 8-7 to their name, but it soon slipped away when the Swedish squad got to the defense. Ryan "⁠zewsy⁠" Palmer's team were unable to break through and fnatic ran away with a 16-9 win to level the series.

When it came to Inferno, fnatic were in the driving seat from the start, with a dominant CT side putting them in a 13-2 lead. A pistol round going the way of their opponents was the only thing holding Jesper "⁠JW⁠" Wecksell's team back, with fnatic coming out victors 16-4, 2-1