FaZe take down Liquid to qualify for BLAST Premier Spring Final

The North American squad will have another chance at qualification in the Showdown stage.

FaZe have done the double over Liquid in Group C of the BLAST tournament to book their spot in the BLAST Premier Spring Final with a 2-0 victory in Group C's consolidation final. The matchup featured the same maps as their opening round encounter, but this time in a different order. Nuke was up first, where Olof "⁠olofmeister⁠" Kajbjer rolled back the years with a quality display to be the difference-maker in a double overtime contest before a solid all-round team performance on Inferno closed the series out.

The European squad will face off with Natus Vincere in the group's grand final at 20:30 , while Liquid will have to wait until April to take another shot at qualification for the Spring Final through the Showdown stage, which will also feature the likes of Astralis, Vitality and G2.

olofmeister kicked off FaZe’s pick of Nuke in style, leading the charge on the T side with a huge damage output in the opening rounds. Liquid gained control moving forward once their funds stabilised to pull ahead 6-4, but that was the last time they would lead in the half as Marcelo "⁠coldzera⁠" David and co. edged out their opponents 8-7 at the midway point.

After losing the second pistol of the map, Liquid responded by hitting a higher gear. The North American squad racked up a five-round streak off the back of a force buy victory before FaZe stopped them in their tracks. A Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski quad kill added another to his team’s tally, but the European side redeemed themselves for letting the previous round slip and began reducing the deficit. However, the two teams couldn’t be separated as the contest continued into overtime after an intense conclusion to regulation. The entertaining back-and-forth persisted for 12 more rounds until FaZe eventually came out on top 22-20.

Saturday's match against NAVI on Inferno had seen FaZe put up a less than convincing showing, but the difference in performance versus Liquid was like night and day. A ridiculous Deagle 3K from Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard turned the tables on Liquid early on as his team overturned a 0-2 start for a 7-2 lead off the back of it. The European squad refused to slow down as the map progressed and claimed an 11-4 halftime advantage.

rain flexed his pistol dominance yet again to earn FaZe their T side opening round, and the rest of the team stepped up to rapidly attain series point, with the kills evenly distributed across the board. Liquid could only hold off coldzera’s troops for one round before FaZe closed proceeding out for a 16-6 win and a spot in the Spring Finals.