FaZe, FURIA score opening wins in Katowice

Liquid and Astralis drop to the lower bracket in Group B after faltering in their first matches of the event.

FaZe and FURIA are through to the Group B upper bracket semi-finals of IEM Katowice after claiming victory in their opening matches of the tournament, beating Liquid and Astralis, respectively, to put themselves only a single series win away from booking spots in the Spodek Arena.

The win was especially crucial for FaZe, who now guarantee themselves a chance to play with Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool in at least one match as long as he is able to return to the roster pending a negative COVID test.

Both teams still face a tough test if they hope to secure an early berth to the stage though, as FURIA still need to go up against the winner of a match Natus Vincere and ENCE, while FaZe will need to take on either G2 or fnatic. Astralis and Liquid, meanwhile, drop to the lower bracket of Group B, where they'll have to fight for their tournament lives against the loser of the above match-ups on Saturday at 12:30 .

FaZe claimed an early lead to kick off Mirage, converting a pistol round victory into a 4-1 start on the T side before Liquid were able to get on the board. Six in a row was the response from the North American side as they stole away the lead, helped by a number of multi-kill rounds from Nick "⁠nitr0⁠" Cannella and Josh "⁠oSee⁠" Ohm, and it was a narrow edge that they managed to maintain heading into the break, sneaking ahead by one round.

A pistol round victory further extended that lead, and although FaZe were able to convert a forcebuy and add two more rounds to their tally, Liquid took firm control of the proceedings and closed out the map in short order, 16-11.

The tables turned on Ancient as Liquid looked completely lost on their own map pick, unable to muster much of an offense against an impregnable CT side from FaZe. Only a pistol win and two rounds toward the end of the half went the way of nitr0's troops in the first half as FaZe made them look completely outclassed, and that momentum carried into the side swap as FaZe wasted little time in taking the win, 16-6.

FaZe continued their run on the Inferno decider, making up for a pistol round loss as they replied with a forcebuy to regain control. The scoreline quickly spiraled out of control as Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard and Helvijs "⁠broky⁠" Saukants racked up multi-kill rounds to repeatedly shut Liquid out of bombsites en route to an 8-2 lead, and despite a brief comeback effort from the North American side toward the latter portion of the map, FaZe again were able to convert their early edge into a relatively swift 16-9 victory.

FURIA, meanwhile, made good on their LAN debut with Rafael "⁠saffee⁠" Costa, besting Astralis in two maps. The series got underway on Overpass as FURIA established early control, and even with Philip "⁠Lucky⁠" Ewald helping Astralis win a save round, the Danish side were unable to crack through FURIA's defenses as they took an 8-2 lead on the CT side.

Astralis finally warmed up into the map as they worked their way up to six rounds, but FURIA quickly regained control with a five round spree after the break to put themselves just shy of match point. It took two quad kill rounds from Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer and Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth to help Astralis stay in the running, but Kaike "⁠KSCERATO⁠" Cerato answered back with a triple kill round of his own to put FURIA back in control and take home the map win, 16-12.

Mirage unfolded in similar fashion as Andrei "⁠arT⁠" Piovezan ran rampant over the Astralis defenses, finding a number of opening kills as his team pushed up to a 9-3 scoreline. Astralis managed to add three rounds to their tally at the end of the half and won the second pistol to close the gap further, but they only held on to the lead for a brief moment before FURIA got back on their feet and closed out the map in short order.