FaZe reverse-sweep Liquid to secure semi-final berth in Abu Dhabi

Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken showed up against his former team of three years to guarantee FaZe a top-four finish in the UAE.

FaZe picked up their second victory at the BLAST World Final, this time prevailing over Liquid with a 2-1 showing. The European roster let a 14-11 lead on Mirage slip to concede their opponents' map pick (14-16), before completing the reverse sweep with comfortable victories on Inferno (16-5) and their first-ever outing on Anubis (16-9).

FaZe now advance straight to the semi-finals of the $1,000,000 Emirati tournament, an important bye in their bid to end the year on a high after suffering several early exits since their domination in the first half of 2022.

Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen attributed their victory on Anubis to Liquid's inability to exploit the central portion of the map. "It's very important to put pressure on Mid so you can cut off the rotation," he said in the post-match interview. "I was holding Mid by myself and in practice that's not possible normally. People apply more pressure and I think they failed in that department."

Liquid, meanwhile, finish Group A as the second seed and subsequently start their upcoming campaign through the playoffs from the quarter-finals. Mareks "⁠YEKINDAR⁠" Gaļinskis' impact on the team continues to be felt time and time again, as the new recruit led his squad with a 1.58 rating on his side's map win on Mirage.

Liquid started off strong on the T-side of Mirage, with YEKINDAR adding 10 kills to his tally to power his team to an opening 5-1 lead. It took heroics from Twistzz, who was having a relatively quiet game up until this point, to get FaZe back on the board; the Canadian rifler prowled around the map with pinpoint accuracy and much-needed clutch plays versus his former team to earn his squad some respite and reduce the deficit all the way back to within one round, 7-8.

Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool tapped down four on the second pistol round of the map to get FaZe's time on the attack underway, the European combine using their new-found economic advantage to add a further two rounds to the scoreboard. Liquid eked out a handful of scrappy round wins to keep things neck-and-neck, but a 1vs3 clutch from a Galil AR-armed ropz proved to be the difference maker, with FaZe using this momentum-shifting play as a springboard to lock inch ever closer to match point, 14-11.

Liquid awoke from their slumber at just the right time, going on a five-round streak to snatch away victory 16-14, due in large part to YEKINDAR, who ended up with 31 kills to his name, and his world-class site holds.

The action made its way to Inferno for the second map of the battle, where the two teams instantly got locked into a back-and-forth skirmish, blunders from both sides giving way to a 5-3 scoreline in favour of FaZe on the T-side. Liquid were able to keep the rounds close as the half progressed, but Twistzz's dominant map-one performance carried over; the Canadian joining forces with Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard and Helvijs "⁠broky⁠" Saukants to blitz ahead and post a commanding 11-4 lead by the interval.

FaZe's stranglehold on the map only grew tighter at the outset of the second half. A utility-intensive game plan, where the European ensemble took acres of map control without much resistance, proved key in allowing the side to concede just one round en route to a 16-5 hounding of the North Americans. FaZe's lopsided victory was also a team-based one, with all but karrigan sitting between 17 and 20 kills each.

Anubis played host to the series decider and FaZe once again got off to a hot start in what was their first official outing on the newly-introduced map. karrigan's troops erected a stalwart defensive wall across the entirety of the map, letting the North American outfit plant on just one occasion as they sat on a hefty 7-1 advantage. Things only went from bad to worse for Liquid; although they were able to get the bomb planted on occasion, FaZe's confidence and fast rotates proved to be deadly and the international quintet went into their T-side just four rounds away from a swift victory.

Liquid got back in the driver's seat for the first time since Mirage once on the CT-side. Their proactive and shored-up defensive line gave FaZe a major headache as they inched closer to double digits, 9-13. Nonetheless, a 1vs3 from ropz ended up being the catalyst to get FaZe over the line, the side not looking back to end things 16-9.