Liquid eliminate reigning champions FaZe from IEM Katowice

Liquid are finding form after a slow start to the year.

IEM Katowice will not see another FaZe victory as the European side were eliminated by Liquid, 2-1. Nick "⁠nitr0⁠" Cannella and company recovered from a narrow 14-16 loss on Inferno to defeat FaZe 16-11 on Overpass and 16-13 on Mirage.

Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen spoke on the broadcast after the game, and he identified a combination of his own team's mistakes and Liquid's adaptation as the reason for them taking the decider of Mirage, saying "we had opportunities but they also played good in the end, they adapted to what we were doing, but I feel like some of the rounds we were not on point."

At BLAST Spring Groups it seemed like Liquid may have hit a wall in their improvement since Mareks "⁠YEKINDAR⁠" Gaļinskis' arrival, a single series win and a failure to qualify for Spring Final representing a major disappointment. Some of that failure was certainly down to the lackluster form of the Latvian himself, but he was much improved in this series and a vital reason for Liquid's victory. The North American side will need Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski to recover his form as well if they are to mount a deep run in the playoffs of Katowice.

FaZe began the year in fine fashion, going on a four-series win streak and looking something like the team that dominated the first half of 2022. Whether their loss to G2 here in Poland got in their heads or something else is afoot, karrigan's side were short of their best in this series, aggressive economic choices and individual decision-making often shooting them in the foot.

Inferno was the first map of play, and FaZe were dominant on the CT half of their pick. Liquid struggled to overcome the defensive might of Helvijs "⁠broky⁠" Saukants and Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard after winning the pistol to start 3-0, largely due to their inability to find opening kills. Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic and YEKINDAR did find some entries on banana to earn two rounds for their side in the middle of the half, but FaZe ultimately marched to a comfortable 10-5 score.

Liquid once again won the pistol and converted to start the half, before an impressive Josh "⁠oSee⁠" Ohm hold on A won them the first gun round. Despite the lead Liquid were generating, FaZe kept them under constant pressure, repeatedly finding bomb plants and forcing the North American side to scramble to recover. Eventually FaZe did manage to enter the A site cleanly to grab their first round win, and this gave way to four of the next five rounds going the way of the European mix.

Just as it seemed FaZe would saunter to victory, Liquid righted the ship and picked up a spree of rounds that broke their opponent's economy at just the right time, dragging the score to 14-14. With their backs against the wall FaZe pulled off a slick A split to put themselves on map point, and a fast B hit closed the map out 16-14 in their favour.

Overpass was up next, and FaZe picked up their first pistol win of the series on CT side to kick things off. Much of the rest of the half was a hotly-contested battle, with Liquid finding the most success targeting rain in bathrooms, whilst FaZe were most comfortable when broky's AWP rang true. Some up-tempo B executes late in the half helped to earn Liquid a 9-6 lead, but bearing in mind a couple of advantageous situations they squandered earlier in the half, it could easily have been more convincing.

FaZe took their offensive pistol and a follow up to bring the scores close, only to then squander a 1vs2 post-plant to allow Liquid back into the game. Not to be deterred FaZe forced up and went for a ballsy but ultimately successful B rush, which they followed up with another B finish to scupper Liquid's economy. After a save and with the score at 11-11 nitr0 and co. came alive on their defence, grabbing the final five rounds in a row to take the map 16-11 and earn a decider.

Another pistol went FaZe's way as they opened Mirage on the CT side, but a majestic 1vs3 clutch on a force buy from YEKINDAR gave Liquid the early impetus. Several failed forces from FaZe gave their NA counterparts a 4-1 lead before a proper gun round could be played, and even then it was a force at 5-1 that got FaZe back on the scoreboard. karrigan's troops did rally at this point, picking up four on the bounce, but the amount of unnecessary deaths they suffered during these rounds meant Liquid immediately broke their economy with a single round win. This granted Liquid a 10-5 offensive half.

FaZe were a completely different beast at the start of the second half, putting together a powerful and clinical offense that ran over Liquid repeatedly to the tune of seven rounds in a row. With the score at 10-12 nitr0 provided a vital 3k to get Liquid back in the half, and they managed to grind out a couple more either side of a broky 1vs2 to break FaZe's economy and get to 14-13. With everything on the line oSee took an aggressive stance in underpass to nab an opener and FaZe crumbled, Liquid taking a 16-14 victory to eliminate the reigning Katowice champions.