FaZe breeze past Rooster's Big Event debutants in EPL Group C opening round

The group’s favorites, FaZe, did not give their inexperienced counterparts a chance in the two-map series.

FaZe have opened their ESL Pro League Season 17 group stage run with a very convincing victory on Nuke (16-6) and Inferno (16-7). The Australians, who are playing their first ever Big Event, showed their teeth on the attacking sides but were lacking on either defense. Early attempts to apply pressure on FaZe in the T sides were met with swift adaptation by the veteran squad.

Rooster had less than 25 LAN maps combined between all players to their name going into this series against the fourth best team of the world and the top side of 2022, and will undoubtedly have many takeaways to learn from as they anticipate their coming match in the lower bracket on Thursday at 12:30 against paiN.

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Meanwhile, FaZe will play Ninjas in Pyjamas for a spot in the tournament’s playoffs. On the other side of the upper bracket two more opening games are slated for 19:30 , pairing Grayhound vs. Vitality and OG vs. 00NATION

FaZe took a nifty 3-0 lead on the Nuke defense, but gave up the first gun round to a slowplaying Rooster, who doubled their score with a late explosive A take in the second round and tied it up 3-3. Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen and Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken downed all enemies to force full eco, which took the wind out of Rooster’s sails as they only succeeded in one more round before the half.

karrigan and his men went two for two in pistols and didn't look back, only briefly halted during two rounds, one which was a 1vs3 clutch by Tyson "⁠asap⁠" Paterson — the team's shining light on the map —, to a 16-6 scoreline.

Rooster, who have recently struggled with their CT sides during a bootcamp in Katowice, Poland, chose to start on FaZe’s Inferno map pick on the attack. The gambit paid dividends early on as they got to a 4-0 before FaZe a won 3vs2 retake on A to get on the board, but as with Nuke, they started to lose steam halfway through the T side and lost the lead, 7-8.

FaZe took control on the attack as Rooster’s defenses crumbled from the start and from and it quickly became a sprint to the finish line as the international squad didn’t drop a single round of the eight played to win out 16-7.