Virtus.pro send FaZe home from Gamers8

Gamers8 has finally served up its first upset.

Virtus.pro are through to the Gamers8 quarter-final following a 2-1 victory against FaZe. The European combine drew first blood on Mirage (16-11), but a resilient Virtus.pro fought back with two 16-14 victories on Inferno and Overpass. The match concludes the Round of 16 at the Saudi event, with FaZe the only favorites to fall victim to the cutthroat format.

The loss against Virtus.pro continues a lackluster period of results for FaZe, who have struggled ever since their ESL Pro League Season 17 victory that also secured them the Intel Grand Slam. Since the off-season, Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen and company have suffered early elimination at IEM Cologne at the hands of the new-look Natus Vincere, and have now exited Gamers8 in joint last place.

On the other side of the server, the victory marks a triumphant return to tier-one Counter-Strike for Virtus.pro, who recently battled in the online circuit and notably won CCT 2023 Online Finals 2 earlier in the month. The squad, who are playing with transfer-listed Aleksei "⁠Qikert⁠" Golubev instead of the injured David "⁠n0rb3r7⁠" Danielyan, are now on a collision course with G2 in the quarter-final.

Date	Matches
Gamers8 2023
18/08/2023	G2 20:20 Virtus.pro	Match

Dastan "⁠dastan⁠" Akbayev joined James "⁠BanKs⁠" Banks for a post-match interview after their victory, where he admitted that the Overpass CT-side stacks were not done only on feeling. "We play against karrigan a lot, we understand some of their plays because of that. We just need to keep our minds online, and don't lose focus."

The match started on Mirage, where Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard proved crucial in getting his team over the line. After a 9-6 half in FaZe's favor, the Norwegian hit a crisp Deagle shot onto Dzhami "⁠Jame⁠" Ali and got FaZe back to winning ways near the end of the half. He then clutched out a 1vs3 situation in another low-buy situation and got his team up to 14, with FaZe closing out a 16-11 victory on their opponent's map pick after that.

Next up was Inferno, where Virtus.pro fought back to win with a 16-14 scoreline. After FaZe's pistol round and conversion in the second half, the Russian squad dominated the CT side with a 9-3 partial result, putting up a staunch defense on their opponent's map pick to force out the decider of Overpass.

The final map was another marathon affair, where Virtus.pro were once again able to grind out a 16-14 victory to secure their spot in the next round of the competition. Jame and company were 7-1 up at the start of their T side but lost seven in a row to go into the interval one behind, but then did just enough to squeak out a close-fought victory after some well-timed stacks on the A site, setting themselves up for a quarter-final against G2 in the process.