FaZe lock in Thunderpick semi-final spot over MOUZ

FaZe will face off against Cloud9 in Saturday's semi-finals.

FaZe have defeated MOUZ in the Thunderpick World Championship in a three-map series (Vertigo 5-13, Nuke 13-8, Ancient 13-4) to secure a semi-final berth in the $500,000 online event.

The series was a rematch of the recent IEM Sydney semi-final, where FaZe had prevailed in a two-map affair. MOUZ, who were back to full strength after being forced to play with Bram "⁠Nexius⁠" Campana in place of Jimi "⁠Jimpphat⁠" Salo due to the Finn's visa issues in Sydney, weren't able to beat Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen and company despite having their full roster back together.

FaZe now move on to face Cloud9 in the semi-finals of the Thunderpick World Championship, with the match scheduled for Saturday at 16:00 .

Date	Matches
Thunderpick World Championship 2023
04/11/2023	Cloud9 16:00 FaZe	Match

The veto was identical to their match in Australia as MOUZ went for a Vertigo pick and secured a dominant 13-5 victory on the map this time around, as FaZe's struggles were visible straight out of the gates. They had played the map just twice in the last six months, both times against MOUZ, and struggled on the CT side. It took the karrigan-led team seven rounds of play to get on the board, and they were 2-10 down as the sides switched.

Things didn't improve much for FaZe on their offense as they petered out in a 13-5 loss and were unable to handle David "⁠frozen⁠" Čerňanský's 1.85-rated performance.

Nuke was a chance for FaZe to reset, and they did just that with a hot 7-0 start on their offensive side. The ending of the first half was an increasingly scrappy affair that ended 9-3 in favor of FaZe as they moved on to the favored CT side.

karrigan and company started slowly on their defense and allowed MOUZ to get within two rounds but won a half-buy at 9-7 to edge away from MOUZ. That round gave them the upper hand in the economy game and meant they closed out a 13-8 win and moved the series to Ancient.

The decider was one-way traffic for FaZe. karrigan started proceedings with a crisp triple-kill in the pistol round, and his teammates were quick to join the Dane in the fragging department. Their firepower put FaZe into the driver's seat after an 8-4 lead at halftime, and the second half continued to be in their favor. They didn't allow the many tech pauses to disrupt their momentum and comfortably secured a semi-final spot after a swift 13-4 victory on Ancient.