FaZe through to BLAST Fall Final semis, extend win streak to 17 matches

The IEM Sydney champions are enjoying the joint-third-longest win streak in CS:GO/CS2 history.

FaZe are the first team through to the semi-final stage of the BLAST Premier Fall Final after beating Cloud9 in a three-map series. The current world No.1 team in the world showed yet again incredible composure as they came back from a map down to win the series 2-1, surviving five match points on Anubis.

“I’m not going to lie, the vibe was kind of getting dead, and we were a bit sad that the streak was coming to an end," Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken said after the match. "And then, you know, it’s just FaZe. When you think it’s going to end, it’s not going to end. We just kept going."

With this victory, FaZe extend their win streak to 17 matches - the joint-third-longest in CS:GO/CS2 history. They will have the chance to beat 2018-19 Astralis' streak on Saturday if they win their playoff match at the Royal Arena.

A trio of frags by Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen in the pistol round fired FaZe into a 3-0 lead on the CT side of Mirage. Cloud9 began to punch holes in FaZe’s defense once they had guns to work with, but it was only late in the half that they managed to string rounds together.

Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov and Ilya "⁠Perfecto⁠" Zalutskiy came up clutch in the second half in a 2v4 situation, but the back-and-forth nature of the first half continued during the early stages as neither team seemed capable of taking charge of the game. Another clutch by electroNic, this time in a 1v2 situation, then put Cloud9 in the driver’s seat, with the Russian team holding off a late comeback attempt by FaZe to secure a 13-11 victory.

The second map, Ancient, was a completely different story, as FaZe were in control from the start, punishing Cloud9’s leaky defense. The Russian team, perhaps lacking a strong AWPing presence, could not contain FaZe’s relentless attack as the first half ended with a lopsided 10-2 scoreline.

Helvijs "⁠broky⁠" Saukants piled more misery on Cloud9 with a 1v2 clutch in the following pistol round, effectively crushing their opponents’ comeback dreams before FaZe put the game to bed.

It all came down to Anubis, where Twistzz and Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard put FaZe in the lead with a B hold in the pistol round. Cloud9 enjoyed a brief lead once their economy was in order, but FaZe fought back in the closing stages to take a two-round lead before switching to the T side.

Cloud9 came back from the break at a higher pace and kept FaZe’s offense at bay for large portions of the half, eventually reaching match point at 12-10 off the back of a Kirill "⁠Boombl4⁠" Mikhailov ace. With no margin for error, Twistzz and Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool produced triple kills in the final rounds of regulation to send the game to overtime.

Cloud9 produced a flawless CT side to reach series point once again, but they were once again unable to put the match to rest. In true FaZe fashion, karrigan’s men picked themselves up and equalized the score before going on a 4-0 run to win the series.