FaZe best Twistzz's Liquid to qualify for BLAST Spring Final

rain and karrigan led the charge to prevail in their first meeting against their former teammate.

FaZe have maintained their dominant record in BLAST Groups by securing their seventh successive direct qualification to the finals, emerging victorious from their first meeting against former teammate Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken's new Liquid lineup following wins on Nuke (13-11) and Mirage (13-9).

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FaZe beat GL to set up first clash with Twistzz

"I can't speak on behalf of Russel [Twistzz], but I think of course there's going to be a little bit of emotion," Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller said in a pre-match interview regarding the hunger coming into this game with it being their first true test and Twistzz's first match against his former team.

"But then again, what is the expectation, right? They changed one guy and we built an entire new team, so to compare the two of us at this stage, I think they have way higher chances of being prepared and being ready compared to us. It is a game that a lot of people are probably looking forward to, there is a lot of star power on both teams. We just want to create a good game of Counter-Strike."

The Americas side hadn't looked convincing in their opening game of the event, struggling against a Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets-less Spirit with two stand-ins, but dusted themselves off from that close shave with a resounding win over GamerLegion and showed signs of growth against FaZe here, despite the 0-2 loss. Liquid's lack of experience together and difficulty meshing styles remains evident, however, with the team still missing timings and their different reactions in crunch moments contributing heavily to a narrow loss on FaZe's Nuke pick.

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That was through no fault of Twistzz, though, who devasted his former teammates on the server round after round by single-handedly shutting down attacking attempts on the CT side or catching timings to flank into Heaven on the T side. His 28-16 K-D, 100.9 ADR, and 1.47 rating weren't enough to clinch Liquid victory in the end, however, with Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard firing on all cylinders on the opposite side of the server and proving key in bringing FaZe back from a 9-11 deficit to clinch victory, 13-11.

cadiaN's side fared much worse on their pick of Mirage as they were unable to consistently gain entry to bombsites in the first half and got simply outclassed once on the defense. Liquid getting both pistol wins and conversions served to make the game look closer than it actually was when in reality, Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen's multi-fragging and calling allowed his team to put together a phenomenal T side showing to clinch the win, 13-9.

FaZe can walk away from the game satisfied after fully recovering from their opening loss to GamerLegion and securing their spot in the BLAST Spring Final. Liquid, meanwhile, still have a chance to qualify through the Play-In stage, but have a difficult test ahead of them in the form of G2.

Date	Matches
BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2024
28/01/2024	G2 18:30 Liquid	Match