Can FaZe level up in the arena and stop Spirit?

The Copenhagen Major quarter-finals will witness a showdown worthy of a grand final.

Pre-tournament predictions for PGL Major Copenhagen had three teams named as the main favorites, and as it has turned out, two of them are set to battle it out in the top-eight stage and the third is placed on the same side of an incredibly stacked bracket.

The landscape has changed quite a lot during the last two stages of play. FaZe and Vitality have both shown less-than-convincing form during their games in Denmark so far, making Spirit the out-and-out favorites for the title.

The Russian squad has won 16 out of 17 matches since the start of the IEM Katowice Play-In, with their only loss coming against MOUZ in the European RMR. Their form at the Major was imperious, too, as they lost a combined nine rounds against Cloud9 and Imperial before their qualification match versus Natus Vincere, where they showed their first signs of weakness.

Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen and company were able to take the first map of the series, Nuke, in overtime, but Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets and company bounced back with wins on Ancient (13-9) and Mirage (13-7) to take the series and traverse the Elimination Stage with a 3-0 record.Natus Vincere had also been the only team to take a map off Leonid "⁠chopper⁠" Vishnyakov's troops during their run to the title at IEM Katowice, where no other team could touch the Russian squad.

An encouraging sign for Spirit is the players' form coming into the playoffs. While Katowice was the donk show, Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov has matched the young prodigy in their Major outings so far. Myroslav "⁠zont1x⁠" Plakhotia also kept up his high level by averaging a 1.20 rating, which puts him on the fringes of the top-ten highest-rated players and makes it incredibly hard to find a weakness firepower-wise.

On the other side of the server, FaZe needed to use all their strength even to make it to this stage. An opening loss versus HEROIC and a win against FURIA meant they ended day one in the 1-1 pool, and things continued to be far from convincing from there on.

Eternal Fire gave the Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen-led team an absolute beatdown on Overpass in a 13-1 win, and while the European combine bounced back with a win against Imperial, the series was far from convincing, and only against Complexity did FaZe look more like the team that has made it to every final in Counter-Strike 2.

Their individual form provides more questions than answers. Only Helvijs "⁠broky⁠" Saukants has shown numbers that could rival those of the Russian squad. Two FaZe members have finished the Elimination Stage in the red, one of them being Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard, who is still finding his feet in the new roles he received after David "⁠frozen⁠" Čerňanský's signing.

Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool, who has proven to be among the best players in CS2, is also yet to hit his top form after suffering from sickness during the tournament. The Estonian therefore has more to give in the Royal Arena, especially when his big-game prowess is taken into account.

The top-three player of 2023 averaged a 1.25 Big Match rating last year, which was a significant improvement on his average of 1.17 and the second-best overall, bested only by Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut’s 1.26.

Another massive advantage for Spirit comes in the veto. Their troubled Vertigo should get banned by FaZe, the European combine's permaban, giving the Russian squad an upper hand before the game even gets underway. karrigan has been known to throw a wrench in his opponent's plans before, however, and the Danish captain might decide to float Vertigo in the first phase of the veto or perhaps even pick it.

The previous clashes between the two teams also paint a bleak picture for FaZe. They only beat Spirit at the BLAST Spring Groups, where Oleg "⁠baz⁠" Kulynych and Sergey "⁠hally⁠" Shavaev stepped in for donk and Boris "⁠magixx⁠" Vorobiev, and the next two matches went the way of the Russian squad. Two one-sided victories at IEM Katowice, one being the best-of-five final, mean FaZe are yet to get a map off a full-strength Spirit in their five attempts so far.

Experience is one of the rare things going the way of karrigan and company. The European team boasts a Major title in addition to numerous other championships, with even their youngest member, frozen, earning the moniker of a "young veteran" during his tenure with MOUZ. Even when they aren't playing at their best, FaZe have the knack of turning games in their favor with the help of some "FaZe bullshit," which usually involves them turning 2vsX situations in their favor or winning with just pistols.

All these reasons compound in the bookies proclaiming this quarter-final as the most one-sided in the Copenhagen Major. While that may be true in theory, the Major playoffs are a different beast where everything can happen, and FaZe will no doubt come into the match fired up.

karrigan spoke to HLTV after his team made the playoffs and had some confident words for their upcoming test. "If you want to win the Major, we have to beat Spirit or MOUZ — why not take them out in the first game and take it from there? In the end, I don't care if I'm second or number eight in this Major, so why should it matter who we meet?"

Read more

karrigan: "I don't care if I'm second or eighth; why should it matter who we meet [first]?"

No matter which team will come out on top in the clash between the No. 1 and No. 2-ranked teams in the world, the victor could be in for an incredibly hard road to the title. If all favorites were to win their matches, the winner of this quarter-final would go on to face Vitality (No. 3 in the world rankings) and MOUZ (No. 4) in what would prove to be a Major title run for the ages.

Date	Matches
PGL CS2 Major Copenhagen 2024
28/03/2024	Spirit 19:55 FaZe	Match