FaZe beat Astralis to make eighth consecutive grand final

The European combine has put an end to Astralis' honeymoon tournament.

FaZe have defeated Astralis in the IEM Chengdu semi-final with a 2-1 scoreline (Nuke 13-10, Ancient 5-13, Inferno 13-7).

"It felt strange finishing off the match without excitement," Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen joked in a post-match interview. "I told the guys that you can't play as fast on Inferno as on Ancient, so that suits us better. But we didn't know how they would approach Banana, and that's all you do as a B player."

The match was a rematch of their group-stage bout, where Astralis demolished karrigan and company in a two-map series, but the European combine once again came alive in an arena setting and leveled up their play.

This is now FaZe's eighth consecutive grand final appearance, as they reached the final in every CS2 tournament they have played and won three of them. They have however lost the last four, and are now looking to break the streak against MOUZ, who are their opponents this time around.

Date	Matches
IEM Chengdu 2024
14/04/2024	MOUZ 12:35 FaZe	Match

FaZe mirrored their map pick from their group-stage bout and decided to go for Nuke in the series. They started steady and found themselves 2-4 down early before a round win off the back of Helvijs "⁠broky⁠" Saukants's hero AK-47 gave them a lifeline, which they converted to a 7-5 lead at the switch. Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool and broky were the driving force in the first half as they combined for 22 kills, with the rest of FaZe putting up just 13.

FaZe won the pistol to start the second half before Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz called a solid comeback attempt that culminated in the Danes tying up the scores at nine apiece. That was as good as it got for Astralis, however, as FaZe stabilized and won four out of the last five rounds to close out a 13-10 victory.

Ancient began with a quick 4-0 lead for FaZe, but the karrigan-led team completely lost the plot after that. Alexander "⁠br0⁠" Bro won a crucial 1vs4 early on to get his team a round, and the Danes took that momentum all the way to a 7-5 half. The CT side was a breeze for Astralis, too, as they won six straight rounds to secure Ancient with a dominant 13-5 scoreline.

Inferno began as a brawly affair early on, but FaZe seized control in the latter portion of the half. broky's three kills on the full eco proved pivotal in keeping Astralis' economy under control, which helped FaZe secure a two-round lead into the second half.

FaZe's pistol-round victory put them in the driver's seat for the match, but they ran out of time for a bomb plant after a last-second rotation. device suffered a PC crash in the following round, however, and the round broke Astralis, who eventually dropped the map 7-13 and bowed out in the semi-final stage.

"It wasn't good enough from us today, but they were the better team today," said device. "It's a learning process for me. We wanted more and felt we could have gotten more, but it wasn't to be."