FaZe pass Virtus.pro in a nail-biter to secure IEM Dallas playoffs spot

electroNic's masterful series performance wasn't enough to edge out the resilient FaZe, who recovered from being a round away from losing the series in two maps.

FaZe became the fourth team to secure a post in the IEM Dallas playoffs following a hard-fought win over Virtus.pro in the Group B upper bracket semi-finals.

Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen's men came back in true FaZe fashion, being a round away from losing the match in two maps only to secure the second, Inferno, in overtime, and the Ancient decider 13-11.

The Inferno victory came after FaZe nearly threw away an 11-4 lead. They lived and died by David "⁠frozen⁠" Čerňanský's sword, which first allowed them to rack up the huge lead as he dominated on banana along with karrigan, but then disappeared along with the rest of the team up against Virtus.pro's stern defense.

The tide turned again once frozen turned up in the last round with a solo triple in a charge up banana to B, and FaZe went on to lock the game down in overtime despite a prolonged tech pause caused by a routine Steam maintenance putting a damper on their momentum.

Ancient went back and forth with Virtus.pro recovering from a couple of losses to low buys and getting away with an 8-4 half on the T side, only to falter once on the defense to some great calls - and plays - from karrigan.

The captain's quad-kill in round 15 allowed FaZe to recover from the deficit and his spot-on calls for rotations late in the game closed it despite Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov's best efforts to turn the match back in VP's favor.

Virtus.pro now head down to the lower bracket, where they will face off against BIG for survival and require two wins in a row to make it to playoffs. Meanwhile, FaZe will face Spirit in the seeding game for semi-finals in their first encounter since their blockbuster quarter-final series at PGL Major Copenhagen.