FaZe to LANXESS after outrageous 1-11 comeback over Liquid

karrigan's side pulled off an almost-impossible recovery on the Mirage decider to reach the arena.

FaZe have secured the final spot in the playoffs of IEM Cologne after completing one of the greatest comebacks to date in Counter-Strike 2, recovering from 1-11 and 3-12 deficits on the Mirage decider to scrape past Liquid in the Group B lower bracket final.

Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen's side look revitalized in Cologne after a dismal few months of form, prompting questions about whether the German tournament was make-or-break for them.

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Is Cologne make or break for FaZe?

They edged past Liquid in their opener in a close two-map series before getting cast down to the lower bracket following a loss to Vitality, but have clawed back with wins over Falcons and a repeat victory over Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken's side, albeit in far closer fashion.

Date	Matches
IEM Cologne 2024
10/08/2024	FaZe Finished 2:0 Liquid	Match
12/08/2024	FaZe Finished 1:2 Vitality	Match
13/08/2024	Falcons Finished 0:2 FaZe	Match
13/08/2024	Liquid Finished 1:2 FaZe	Match

karrigan spoke to the desk after the game to discuss FaZe's level coming into Cologne and what this result means, with the captain revealing that he has started micro-managing again after throwing the book out because nothing was working.

"I told the guys five days before the event that we are going to play some extra hours and we are going to throw the structure out of the boat. The way we've been playing, people are not finding the gaps, we're not [winning] individually, don't understand the full philosophy, we're not playing off each other, so now I'm back to micro-managing like we have a stand-in.

"It's very hard to call like that, it's mentally draining and my level is going to drop, but it has been dropped for the past few months anyway so if I can call us home getting some decent T sides, I'll do everything for us to win. We could go the the whole way, or we could go out in groups."

Liquid chose to pick Inferno instead of Mirage in the rematch, but the decision didn't pay off with David "⁠frozen⁠" Čerňanský stamping his authority in Banana on both sides of the map and karrigan remaining a step ahead of Twistzz for much of the half. Two clutch rounds that Liquid failed to convert could've had a significant impact on the outcome, but FaZe ended up running away with the win, 13-9.

Nuke offered far more excitement as Liquid romped out to an early lead, only for FaZe to claw back at the end of the first half from 3-6 to 6-6. Liquid struggled to break past FaZe's CT defenses after the side swap, with frozen finding a multi-kill in all of FaZe's round wins in a throttling halt of attacks on Mini and Upper.

It looked over, then, when FaZe got a 5v3 in round 22 and had the perfect Ramp stack to counter an attack, but an absurd turnaround by Liquid flipped the round on its head and kept them in the game. That round acted as a rallying cry for Twistzz's troops as they seized firm control and powered through overtime to take the win, with Roland "⁠ultimate⁠" Tomkowiak topping the charts with 32 frags and monumental impact in the final ten rounds.

Clip: Liquid win ridiculous 3v5 to kickstart Nuke comeback

That momentum carried into Mirage, where Liquid looked completely unstoppable. Nothing could go right for FaZe, Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage won a 1v3 clutch with a sick spray transfer, and Liquid were a step ahead of FaZe in every single opening in a blowout 11-1 half.

Anyone would have said it was over there, and even more so after Liquid won the first gun round to reach series point, 12-3. Helvijs "⁠broky⁠" Saukants flipping off Liquid after FaZe won the pistol round showed FaZe were still in good spirits and it would have been funny to look back on after the game, yet it just didn't seem to end.

Liquid failed to seize control of bombsites even once after that, a masterclass defense of A by Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard and Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool providing no entry while Liquid's room in Middle went to waste as their splits were ripped apart in the late round.

Clip: rain & ropz shut down A despite 4v5

That ludicrous turnaround saw FaZe bring things all the way back to overtime, winning nine rounds straight with no margin for error, and there they crushed Liquid's final hopes to lock in a LANXESS Arena berth.

"This is the calmest the TeamSpeak has been for the past four or five months, when we are down 11-1, everything is so calm," karrigan said of the comeback after the series. "It kind of reminds me of the magic of 2022, we were just chilling, having fun, laughing it up and suddenly it's 12-11 like, 'Oops! We're back in town boys!'"