SAW fairytale continues by eliminating FaZe in LANXESS thriller

MUTiRiS and company are into the semi-finals after a historic show of resilience against arena specialists FaZe.

SAW's Cinderella IEM Cologne campaign shows no signs of stopping after the Portugese squad toppled FaZe in the LANXESS Arena.

A hot start on Inferno gave them a 13-6 win and 1-0 lead, but SAW had to survive heartbreak on both Anubis (where they came back from 10-4 to 11-11, only to lose 11-13) and Nuke, where they fumbled a 12-8 lead before rallying in overtime to complete the upset.

Next in their warpath is Vitality, in a semi-final slated for 15:45 on August 17.

Date	Matches
IEM Cologne 2024
17/08/2024	Vitality 15:45 SAW	Match

Young guns Michel "⁠ewjerkz⁠" Pinto, Rafael "⁠arrozdoce⁠" Wing, and João "⁠story⁠" Vieira delivered in spades as they faced the pressure of appearing in one of Counter-Strike's most iconic stadia and emerged unscathed.

The plaudits, however, have to go to in-game leader Christopher "⁠MUTiRiS⁠" Fernandes, who won a game-changing 1v4 and made the calls required on T side in Nuke's overtime to get SAW over the line.

In partnership with new coach Danny "⁠BERRY⁠" Krüger, the SAW playbook has come on leaps and bounds and gave the team the confidence to take FaZe on head on for their third huge upset in Germany.

"This is the greatest achievement I've ever had," Ricardo "⁠roman⁠" Oliveira told Oliver "⁠OJ Borg⁠" D'Anastasi on stage. "This is better than being at the Major, this is another level."

FaZe, meanwhile, have only themselves to blame after leaving themselves too much to do down the stretch.

The clutch factor they so often rely on in arenas was sometimes present, such as in a Helvijs "⁠broky⁠" Saukants and David "⁠frozen⁠" Čerňanský 2v4 on Anubis, but it was not enough against a SAW team that had the edge in the early round.

An example of that is this round on Inferno, where ewjerkz showed no respect to FaZe or fear to the crowd with a crucial quad kill.

Even then, SAW could not have upset the odds in such stunning fashion without an uncharacteristic collapse from broky, who missed shots you would usually put your house on the Latviaan to hit on multiple occasions.

It would be wrong to say that SAW did not feel the pressure, though. Down 10-4 after losing both pistols on their pick of Anubis, SAW put together a stunning T side comeback to get the game to 11-11.

Map and series point was all but secured as SAW got themselves into a 3v2 post-plant on A, but disaster struck when MUTiRiS' Camera smoke missed and Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen and Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard successfully defused the bomb.

Clip: MUTiRiS' missed smoke proves costly in the 3v2

A frozen 1v2 clutch at 12-11 secured the map for FaZe, and it looked like it was going to be the same old tale of a FaZe arena game: Close rounds, all the rounds, but ending in a beaming karrigan taking in the adoration of the thousands of fans.

MUTiRiS had other ideas. Nuke was nip-and-tuck, until the first gun-round of the second half at 7-7 when SAW's in-game leader — the man who had missed the crucial smoke on Anubis — was left in a 1v4 and somehow came out victorious.

Clip: MUTiRiS comes up huge with a 1v4 clutch

He then doubled down with a fast A rush, winning one round off his aim and the second off his brain. A 12-8 lead was secured, four series points for SAW.

But again, the pressure took its toll. Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool, enjoying an impactful series in the absence of frozen and broky, put a nail in the SAW coffin with a triple spraydown on Ramp as FaZe secured overtime.

Clip: ropz secures overtime with a triple spraydown

SAW then had to rally again, but rally they did. Two T rounds were secured to make it 14-12, leaving FaZe having to come back once again, but at 15-14, SAW's sixth match point, the Portugese squad converted a fitting MUTiRiS double-kill to march on to the semi-finals.