Sangal upset FaZe in EPL opener

karrigan's men got demolished at the start of the series and couldn't recover.

Sangal have scored a huge upset victory over FaZe in their opening match of ESL Pro League Season 20, casting Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen's side down to the lower bracket of Group A after securing victories on Anubis (13-2) and Nuke (13-11) either side of a defeat on Ancient (11-13).

The result is the latest blow to a downtrodden run from FaZe, who have struggled for consistency and to return to world-beating form, repeatedly getting cut down short of making the title decider at recent Big Events.

A run to the playoffs at IEM Cologne, where karrigan revealed he had started to micro-manage the team once again, offered some hopeful signs in the team turning their form around. However, a loss to stage rookies SAW in the quarter-finals immediately soured that result and created more questions.

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Sangal, meanwhile, has been in a purple patch of form, breaking into the top 30 of HLTV's world rankings after securing online titles in RES Regional Series 4 Europe, CCT Season 2 Series 6 and 7, and qualifying for Pro League by winning ESL Challenger League Season 47.

The team also advanced to the Perfect World Shanghai Major Europe RMR with a flawless 3-0 record in the closed qualifier and had a 12-series winstreak going in August, and overall have a 17-3 record in best-of-threes since returning from the tournament break.

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"We all felt that we could win this game," Linus "⁠LNZ⁠" Holtäng said on the broadcast after the match. "We knew it wasn't going to be easy, but we've shown some pretty good results online. We have a really good system of how we do things and Jumpy has a lot of experience, helping us coming into this game.

"We were just super confident coming in, we knew we could win, but we also had nothing to lose. Like who the fuck is picking Sangal to win against FaZe?"

Clip: Sangal win a crucial force-buy at the end of Nuke

Samet "⁠jottAAA⁠" Köklü, playing at his first tier-one LAN, stole the show for his side, ending the series with a 1.38 rating, 57-34 K-D, and 1.52 impact rating while helping to power a comeback on the Nuke decider.

The 22-year-old Turk played for Eternal Fire Academy before joining Sangal to link up with former Eternal Fire member Yasin "⁠xfl0ud⁠" Koç, and with the upset over FaZe, the pair have earned a chance to prove their worth against their former organization in the upper bracket semi-finals.

"Right now, we knew we can face against tier-one teams," xfl0ud added in the post-match segment. "Tomorrow, we're going to play Eternal Fire. It's going to be a rough game for us and it's going to be a very important game for jottAAA and me because it is maybe one of our dreams to win against them, so we're going to put everything for that game."

Date	Matches
ESL Pro League Season 20
04/09/2024	Eternal Fire 16:30 Sangal	Match

They weren't underestimated by FaZe coming into the series as karrigan acknowledged Sangal's online form and admitted it would be a difficult match, but the sheer dominance with which LNZ's side arrived on the server still came as a surprise.

Sangal walloped FaZe 13-2 on Anubis in a statement win to start the series, but couldn't close it in two after losing both pistols on Ancient despite briefly taking the lead, 11-10, at the end of the map.

They lost both pistols on the Nuke decider, too, with the loss in the second half seemingly spelling their doom as they were down 4-9, but turned the game around off of a force-buy. Excellent setups and well -timed re-aggression, combined with a 1.99-rated CT effort from jottAAA, powered the team to a comeback and allowed them to upset FaZe, 13-11, to steal the series.