FaZe defeat BIG for first LAN win with EliGE

The international team got off to a winning start in Poland after a close three-map affair.

FaZe are through to Group A's upper semi-finals in IEM Katowice's Stage 2 after a 2-1 victory over BIG. It was the team's first LAN win since signing Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski, who had a fine performance on Ancient but seemed to cool off as the series went on.

The German team bounced back from the loss on their map pick with a strong showing on Mirage, where Marcel "⁠hyped⁠" Köhn once again produced moments of magic. But in the end, FaZe drew on their big-game experience to run out victors in the series and set up a clash with Vitality in the next round, where a playoff spot will be on the line.

Date	Matches
IEM Katowice 2025
02/02/2025	Vitality 19:10 FaZe	Match
02/02/2025	3DMAX 20:25 BIG	Match

rain produces vintage performance

Heading into the series, the biggest talking point was how EliGE would perform on his LAN debut for FaZe. But as the match came to an end, Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard was the name on everyone's lips.

The Norwegian veteran stole the show with a 1.94-rated performance on the decider map of Nuke to pull his team over the line. He struck a blow to BIG's comeback hopes late in the secod half with an ace, just one round after David "⁠frozen⁠" Čerňanský had pulled off a spectacular 4K with a hero M4A1.

Those were the sort of rounds that showed why FaZe are one of the deadliest teams in the world in close games. It was not a clean performance by any means, but they got the job done in the end.

"We lost a map so it was a little bit sweaty," head coach Filip "⁠NEO⁠" Kubski said after the match. "BIG are playing really nice CS here, so we knew it wasn't going to be easy."

BIG continue to show positive signs

Despite the immediate pain of the defeat, BIG can take plenty of positives from this series. The Germans looked extremely solid during the first two maps and could have won the series 2-0 if they didn't stumble in the final stages of Ancient, when they lost an anti-force and two 5v3 situations.

hyped, the highest-rated player of the Play-In stage, was in fine form on Ancient and Mirage, even on the T side, showing that he is the type of playmaking AWPer the team was looking for. He ended the first two maps with a 1.27 rating, a +13 K/D and 44 frags, ten more than his closest teammate.

He then looked extremely uncomfortable and mistake-prone on the CT side of Nuke. He briefly made his impact felt on the T side with consecutive double kills, but a comeback would not come to fruition. Still, it was a positive showing overall from the German side, who will fight for their tournament life against 3DMAX.