frozen powers FaZe past paiN at FISSURE Playground

The Slovakian rifler accrued an impressive 18-0 start on his team's map pick of Mirage.

FaZe are headed to the 1-0 pool of FISSURE Playground 2, quelling paiN 2-0 after fending off two comeback efforts by the Brazilian side. A crucial component in FaZe's victory were the efforts of David "⁠frozen⁠" Čerňanský, who secured an impressive 1.58 rating across the series, supported by Helvijs "⁠broky⁠" Saukants on Nuke and new addition Jakub "⁠jcobbb⁠" Pietruszewski on Mirage.

"I don't know, they just kept dying," frozen shared regarding his stellar Mirage performance. "Every time we did something, people on my screen were just dying. Hopefully there will be more games like this."

frozen also touched on jcobbb, who is now kicking off his second event with FaZe. In this series, the young Pole notched his highest-rated map since joining Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen's side after posting a 1.81 rating on Mirage, just shy of frozen's 1.91 rating.

"I think it's much better than just playing the online tournament and going straight to the arena. Maybe this will help him adjust a bit more, get used to LAN, and how he wants to do his routines. But he's doing great, honestly, he's a machine."

paiN's pick of Nuke kicked off the series, with FaZe quickly racking up an 8-4 lead on the defense thanks to broky and frozen's efforts despite missing out on the opening pistol round.

A second pistol round win for paiN gave Rodrigo "⁠biguzera⁠" Bittencourt's men the fuel they needed to tie up the game 8-8 before eventually eking out the lead with an 11-10 scoreline. Despite their efforts, paiN were unable to find the final two rounds they needed to secure their pick, as a narrowly lost 1v3 from Franco "⁠dgt⁠" Garcia allowed FaZe to snatch back control of the map, earning them a 13-11 win.

frozen was the star of the show throughout the first half of his team's pick of Mirage, snagging the first pistol round with a quad kill and a 1v2, culminating in a stunning 18-0 start to the map.

Despite frozen's impressive form, paiN rallied toward the latter stages of the half to finish with a manageable 5-7 deficit, tying things up with another pistol victory once on the T-side. paiN would not get much further, however, as jcobbb showcased an impressive CT-side, shutting the Brazilians out of Mid to help push FaZe to a 13-8 win and 2-0 series victory.