FaZe lift ELEAGUE Invitational trophy after comeback victory over Cloud9
Things quickly fell apart for the European team on Mirage, the opening map of the series, as they found themselves on the back foot early on, losing the pistol round following a quad-kill by William "RUSH" Wierzba in an A retake. Their woes continued even when the game reached the gun rounds as they were unable to break through a brick wall defence and kept losing all duels, with Nikola "NiKo" Kovač and Håvard "rain"Nygaard both sitting on zero frags seven rounds in.
After a much-needed tactical pause, FaZe finally got something going thanks to a quad-kill from rain, but there was no follow-up as Cloud9 hit back immediately. The North American side remained in the driving seat until switching sides, with FaZeending the half with just one bomb plant - in the very first round of the game.
Down 1-14, FaZe gave a strong response, losing just one player in the pistol round, but their recovery was short-lived. A successful B split in the third round put Cloud9 on map point - an opportunity that the home side would not let go to waste.
FaZe came out on Inferno a different side, jumping out to a 6-1 lead with a very strong defence. Fabien "kioShiMa" Fiey then went huge with a 1v3 clutch inside A, but that round win was immediately traded back by the European team.
A scrappy period of play ensued as Cloud9 responded on a very weak buy, breaking the economy of FaZe, who rallied back on a full eco with a mid stack thanks to three quick p250 kills by rain. The European side kept a very tight defence after that, rallying to a dominant 11-4 lead.
Now playing on the Terrorist side, FaZe further added to their lead as they won the pistol round off the back of a 1v2 clutch by NiKo. Cloud9 responded immediately, though, and went on a massive run, bringing the deficit to a solitary round.
FaZe were unwilling to let the game spiral out of control and picked up the pace, eventually hitting map point thanks to a sensational round by Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer, who picked up three AWP kills on 1 hp. Cloud9 still attempted a response, but just when FaZe's fans were having flashbacks of last year's Boston Major final, the European team locked down the map with nothing but pistols.
Carrying their momentum into the decider map, Train, FaZejumped out to a 2-0 lead on the Terrorist side after winning the pistol round with an A execute. Cloud9 replied with a successful buy and followed that up with another round, restoring parity at 2-2.
And then the Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács show began. The Slovakian star brought Cloud9's streak to an end with a quad-kill in an eco round before pulling off a 1v4 clutch to complete an ace. FaZe used that momentum to run all over the home side's defence and cruised to an 11-4 lead, with GuardiaNending the half with 20 kills.
Things then went from bad to worse for Cloud9, who lost the opening three rounds of the second half. Still, they refused to throw in the towel and got their first round on the board thanks to a 1v2 clutch by Robin "flusha" Rönnquist. The Swedish player tried to inspire his team to make a miraculous comeback, similar to fnatic's in last year's IEM Katowice final, but Cloud9's resistance came to an end in the 25th round following another great round by GuardiaN, who racked up 34 kills on this map.
