FaZe, FURIA Advance In Lower Bracket Of IEM Cologne; Spirit, Renegades Sent Packing

With their tournament lives on the line, FaZe clashed with Spirit and managed a 2-1 victory, faltering on Overpass after a good start, but recovering on Inferno and closing things out on Vertigo, a map neither teams played in over a year.

“We have been practicing it [Vertigo] a lot,” Helvijs “⁠broky⁠” Saukants admitted in the post-match interview. “Most of the [practice] days, we had one Vertigo at least.” After their win, FaZe need two more victories in the lower bracket to secure a playoff spot, with their next opponent the loser of Vitality – Natus Vincere.

On the second stream, FURIA ended Renegades run in Cologne with a 2-0 scoreline. The Australian underdogs ranked No. 50 in the world put up a fight against Andrei “⁠arT⁠” Piovezan‘s team, but will have to satisfy themselves with 13-16th finish after making it through the Play-In.

karrigan pushed FaZe across the finish line with a solid Vertigo T side

A Deagle force-buy and a quad kill hold from broky (2v4) set up FaZe for a strong, 6-1 lead early into Overpass. A worrisome start didn’t dissuade the CIS representatives, though, as they fired up to finish the half ahead (8-7). With Abdul “⁠degster⁠” Gasanov reaching peak performance, Spirit closed out their map pick 16-11.

Inferno offered twists and turns as FaZe dominated the first half, losing the pistol but winning 11 rounds in a row. Spirit bounced back into the game on the offense, Viktor “⁠sdy⁠” Orudzhev‘s 1v4 proving crucial, but fell at the final hurdle as FaZe forced the decider. Vertigo, the map both sides haven’t played in an official for over a year, offered some chaotic Counter-Strike, but FaZe took the lead early and kept it throughout to secure the victory.

FURIA and Renegades traded blows on Inferno, each team streaking a handful of rounds together to see the Brazilian side finish the half ahead, 9-6. Joshua “⁠INS⁠” Potter and co. won the pistol and were looking to get back into it on the defense before Yuri “⁠yuurih⁠” Santos stepped up to steal away the force and secure the followup for his team.

Renegades failed to recover from the early blow and despite Simon “⁠Sico⁠” Williams‘s heroics went down 16-11 on their map pick, with Nuke continuing in a similar fashion. Renegades attempted a second-half comeback after FURIA earned 9 rounds as T, but were unable to overpower an inspired Kaike “⁠KSCERATO⁠” Cerato (30K-19D on Nuke).