Heroic Spoil Kjaerbye's FaZe Debut In ESL One Cologne

Heroic entered their ESL One Cologne opener against FaZe in red-hot form after a confident showing at DreamHack Open Summer Europe last week in which the Danes secured a second-place finish, while Nikola “⁠NiKo⁠” Kovač‘s men looked to get off to a dream start with the recent addition of Markus “⁠Kjaerbye⁠” Kjærbye to the roster.

Heroic came out of the gates hot on their map pick of Nuke with a regimented T side to blaze to a 5-0 start, fronted by an on-point René “⁠TeSeS⁠” Madsen. FaZe posted two sporadic rounds off the back of multi-kills from Kjaerbye and Helvijs “⁠broky⁠” Saukants, but the Danes kept their foot on the gas for an 8-2 lead. However, back-to-back clutches from the aforementioned FaZe duo proved crucial for the international squad, who went on to turn the tide of the half and salvage a 7-8 scoreline after what was looking like a halftime trouncing.

The FaZe debutant’s impact didn’t falter into the second half as a crisp 1v2 pistol clutch put his team on the right path to kick off their offence with a three-round streak and a 10-8 advantage. The narrow lead didn’t last for long, though, as a triple kill from Martin “⁠stavn⁠” Lund threw a wrench in the works for FaZe, whose T side game plan crumbled and enabled Heroic to take control. Numerous opening kills from Nikolaj “⁠niko⁠” Kristensen put the Danes on the front foot for the remainder of the map as Casper “⁠cadiaN⁠” Møller’s squad dominantly picked up the eight rounds needed to lock down Nuke at 16-10.

b0RUP and cadiaN ran riot on Mirage

A NiKo Glock triple kill opened up FaZe’s Mirage offence brightly and two additional rounds swiftly followed. Despite a quiet Nuke performance from cadiaN, the Heroic in-game leader came alive in the ensuing rounds to lead his team to a commanding seven-round run. FaZe picked up three of the four subsequent rounds, which included a broky 1v2 clutch, but it was Heroic who came out on top 9-6 at the break.

Johannes “⁠b0RUP⁠” Borup secured a trio of kills on an A site push on the second pistol to kick proceedings off, and although FaZe responded with a successful force buy to keep on the Danes’ heels, Heroic hit straight back to stay in front. NiKo and company won a solitary round moving forward before a phenomenal AWP collateral kill at the hands of TeSeS took out a defender and the diffuser to put his team up 13-8. Heroic’s fast-paced hits could not be contained by FaZe as the Danes stormed to a 16-9 victory, with b0RUP concluding Mirage with a map-high 1.60 rating.