End of the road for Movistar Riders as FaZe Clan sweeps the Spanish side to enter the IEM Cologne Grand Finals. The defending major champions were finally able to put a stop to the cinderella run from Movistar.
Much like their amazing run at EPL Season 15, the Spaniards had shown excellent form ever since entering ESL Challenger Valencia and carried that through to Cologne. After solid victories over G2, Vitality, and Liquid the squad can go home with confidence that they made their mark on the biggest stage in the world.
FaZe, meanwhile, have one last hurdle to overcome. So far their run through the German event has been dominant. The international squad is still unbeaten at the event, but their next opponent is their toughest one so far. NaVi awaits them in the Grand Finals. The team dominated FaZe at their Lisbon battle, but FaZe has truly come alive at Cologne. With a Best-of-5 final, the match will be the decider for who is the real number one as the season comes to a close.
Map 1 – Ancient – Disastrous half for SunPayus
Throughout IEM Cologne, SunPayus has been the consistent force propelling Movistar Riders. But in their most difficult game, the AWPer went missing. The game started with karrigan and broky combining for a pistol-round win and an anti-eco conversion. Movistar answered back thanks to a solid 1v2 clutch from dav1g, taking the lead 3-2. But FaZe seized control of the half, rarely even losing three kills in a round. Even more bizarre was their inability to convert the rare advantages they had, including a 5v2 loss to Broky and ropz’s AWPs.
The only other round the Spanish side got was at the end of the half with a particularly disastrous showing from SunPayus who is usually a bedrock of consistency. The half switch led to a further lead from FaZe, with the team running up to a 14-4 lead. Finally, the Riders started getting some momentum, picking up seven in a row before FaZe clan reached match point. alex’s men looked poised to continue their run, but the Magician had other plans. Twistzz pulled out a miraculous 1v3 to put FaZe Clan over the finish line.
Map 2 – Nuke – Major MVP Strikes back to take FaZe to IEM Cologne Grand Finals
Over on Nuke, Movistar showed more poise early on. Starting with a 4-1 lead, the Spanish side kept up with FaZe throughout the first half, closing with a slight lead at 8-7. The second half however was pure dominance from FaZe as rain showed up back in his Major form to take down the Movistar Riders and book a spot for his team in the IEM Cologne Grand Finals.
With World Number 1 spot on the line, and history to be made on both sides, who will come out on top when FaZe takes on NaVi? Stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest CS: GO news and updates.
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