Flash bug possibly “helped” FURIA against FaZe

The first event of the Intel Grand Slam S5, the IEM Rio 2023, is already underway, and the teams are giving a great show of level on Brazilian soil. However, one of the most interesting matches we witnessed in the last few hours was FURIA vs. FaZe Clan, and, believe it or not, a bug may have “helped” FURIA in the match.

CS:GO is no stranger to bugs in the middle of games, whether occasionally or in official tournaments. However, when they happen in events at the highest competitive level and two great teams face each other, there is no doubt that it will generate a lot of buzz in the community.

Flash bug helps FURIA win the first round

The match was only seconds old, and we witnessed a flash bug that completely broke the game. While it is true that this moment was not captured in the official ESL broadcast, fans are always keeping an eye on everything. However, the one who posted the video of the bug was FURIA’s IGL, Andrei “arT” Piovezan.

As we can see in the video, a flash that certainly did not affect the FURIA players left arT, André “drop” Abreu and Yuri “yuurih” Boian, in a very advantageous position against the FaZe guys. When FaZe was about to make the retake in A on Mirage, they launched a flash that, without a doubt, did not blind any FURIA player, and they ended up annihilating their rivals.

arT pointed out that, although the player characters had the animation of being blind, i.e., they had a hand over their eyes, the players’ screen was not white. This means that FURIA players could see everything. In addition, arT noted that he went “deaf” in the game, but the screen did not even flash.

Did the flash determine the direction of the map?

The reality is that we will never know if this flash bug affected or changed the course of the game. However, having a few rounds of a disadvantage, as FaZe had on the CT side at the beginning of the match, is not what a team wants and even less in this kind of important tournament. Besides, these were only two kills, as the rest of FaZe players were on different sides of the map and could not complete the retake.

What could not be missing were the comments of other professional players and, in this opportunity, we have Robin “ropz” Kool, who was very puzzled by the bug.

This bug happened in the first map at the beginning of the series, and the players noticed it at the end of the match. Therefore, it is very likely that this bug was the cause of the defeat suffered by FaZe, with a score of 0-2. However, in both Mirage and Nuke (FaZe’s map pick), the Brazilians, as they have become accustomed to their fans and the rest of the teams, showed an unmatched T-side aggressiveness and managed to take two great victories to stay in the Upper Bracket of Group B.

There is no doubt that these mistakes are part of any online multiplayer game. However, this cannot happen in top-level matches because although it did not directly influence the result this time, it could happen in a decisive round in a grand final. Like everyone in the community, we hope that Valve takes action and detects and fixes the problem.

Header: ESL