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Welcome to LANs – FaZe Clan Eliminate Gambit at IEM XVI Cologne

Some of the top CS:GO analysts had seen this coming. It’s one thing to win an online tournament and... Radu M. | 17. July 2021

Some of the top CS:GO analysts had seen this coming. It’s one thing to win an online tournament and it’s a completely different thing to win a LAN event. The superior experience that veterans bring with them and the pressure that big competitions put on players can change the performance of a team dramatically. And the Quarterfinals of IEM XVI Cologne have clearly proved it.

IEM XVI Cologne Playoffs Partial Results

The Playoffs Stage of Intel Extreme Masters XVI Cologne started with two strong matches. Not that long ago, the teams that won would have been expected to win with ease. But this time they were the underdogs, against two highly successful CIS competitors that got a lot of excellent results in online tournaments over the past year and a half.

Virtus.pro versus Astralis

Without dev1ce, Astralis entered this tournament with low expectations. Given the sheer number of world-class opponents they were going to face, making it to the Playoffs looked impossible. But in spite of that, the Danes surprised everyone and played much better than they had hoped. In the process they defeated FaZe Clan and Heroic, and then lost to Na’Vi in the battle for the number 1 spot in Group B.

Virtus.pro finished the Group Stage in 3rd place (Group A), where they dropped to the Lower Bracket after the first match (against BIG) but then won 3 consecutive matches to qualify for the Playoffs. Their opponents were Complexity, NiP, and BIG.

The match between Astralis and VP started well for the Danes, who looked weak at first but ended up winning the first map in the overtime. Then came the second map, where they came close to winning again. But this time, VP managed to triumph in the overtime but only after 2 series. The third map was a stomp. Astralis used to be nearly unbeatable on Inferno and it seems that in this match they managed to use some of their old strategies to perfection. The final score was 2 – 1.

 Gambit versus FaZe Clan

Gambit was regarded by everyone as the clear favorite. After all, they were the number 1 team in the world while FaZe was ranked 17th! But some analysts knew that with karrigan, RobbaN, and olofmeister back on the team, FaZe was not going to be that easy to beat. In the Group Stage, the squad had defeated Spirit, Vitality, and Heroic. These victories were already a sign that FaZe was much stronger than what their global rank indicated.

At the same time, Gambit had struggled against mousesports and NiP in the Group Stage. After that they lost against G2.

The first map, picked by FaZe, was Ancient. And the match looked like it was going to end in two quick games. By half-time, Gambit was leading 11 – 4. But then the impossible happened. Karrigan and his crew turned it around and won the second half with a score of 11 – 2.

The second map, Overpass, was close from start to finish and needed overtime. In the end, Gambit won (22 – 20). But on the third map, Inferno, olofmeister and the rest of his crew proved much harder to beat than Gambit had assumed. The final score was 9 – 16 in favor of FaZe. A rather shocking result, but that’s what happens when you put online champions to compete against LAN champions.

 

Photo credit: IEM|Helena-Kristiansson