RESULTS: FaZe Clan Secure Spot in Grand Final With Win Over Astralis

FaZe Clan earned their spot in today's semifinal by defeating Cloud9 2-1 in the quarterfinals. Astralis clinched their spot in the top four with a 2-1 victory over Team Liquid in the upper bracket finals. With a spot in tomorrow's grand final match and the grand prize of $250,000 at stake, both teams were looking to show why they will be crowned champions in a rematch of the two grand finalists from IEM Katowice 2017. Here is a short breakdown of how the match went. 

Cache was the first map of the match, and saw  both teams coming out throwing everything they had at each other. FaZe would play a strong counter terrorist side in the first half to take a 9-6 lead. The terrorist side would be no different for the talented roster of FaZe, as they would secure a 7-4 advantage in the second half. This would result in the 16-10 win for FaZe and would give them a 1-0 lead in the match. Every member of FaZe contributed a positive kill to death ratio on the map with Ladislav "GuardiaN"  Kovács leading the way. The AWP player would collect 22 kills, 86.3 average damage per round and an 1.43 overall rating.

Overpass would be the following map and saw FaZe continue their excellent play, as they would secure a 9-1 lead through the first 10 rounds. Not wanting to be blown out in a semifinal match, Astralis would stage a comeback that would see them win the last five rounds of the first half. This would cut FaZe's lead to 9-6. Astralis would win the pistol round to begin the second half to cut the lead to 9-7 and gain an early economic advantage. This gave Astralis an avenue to string some rounds together to tie the match at 9-9, but FaZe would not make it easy, as they would almost secure the 18th round by only utilizing Glocks. It would be all FaZe from that point, as the runner up of last year's tournament would win seven of the last eight rounds to secure the 16-10 victory on Overpass. Håvard "Rain" Nygaard would be the difference maker for FaZe on Overpass, as he would collect 46 kills, 92.9 average damage per round and an overall rating of 1.42.

With the win, FaZe will now be moving on to tomorrow's IEM Katowice 2018 Grand Final. They will be facing the winner of the Team Liquid and Fnatic semifinal match. 

Interested in more esports coverage? Check out our recap of the Dallas Fuel and Los Angeles Valiant match from last night's Overwatch League action.

(cover photo courtesy of FaZe Clan)