FaZe defeated Spirit in the first semi-final match to earn a PGL Major Antwerp Grand Final seat, demonstrating their skill on two maps by claiming an incredibly contested Mirage 16-13 and a triple-overtime Dust2 25-23.
Despite being ousted from the Major at this point, Spirit’s journey was nothing short of miraculous, demonstrating that the competition’s youngest squad, captained by Leonid “chopper” Vishnyakov, can compete with the greatest and most experienced players in the world.
First Map: Mirage
Spirit took the pistol round following a solid B apartments hold from Robert “Patsi” Isyanov and Pavel “s1ren” Ogloblin on the first map of the series, Mirage. FaZe was able to pull away from their Russian opponents by carefully executing their site assaults, complemented by multi-kills courtesy of Hvard “rain” Nygaard and Robin “ropz” Kool, to take a 7-3 lead. Spirit was able to end their opponents’ run in the 11th round, but FaZe immediately rebounded, losing only one more round in the first half to go into the halftime break ahead 10-5. Patsi’s quad-kill in the pistol round kicked off the second period, and Spirit went on to win the next two rounds, taking advantage of their opponents’ financial difficulties to cut the deficit to 8-10. After that, the two teams went on three-round sprees, with FaZe winning 13-11.
The next rounds were as close as possible, with Finn “karrigan” Andersen grabbing a 1vs3 for his side and Abdul “degster” Gasanov denying FaZe map point with their own 1vs2. Both teams pushed each other to the limit, with FaZe just beating Spirit and Mirage in the 29th round when ropz denied s1ren what would have been a game-winning ace.
Second Map: Dust II
FaZe got off to a fast start on Dust2, taking a 4-1 lead because to strong area control and nine and eight kills from broky and rain, respectively. As the two teams traded blows, what appeared to be another round on the board for FaZe in the 12th turned into a successful 2vs4 and ace clutch for Boris “magixx” Vorobiev, providing Spirit the push they needed to come up to karrigan’s side. Even while the Russians finally closed the gap to one, FaZe finished the first half strong by winning the final three rounds, leading 9-6 after 15. Following the break, both Spirit and FaZe swapped scoring runs until the Russians took six in a row and were able to tie the game, grabbing their first lead of the map just a round later, as chopper’s side was now in the driver’s seat, owning a 13-12 advantage. FaZe knew it was all or nothing after a successful Spirit recapture on the A site, which handed the Russians map point with two rounds to play, and switched on at the very last second, denying their opponents the win in regulation and forcing overtime.
With three overtimes, multiple heartbreaking moments, and countless incredible clutches from both sides, it’s FaZe who eventually seal Dust2 25-23, and the semi-final series to book their place in the Major Grand Finals.
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