After losing the second map in overtime, a struggling FaZe Clan managed to outlast paiN on the decider. The Brazilian team was sent home in last place.
After a succesfull start to CS2, FaZe Clan have only won one event thus far in 2024. They've barely even made any deep playoff runs since the summer break. But, they have at least survived a little longer in Rio.
FaZe Clan stay alive at IEM Rio!
Faze's struggles continued on the opening day of IEM Rio 2024. After losing to FURIA in their opening game, they dropped into the lower bracket.
.@FURIA start #IEM Rio 2024 with a WIN over @FaZeEsports on Dust 2, closing it out 13-7 pic.twitter.com/WH6EdtgpN5
— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) October 7, 2024
Their encounter versus paiN was for survival in the tournament. They got off to a near perfect start, stealing away paiNs map pick of Dust 2 13-9.
Give @ropz an AK and win the game #IEM pic.twitter.com/3ekDUfNIyW
— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) October 7, 2024
Their own pick of Mirage then perfectly summed up FaZe's 2024 so far. A lot of sloppy rounds, lots of mistakes. Uncharacteristic for a karrigan-lead team.
In the opening pistol round, they got completely deleted by João "snow" Vinicius:
.@Snowzincs annihilates FaZe in the pistol round #IEM pic.twitter.com/IYvn9jZ1F7
— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) October 7, 2024
paiN won the map in overtime,16-13, to set up a decider for elimination on Nuke.
It was a close affair. The crucial round occurred at 8-8, in favor of FaZe. They won the round with four unarmored pistols to break paiNs economy.
This set up a streak of five rounds straight to win 13-8.
FaZe not only take the series, but also survive over a potential early exit of the tournament.
WE'RE ALIVE pic.twitter.com/BToN9Tz5zm
— FaZe Esports (@FaZeEsports) October 7, 2024
This was possible thanks to an amazing performance, across all 3 maps, by Robin "ropz" Kool. The Estonian posted a total of 61 frags in the series.
FaZe have another difficult task ahead of themselves, facing Team Liguid later on today. Do you think FaZe will make the playoffs? Can they beat Liguid?