FaZe hand new Team Liquid their first loss at IEM Cologne

FaZe Clan have handed Team Liquid their first loss of the season under Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken to start off the IEM Cologne group stage. With Robin “ropz” Kool feeling much more like his early CS2 self and TL falling barely short in back to back maps, this was an incredible series to kick off the event.

Here is the map veto for the series between Liquid and FaZe Clan at IEM Cologne. The NA side picked Mirage, while the EU combine went for Nuke.

Team Liquid’s pick of Mirage starts off the Group Stage for IEM Cologne, but it was all one way traffic for FaZe Clan at the start. karrigan’s side picked up 5 rounds straight off the pistol. The Canadian duo finally cracked open the FaZe defence in round 6 and 7. That came off of mid-conditioning that allowed them to isolate the sites. A 7-5 half, looked favorable for TL and the CT pistol only made that case stronger.

Twistzz and co. found themselves up 9-8 with solid CT holds against the weaker buys from FaZe. jks’ struggle felt like a neon “OPEN” sign on the A site for karrigan. The veteran IGL called a classic A set-piece and the flood gates opened for FaZe. A 4-round streak set them up on matchpoint, and despite being pushed to the limit, FaZe closed it out 13-11 despite ultimate being far and away the best player in the match.

FaZe’s pistol win started them off 0-2, but once guns were out Ultimate was at it again. The Polish player picked up back to back multi-kill rounds to tie the scoreline back up immediately. Round 6 saw rain find the opening frag against YEKINDAR, which allowed FaZe to roll into the B site. Even two frags from ultimate weren’t enough to turn that around.

Round 8 was a messy affair. YEKINDAR found rain in his lobby lurk, and the NAF-jks MP9s found impact on the B defense, but it wasn’t enough as broky’s AWP was posted up, allowing the Latvian lazer to snipe down two, and slash the defuser when his AWP didn’t work. That reset Liquid’s cash reserves and sent them into eco territory.

FaZe had a perfect A execute, but Twistzz was right there taking the duels and shutting them down. That now shifted the monetary pendulum towards TL, but FaZe still had saved guns to put up a fight in the final round of the half. 14 frags for ultimate, 10 for Twistzz and Liquid tied the game 6-6 at half time.

Pistol round saw TL take a ramp rush, but it left ultimate and jks in the 2v2. Luckily, jks found the path to the A site in a clutch against karrigan to take the pistol win. The two teams exchanged a couple of rounds, but FaZe now looked in control. Twistzz’s molotov quickly cut short the round, burning down his Canadian teammate, just as Liquid nearly had round 18 in their hands and NAF found himself in a 1v1. That was the final nail in the coffin as FaZe turned the heat up to lock in 11 rounds.

Three outside kills from rain left the new members of TL in a 2v4 that quickly turned into a 1v3 for jks. The Aussie took a four frags of his own, but fell just short of the ACE and FaZe took series point. Liquid found their way into the B site, and despite the round nearly going away from them, ultimate managed to win the round on time. the NA side however once again ended up on heartbreak street and FaZe pulled it across the line, 13-10.

Team Liquid will now face the loser of the Vitality-Furia series. That is likely to result in an Americas rematch, and Twistzz's side will hope to repeat their success. Meanwhile FaZe are off to a much better start than their recent results and will try to kick off a streak of success in their bid to become champions once more.

Featured Image via Helena Kristiansson and ESL

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