All eyes remained on s1mple at IEM Dallas 2025, as FaZe Clan’s tournament lives were on the line against BC.Game Esports.
FaZe Clan has been in a rough patch in 2025. However, with the acquisition of Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyljev until the end of The Blast Austin Major, they were hoping to finally make a return to their glory days. That said, Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) Dallas 2025 did not begin well for the team.
A loss to Team Liquid on Day 1 would see FaZe drop into the lower bracket. But a loss to BC.Game Esports would spell disaster for FaZe.
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S1mple begins to find his footing
During their match against Liquid, we saw some positives for FaZe. One of these was s1mple’s solo performance. Even with the loss, s1mple came out on top of the scoreboard for his team, second overall in the game.
In their series against BCG, this seemed to still be the case. Map 1 saw Mirage being the pick, and even with a shaky start, FaZe managed to make the comeback. It was s1mple that closed out a tight ending with a 4k in the final round.
While he was slightly behind Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski, s1mple seemed to be finding his way back into the game.
Map 2 would be Anubis, and it was almost completely dominated by FaZe. Managing only to claim a single round in the first half, BCG struggled to fight against the solo play tempo from their opponents. While s1mple was, once again, at the top of the scoreboard, every player was making their presence felt.
S1mple's dominance was on full display as he took over with the AWP once again. By the end of the second map, the player was way ahead of anyone else on his team.
Although showing promise on Mirage, BCG was outmatched on Anubis and eventually would be the first elimination of IEM Dallas. FaZe, on the back of the 2-0 win, would need to remain at their peak, with a tough lower bracket run awaiting them. It will be interesting to see if s1mple can continue to show peak performances throughout IEM Dallas 2025.
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