The FaZe Clan shoots its way back to the top of the Counter-Strike world. With clever moves, the triumph at the IEM Katowice 2022 succeeds.
Never before has a 3-0 victory been so close as the one in the final of the IEM Katowice 2022. The FaZe Clan and G2 Esports gave CS:GO fans a memorable Sunday evening. Due to the clever moves of ingame leader Finn “karrigan” Andersen, FaZe was the infamous tick better.
After 122 rounds and almost four hours, one of the most memorable CS:GO finals has come to an end. With nerve-racking moves, both teams brought the LAN event to a conclusion worth seeing. Especially with cunning manoeuvres, the FaZe Clan secured the important rounds. Right on the first map, Inferno, the mixed team fought their way back from a 2:11 deficit and outplayed their opponents.
As an in-game leader (IGL), karrigan led the opponent by the nose at times. It is not for nothing that the Danish veteran is one of the masterminds who set the decisive tone several times in overtime. Significant was his perfect move at 17:15 on Inferno. Out of defence, he poked over the banana into the map centre to catch the G2 offence on the wrong foot and cripple them in seconds.
Because karrigan read his opponents like an open book at times, FaZe turned the game around and secured the map win. The same applied to the second map Mirage, which was only decided after five nerve-racking overtimes. Very often karrigan positioned his teammates in the right places and told them what to do.
In addition, he himself remained goal-oriented – like at 23:24, when IGL surprised the opponent in the Ladder Room. He landed a frag and injured the two remaining players. These in turn fell victim shortly afterwards to tournament MVP Helvijs “broky” Saukants, who benefited from karrigan’s information. Numerous 200-IQ plays, as ingenious moves are fondly referred to in the community, left G2 Esports desperate at key moments.
Despite the world-class performance of 16-year-old prodigy Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov, G2 Esports was unable to match their opponent’s better strategy. Meanwhile, G2 star player Nikola “NiKo” Kovač had an off day, who actually had enough freedom but was often held up by karrigan. Among other things, the Bosnian speculated on the second map with a failed flash grenade and missed two supposedly easy AWP shots. On the decisive map Dust 2, too, it was IGL who sealed the A-spot with his right calls. Significantly, at 13:13, the Dane sneaked up to the spawn of G2, retreated and reported the other opponents in the middle to his colleagues.
FaZe Clan end dry spell with stand-in
FaZe even had to do without their longest-serving player Håvard “rain” Nygaard at short notice. Justin “jks” Savage stepped into the breach for the Norwegian. And he delivered like all the other FaZe members even in the greatest pressure situations. So the team won the tournament with a stand-in.
The two IEM titles that @FaZeClan have won were both with stand-ins:IEM Sydney 2018 with Xizt🏆IEM Katowice 2022 with jks 🏆
New Meta? pic.twitter.com/Q2xete7kFR
– ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) March 1, 2022
For FaZe Clan, it was their first major title win in a long time since their triumph at BLAST Pro Series: Miami 2019. Besides the individual class, which opponents G2 Esports undoubtedly possess, karrigan’s announcements often made the difference.
