FaZe take down Astralis to advance to Roobet Cup grand final

FaZe have advanced to the grand final of the Roobet Cup after claiming a 2-1 victory over Astralis, faltering on the Danish team’s pick of Overpass before securing comfortable wins on Mirage and Dust2 to take the series.

The grand final on Thursday at 19:00 will see BIG and FaZe clash for the lion’s share of the $250,000 prize pool, a match where FaZe will be looking to claim revenge after they lost to Johannes “⁠tabseN⁠” Wodarz‘s side in series play during the group stage. A win would also provide a boost in momentum for either team ahead of IEM Cologne, which kicks off in just under a week.

A T side start for Astralis saw them begin the map on the right foot, a pistol round victory converting into a four-round lead before FaZe were able to respond. It was Håvard “⁠rain⁠” Nygaard who stepped up for the international mixture in their first rounds, recording back-to-back double kills and further adding to that with a triple kill as FaZe moved into the lead. Russel “⁠Twistzz⁠” Van Dulken also helped to add to that tally, recovering a 3vs5 with three frags and adding a further triple kill round, with Astralis still keeping the scoreline close as they trailed by a single round heading into the break.

Five immediate rounds followed the side swap for Astralis, leaving FaZe staring down a deficit immediately. It seemed like they could make good on an effort as they fought to tie the score, managing to even it at 13-13, but it was Astralis who ended up taking the win as they put up a strong defense for three final rounds to edge out the win.

Mirage looked more like the FaZe of old though, with Robin “⁠ropz⁠” Kool‘s lurks paying off round after round for his team. Despite starting down 1-4, FaZe established clear dominance on the T side of their map pick, conceding just one additional round en route to a 10-5 lead thanks in large part to those very lurks from the Estonian star.

That momentum carried into the second half, where an early set of rounds helped to extend FaZe‘s edge before Astralis grabbed three rounds of their own; however, it wasn’t long before karrigan‘s side moved up to match point, and victory followed soon after as they took the map 16-11 to force a Dust2 decider.

After some tense moments on the first two maps, Dust2 had little to write home about. Another early lead from Astralis rapidly dwindled away thanks to a stalwart defense from FaZe, with rain in particular stepping up en route to a 10-5 lead for his side. The second half offered little respite and even fewer opportunities for Astralis to come back, with FaZe quickly sealing the deal 16-7 to advance to the grand final.