FaZe defeat Grayhound at IEM Sydney

FaZe are through to Group A's lower bracket final at IEM Sydney 2018 after defeating Grayhound 2-1 (14-16 on Mirage and 16-10 on Cache and Dust2) in the final match of the day.

The clash began on Grayhound's map pick, Mirage, with Erdenetsogt "⁠erkaSt⁠" Gantulga finding all opponents in a 2v3 situation to secure the Terrorist pistol for his team. Surprisingly enough, the Australians continued to add to their lead in the following rounds without much response from their opponents and secured a 5-0 advantage.

FaZe then got their first two rounds on the board, but Grayhound remained in control, with back-to-back multi-kill rounds from Sean "⁠Gratisfaction⁠" Kaiwai setting his team up for a 7-2 lead. After that, however, the European team went on a great run to reach half-time with a narrow 7-8 deficit. 

Grayhound opened up the action in the second half by shutting down an A execution from FaZe. After following that up with the anti-ecos, a great triple-kill from Ollie "⁠DickStacy⁠" Tierney in the first full gun round forced Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen to call a tactical pause.

But it was only in the 20th round that FaZe managed to pick up their eighth round of the game thanks to a quad-kill from Richard "⁠Xizt⁠" Landström in a 2v5 situation. The Europeans could not prevent the home side from hitting map point, but they still managed to take the game to the 30th round, only to falter at the final hurdle.

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Cache, FaZe's map pick, kicked off, just like on Mirage, with Grayhound securing a quick 3-0 lead as Terrorists. Two fast entry-kills from Liam "⁠malta⁠" Schembri in an A execution then saw his team increase their lead, but it would not last long as FaZe went on a five-round winning streak.

Although Grayhound equalized the score in the following round, Ladislav "⁠GuardiaN⁠" Kovács stepped up to the plate with a double-kill and a ninja defuse, inspiring his team to go on another run. However, erkaSt then came up huge in the next two rounds, helping his team to switch sides with a one-round deficit.

Now playing as Terrorists, FaZe picked up their first pistol of the series, and then won the anti-ecos fairly easily to go up 11-7. Grayhound still tried to turn things around after securing three rounds in a row, but the rest of the half was all about FaZe, who did not stop taking rounds until they had the map in the bag.

Grayhound gave FaZe a run for their money

erkaSt opened up the action on the decider map, Dust2, with a quad-kill to secure the T-side pistol for his team, but, in the next round, FaZe responded with Deagle double-kills from karrigan and Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač to counter their opponents.

karrigan's men kept shutting down the Grayhound offence and eventually bagged a 7-1 lead. But that was the Australians came back to life, with DickStacy's squad winning six of the final seven rounds of the half.

In the second half, FaZe got off to an 11-7 lead after winning their T-side pistol, their second of the series. Although the next two rounds went Grayhound's way thanks to a triple and a quad-kill from DickStacy and Gratisfaction, respectively, the Australians' hopes were soon dashed as FaZe took control of the game and wrapped up the series with a 16-10 win.

IEM Sydney 2018Best of 3 FaZeMatchpage 2 1 2nd May 2018 Grayhound 14Mirage 16 16Cache 10 16Dust2 10

FaZe	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Nikola 'NiKo' KovačNiKo	68 - 50	+18	89.1	1.25
Ladislav 'GuardiaN' KovácsGuardiaN	57 - 54	+3	69.4	1.07
Håvard 'rain' Nygaardrain	51 - 51	0	76.3	1.06
Finn 'karrigan' Andersenkarrigan	56 - 50	+6	79.6	1.05
Richard 'Xizt' LandströmXizt	53 - 54	-1	73.3	1.03

Grayhound	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Sean 'Gratisfaction' KaiwaiGratisfaction	58 - 53	+5	78.8	1.13
Erdenetsogt 'erkaSt' GantulgaerkaSt	62 - 58	+4	75.6	1.02
Ollie 'DickStacy' TierneyDickStacy	54 - 60	-6	72.5	0.98
Liam 'malta' Schembrimalta	41 - 57	-16	62.5	0.87
Christopher 'dexter' Nongdexter	43 - 58	-15	66.5	0.85

Richard 'Xizt' Landström Age: 27 Team: FaZe Rating 1.0: 1.02 Maps played: 1309 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.65 Ladislav 'GuardiaN' Kovács Age: 26 Team: FaZe Rating 1.0: 1.14 Maps played: 1158 KPR: 0.77 DPR: 0.62 Erdenetsogt 'erkaSt' Gantulga Age: 23 Team: Grayhound Rating 1.0: 1.11 Maps played: 376 KPR: 0.77 DPR: 0.67 Sean 'Gratisfaction' Kaiwai Age: 22 Team: Grayhound Rating 1.0: 1.11 Maps played: 385 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.61 FaZe #4 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenRichard 'Xizt' LandströmLadislav 'GuardiaN' KovácsNikola 'NiKo' KovačHåvard 'rain' Nygaard Grayhound #37 Christopher 'dexter' NongSean 'Gratisfaction' KaiwaiErdenetsogt 'erkaSt' GantulgaLiam 'malta' SchembriOllie 'DickStacy' Tierney Ollie 'DickStacy' Tierney Age: 21 Team: Grayhound Rating 1.0: 0.99 Maps played: 290 KPR: 0.68 DPR: 0.67 Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač Age: 21 Team: FaZe Rating 1.0: 1.17 Maps played: 836 KPR: 0.81 DPR: 0.68 Liam 'malta' Schembri Age: 22 Team: Grayhound Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 394 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.65 Finn 'karrigan' Andersen Age: 28 Team: FaZe Rating 1.0: 0.95 Maps played: 1223 KPR: 0.65 DPR: 0.68