The second quarterfinal of the day featured the defending champions of Gambit, and FaZe, who for the first time since the team was created did not have “rain” in the starting lineup as he was quarantined due to COVID. In his stead FaZe had Justin “jks” Savage, who was also the stand-in for “ropz” earlier in the tournament.
Gambit were the first to pick a map, and they unsurprisingly chose to play Dust2, which they are undefeated on in 2022.
The teams looked extremely evenly matched to kick off the map, but at the scoreline 4-4 FaZe, on the CT-side, started pulling away. “karrigan” had some great reads and calls, and the rest stepped up individually, which led FaZe to a 10-5 halftime lead.
“karrigan” and co. continued their domination as they swept the second half and took an overpowering 16-5 victory on Dust2, after a 1v4 clutch by “ropz” in round 21.
SEMIFINAL BOUND AT THE SPODEK #IEM | #FaZeUp pic.twitter.com/x2pLSMs9El
— FaZe Clan (@FaZeClan) February 25, 2022
As the second map FaZe chose to play Inferno, which is the map they have the highest winrate on, while also being the map that Gambit has the lowest winrate on.
FaZe continued where they left off on Dust2 and took the early lead on the T-side. Gambit soon took over and found themselves up 8-3. In danger of being blown out in the first half, FaZe picked themselves up and clawed their way back to an 8-7 half.
Gambit took their first pistol-round of the series to start the second half but were immediately shut down by the opposition. FaZe followed it up by retaking the lead and putting themselves in a position to close out the series in two maps. Gambit didn’t manage to put together two rounds in a row in the second half, and they did not manage to stop a very confident FaZe squad. Inferno ends 16-11.
FaZe moves on to meet Heroic in the semifinal, while Gambit are knocked out of IEM Katowice 2022.
Highlight of the match:
Gambit – FaZe 0-2 | IEM Katowice
5-16 (Dust2) | {cflag:EE} ropz – 1.69 Rating / 20-8 K-D / 91.9 ADR
11-16 (Inferno) | {cflag:LV} broky – 1.61 Rating / 24-13 K-D / 102.5 ADR
MVP: {cflag:LV} Helvijs ”broky” Saukants – 1.39 Rating / 39-22 K-D / 84.2 ADR
