The second game of the second match day of the IEM Cologne knockout round, Faze atus Vincere.
Rather than a one-sided game, the audience may prefer to see an evenly matched game. The process of ups and downs is always more exciting than crushing all the way.
Of course, these two teams naturally lived up to the expectations of the audience and filled the entire BO3 perfectly.
The first map was the Death Amusement Park chosen by NAVI. The attacking NAVI had a smooth start, but was quickly retaliated by Faze in the subsequent spear round and played a wave of Perfect.
In the remaining rounds of the first half, no team could take advantage of the situation. The two sides fell into a rhythm of exchanges to score points. However, NAVI was still slightly more familiar with the Death Amusement Park. In the first half,
The offensive side scored 8 points in the first place and gained a one-point lead.
In the second half, the advantage of the CT map began to show. Even when Faze won the pistol round, it was still difficult to break through NAVI's defense. NAVI also successfully fixed the score in the first map at 16 to 12.
However, just when the situation in Faze was in danger, the resilience of Galaxy Battleship was once again displayed in front of all the audience. With two consecutive 16 to 14, it struggled to win the victory in Purgatory Town and Nuclear Crisis, and also
Got the last ticket to the finals.
But this time the finals are different from Faze, who was once favored in the past. This time, few analysts or commentators will favor him.
Some betting odds even offered Faze odds of three to one to win.
The reason is simple. The opponent Faze is about to face in the finals is Vitality, which is at its peak.
The newly crowned king of BLAST Lisbon has not lost a single map so far in the IEM Cologne group stage. His opponents averaged less than ten points per map. Vitality almost won the game smoothly.
, reaching the finals with a crushing attitude.
After the introduction of Aether, this old French team seemed to be reborn. With the support of two talented snipers, it formed a special system unique to Vitality.
On the other hand, Faze, although they defeated their opponents 2-0 before the semi-finals, the game process on each map was a bit bumpy. Even when facing a third-tier team like 00Nation, they were not able to defeat their opponents neatly.
However, this did not affect the preparation of everyone at Vitality.
From zonic to the team leader, everyone knows the resilience and fearlessness of the Faze team.
In all the recent offline competitions, as long as Faze entered the finals, this international team won the final championship without exception.
Tomorrow is the final showdown with Faze, and of course everyone will not relax. The wise saying "If you miss a moment, you will miss a lifetime" is deeply imprinted in the DNA of every player.
After watching the BO3 match between FaZe and NAVI, everyone in Vitality left the main stage of the Lanxess Arena and took the bus to the hotel provided by the organizer.
"Tomorrow is the finals of IEM Cologne. It's really hard to imagine that we will be on the final stage of a world-class competition so soon."
apEX put his arms around Qin Feng's shoulders and felt that his body was light and airy, as if he was dreaming.
Before Qin Feng came to Vitality, it seemed that Vitality had not won a championship in a major competition for a long time. The last championship of Little Bee seems to have been traced back to the 2021 IEM Winter Championship.
"Really, I heard that the first Major next year will be held in Paris, France. Maybe we can win the championship trophy at home." apEX thought of the bright future.
Qin Feng said "Yeah" and looked out the window of the bus. The bright stars stood out against the dark night sky.
"Let's consider the IEM finals and Rio Major first." Zonic coughed lightly in the back seat, "Don't think too much, opening champagne at halftime is not a good habit. No one knows how the future will develop.
"
Speaking of this, zonic suddenly changed the topic, "But there is no need to put too much pressure on us. The fact that we can get all the way here already shows our strength. The more we play without psychological pressure, the better we will play.
"
When everyone returned to the hotel, it was already past ten o'clock in the evening local time in Cologne. Of course, everyone at Vitality could not continue training, but held a meeting to discuss strategies to deal with Faze.
"First of all, the long game of BO5 is not a big advantage for us. You must know that in all the recent BO5 games of Faze, none of them ended in failure." Zonic opened the small notebook in his hand and frowned slightly.
"Secondly, when we play Faze, let Aether take on a certain amount of command tasks. If possible on the first map, let Aether try the free agent position first."
"There's not much to say about the maps. The two maps that will definitely be removed from the BO5 match are the Ancient Ruins and the Death Building."
"Oh, one thing worth noting is that Faze has no obvious shortcomings in all the recent competitions." Zonic licked his dry lips, "Even his cousin, who is not known for his marksmanship in people's minds, has
He stood up in key finals many times."
"So when we attack, we don't need to consider Faze's defensive shortcomings, but more have to consider the situation on the field and Faze's defensive habits."
"As for Faze's position analysis and defensive loopholes, the analyst has printed it out for everyone and placed it on the computer table in the training room."
"Of course, the most important thing is only one thing." Zonic paused and said in a deep voice, "That is to limit the personnel who Faze can obtain information, especially Ran's command line. If Faze is allowed to obtain a large amount of information in the middle of the game, then we
It will be very difficult to play both offensively and defensively.”
"Whether we can win tomorrow's game depends half on everyone's performance, and the other half depends on whether we can gain an advantage in the competition for map control."
"..."
The next afternoon, 3 o'clock local time in Cologne.
The match between Vitality and Faze has not yet started, and many communities have begun to discuss the two teams in the finals.
From HLTV to Reddit, from MAX to Perfect Esports APP, most of the CSGO pages are occupied by discussions about the finals.
Of course, thanks to the fact that a certain CIS team did not enter the finals, most of the posts did not contain rhythmic content, which made the forum administrators feel a lot more relaxed.
Vitality is certainly at the top of their game, but Faze is by no means a team that can be underestimated.
"This God A, Vitality is definitely true core, right? ZywO lost, Aether seems to be above 1.3 from the group stage until now."
"It's normal, just basic operations. However, Aether bringing Vitality back to life makes me look forward to G2. I heard that G2 will recruit HooXi and jks. I wonder if the new commander Breath Brother can revitalize G2."
"Fuck, it's so hard for G2 fans. It's been almost 1,000 days, right? It seems like G2 hasn't won an official championship for three years. Do you know how I've spent these three years?!"
"Actually, I feel that Faze still has the advantage in the BO5 game. Yesterday, I beat NAVI with one against two, and my momentum has obviously increased. I look forward to the Galaxy Battleship Gods returning to their throne."