Faze Clan and Team Liquid played against each other in a Best of Three series at EPICENTER 2018 Semifinals. This match was supposed to be the better of the two semifinals and definitely one which provided a much better gameplay.
The three maps for this semifinal were:
- Mirage
- Inferno
- Overpass
Faze Clan exert their dominance on Mirage once again.
Karrigan has always been a player who loves the Mirage map. Several years ago, when he was on TSM; Karrigan was able to put forth strong performances on the map. It soon became one of the strongest maps for almost every team that Karrigan was a part of.
Faze Clan has been one of the strongest teams on Mirage for quite some time now. The team has presented amazingly good coordination in their aggressive gameplay. The aggressive gameplay usually comes from Karrigan who is more than ready to push certain sections of the map based on information relayed to him.
Team Liquid started the map on a positive note when they won the pistol round. When Faze Clan was able to win the 3rd round after a full buy, it was evident that they were the much better team when it comes to a full buy. The Faze Clan roster was able to string together multiple rounds together. Faze Clan won most of the gun rounds and soon the score was 6-2. Constantly keeping the Team Liquid economy in check, Faze was able to close out the map with a 9-6 score on the T side. The map is theoretically considered to be a CT sided map. So 9 rounds on the T side was always going to be a lot of pressure on the North American side.
On the T side, Team Liquid once again won the pistol rounds. But once we got to the Gun rounds, there was no doubt that Faze Clan was the better team. They had great rotations and with Karrigan’s aggressiveness on various sides of the map, they always had information. This information was crucial for the quick rotations as well as the fast movement across the map. Faze Clan won six straight rounds and ultimately closed out the map at 16-9.
The Second Map – Inferno
The second map Inferno was Team Liquid’s Map pick. As such as did expect a much better showing from the North American side. They won their third pistol round of the series with Inferno as well. They continued the next two rounds as well before Faze Clan started a very strong CT hold.
Faze Clan was able to hold out on multiple areas of the map. Their aggressive posture on the B site [ which was later replaced by a passive hold ]. Despite this, the team seemed to be trading a bunch of rounds as Liquid managed to take a slight lead with an 8-7 scoreline. As usual Team Liquid was very even in their kill distribution. The team’s synergy and coordination are exemplified by the even distribution of their skill level.
However, Faze Clan’s AWP player Guardian was definitely on a tear. He had a +15 KDA by the end of the map, which is very strong considering how close the scoreline was. Faze Clan had a very dominating performance on Inferno. Despite their shortcomings in the early stages of the tournament, Faze Clan did look strong in the playoffs.
However, the International team will face off against Natus Vincere in the Grand Finals. We do hope that Faze Clan has a much better performance than last time. The EPICENTER 2018 will continue on Twitch.
