FaZe flicker but don't set alight - BLAST Open Rotterdam

It was nice to see some flickers of life from FaZe while it lasted.

They took map one against Aurora, and those six T rounds really made us thought that maybe, just maybe, cutting NEO really was going to fix everything. jcobbb and broky were playing well, frozen was putting up numbers and they managed to win even without Twistzz doing much of note.

jcobbb continued his form into Inferno and genuinely put up one of the best rounds you'll see all year.

And yet... it fell flat not long after.

FaZe won eight rounds on Inferno, and half of them were clutches. Sustainable!

MAJ3R has been on a bit of a hot streak recently to the point where we might need to be less sarcastic when calling him one of the rifle powerhouses of Aurora, and he was a wrecking ball again on this map. Aurora were all over the map getting openings, and were truthfully miles better at least tactically than FaZe, but were getting held back by moments of magick.

Until they ran out.

FaZe unfurled the Monkey's Paw and asked for Twistzz to be back in peak form for Dust 2, but it came at the cost of everyone else. Twistzz was a one man army on Dust 2, but it was no match for Aurora's rifle depth, as they pushed past a FaZe that look much better, but still deeply, deeply flawed.

Can you please relearn your grenades, lads.

Falcons coasted past NRG despite Sonic's heroic efforts to stop them.

The South African posted a 20-5 (!) CT side scoreline on Dust 2 and still only got six rounds, which is harrowing. Truly frightening. It's bad enough when it happens to us in matchmaking (that one time), but to know it could happen playing with four pros makes it even worse.

He was excellent too on Ancient, but neither ever looked in danger for Falcons, despite kyousuke's absence, which is not a good sign for NRG.

NAVI needed three maps to get past B8 in a protracted series, but makazze's fine form (and probably poor sleep schedule) seems like it might be here to stay.

Maintaining over 100 ADR in a long series is no mean feat, and it was largely powered by a dominant showing on Dust 2 in the decider after some impressive work from iM got them there. esenthial had a crazy map two, as B8 won in 36 rounds, but it was all for naught as NAVI's class shined through in the end.

YEKINDAR wasn't happy about starting so late, and in truth, neither was the writer of this article. Some of us have real jo- ah, no we don't. Never mind then.

They might as well have not played this out, as it went exactly as you'd expect. FURIA were occasionally challenged by the chaos of TYLOO, but once they figured it out - as yuurih alluded to in his interview - it was plain sailing. They picked up eight T rounds on Overpass, and from there-

Erm, they needed a half-buy win at 11-11 to take the win. That CT side honked. Maybe it's not all going to be okay? Maybe FURIA are just kinda bad now?

Stuff to work on for FURIA, and some encouraging signs from TYLOO - though losing closely to big teams has always been their MO, and we'd like a bit more before we get excited.