FaZe on the march as they shock G2 at BLAST Rivals

Are... are FaZe good?

Obviously the evidence of the last five months would suggest no, but... we want to believe. karrigan has left and FaZe are maybe not brilliant, but at least competitive again. karrigan has routinely ranked as the worst shooter and the worst player in tier one in our data, and maybe nowadays his calling just isn't enough to carry that.

Or it's just a honeymoon phase.

All three maps were relatively close as FaZe beat G2, though Ancient looked at one point like it might be a total whiteout in G2's favour. Dust 2 went down to round 24, largely in part to the heroics of SunPayus who kept G2 in the game as everyone else seemed to get overpowered, and FaZe eventually won out with a clean hold on the A site.

G2 won eight T rounds in a row to start Ancient, won the half 9-3, and then won the pistol round, which is nearly always enough for a win. No misdirection here; FaZe got up to nine and looked to make it a tense finish, but the early lead proved enough to get over the line.

Mirage saw back-to-back-to-back retakes from FaZe in regulation to get to OT, where they defused the bomb twice more consecutively in a perfect OT defense. frozen, who'd had a quiet series, was an absolute phenom on this map, ending on 31 kills and 111 ADR.

In other surprising news, GamerLegion overpowered Astralis to also make the semi-finals in Fort Worth.

It feels like GamerLegion have been treading water for the last 6-12 months, but the re-addition of Snax seems to have done something to them - not least REZ, who was once again terrific in this win. Astralis are a good team but capable of these games where their firepower just falls short.

REZ, Snax and PR all hit 40 kills in this two-mapper as GamerLegion stole Overpass with a 7-2 T side half (not a great look for Astralis' firepower on their own map pick) and took Inferno from 4-12 down with eight straight rounds. Predictably, Astralis then won the first round of OT - yet it was still not enough.

This wasn't great from Astralis, it's fair to say.