FaZe thrash FTW in ESL Pro League Group B opener

FaZe open ESL Pro League Season 16 with a win in a one-sided 2-0 series against FTW. The European squad didn’t skip a beat on the two maps, taking both Inferno and Overpass with dominant 16-4 scorelines — the former map going down in the books as the fastest victory in ESL Pro League history.

The European squad fired on all cylinders in the opening series, with all players sitting firmly in the green. Francisco “⁠kst⁠” Fragoso had a relatively strong game individually despite his team’s overpowering loss. The 20-year-old ended up with the only positive K-D in his team, 33-31. FTW will try to rebound against Outsiders on Thursday, September 8, at 12:30 .

The opening Group B series kicked off on the Portuguese side’s pick of Inferno, but it was FaZe who were quick to lay down the law as they jumped out to an early 5-1 CT-side advantage. The IEM Cologne champions continued to show their prowess as the half progressed, only allowing their foes three more rounds on the back of unrelenting defensive aggression to extend their lead to 11-4 by the switch.

Any chance of an FTW comeback was quickly brushed aside once the teams swapped sides, with FaZe wasting no time as they posted five rounds on the bounce to steal Inferno away, 16-4. Håvard “⁠rain⁠” Nygaard and Helvijs “⁠broky⁠” Saukants were the difference-makers for their team, with the pair combining for 45 kills by the end of the twenty-round map.

rain was zoned in on Inferno topping the scoreboard with a 1.70 rating

FaZe‘s momentum from the first map continued on Overpass, the European mix hounding the B site to drum up an overpowering 7-2 advantage on the T-side. FTW did snag one round back, but this would only serve to temporarily interrupt FaZe‘s onslaught as the lineup led by karrigan surged ahead to another 11-4 showing at the interval. kst had a solid performance despite the trouncing, putting up an 18-9 K-D by the half’s end to keep FTW in the game.

FaZe got their defence off to the ideal start with their second pistol round of the map on the back of a triple by Russel “⁠Twistzz⁠” Van Dulken and his Dual Berettas. The remainder of the half was simply a case of the European combine taking care of business, preventing their opponents from even planting the bomb as they easily took Overpass 16-4.