FaZe and fnatic pick up wins in EPL Group B openers

FaZe and fnatic have picked up their first victories in Group B of ESL Pro League Season 10 Europe's second stage, beating Vitality and HellRaisers, respectively.

After G2 and North secured spots at the finals from the first group of the second stage, Group B featuring FaZe, Vitality, fnatic, and HellRaisers followed with the opening two matchups.

In the first, the French side started off well as they picked up a 5-0 lead on Inferno, in part thanks to a 1v3 clutch from Alex "⁠ALEX⁠" McMeekin up against a low buy, with Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač & co. finding footing in the sixth round to clinch three in a row. Although Vitality responded with three of their own, it was the European mixture that finished the half strong, switching over to the offense with momentum from the last four rounds.

Marcelo "⁠coldzera⁠" David's triple gave his team the second pistol round, with which FaZe handily took control of the rest of the map and didn't let their opponents establish good economy, closing out the opening affair 16-11.

Mirage followed with Vitality in trouble when they let the first 11 rounds pass without a response, as the NiKo-led team kept finding gaps in the defense until an ace from Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut got the French team on the board in the 12th to get them back on their feet with the last four rounds. After FaZe secured the second pistol round, Vitality were too far behind to come back despite a great effort, as Janko "⁠YNk⁠" Paunović's troops picked up their first points at 16-12, 2-0.

In the second match, HellRaisers went up against fnatic, who had Rasmus "⁠kreaz⁠" Johansson standing in for the ill Freddy "⁠KRIMZ⁠" Johansson and looked out of sync as the Ukrainian squad picked up speed on the T side of Overpass, leading 6-1 before the Swedes woke up.

With the stand-in and Jesper "⁠JW⁠" Wecksell finding a couple of key multikills, fnatic controlled the rest of the half, letting go of just one more round for an 8-7 halftime score. However, HellRaisers' defense proved too strong to handle, as Kirill "⁠ANGE1⁠" Karasiow's team cruised to a 16-8 victory with a flawless half.

Maikil "⁠Golden⁠" Selim's team looked much more comfortable on their own pick, Inferno, where a quick 6-0 start saw them put together a solid offensive half worth 10 rounds. HellRaisers bridged the gap to a two-round difference despite a pistol round loss, but once fnatic won their first gunround it was firmly in their hands, as they closed out their map pick 16-11.

Igor "⁠crush⁠" Shevchenko opened Mirage with a flashy quad-kill, allowing HR to go up 3-0 on the defense, but they found themselves struggling when their Nordic adversaries got a hold of weaponry, courtesy of Ludvig "⁠Brollan⁠" Brolin and JW, who combined for 36 kills to rack up a 10-5 half. HR responded with the following pistol, but a B rush in the first gunround backfired on them and fnatic once again took over, rallying to a 16-7, 2-1 victory.

After the first two matches, Group B's standings are looking as follows: