FalleN shines as Liquid spoil karrigan's return to FaZe, Vitality send OG to IEM Katowice lower bracket

The Brazilian captain dismantled FaZe on Nuke with a series of impactful frags.

Liquid and Vitality advanced to Group B upper-bracket semifinals in IEM Katowice following victories over FaZe and OG, respectively. The North Americans, who are being led by Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo since the Play-In stage, managed to beat Marcelo "⁠coldzera⁠" David and co. for the first time in 2021, having lost to them twice in the BLAST Premier Spring Groups.

Liquid were off to a good start on Mirage and won the first seven rounds until FaZe broke their streak thanks to coldzera getting a triple kill in a 2v3 situation. The international powerhouse conceded only one more point after that and chained five together before the end of the half to salvage their CT side. The North Americans won the second pistol as well and survived against two dangerous anti-ecos because Jake "⁠Stewie2K⁠" Yip secured back-to-back 1v1 clutches. FaZe won three rounds in a row once they got rifles before Liquid adjusted their CT side and closed the game easily, especially because Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen's troops didn't have the economy to fight back.

FaZe won three in a row to kick off Nuke, but Liquid proved to be the better team once they were able to buy rifles. The international team struggled to break their defense after that as FalleN cruised with the AWP and finished the half with 20 frags, helping his team to secure a 10-5 lead. The North Americans displayed a set of fast-paced plays and quickly wrapped up the series as FaZe didn't have the teamplay to counter-attack, having just added karrigan as their in-game leader, and due to FalleN's impact as he continued to wreck everyone and finished the map with a 2.11 rating.

In the meantime, Vitality fielded Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire for the first time after he took a short break, and the French put up a good performance on CT side of Dust2, moving to the second half with a 9-6 advantage. OG won five in a row to take the lead, but Vitality fixed their T side and chained seven together to take the map as Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut, Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon, and apEX combined for 69 frags.

Vitality won the first half of Nuke by a minimal margin and were leading comfortably by 14-10 on their CT side. But they were with their backs against the wall after OG manage to win five consecutive in a row. ZywOo stepped in with a collateral double in the 30th round, which fueled the French team to take the map to overtime. The brawl continued on the following rounds, but Vitality secured the series in the last round as Cédric "⁠RpK⁠" Guipouy opened space with a double-kill and apEX followed up with a double of his own to leave Valdemar "⁠valde⁠" Bjørn Vangså in no man's land.