FaZe take down NAVI; set up EPL S17 title decider versus Cloud9

Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen's men will play for revenge against Cloud9 and for a chance at the Intel Grand Slam title.

FaZe are through to the grand final of ESL Pro League Season 17 after besting Natus Vincere in a three-map series. The European super-squad began the best-of-three on shaky footing as NAVI demolished them on Ancient (16-7), but managed to regain their form on their own pick of Nuke (16-8) before closing out the series with a strong finish on Mirage (16-9).

The victory sets FaZe up to secure the Intel Grand Slam Season 4 title, one which has thrice eluded them and has left them with only three more chances to secure the win before their IEM Katowice 2022 victory expires. karrigan's men fell short at ESL Pro League Season 16, the IEM Rio Major, and IEM Katowice 2023, and will be looking to both secure the title this time around and claim revenge over Cloud9, who knocked them out of the previous ESL Pro League season in the quarter-finals.

The Russian roster have come out on top in their last three meetings with FaZe, often powered by superb rifle work from Sergey "⁠Ax1Le⁠" Rykhtorov. They will look to do so once again in Malta, but this time another incentive will be up for grabs: a $100,000 bonus for spoiling FaZe's hopes in the grand final.

Natus Vincere, meanwhile, head home after a 3-4th place finish at Pro League, matching their result at IEM Katowice. Expectations for the once-dominant team weren't extremely high heading into EPL as they have struggled to return to a world-beating level, with the addition of Andrii "⁠npl⁠" Kukharskyi yet to fully bear fruit. The roster looked much more composed while in Malta, though, and while they will be disappointed with the loss, can take solace in the gradual improvement in their form as they prepare for the BLAST.tv Paris Major Europe RMR which kicks off on April 6.

The series got started on Natus Vincere's pick of Ancient, with Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller joining commentary duo Chad "⁠SPUNJ⁠" Burchill and Alex "⁠Machine⁠" Richardson to help walk viewers through the action. The Heroic captain was asked early into the map who he favored in the series, and though he credited NAVI for playing themselves into form, he was firm in stating his belief in FaZe to take the series.

cadiaN's faith in FaZe seemed misplaced at the start of the series, a swift attack of the A bombsite by Natus Vincere leading to an almost flawless pistol round victory. The Ukrainian side seized upon that momentum and ran rampant on the T side for almost the entirety of the first half, repeatedly capitalizing on the space given to them by FaZe by walking deep into bombsites. Strong fragging from Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev led the charge for NAVI in that effort, and just when it looked like karrigan's men would break through for their first round, Ilya "⁠Perfecto⁠" Zalutskiy gunned down three players to convert a 2vs3 post-plant situation and keep his side in the lead.

An eleven-round spree of utter supremacy from Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov and company finally came to an end after FaZe pieced together a B bombsite retake, but NAVI immediately got back to winning ways with a red-room split into the B bombsite. FaZe managed to add a few more rounds to their tally, helped by a pistol round victory in the second half and subsequent conversions, but couldn't recover from such an immense deficit as Natus Vincere eased into a 16-7 victory.

FaZe had a much better plan to start off Nuke, taking the pistol round and converting against the ensuing force-buy from NAVI to take the lead for the first time. An AK that was retrieved in the next round and passed over to Perfecto resulted in a triple kill from the 23-year-old, and s1mple followed that up with an AWP ace in the ensuing round to help his team briefly take the lead, 3-2. That was the last time that Natus Vincere would hold the high ground in the series as FaZe fully came online, their patience on the T side outwitting the Ukrainian side's defenses for eight rounds on the trot before NAVI stole away the last two of the half, 10-5.

A pistol round victory from Natus Vincere was immediately answered by FaZe, who pulled off two additional retakes and recovered a 3vs5 situation to move up to a 13-6 scoreline. Two rounds in response from NAVI gave them a window to get back into the map as FaZe were left with stock pistols and a saved AWP in hand, but even dealing with the AWP instantly wasn't enough for NAVI to take the round as Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool picked up an absurd quad kill with the USP to put his team back in control. That round loss left Natus Vincere destitute and FaZe capitalized on the crushing blow by closing out the map just two rounds later, 16-8.

FaZe remained in control at the onset of Mirage and converted a pistol round win into a 4-0 streak on the CT side. NAVI came out on top of a close back-and-forth to put up their first round win, but a Deagle triple kill from Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard allowed FaZe to stay in firm control, 6-1. s1mple finally helped his team get back on the board with an AWP triple kill of his own, allowing NAVI to move up to four rounds, but the Ukrainian side consistently faltered in opening duels and FaZe converted their early round success into extending their lead to 10-5 at the break.

A pistol round ace from electroNic and subsequent conversion closed the gap between the teams by two rounds, but a comeback was not to be; FaZe immediately regained their footing on their first gun round and pushed up to a 14-7 lead, at which point the two teams traded blows back and forth before the European combine took the win over the line, 16-9.