karrigan carries FaZe to BLAST Fall Final at expense of Liquid

FaZe's Danish caller was in fine form as they brushed aside Liquid.

FaZe clinched a Fall Final berth and sent Liquid to the last chance bracket with a confident 2-0 series victory, taking Overpass 16-7 and Ancient 16-11.

FaZe seemed to have smoothed out the kinks in their game that Liquid exploited in their upper final bout, specifically on Ancient, where Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen and co. posted a much improved offense compared to first time around. In general FaZe have grown into this event with each game and all of their individuals, and particularly karrigan, found impact throughout this series.

As for Liquid, this was not a series to write home about, with the freshly-minted majority-European side struggling to be competitive in three of the four halves played. Poor fragging performances punctuated their efforts, particularly a rare dismal showing from Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic on Overpass.

Mareks "⁠YEKINDAR⁠" Gaļinskis’s squad had seemingly hit the ground running here at BLAST, but this series showed they still have some way to go before they hit full power.

Overpass, the map choice of FaZe, kicked off the series, and the karrigan-led squad started hotly on the Terrorist side. After forcing up to recover a lost pistol round, FaZe set about putting together a powerful offensive half with slick executes towards the B site, their excellent utility usage making short work of Liquid. With the added potency of a stellar 15-kill showing from karrigan, who provided repeated multi-frag openings, FaZe ran out to a comfortable 10-5 half-time lead.

FaZe opened their defense with a converted pistol round victory which allowed them to quickly close the map in dominant fashion, the final score being 16-7.

Over on Liquid’s pick of Ancient, FaZe started on defense and once again successfully force-bought after losing the pistol, giving way to a dominant start. karrigan continued his imperious form from the first game and helped drive FaZe to a 6-1 lead, before Liquid adopted more of a pack mentality, emphasizing trade fragging, to get themselves back in contention at 5-6. FaZe answered back emphatically with some aggressive mid control, and it garnered them a 9-6 score at the half.

A crisp 3k from karrigan recovered a 3v5 situation in the pistol round and set FaZe well on their way to victory. Liquid did pull themselves together to put up a solid defense, repelling multiple A executes with aplomb, but FaZe finally made one work with Tec-9s and Deagles to end the resistance before it built up steam. FaZe duly secured a 16-11 victory.