FaZe Clan edges out Astralis at StarSeries S3 grand finals
FaZe Clan has finally taken revenge over its IEM Katowice nemesis Astralis, as the European-American squad came on top at the $300,000 StarSeries Season 3 event.
The first map of the series Mirage was a close call for both teams. Both sides were constantly trading rounds with one another, ending the map’s first half with an 8-7 score in favor of FaZe. But despite the economic advantage of FaZe, Astralis began turning more and more rounds to their favor thanks to great performance from Nicolai “device” Reedtz and co. Astralis had Mirage with a 16-14 victory.
The European squad didn’t take the loss on Mirage lightly, however, and completely dominated Astralis in the second map of the series. Playing on Nuke, Astralis were only able to pick up six rounds in total, bringing the game to a third deciding map in rapid succession.
Inferno would be the final map of the series. Despite getting off to an early lead, Astralis quickly came back in the first half of the map, surpassing FaZe with a total of 10-5 in rounds by the end of the first half. FaZe bounced back in the second half, and were able to catch up to Astralis lead and forcing the final map to overtime. Continuing to trade rounds, the game seemed to be balanced on a knife edge. Finally the dam burst for Astralis, and the European dream team took home their first ever tournament victory in CS:GO.
The victory puts FaZe squad firmly within the top tier of CS:GO and sets the stage for a rivalry between FaZe and Astralis that could define the competitive year.
