Welcome to EGamersWorld.
The group stage of IEM Cologne 2024 is heating up. And we are only too happy to watch the top Counter-Strike 2.
We are interested in Group B of The International, where the second round of matches is coming to an end. It will be closed by FaZe - Vitality.
Let's see who will be stronger in this match of top teams and secure a slot in the play-offs of the tournament.
Let's go.
Vitality uniforms
Let's open the analysis of the match Vitality - FaZe with the analysis of Vitality's form. In this match they will play as favourites with odds to win at around 1.6.
The first half of the 2023 season has been a real celebration for Vitality. They started it with a win at the Blast Premier Spring Groups and Top 6 at the top IEM Katowice 2023 and ESL Pro League Season 4. Next was Top 3 at European RMR B and triumph at the most domestic Major e - BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023. After winning the Paris Major e Vitality took the top 2 at the spring finals of BLAST, Ledge and Heroic in the grand finals.
The last tournament before IEM Katowice was BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2023. There Vitality showed a worse result than expected, with the top 6 in the end.
- Vitality lineup: apEX, ZywOo, mezii, Spinx, flameZ.
After the triumphant Paris Major a Vitality said goodbye to Dupreeh, and flameZ took his place. The "newcomer" Vitality has already had time to adapt and looks good: the young Israeli has KDA 1.09 and this is the third result of the team. He, by the way, started his ascent on the big stage with OG.
In their debut match at IEM Cologne 2023, Vitality only confirmed their status as one of the main favourites in Group B. OG tried, but were defeated 16-6 by Mirage and 16-13 by Anubis.
After defeating OG, Vitality took on MOUZ, who were dealt an even bigger blow by the Bees, 16-4 and 16-5.
In the match for seeding in the play-offs Vitality met another top club - G2 Esports. A nerve-wracking game where Vitality pulled out a 19-17 win on Inferno in the extra time, but then lost 10-16 to Vertigo and 8-16 to Mirage.
Starting the play-offs from the first round stumbled Cloud9. "Cloud9 tried to fight back and almost succeeded on the second map, but ZywOo and company were undeterred: 16-11 Mirage and 19-17 Inferno. However, this was the end of Vitality's stay at the tournament: they met ENCE in the semi-finals and lost with 1-2 score and dropped out of the championship.
The top 4 at IEM Cologne did not embarrass Vitality at all, on the contrary - it fuelled them. Before the end of the year they pocketed 3 more wins at title tournaments: they took revenge on ENCE in the Gamers8 Grand Final and beat FaZe twice at BLAST tournaments (Fall Final 2023 and World Final 2023).
Before playing at PGL CS2 Copenhagen Major 2024: European RMR B played BLAST Premier: Spring Groups, where they passed the group stage without any problems and at IEM Katowice 2024, where they failed very unexpectedly, finishing top-12.
At the PGL CS2 Copenhagen Major 2024: European RMR B Vitality stomped GamerLegion and Heroic without any problems, giving up a total of 5 rounds in two maps. And then it was worse - a loss by C9, but a win over ENCE allowed Vitality to reach the Major.
Vitality attended the first Major tournament of the season - PGL CS2 Copenhagen Major 2024, where they managed to reach Top 4, but Ledge and FaZe Clan. Later they played at ESL Pro League Season 19, where they again started very cheerfully and easily made it to the grand finals, but there they were swept by MOUZ.
At the IEM Dallas 2024 Long Season, they started with a very difficult win over Monte, and then closed G2 Esports dry. But in the match for seeding in the play-offs quite unexpectedly Ledge and 9z Team with a score 0-2. The play-offs IEM Dallas 2024 started much more confidently, closing Heroic with 2-0. Then a confident win over Spirit, but a loss to G2 Esports in the grand finals.
Before appearing at Esports World Cup 2024, Vitality attended Blast Premier: Spring Final, where they reached the Top 4. At EWC 2024, Vitaltiy Long Sogpeg started off with a solid win over M80, which allowed them to go straight into the play-offs. However, Vitality were then very unexpectedly eliminated in the first round of play-offs, Ledgeiv Vp.
IEM Cologne 2024 Vitality started with a match against FURIA, where they easily won 2-0.
Vitality's mappool
Vitality's best map is Nuke. There are 4 matches and 4 wins.
Anubis (7 matches, 85% wins), Mirage (4 matches, 75% wins) are very good. In general, Vitality doesn't have any bad cards that they play. Vertigo - 71% wins in 7 matches, Inferno and Overpass - 3 wins in 5 matches.
Ancient is not played.
FaZe Form.
We continue the analysis of FaZe - Vitality match with the analysis of FaZe form. In this match they play in the status of an outsider with the odds to win around 2.3.
One of the most stable teams of the season has quite an extensive record in the first half of the year. However, it mostly consists of "near" top results.
From the main achievements - getting into the top three at BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2023 and winning at ESL Pro League Season 17. Also this year FaZe got the award for the 4th season of Intel Grand Slam, enriched by $1,000,000.
Speaking of award tournaments, there was less luck here. Top-12 at IEM Rio 2023, and Top-4 at IEM Dallas 2023. At the only Major e in the season FaZe did not cope with the tension, but made it to TOP-8.
Before the Long Conference IEM Cologne 2023 they attended two tournaments of BLAST series: Spring Final 2023 and Fall Groups 2023. At the Finals they were ranked Top 6, and at the Fall Groups 2023 they were in the top three, earning themselves a slot at the Autumn Finals.
- FaZe Clan line-up: karrigan, rain, Frozen, ropz, broky.
Despite the ubiquitous Reshuffle and rather "average" results for the year, FaZe didn't change the main roster. However, there were some substitutions: FaZe presented a new coach, who became the legendary Pole NEO. On his post he replaced the legendary RobbaN and it affected FaZe's gameplay in IEM Cologne 2023, where FaZe took the top-12.
The setbacks continued from there onwards. At Gamers8 2023 FaZe Clan took a similar place (9-12), Ledgeiv at the Long Segment of the Vp tournament with the score 2-0.
Things didn't go too well at ESL Pro League Season 18. FaZe made it to the play-offs on the top grid of Group C, defeating 9Z Team and Fnatic, but in the match for seeding in the main stage they lost to NaVi with the score 0-2. However, FaZe didn't manage to play long at ESL Pro League Season 18: in the first play-offs match, which for FaZe started from the second stage, the team met MOUZ. The future EPL champions sent FaZe Clan home. As a result FaZe found themselves on the 9-12th place of the top tournament.
FaZe rehabilitated quite quickly. Already at IEM Sydney 2023 they triumphed with the victory over CoL in the grand final.
Thunderpick World Championship 2023 FaZe Clan have a great time. The titular European club passed the group stage without problems becoming the best team of the quartet B, and then took part in the play-offs of the championship.
The first opponent for FaZe in the play-offs of Thunderpick World Championship 2023 was MOUZ. A serious opponent, but FaZe did well: 2-1 in favour of the champions of IEM Sydney 2023.
Later MOUZ played against C9 in the match for the final of the tournament and won. They finished what they started with a match against Vp in the grand finals of Thunderpick World Championship 2023, becoming the champion of the $500,000 online tournament.
At CS Asia Championship 2023 FaZe confidently made their way to the play-offs through Group B. Having taken unquestionable TOP-1 the team went directly to the semi-finals of the tournament. FaZe then went head-to-head: first they defeated ENCE 2-1 and in the grand final they defeated MOUZ 2-0.
One of the most stable teams of the season has a pretty extensive record in the first half of the year. However, it predominantly consists of "near" top results.
Among the main achievements - getting into the top three at BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2023 and winning at ESL Pro League Season 17. Also this year FaZe got the award for the 4th season of Intel Grand Slam, enriched by $1,000,000.
Speaking of award tournaments, there was less luck here. Top-12 at IEM Rio 2023, and Top-4 at IEM Dallas 2023. At the only Major e in the season FaZe did not cope with the tension, but made it to TOP-8.
Before the Long Conference IEM Cologne 2023 they attended two tournaments of BLAST series: Spring Final 2023 and Fall Groups 2023. They finished in the top 6 at the Finals and in the top 3 at Fall Groups 2023, earning themselves a slot at the Autumn Finals.
Despite the ubiquitous Reshuffle and very "average" results for the year, FaZe didn't change the main roster. However, there were replacements: FaZe introduced a new coach, who was the legendary Pole NEO. On his post he replaced the legendary RobbaN and it affected FaZe's gameplay in IEM Cologne 2023, where FaZe took the top-12.
The setbacks continued from there onwards. At Gamers8 2023 FaZe Clan took a similar place (9-12), Ledgeiv at the Long Segment of the Vp tournament with the score 2-0.
Things didn't go too well at ESL Pro League Season 18. FaZe made it to the play-offs on the top grid of Group C, beating 9Z Team and Fnatic, but in the match for seeding in the main stage they lost to NaVi with the score 0-2. However, FaZe didn't manage to play long at ESL Pro League Season 18: in the first play-offs match, which for FaZe started from the second stage, the team met MOUZ. The future EPL champions sent FaZe Clan home. As a result FaZe found themselves on the 9-12th place of the top tournament.
FaZe rehabilitated quite quickly. Already at IEM Sydney 2024 they triumphed with the victory over CoL in the grand final.
At CS Asia Championship 2024 FaZe confidently made their way to the play-offs through Group B. Having taken unquestionable TOP-1 the team went directly to the semi-finals of the tournament. Then FaZe went head-to-head: first they defeated ENCE with the score 2-1 and in the grand final they won MOUZ with the score 2-0.
Next, FaZe had a series of "failures". They finished Top 8 at EPL Season 19, Top 6 at IEM Dallas 2024 and BLAST Premier: Spring Final 2024, Top 8 at Esports World Cup 2024 and Top 12 at BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024.
At IEM Cologne 2024, FaZe Long Sogpegged with a win over Team Liquid.
Mapple FaZe Clan
The best FaZe map is Mirage. They played 12 matches and won 9 of them.
Then there were Overpass with 8 matches and 5 wins. They play Nuke (7 matches, 4 wins), Inferno (9 matches, 5 wins). Worse is Ancient with 3 wins in 6 matches, and worst of all was Anubis. His FaZe was picked 7 times, but played with a winrate of 42%.
Not played on Vertigo.
History of personal meetings between Vitality and FaZe
FaZe have played each other three times in 2024 and the score is 2-1 in favour of Vitality.
Predicted result of FaZe vs Vitality at IEM Cologne 2024
Such a match of top clubs must end on the score 2-1. And in any favour.
The result: total +2.5.
