The second day of the Halo World Championship began today with a key matchup between tournament favorites FaZe Clan and G2 Esports, their closest rival in Pool C. As a top-six finisher at HCS Orlando last month, G2 was gunning for a potential upset, but FaZe held strong in the face of two close maps to secure a much-needed 3-0 series win.
The series layout was looking to hold some promise for G2’s hopes of victory, with Strongholds on Live Fire for game three historically being one of FaZe’s weakest map and mode combinations. Those hopes were further ignited heading into game one when G2 appeared to be able to match FaZe at every turn.
The FaZe players heavily outslayed G2 throughout the opener on Catalyst Capture The Flag. Spartan, KingNick, and Falcated all completed the game with over 20 kills each, whereas the players of G2 consistently struggled to leave a mark in each teamfight. It was perhaps concerning for FaZe, then, that despite how heavily the numbers fell in their favor, success with the objective was not nearly as consistent. G2 continually captured flags off the back of a single teamfight win or successful rotation, while FaZe often needed multiple rounds of slays to accomplish the same goal. The dominance FaZe displayed in battle was not reflected well in the eventual narrow 4-3 victory they took to start the show.
With the strength of their slaying prowess in game one, it was then a surprise when Slayer on Streets in game two came down to the wire like it did. G2 came out of the gates hot with a four-kill advantage, one that FaZe only trimmed with effective control of the power weapon spawns and rarely relented right up until the end of the game. Much of FaZe’s success was owed to Renegade, who stepped into the spotlight after a quiet game one to claim a mighty 21 kills and a 12.7 KDA in game two. Efficient use of the Bulldog and Rocket Launcher, along with Renegade’s performance, allowed FaZe to sneak away with a 50-47 win.
Unsatisfied with the prospect of G2 bouncing back in the series, with a third map that was predicted to be their strongest in the matchup, FaZe pulled out an incredible display on Live Fire Strongholds to shut down G2 entirely. Renegade was once again a leading figurehead in the lobby, topping the stat screen with 16 kills and only nine deaths in what proved to be a short final game. G2’s inability to keep up with FaZe’s slaying power proved fatal, and before long FaZe had walked away with a convincing 250-87 win and a series sweep.
KingNick and Renegade finished FaZe’s first win of the tournament with a 1.5 K/D and a 1.56 K/D, while Falcated took the credit for the most overall kills with 45. Even more notable for Falcated was his teamplay capabilities, tallying up 29 assists as well while every other player in the lobby loitered below 20 in comparison. The margins of victory in game one and two were not as convincing as a team like FaZe probably hoped for, but a 3-0 sweep here almost guarantees them top seed in Pool C.
Their remaining pool play matches are set to be TSS Esports and FNATIC, two teams that have showed promise but at best only accomplished a top 12 placing at the most recent Major in Orlando. You can catch all the action live on the official Halo Twitch channel, where a number of drops are also available for the entire event.
