In the second straight marathon series of the day, FaZe Clan emerged victorious over Evil Geniuses after an hours-long, three-map multiple overtime VALORANT series at the North American Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ).
In Stage Two, FaZe nearly made it to Masters Copenhagen, falling short after the internet went out in the facility where they were playing, finishing third and missing out on a trip to Denmark. Coming into LCQ, many consider FaZe a favorite to take the last spot from NA.
As for Evil Geniuses, most of their success in Stage Two came from their miraculous run through groups, where they even won a match over Masters Reykjavík champions OpTic. Despite not making it as far into the playoffs as they would have hoped, they still finished in the 5th-6th place tier with the innovative approach to their gameplay. EG fans hope for even more improvement for the roster in this LCQ.
Both of these teams are hungry for the last North American spot after impressive turnaround performances during Stage Two.
The teams began the game on Icebox, a map where EG have made a home for themselves this year. FaZe mixed up their composition, putting babybay on Raze in hope of him making a big impact. And though he may not have made as big of a splash as the team had hoped, the first half was still a one-sided affair.
Small mistakes hindered EG in their defensive half, like C0M accidentally hitting reformed with a shock dart to take out his own teammate and Boostio being caught with his knife out to peek an angle. The half ended with FaZe on top, 8–4.
Fortunately for EG, they kicked themselves back into gear after their mistakes and returned to their signature attack-oriented, innovative style, taking risks to put together an incredible second half to take Icebox 13–11. FaZe continued with their trend of giving up first-half leads that has plagued them this year.
EG started Breeze by losing a pistol round, something the team isn’t used to. They have the best pistol round win rate in NA and continued to stumble through the next few rounds before finally regaining confidence.
Boostio dominated the first half and led EG up 8–4.
Once again, it wasn’t the duelists making the most impact for their teams. On this map, Reformed and Boostio were the difference makers. But FaZe fired back and didn’t let the map get away from them this time, and were able to take Breeze after four rounds of overtime, 15–13.
Much like the rest of the series, Ascent continued to be a closely contested back-and-forth battle. The score was even after the first half, and both sides traded blows back and forth in the second half, taking us to another overtime. After splitting the five OT periods with a string of consecutive successful attack rounds, FaZe finally secured a round on defense thanks to dicey’s trusty Operator, taking Ascent, 19–17.
With the win, FaZe moves on in the upper bracket while EG drops down to the lower.
