Late-round heroics push FaZe over the line v. Sangal at Roman Imperium Cup IX

FaZe's first match at Roman Imperium Cup IX was in the upper bracket quarterfinals, as the top-seeded team. Their opponents, Sangal, came into the playoffs from a play-in match following the group stage.

Both teams stole each other's map pick before FaZe narrowly avoided an upset loss, winning on Cache thanks to timely multi-kills from Russell "Twistzz" Van Dulken and Jakub "jcobbb" Pietruszewski.

Also read: Media: Astralis look to add cmtry as a rifler as multiple contracts approach expiration Dust2 was the first map and FaZe's pick. Despite going down 0-3, Sangal found their groove in the game to take a 7-5 lead after their CT-side.

The close affair continued into the second half, with neither team finding the win in regulation. Overtime saw Sangal steal FaZe's map, taking D2 16-13 and pulling ahead 1-0 in the series. With a potential upset on the cards, Sangal's pick was Nuke.

FaZe weren't interested in losing here, though, as they stormed ahead to an 8-4 lead in the stronger defensive half.

Sangal at Roman Imperium Cup IX PURE's map pick of Ancient saw them win both pistol rounds, but FaZe finished both halves the stronger of the two teams.

A six-round streak capped by a Jakub "jcobbb" Pietruszewski 4K gave them the victory in the series opener. Surprisingly, PURE won nine rounds straight to lead the first half of Mirage 9-3.

FaZe put up their own nine-round streak on the CT side, reaching matchpoint before PURE managed to secure overtime, largely due to Zahar "Polbandana" Siledchyk's important 3K in round 23.

The extra series of rounds were close, but FaZe prevailed 16-14 to complete the sweep and advance to the upper final, as jcobbb dropped 31 kills in the highly contested final map.

Led by IGL Twistzz's calling, FaZe put together a great T-side to keep Sangal at arm's length and win the map 13-7, evening up the series.