Prédiction de match: sAw - FaZe Clan {{Counter-Strike (CS2)

Welcome to EGamersWorld.

The big Counter-Strike 2 event is heating up. And the main donor of beautiful matches with juicy rounds and epic comebacks this August is IEM Cologne 2024.

At the Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) 2024, the Long Cologne play-offs stage of the championship is getting ready. We are interested in the second match of the first round of the main stage of IEM Cologne 2024 - the match FaZe - sAw.

We are trying to figure out who from the pair FaZe - sAw will be stronger and will pass to the next round, where the winner of this match is already waiting for Vitality.

Let's go.

FaZe Clan uniform

Let's open the analysis of the match FaZe Clan - sAw with the analysis of FaZe Clan's form. In this match they play in the status of favourite with odds to win around 1.3.

One of the most stable teams of the season has quite an extensive record in the first half of the year. However, it predominantly 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 coped with it: 2-1 in favour of the champions of IEM Sydney 2023.

At CS Asia Championship 2023 FaZe confidently made it to the play-offs through Group B. Having taken the unquestionable TOP-1 position 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 couldn't cope with the tension, but made it to the TOP-8.

At CS Asia Championship 2024 FaZe confidently made it 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 Sogpeg started off with a win over Team Liquid, but went on to Ledge or Vitality in the play-offs. Falling into the bottom set of IEM Cologne 2024, FaZe outscored Falcons 2-0, and then won in what was by far the best match at the tournament, comingback against Liquid from a 3-12 deficit.

FaZe Clan Mapple

FaZe's best 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 playing on Vertigo.

Form sAw.

Let's continue the analysis of the match sAw - FaZe Clan with the analysis of sAw's form. In this match they play as an outsider with odds to win around 3.1.

They started the year with qualifications for ESL Pro League Season 17: European Conference. There they shared the top 1. Then there were two Top 4s at CCT South Europe Series #2 and OMEN WGR Challenge 2023.

There were also appearances at major championships, such as ESL Pro League Season 17. However, it was not possible to get a high result, only TOP-28, but the experience of the game.

Later sAw took the top 8 at CCT North Europe Series #4, top 4 at ESL Challenger League Season 44: Europe. In April 2023, sAw played at BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023: European RMR A, but failed to rise above the TOP-16. But they managed to do it later, at local tournaments.

This was the case at Masters League Portugal Season 11: Online, where sAw won the trophy by beating For the Win in the final. This was the case at ESL Masters Espana Season 13: Onilne Stage, ESL Masters Espana Season 13, CCT West Europe #4.

• Composition sAw: MUTiRiS, rmn, ewjerkz, story, arrozdoce.

Before taking part in CCT Online Finals #5 sAw played a lot of championships and, to be fair, they were good almost everywhere. They took top 2 at Thunderpick World Championship 2023: European Series #2, CCT North Europe Series #6, Aveiro Techdays Cup 2023, Master League Portugal Season 12: Online Stage.

We also played in big tournaments, such as Thunderpick World Championship 2023, where unfortunately for us we couldn't rise above TOP-12. At the end of November we won Master League Portugal Season 12 and XL Games Clash 2023.

CCT Online Finals #5 sAw Long Sogpeg were very confident. They easily ran over Team Space in the first round of the top set, winning 2-0. What came next was more difficult.

In the second round of CCT Online Finals #5 sAw met Aurora, who were stronger than the Portuguese. The match lasted 3 maps and sAw even won the first one, but it didn't go any further and as a result Aurora reached the semi-finals winning their series 1-2.

In the match for the third round of play-offs CCT Online #5 sAw met Zero Tenacity. The Portuguese had no problems passing their vis-a-vis, closing the series with a score of 2-0. Next was the same confident victory over Red Canids, but after that - a flight to the top 6 of the tournament after a loss from 9Pandas.

Before playing at PGL CS2 Major Copenhagen 2024 Europe RMR sAw played at YaLLa Compass Fall 2023, where they finished in the top 12. Already in 2024 they qualified for PGL CS2 Major Copenhagen 2024 Europe RMR, finishing in the Top 4 of PGL CS2 Major Copenhagen 2024 European Qualifier Top 4, and also attended the local event RTP Arena Cup 2024, where they easily finished in the Top 1.

PGL CS2 Major Copenhagen 2024 sAw started as one of the favourites for the Opening Stage and at first it seemed so: they went through the first two rounds with wins, but then a disorienting defeat by C9 and a seemingly funeral defeat against paiN with a score of 0-2. In the end, sAw Ledgeili FURIA went 0-2, ignominiously leaving the first World Championship in Counter-Strike 2 history.

ESL Pro League Season 19 started with an upsetting defeat to 3DMAX after two lengthy maps with extra rounds on each. Then - 0-2 against Virtus.pro and falling to the bottom of the grid. Finally sAw managed to get their heads together and win the most important match against Imperial. However, that was the end of it all: a loss to VP and a final top-20 finish.

Later sAw played several championships, such as at BLAST Premier: Spring Final 2024, where they finished in the top 8 and at CCT Season 2 European Series #6 with a final top 4.

At the Intel Extreme Masters: Cologne 2024 the sAw team can be called the tournament opener. The Portuguese club made it through their group by beating G2 2-0 and MongolZ 2-1, but fell to Ledge and NaVi 1-2 in the play-offs seeding match.

Mappool sAw.

The most successful map for sAw is Nuke, where the Spaniards have 3 wins with 1 loss. Followed by Vertigo with a score of 2-1 and Ancient with a score of 3-2.

Neutral choices are Inferno and Anubis. Both maps have been played 4 times and on both maps the stats are 2-2.

The worst situation is on Overpass, where sAw won 2 matches out of 6.

History of FaZe - sAw head-to-head meetings

In 2024 the teams have already played each other on BLAST Premier: Spring Final 2024. Then FaZe celebrated a clean victory.

Predicted result of the match FaZe - sAw at IEM Cologne 2024

On paper, there is a serious gap in the level of the teams in this match. FaZe is disproportionately "more massive" in terms of experience in major championships, results, but sAw can offer them boldness and good personal wagering. I doubt that sAw's personal qualities will help to take the series, but I would like to see at least a taken card from the Portuguese, although the probability of this is very low.

Bottom line: +1.5 on sAw.