On the night of June 11, FaZe Clan, along with Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev, advanced to the third stage of the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 in CS2. The team managed to avoid repeating Team Falcons` mistake and overcame the Brazilian team MIBR, sending them home.
Similar to the Falcons match, this confrontation went into overtime, but this time MIBR couldn`t capitalize on luck, perhaps having spent it in their previous game. It was particularly pleasing to watch Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev, who demonstrated his characteristic hunger for kills. This article covers Kostyliev`s performance and FaZe`s progression.
The first map didn`t start ideally for FaZe, with a quick pistol round loss and the score reaching 0:2. However, they secured the first buy round thanks to crucial opening kills and a smart play from Håvard “rain” Nygaard. The fourth round brought back memories of the Falcons match: in a 1v2 clutch, Felipe “insani” Yuji cleverly used the attack`s smoke to his advantage, sparking fears that MIBR`s luck from the previous day might reappear.
Fortunately, FaZe soon took the lead. In the tenth round, which could have tied the score, the duo of “s1mple” and “frozen” won a 2v4 situation. Their perfect execution, including a fantastic triple kill from Kostyliev and a precise one-tap from Chernyansky, seemed to completely dismantle MIBR on Anubis, as the Brazilians offered little resistance afterward.
MIBR completely crumbled on the attack side of Anubis (typically a strong side with a 55.4% T-side win rate), losing almost every clutch situation. Despite the dominant score on the first map, this didn`t guarantee an easy victory for Finn “karrigan” Andersen`s team. Falcons had also started strong against the Brazilians on the first map before ultimately losing. The second map in this series was extremely challenging, but FaZe succeeded where the tournament`s supposedly most expensive roster (implying Falcons) failed.
The second map started in the exact opposite way for FaZe. After losing three straight rounds, Lucas “Lucaozy” Neves`s team MIBR had a great chance to get on the scoreboard in the fourth. However, “karrigan” and “s1mple” had other ideas: another well-executed post-plant situation from FaZe kept a zero next to MIBR`s name. Although Andersen`s team dropped a couple of frustrating rounds by the end of the first half, making the score more favorable for the Brazilians, “s1mple” and company still looked more confident than their opponents.
But the joy was short-lived. With the score 7:5 in FaZe`s favor, the second-half pistol round seemed secured in a 4v2 situation. It looked like MIBR was done. However, a Molotov on the bomb, followed by the deaths of “s1mple” and “frozen”, “rain” trading with “Lucaozy”, led to a 1v1 between “insani” and “karrigan”. Andersen won the duel but ran out of time to defuse. This lost pistol round, despite a significant advantage, completely turned the match around and threatened to be fatal for FaZe. The saying “Don’t be a loser, buy a defuser” felt particularly relevant here.
Facing match point, FaZe Clan had no room for error. The 24th round was an emotional rollercoaster, deciding between continuing or losing the match. In a crucial 1v1 situation, Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski secured the round, forcing overtime. While just a few rounds earlier FaZe seemed to be crumbling and making basic mistakes, they regrouped in overtime, showing resilience and experience. Then, the “s1mple” everyone was waiting for stepped up. Kostyliev, displaying his renowned aggression and confidence, even charged an opponent with a knife.
In overtime, MIBR faltered and couldn`t replicate their surprise performance from the previous day. Perhaps they had used up all their luck against Falcons. “S1mple” put a definitive end to the match with a triple kill, securing FaZe Clan`s spot in the third stage of the Major, effectively “avenging” Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov and Nikola “NiKo” Kovač (Falcons players).
FaZe Clan successfully reached the next round, though not without challenges. After a strong 2-0 start, the team faced surprisingly tough opponents in Legacy (who surprised many and ruined their Pick`Ems) and 3DMAX, losing to the French team. However, Kostyliev, who stated after the 3DMAX loss “If we lose, blame only me,” backed up his words with a strong performance against MIBR.
Whether the team can surprise everyone and reach the playoffs remains an open question. Various factors could influence the outcome, including the Major atmosphere, the tournament bracket, and the unpredictability of the Bo1 format, where anything can happen and even the strongest teams aren`t immune to upsets. As of the article`s publication, it is known that FaZe`s first match in the third stage of BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 will be against Aurora Gaming. But FaZe Clan has certainly shown they can perform at a high level already.
The BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 is taking place from June 3 to June 22 in Austin, USA, featuring a $1.25 million prize pool.
Finley Holt