FaZe Clan First To Fall In IEM Cologne 2024 Quarterfinals, SAW Victory

In what was an incredible way to kick off the IEM Cologne 2024 Playoffs, SAW took on IEM Chengdu champions FaZe Clan with the odds stacked against them. Nobody could predict  how SAW's performance would play out, least of all FaZe, evidently.

Beginning with FaZe's map pick, Inferno, it was SAW that proved dominant, securing a 13:6 victory that FaZe just couldn't match. With a fire lit underneath them, FaZe sought some retribution on SAW's Anubis pick, though the Portuguese team weren't going down easy. Anubis finished with a 11:13 win for FaZe, taking the LANXESS Arena to its first thrid map of the Playoffs.

Taking place on Nuke, a FaZe Clan favourite, the two teams felt evenly matched before a few aggressive plays took SAW to matchpoint with a lead. Thanks to a significant streak from FaZe, with the team's IGL Karrigan proving to be a particular standout, Nuke saw the teams head to Overtime. 

SAW's hunger for a place in the Semifinals eventually proved too much for FaZe, with an ending victory on Nuke landing SAW at 16:14. For FaZe, their time in the cathedral of Counter-Strike had come to an end, leaving the team with even more to think about following some shaky perfomances in recent tournaments. For SAW, however, it was history in the making, with the team advancing ever forward where they'll next take on Team Vitality in the Semifinals.