Already after the successful semi-final against Movistar Riders, FaZe captain Finn “karrigan” Andersen had said on stage that the winner of the final would be considered the best team in the world. “If you look at the results, we won four tournaments, one Cloud9, and one Navi. There is no discussion that we are the best team,” he said now at “HLTV.org”.

As a best-of-five, the final already differed significantly from the major final, where FaZe had to prevail against Navi only over three cards. “This is the reason why we need best-of-five finals. Why do you want the series to end after three games?” said FaZe player Russell “Twistzz” van Dulken in an interview with “eSports1”. “It has to go the full distance if you want to see the best Counter-Strike.”

IEM Cologne: Here’s how the games went in the finals

FaZe initially took the lead on Inferno, but lost the second map Overpass to Navi, which even a strong three-on-one clutch from Twistzz couldn’t change. On the third map Ancient Navi already made FaZe look like beaten, even the support from the audience slowly died down. The comeback only almost succeeded when FaZe won 11 rounds in a row after 15:4 to euphoric cheers from the fans, but Navi managed to catch himself again in overtime.

FaZe was thus under a lot of pressure on Mirage, one of Navi’s best maps. But the team took control from the start, and even on the stronger defender side Navi managed little. The decision thus had to come in a fifth game, which the German-Danish karrigan used energetically to encourage the crowd to clap, inciting the fans in favor of FaZe.

Twistzz leads FaZe to victory

As a strong card from both teams, an exciting game was guaranteed on Nuke, which turned into a close battle despite FaZe taking a half-time lead. The difference was made by Twistzz, who finished off two unprepared Navi players in the blink of an eye in the penultimate round, opening the door to victory for FaZe.

“Our coach had set the round before, and I thought it would be perfect to repeat it. Why would they expect such crazy tactics again?” said Twistzz at “eSports1”. “When you get the first kills of the round and the crowd goes wild, it’s such a special feeling.”

As pleased as FaZe was, Navi was equally disappointed, with the tournament’s most important player Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliw throwing his second-place medal into the audience in frustration. “I travel with my bag all the time, and I have no other place for the MVP trophy. I have too many medals in my bag,” he told “HLTV.org.”