FaZe defeated Dignitas and knocked them out of the Overwatch Open in two straight maps, recovering from their loss the day before.

Dignitas came out on top against the FaZe squad in the first round of Group A, surprising the analysts. Their recent roster shifts found them return to form but they still couldn’t crack NiP to top the group. A rematch was on the cards in the Decider Match for the group after FaZe shockingly knocked out REUNITED. They had proven that they could beat the best in Europe’s talent.

Both teams had to win this match to progress in the tournament and both had opposing map preferences. FaZe had excelled on Control maps whereas Dignitas had done poorly, and FaZe had lost on King’s Row and Gibraltar the day before; the map veto process left Eichenwalde, Route 66, and Hollywood. It was one of the first fixtures of the tournament that massively depended on the veto process and Dignitas appeared to have out-drafted their opponents.

Eichenwalde

Eichenwalde didn’t play into the Control strengths of FaZe, but it certainly let their superstar player ShaDowBurn play a lot of his powerful Pharah and Genji. He began on offense alongside Rawkus on Mercy but the first push couldn’t find any picks. A beautiful Graviton by zombs was followed up by ShaDowBurn and TwoEasy to wipe out Dignitas and unleash the battering ram.

Draceus got a clutch sleep onto a very angry Dr. FCTFCTN to keep his team on the high ground, but in the commotion TwoEasy slipped in and finished off three. Dignitas looked to be taking an even fight around the gate but a sight mispositioning from Rawkus caused him to go down before using the Resurrect. FaZe looked to be sticking with Mercy though as a way of getting through the incredibly chokey hall.

Eichenwalde games all throughout the tournament had been won and lost on one single push toward the throne. It simply did not matter that FaZe were slow to get there, giving themselves the minimum of 90 seconds to push last. All they had to do was convert a single push to a good distance. Their ultimate situation was less than ideal and they had already moved away from Mercy to Ana, but they kept rolling in from their first push. FaZe kept the cart moving in overtime with another great Graviton and the carry power of a ridiculous Dragon Blade. ShaDowBurn annihilated the competition alongside FCTFCTN to complete the map and set a difficult distance for Dignitas to beat.

A PharMercy duel at the beginning of the round saw ShaDowBurn again assert his dominance over Toxiken. TwoEasy picked Draceus immediately on Ana to stop the next push in its tracks but his team still wasted two important ultimates. TwoEasy had to dig deep to save the engagement at a huge ult disadvantage but came up with the goods, finding five kills on McCree with excellent aim.

Bromas was absolutely outclassed on the McCree battle and the dual threat of the hitscan and projectile was just way too much for Dignitas to deal with. They hard carried their teams to be within seconds of a fantastic shutout on the first point of Eichenwalde, but just couldn’t hold off the last desperate push. It was still a good defensive time to set and Dignitas had less than four minutes to complete the entire map.

One good defense on the bridge sealed the deal for FaZe. Everybody expected ShaDowBurn to turn up on Eichenwalde but 2easy proved himself as a carry talent for his team. FaZe took one step further on their journey.

Route 66

FaZe began on the attack with ShaDowBurn and TwoEas on Genji and Tracer, going for a dive composition alongside FCTFCTN’s Winston and Forsak3n’s Zenyatta. The Transcendence, built over three prior failed pushes, let FaZe capture the first checkpoint and they had ultimates to keep rolling forward.

FCTFCTN showed good timing on Winston to aid his dps players and they constantly seemed able to find lone targets from Dignitas. While Dignitas’ focus fire seemed to work when on the attack, when they were pushed backwards or tried to hold strong they got picked apart. With 30 seconds left a Zen ult let them through the warehouse as zombs hit another great Graviton to trap and kill four. FaZe completed the map in overtime.

FaZe again favoured the Zenyatta from Forsak3n, giving him full use of the Harmony to aid ShaDowBurn and access to game-changing ultimates. It didn’t work on the first defense though as numlocked strolled in with Linkzr to anticipate the collapse and wipe FaZe; Linkzr moved forward with Blossom to see if he could open a hole on second but was too far away to stop a huge Dragon Blade. SDB took no prisoners and delayed the offense for another twenty seconds.

FaZe got into a real rhythm, using two ultimates to win each teamfight, keeping two for the next, and building two more up. It gave them ammunition to beat back Dignitas for five minutes and even when numlocked motivated his team to a capture of second, they couldn’t make any progress in the warehouse. Dignitas got put into the meatgrinder by FaZe, who had stepped up their fundamentals and added two superstars into the mix for a deadly mix.

FaZe got revenge for the second time in their group, and Dignitas were knocked out of the tournament. FaZe were set up to take on Rogue next in the playoffs.