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fnatic are through to the quarter-finals of MLG Columbus after defeating FaZe 2-0 (16-10 on Mirage and 16-6 on Cobblestone).

The series kicked off on Mirage, where fnatic got off to a flying start, winning the pistol round without dropping a single player and following it up with seven more rounds to get out to an impressive 8-0 lead. FaZe then finally replied and picked up three rounds in a row thanks to some crucial opening kills inside A. The rest of the half was highly contested as rounds went back and forth, with fnatic taking a 10-5 lead to the break.

Fnatic picked up where they left off and took the pistol round as Terrorist with an A push, with Freddy "⁠KRIMZ⁠" Johansson getting three kills to his name. After also dropping both eco rounds, FaZe were able to hit back in the opening gun round, only to have their economy reset in the following round as Jesper "⁠JW⁠" Wecksell pulled off a 1vs2 clutch with the bomb planted.

The Swedes would go on to bring it to map point, but FaZe rallied back on a force buy to keep themselves in the game. The former G2 side would be able to bring the scoreline to 10-15 but then they got caught out by fnatic in a Desert Eagle push.

fnatic to face Astralis in the last-eight

The map that followed was Cobblestone, which FaZe had rarely played since the creation of the team, almost a year ago. Still, it was the European team who earned bragging rights during the early stages of the map as they strolled to a 3-0 lead.

After fnatic bought up, the impetus of the game changed completely as they won eight of the next eight rounds to force FaZe to call a tactical pause. But with a very limited stratbook to work with, the European mixture had to rely on a 1vs2 clutch from Joakim "⁠jkaem⁠" Myrbostad to claim one more round before the end of the half, with fnatic enjoying a commanding 10-5 lead before swapping sides.

fnatic piled more pressure on FaZe by winning the pistol round and the following anti-ecos. FaZe still tried to respond in gun play but they were simply outclassed by fnatic, who would go on to close out the map while giving up just one round.

MLG Columbus 2016Best of 3 FaZeMatchpage 0 2 31st March 2016 fnatic 10Mirage 16 6Cobblestone 16

fnatic	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Jesper 'JW' WecksellJW	39 - 30	+9	97.9	1.40
Freddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonKRIMZ	42 - 25	+17	85.4	1.32
Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjerolofmeister	41 - 29	+12	87.5	1.26
Dennis 'dennis' Edmandennis	42 - 28	+14	79.0	1.22
Robin 'flusha' Rönnquistflusha	32 - 27	+5	86.6	1.19

FaZe	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Håvard 'rain' Nygaardrain	31 - 43	-12	81.6	0.99
Philip 'aizy' Aistrupaizy	29 - 38	-9	77.9	0.91
Ricardo 'fox' Pachecofox	29 - 38	-9	59.7	0.83
Joakim 'jkaem' Myrbostadjkaem	28 - 39	-11	59.6	0.76
Mikail 'Maikelele' BillMaikelele	22 - 39	-17	61.4	0.64

This result means that FaZe are unable to repeat their playoff appearance from DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca as they finish third of their group, while fnatic are through to the quarter-finals, in which they will face Astralis.

Joakim 'jkaem' Myrbostad Age: 22 Team: FaZe Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 253 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.71 Freddy 'KRIMZ' Johansson Age: 21 Team: fnatic Rating 1.0: 1.10 Maps played: 648 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.61 Jesper 'JW' Wecksell Age: 21 Team: fnatic Rating 1.0: 1.10 Maps played: 819 KPR: 0.77 DPR: 0.67