Fresh off an ESL Pro League win and Intel Grand Slam, Faze does not plan on stopping as they head to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with sixteen other teams.
Looking at bet365’s outright odds, the line for Faze Clan is at 4.00. Meanwhile, ESL Pro League S17 runner-up Cloud9 is coming in with odds of 5.00, tied with Danish organization Heroic.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: April 5th, 9:00 P.M. (EST)
Faze Clan notably won ESL Pro League S17 against Cloud9 in a very dominant 3-1 victory, only losing in Mirage that was the third map of the series. The convincing playoff run led to their long-awaited Intel Grand Slam win that granted the players a total of US$1 million.
The historic run started during last year’s IEM Katowice, the first event the team won after bringing in ropz to the roster to complete the super-team. This makes North American rifler Twistzz the first ever player to win the Grand Slam twice after winning four ESL events in quick succession with Team Liquid during his tenure with the team.
Meanwhile, the addition of Buster for Cloud9 has slowly come into fruition. The team is slowly building chemistry as they are getting used to their new spots. The roster has been grinding it out after falling to Faze Clan in the grand finals. Playing two qualifiers and an online tournament all at the same time, they have shown splendid results. They have since qualified for IEM Dallas to defend their title. They also made it to the BLAST Spring Finals as well as winning an online tournament against Forze in quick 2-0 fashion.
Meanwhile, Heroic has had a bit of a rough go at things, losing to Navi 2-0 after doing well in the playoffs to give them a head start into the quarter-finals. The team has been firing on all cylinders and have really clicked in terms of finding their individual form with the likes of Stavn, Teses, Sjuush, and Jabbi all making significant contributions in the server.
As competitive as the line up is for IEM Rio, the competition sees a lot of missing top teams that can make way for potential underdog runs. Household organizations like Team Liquid, Astralis, and most notably G2 will be watching the event from their homes as they failed to qualify for the event.
Will Faze Clan continue their winning ways? Or will Cloud9 finally dethrone the kings of Counter Strike once and for all?
