SK beat FaZe to win IEM Sydney

SK Gaming won IEM Sydney after defeating FaZe 3-1 in the final (16-12 on Train, 16-7 on Cache, 13-16 on Inferno and 16-11 on Overpass).

The series started with the Train card, the peak of the FaZe team, but SK looked much better on it when they won the first 3 rounds, after winning the gun with A split and three murders from Marcelo "coldzera" David on entering.

FaZe then won the first buy round with two key phrases from Havard "rain" Nygaard, but later the team had to make several economic consecutive because SK took the next round. In a similar way, the whole half passed as each time FaZe took a new round they were immediately replayed by the Brazilians and half ended with a score of 12-3.

The second half began with the victory of FaZe due to the demining of the bomb in the smoke. After installing the bomb, SK took their first round, which was economic, but they were stopped in the next round thanks to three incredible kills from Nikola "NiKo" Kovac.

After a small series from FaZe, SK were able to take the 14th round with three murders from Joao "felps" Vasconcellos, but FaZe were able to pick up the next round and the next two rounds. But SK was not going to let opponents return to the game, winning two rounds in a row, the second of which in a 2v4 situation, to take the card and take the lead in the series.

The next was Cache, first FaZe took the first three rounds, but as soon as it came to gun SK left no chance in the first half winning 11 of the 12 remaining rounds.

By swapping the sides, SK took the first round and began to dominate completely, if not for the fantastic deagle performed by NiKo. Faze were able to win two more rounds bringing the score to 13-7, but SK corrected errors in their defense and won the second card 16-7.

On inferno the beginning was excellent for FaZe, the team was able to take the first six rounds, thereby putting SK in a dangerous position. As soon as SK established their economy, the team was able to take the first round on the map due to three murders from coldzera and two victories in 1v1 situations from Fernando "fer" Alvarenga against Aleksi "allu" Jalli.

SK had little money, so after two close rounds, when FaZe won his seventh, the Brazilians had to save. The score went up to 9-3 in favor of FaZe and SK decided to take a tactical break, after which the team was able to take two rounds and finish half with a score of 5-10.

In the second half, the start was successful for SK and the team won 8 first rounds out of 10 and there was a feeling that SK's win in the pocket, if not for the 1v2 clutch from the rain, and then the European team scored a series of rounds and completed the card in their favor with the score 16-13.

The fourth card was Overpass and it started perfectly for SK, who took the pistol round, but could not hold the initiative, losing to opponents, where rain and NiKo gave two key disadvantages and began to dominate the map, as soon as SK began to intercept the initiative they immediately stopped Karrigan by making a ninja deface and remaining alive. The state on the map was very tense and half ended with a close score of 9-6 in favor of FaZe.

When the sides changed places, SK defense grew. They won the first five rounds to bring the score to 11-9 and force FaZe to take a tactical break. Since the economy was destroyed, the European team decided on the force and they managed to take the round thanks to the clutch 1v3 from the rain. This start resembled the repetition of the game Inferno, but this time SK did not let FaZe lead, winning five of the next six rounds, thereby winning the card with a score of 16-11.

Below you can see the statistics of players for the whole series of cards and the distribution of the prize pool between the teams