FaZe falls victim to 9–3 VALORANT curse twice in the same series, lose opening NA VCT Stage 2 playoffs match to 100 Thieves

In as stellar as an opening playoff series as you can ask for, 100 Thieves somehow secured a victory against FaZe in the first round of the NA VCT Stage Two playoffs, despite trailing 9–3 at half-time in all three maps.

On Split, FaZe was a defensive nightmare 100T couldn’t wake up from. FaZe would consistently take aggressive mid control and relinquish sites, but would just punish 100T with retakes propelled by Neon, Breach, and KAY/O utility. 100T quickly reduced the deficit to just one round after a strong start to their defensive half and eventually took an 11–10 lead.

Bang led the way for 100T, turning a 3–9 deficit into a 13–9 victory, as the now-iconic 9–3 VALORANT curse struck again at the expense of the unlucky FaZe Clan.

Not deterred by their lack of success on offense on Split, FaZe came out rolling on their Fracture attack side, bolstered by another incredible performance by Dicey on Chamber. FaZe ended the first half leading by the daunting 9-3 scoreline again, pushed that lead up to 11–3 after taking the second half pistol on defense, and despite 100T flirting with another second comeback, FaZe was able to close out Fracture 13–7 to send the series to Icebox.

For the third straight map, Icebox, FaZe again jumped out to a huge lead.

FaZe found all manner of entry kills in seemingly every round, and closed out rounds with precise and overpowering post-plants, with babybay posting a server-high 20 kills en route to another 9–3 FaZe half-time lead. But, like on map one, 100T began to mount a comeback on the back of claiming the second half pistol, eventually forcing an 11–11 tie.

100T claimed a 12–11 advantage after a risky rotate all the way to A and went straight back to A again the next round to secure the improbable VALORANT series win.

FaZe led 9–3 at half-time in every map but still ended up falling short in the series, putting an end to an impressive three-match winning streak that saw them go from 0–2 in group stage to the Group B second seed.

Now the beaten FaZe roster falls down to the lower bracket and will face NRG tomorrow. 100 Thieves moves on to take on XSET in the upper bracket semifinal.