‘Power and hype’ of Katowice fuels frozen as FaZe crush G2 in first IEM quarter-final

FaZe confidently swept away G2’s chance to win back-to-back Katowice titles, cruelly eliminating the reigning champions today. Under the guidance of Counter-Strike legend and IGL karrigan, David “frozen” Čerňanský came into his own, telling Dot Esports and their opponents the FaZe squad is “dangerous.”

For a brief moment, G2 appeared to make a positive start at the Spodek. However, their comfortable start was short-lived. Frozen broke down how FaZe could rapidly rebound from the first few rounds to Dot, explaining they were likely aiming to play slowly, gradually building a lead. “They were leading four rounds to zero, but they were playing very passive,” he said. “The solution for us was to be a little bit more aggressive.”

Once FaZe settled into this pattern of aggression, G2’s fate was sealed. Each round, the relaxed confidence of karrigan further contrasted G2 Niko’s increasingly fiery frustration. Fistbumps on one side of the stage were desk slams on the other as FaZe leveraged their team dynamic to become an imposing force. For frozen, the team “combined” and “finished the rounds together” until it “felt like we were just running over them.” 

Despite confidently taking the first win at the Spodek, frozen also expressed the team is in no way leaving the stage with an egotistical attitude. “I don’t think it is the best performance we could have put up,” he admitted. “I think there is so much we could have done better in that game.” 

A constructive attitude is clearly valuable to FaZe. Frozen also confirmed they had religiously studied every group stage game, taking lessons from every success or misstep that led them to the playoffs. These takeaways were successfully implemented throughout today’s game, while G2 perhaps needs to return to the drawing board. However, at the core of frozen’s success is the “power and hype” of Katowice. With a glint of excitement and energy, he noted the atmosphere was “something that feeds you as a player,” and a tool that “you can just use as fuel.”

FaZe will return to the Spodek stage for their semifinal match against MOUZ on Saturday, Feb. 10, a match frozen is looking forward to. “I expect a good match,” he said. If it goes anything like today, we expect him to make good on that promise.