IEM Sydney 2018 Finals: FaZe Clan Defeats Astralis

IEM Sydney 2018 has concluded with a confident victory of FaZe Clan over Astralis with the 3-0 score. This victory granted FaZe Clan not only $100,000 in prize money, but also a point towards Intel Grand Slam award.

IEM Sydney 2018 was held on May 1-6 at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia. It featured 16 teams competing for a $250,000 prize pool. The tournament is also a part of Inter Grand Slam – a series of events organized by ESL or DreamHack with prize pool exceeding $200,000. The first team to win four event will get $1,000,000. The group stage featured two GSL groups of eight teams, with top three teams advancing to the playoffs – one to the semifinals and the other two to the quarterfinals. The playoffs stage was held in a single-elimination format, with quarterfinals and semifinals being best-of-three, and grand final being best-of-five.

FaZe Clan qualified for the playoffs quarterfinals by placing 3rd in Group A after defeating Cloud9 (2-0) in the lower bracket finals, while Astralis managed to place first in Group B by winning against Fnatic (2-0) in the final of the upper bracket. In the playoffs FaZe Clan outplayed Fnatic (2-0) and TyLoo (2-1), while Astralis only had to win one series against mousesports, which they did (2-1). Although the score in all three maps (Cache, Overpass, Train) in grand finals was very close, Astralis failed to secure a single map, losing the series 0-3 to FaZe Clan, who received $100,000 in prize money and a point towards Intel Grand Slam award. Earlier FaZe Clan emerged victorious at ESL One: New York 2017, so they have already two points and now share the first place in Grand Slam rankings with SK Gaming, who are the champions of ESL One: Cologne 2017 and ESL Pro League Season 6 Finals.

Playoffs Bracket:

Tournament Results: