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Team Liquid have pulled off the first upset at MLG Columbus after defeating FaZe 16-11 on de_cache.

The first round of Group B at the MLG Columbus Major brought the first surprising result of the tournament as FaZe, semi-finalists at DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca while under G2, fell short against Liquid. The North American side punished FaZe for their mistakes and did so thanks to a dominant display from Eric "⁠adreN⁠" Hoag, who is acting as a substitute for the team after being left out of the starting roster with Kenneth "⁠koosta⁠" Suen's signing.

The map began with Liquid winning the pistol round with ease following an A push, and they followed it up with the resulting anti-eco rounds to start off the game with a 3-0 lead. Their fantastic run on the Terrorist side continued as Spencer "⁠Hiko⁠" Martin picked up four kills during a B hold to punish FaZe, who wasted a two-man lead.

After going on eco, FaZe were finally able to hold back the Americans, picking up two rounds in a row to reduce the deficit to 2-5, but then they were stunned by Liquid courtesy of a 1vs3 clutch from adreN. The 25-year-old would raise eyebrows just a few rounds later with another crucial quad-kill, with the scoreline blooming to an 8-2 advantage for the home side.

Liquid triumph over FaZe with a great performance from adreN

Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard then put FaZe back in the game with a quad kill, but Liquid hit back right after to reset the economy of their opponents. FaZe would call a tactical pause in a bid to halt Liquid's momentum, but the North American side kept their foot on the gas until the end of the half and took a commanding 12-3 lead.

The second half began with FaZe getting off to a blazing fast start, winning seven rounds in a row as Liquid struggled to keep up with the intensity of the Europeans. FaZe's winning streak then came to an end following a clean sweep from Liquid, who followed it would with another round thanks to a timely triple kill from Nick "⁠nitr0⁠" Cannella inside A.

With the scoreline 14-10 in favour of Liquid, FaZe responded and picked up a round, but Liquid remained in the driving seat and sealed the deal shortly later.

MLG Columbus 2016Best of 1 FaZeMatchpage 11 16 29th March 2016 Liquid 11Cache 16

Liquid	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Nick 'nitr0' Cannellanitr0	25 - 22	+3	100.9	1.44
Eric 'adreN' HoagadreN	22 - 13	+9	91.5	1.38
Spencer 'Hiko' MartinHiko	16 - 16	0	72.7	1.05
Jonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiEliGE	18 - 19	-1	76.1	1.04
Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostylievs1mple	15 - 16	-1	60.0	0.95

FaZe	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Håvard 'rain' Nygaardrain	23 - 19	+4	96.4	1.26
Ricardo 'fox' Pachecofox	17 - 17	0	82.6	1.04
Philip 'aizy' Aistrupaizy	19 - 20	-1	76.6	0.93
Mikail 'Maikelele' BillMaikelele	15 - 19	-4	69.7	0.86
Joakim 'jkaem' Myrbostadjkaem	9 - 21	-12	36.8	0.52

Kenneth 'koosta' Suen Age: 19 Team: Liquid Rating 1.0: 1.11 Maps played: 162 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.66 Spencer 'Hiko' Martin Age: 26 Team: Liquid Rating 1.0: 1.12 Maps played: 399 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.60 Nick 'nitr0' Cannella Age: 20 Team: Liquid Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 310 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.68 Håvard 'rain' Nygaard Age: 21 Team: FaZe Rating 1.0: 1.06 Maps played: 317 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.71 Eric 'adreN' Hoag Age: 25 Team: Liquid Rating 1.0: 0.98 Maps played: 326 KPR: 0.65 DPR: 0.64