Cloud9 have booked the first spot in the DreamHack Masters Marseille playoffs after defeating FaZe 2-0 in Group A's winners' match.

The first series of the day began on Overpass, Cloud9's map pick, where a clean B execution gave the North Americans the first pistol round of the series. After losing both eco rounds, FaZe responded in a buy round, but Cloud9 hit back immediately thanks to a triple-kill from Tyler "⁠Skadoodle⁠" Latham to reset the Europeans' economy.

Pujan "⁠FNS⁠" Mehta's side continued racking up rounds, never giving FaZe a chance to build up an economy, with the scoreline blooming to a 9-2 advantage for the North Americans. It was only then that FaZe managed to put their foot down and hold Cloud9 off, with the final four rounds of the half going the CTs' way.

Cloud9 further added to their lead by taking the pistol round in convincing fashion on the back of a quad-kill from Timothy "⁠autimatic⁠" Ta. The 21-year-old would come up huge once again just a few rounds later as he added four more kills to his name to put C9 on map point.

Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač then decided that he would turn things around and pulled off two massive clutches, one of them in a 1v4 situation, to rescue FaZe and keep the team in the game. It looked like the Europeans would take the game to overtime, but all of a sudden they got wiped out in the 29th round.

Cloud9 through to the playoffs

Next up was Mirage, where FaZe took the pistol round with ease and followed that up with a surprisingly hard-fought anti-eco. With money in the bank after a bomb plant, Cloud9 were able to respond in a third-round buy, setting themselves up for a 3-2 lead. What followed was a scrappy period of play as neither side could string more than a few rounds together, but the North Americans dominated the final stages of the half to secure a 9-6 lead

FaZe came out of the break with all guns blazing and quickly retook the lead. A 1v3 clutch from Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard in the 21st round came as a devastating blow for Cloud9's economy, but the North Americans managed to respond in the following round thanks to double kills from Skadoodle and Tarik "⁠tarik⁠" Celik with CZs.

That ended up being the turning point in the game: Cloud9 strengthened up their defence and won five of the next six rounds to hit match point at 15-13. FaZe then showed that they were still not out of it with a fast A execution, taking the game to the 30th round and leaving Cloud9's players strapped for cash. All that FaZe had to do was to make the most of their weaponry advantage, but they once again collapsed at the final hurdle, allowing the North Americans to win the last round with nothing but CZs and a Scout.

DreamHack Masters Marseille 2018Best of 3 FaZeMatchpage 0 2 19th April 2018 Cloud9 13Overpass 16 14Mirage 16

FaZe	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Nikola 'NiKo' KovačNiKo	55 - 40	+15	87.9	1.36
Håvard 'rain' Nygaardrain	46 - 43	+3	89.0	1.28
Ladislav 'GuardiaN' KovácsGuardiaN	37 - 41	-4	58.1	0.92
Richard 'Xizt' LandströmXizt	26 - 43	-17	66.2	0.82
Finn 'karrigan' Andersenkarrigan	31 - 46	-15	67.8	0.80

Cloud9	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Timothy 'autimatic' Taautimatic	48 - 39	+9	85.8	1.21
Tarik 'tarik' Celiktarik	46 - 42	+4	95.6	1.19
Tyler 'Skadoodle' LathamSkadoodle	43 - 33	+10	75.1	1.17
William 'RUSH' WierzbaRUSH	42 - 39	+3	83.0	1.15
Pujan 'FNS' MehtaFNS	33 - 42	-9	61.2	0.87

Tyler 'Skadoodle' Latham Age: 24 Team: Cloud9 Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 938 KPR: 0.68 DPR: 0.58 Pujan 'FNS' Mehta Age: 26 Team: Cloud9 Rating 1.0: 0.90 Maps played: 710 KPR: 0.62 DPR: 0.69 Håvard 'rain' Nygaard Age: 23 Team: FaZe Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 846 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.69 Tarik 'tarik' Celik Age: 22 Team: Cloud9 Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 861 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.68 FaZe #1 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenRichard 'Xizt' LandströmLadislav 'GuardiaN' KovácsNikola 'NiKo' KovačHåvard 'rain' Nygaard Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač Age: 21 Team: FaZe Rating 1.0: 1.17 Maps played: 821 KPR: 0.81 DPR: 0.68 Cloud9 #4 Pujan 'FNS' MehtaTyler 'Skadoodle' LathamWilliam 'RUSH' WierzbaTarik 'tarik' CelikTimothy 'autimatic' Ta Timothy 'autimatic' Ta Age: 21 Team: Cloud9 Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 760 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.67