FaZe and Astralis pushed into elimination clash after Stake Ranked Episode 4 upsets

FaZe and Astralis will face each other for survival at Stake Ranked Episode 4 after both lost their opening series on October 1. Nemiga defeated FaZe 2–0, while Alliance overcame Astralis 2–1 despite a heavy defeat on the second map.

The results immediately put the tournament’s two highest-ranked teams under pressure. For FaZe, the setback also carries significance in the race for a Singapore Major invitation: Nemiga are a direct competitor for qualification. BIG and Luminosity won the other opening matches, completing an upper bracket in which neither FaZe nor Astralis remains.

The eight-team LAN runs in Barcelona from October 1–4, with a $100,000 prize pool and a double-elimination bracket. Opening defeats therefore leave a route back into contention, but another loss ends the tournament.

Opening match	Result	Map scores, winner first
Nemiga vs. FaZe	2–0	Mirage 16–12, Ancient 13–11
Alliance vs. Astralis	2–1	Inferno 16–14, Cache 5–13, Nuke 13–10
Luminosity vs. B8	2–0	Inferno 13–11, Mirage 13–10
BIG vs. fnatic	2–1	Ancient 11–13, Inferno 13–11, Mirage 13–9

FaZe’s Mirage lead disappears after the switch

FaZe had an excellent opportunity to take Nemiga’s Mirage pick. They established a 9–2 lead and reached halftime ahead 9–3, only to collect three attacking rounds in regulation. Nemiga forced overtime and won all four additional rounds to complete a 16–12 comeback.

The opening-duel totals finished level at 14–14, while FaZe won four clutches to Nemiga’s two. Those figures suggest the defeat cannot be explained simply by a shortage of first kills or individual round-saving moments. FaZe’s defensive advantage failed to translate into enough rounds after the side switch.

Xant3r was the standout for Nemiga, finishing Mirage with 26 kills, 101.5 ADR and a 1.51 Rating 3.0. His damage output gave Nemiga a sustained threat through a map that initially appeared to be slipping away.

robo takes over as Nemiga close Ancient

Ancient, FaZe’s selection, offered a chance to reset the series. Instead, Nemiga recovered from a 0–3 start to win the first half 7–5, then extended their advantage to 10–5. FaZe fought back to 11–12 before Nemiga secured the final round.

The opening exchanges were more favorable to Nemiga here: they recorded 14 first kills against FaZe’s 10. robo led the map with 23 kills, 100.0 ADR and a 1.43 rating, including five opening kills.

That change in the leading performer mattered. Nemiga followed Xant3r’s exceptional Mirage with a decisive contribution from robo on Ancient, giving them different sources of firepower across the sweep. FaZe’s recovery made the closing score narrow, but never put them ahead in the second half.

Player	Team	K–D	ADR	KAST	Rating 3.0
syph0	Nemiga	37–32	81.6	71.2%	1.25
Xant3r	Nemiga	38–30	84.9	71.2%	1.25
robo	Nemiga	43–34	92.7	80.8%	1.22
KaiR0N-	Nemiga	35–33	71.7	61.5%	1.06
khaN	Nemiga	29–30	55.7	69.2%	0.98
Twistzz	FaZe	39–36	80.6	63.5%	1.12
Neityu	FaZe	33–38	74.1	65.4%	0.91
JBOEN	FaZe	28–35	60.1	61.5%	0.91
frozen	FaZe	27–34	64.1	57.7%	0.81
jcobbb	FaZe	32–40	59.2	61.5%	0.80

Nemiga’s series statistics underline that distribution: three players finished above a 1.20 rating, and four recorded positive kill-death differences. Twistzz was FaZe’s only player above a 1.00 rating and their only player with more kills than deaths.

frozen’s 0.81 and jcobbb’s 0.80 left FaZe short of the support needed to turn competitive scorelines into map victories. These are opening-match figures, however, rather than evidence of a tournament-long individual trend.

Alliance survive two deficits and a Cache rout

Alliance’s victory followed a different pattern. They recovered from 6–10 in regulation and 12–14 in overtime to take Inferno 16–14, despite losing the opening-duel battle 9–21. Their ability to win rounds after conceding the first kill proved crucial.

Astralis answered emphatically on their Cache pick, winning 13–5. ryu and Staehr both posted 1.53 ratings, while jabbi contributed 17 kills and a 1.49 rating. Astralis had contributions throughout the lineup, but that performance did not carry through to the decider.

Alliance trailed 5–9 on Nuke before winning eight of the final nine rounds to close the series 13–10. Astralis finished with just three second-half rounds. jabbi led their overall series statistics with 52–44 and a 1.16 rating, but the convincing middle-map victory could not compensate for losing both close maps.

afro and Rainwaker power Luminosity past B8

Luminosity advanced with 13–11 and 13–10 victories on Inferno and Mirage. afro produced a 1.59 series rating with 41–22 and 89.4% KAST, while Rainwaker added 44 kills, 98.6 ADR and a 1.43 rating.

Their contributions were especially valuable because Luminosity’s other three players finished below a 1.00 rating. On Mirage, afro reached 26–11 and a 2.05 rating, providing the decisive individual performance on B8’s pick.

B8 had a strong performer of their own in esenthial, who recorded 43–33, 90.0 ADR and a 1.37 rating. His output kept the series competitive, but Luminosity’s leading pair delivered enough to finish without a decider.

BIG recover from a map down

BIG took the longer route, losing Ancient 11–13 before winning Inferno 13–11 and Mirage 13–9.

Inferno was the pivotal recovery. BIG entered halftime 4–8 behind, then won the second half 9–3 to keep the series alive. Mirage was level at 6–6 before BIG pulled away with seven of the next ten rounds.

blameF led their series with 53–37, 84.0 ADR and a 1.23 rating. JDC and faveN supplied additional scoring, finishing with 50 and 51 kills respectively. For fnatic, cairne led with a 1.12 rating, while fEAR ended the series at 23–48 and 0.64.

One of the leading seeds will leave on day two

FaZe and Astralis enter their October 2 elimination match with 0–1 series records. FaZe have yet to win a map, while Astralis hold a 1–2 map record after their victory on Cache.

The other lower-bracket opener pairs B8 with fnatic. Above them, Luminosity meet BIG and Alliance face Nemiga in the upper-bracket semi-finals.

For FaZe, survival would preserve an opportunity to rebuild momentum against teams still competing for Major invitations. For Astralis, it would keep their Barcelona campaign alive after failing to close two promising positions. Their meeting now guarantees that one of the tournament’s two highest-ranked entrants will exit after just two series.