FaZe Fall to Passion UA at DraculaN S6, Drop to Lower Bracket and Hurt Cologne Major Chances

FaZe’s campaign at DraculaN Season 6 took a major hit on March 31, when the team fell 1-2 to Passion UA and dropped into the lower bracket of the Bucharest LAN. The series went the full distance: Passion UA claimed Anubis 13-10, FaZe answered on Nuke 16-12, and the decider on Dust2 ended 16-14 in Passion UA’s favor. The loss was especially costly because DraculaN was not just another playoff run for FaZe — it was one of the last realistic chances for the roster to collect the VRS points needed to stay in the hunt for a European invite to the IEM Cologne Major. 

The match itself was far tighter than the final scoreline suggests. FaZe had moments where it looked capable of regaining control, particularly after forcing the series onto a third map with their Nuke win, but Passion UA stayed composed in the late rounds of Dust2 and closed the series when it mattered most. HLTV’s match stats show just how close the overall battle was: Passion UA and FaZe posted near-identical team ratings, while the margin ultimately came down to key duels, opening kills, and a stronger conversion of pressure rounds by the Ukrainian side. 

The standout name of the series was Azbayar “Senzu” Munkhbold. According to HLTV’s report and statistical pages, he was the defining player of the decider and the most productive fragger across the entire match. HLTV credited him with a “superstar performance” on Dust2, where he delivered 37 kills and a 1.92 rating on the map, while his full-series numbers reached 70 kills, 88.7 ADR, and a 1.34 rating. Even though FaZe’s David “frozen” Čerňanský produced an excellent series of his own and finished with the best individual rating on his team at 1.46, FaZe could not turn that into a win. 

The result did not come out of nowhere. Both teams had entered the March 31 meeting after winning their opening playoff matches at DraculaN. On March 30, FaZe beat aimclub 2-0 to begin the playoffs, while Passion UA advanced with a 2-1 victory over Eternal Fire. That set up a direct clash between two teams badly in need of VRS points, and Passion UA handled the opportunity better. The broader playoff picture also mattered: after sending FaZe down, Passion UA moved on to an upper-bracket meeting with Monte, while FaZe were pushed into an elimination path against fnatic. 

Passion UA’s rise in this event also reflects recent roster developments. In February, the organization added Santino “try” Rigal as its AWPer and brought in Senzu on loan from The MongolZ. HLTV described the move for Senzu as a major pickup, noting both his reputation and the expectation that he would remain a rifler in the new lineup. Those additions have clearly increased the team’s ceiling, and against FaZe that extra firepower showed. The stats from the series underline that this was not a one-man upset either: try led the match in AWP kills with 41, while Passion UA had enough support around Senzu to survive a strong individual effort from frozen and Twistzz on the other side. 

For FaZe, the defeat quickly turned from dangerous to disastrous. HLTV’s Major-race coverage had already noted before the fnatic match that FaZe were sitting six places short of a European invite to Cologne and needed a deep lower-bracket run to preserve their chances. That run never materialized. Later on March 31, FaZe lost to fnatic and were eliminated from DraculaN after managing only one playoff win, over aimclub, before back-to-back defeats against Passion UA and fnatic. HLTV subsequently reported that, if FaZe stick to their current schedule and attend PGL Bucharest, they will not make the IEM Cologne Major. 

In that light, the loss to Passion UA now looks even more significant than it did in the moment. It was not simply an upset in a mid-tier playoff bracket. It was the turning point that shoved FaZe into an elimination match they could not survive, and it effectively ended the team’s realistic path toward Cologne through this event. For Passion UA, meanwhile, the win was one of their clearest statements of the season: a pressure series against a bigger name, a decisive performance from Senzu, and another proof that the team’s rebuilt lineup can threaten established opponents on LAN. DraculaN Season 6 itself is a LAN tournament running in Bucharest, Romania from March 29 to April 2 with a $15,000 prize pool, but for FaZe and Passion UA the bigger value was always the ranking impact tied to the 2026 Major race.