Lower bracket matches leave no room to correct mistakes, and even favorite status does not guarantee the continuation of a tournament run. For FaZe, the series against magic became exactly this kind of test, where every loss of control gradually brought the team closer to an early end to their run.
Tournament context
FISSURE Playground 3 is played with a group stage in a double elimination Bo3 format. In Lower round 1, the winner moves to the Lower semi-finals, while the losing team immediately ends its run at the tournament without another chance for a comeback.
In Group B, magic and FaZe faced each other after both teams had dropped to the lower bracket following unsuccessful opening series. The match turned out extremely close and reached a third map: magic took Ancient in overtime, FaZe answered on Dust2, but the deciding Cache once again went to magic.
How the match unfolded — magic vs FaZe
Series score: 2:1 in favor of magic
- Ancient (magic’s pick) — 16:14 in favor of magic
magic managed to convert their own map choice only after overtime. FaZe stayed in the game until the very end, but in the extra rounds magic handled the pressure better and took the key moments, opening the score in the series. - Dust2 (FaZe’s pick) — 13:10 in favor of FaZe
On their own pick, FaZe managed to level the match. The map also remained fairly competitive, but the team played the decisive stretch better and did not allow magic to close the series in two maps. - Cache (decider) — 19:16 in favor of magic
The deciding map became the most tense in the series and once again went to overtime. magic withstood the long closing stretch, converted the decisive rounds better, and put an end to the match, knocking FaZe out of the tournament.
Player of the Match — Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken (FaZe)
- K–D: 72–55
- ADR: 81.1
- Rating 3.0: 1.26
Key contribution: Twistzz played the strongest individual series among all players in the match, finished it with a large positive frag balance, and remained FaZe’s main stable force despite the final loss.
Check @1jcobbb PC 💨 pic.twitter.com/LCeoc7iQPB
— FaZe Esports (@FaZeEsports) September 9, 2026
VRS results
- magic — +59 pt → 1462 pt
The victory brought magic a major ranking increase and moved the team from 23rd to 21st place in VRS. Together with reaching the Lower semi-finals, this significantly improves both the team’s tournament and ranking position. - FaZe — -21 pt → 1567 pt
The loss cost FaZe 21 ranking points and dropped the team from 10th to 11th place in VRS. An even more serious consequence was direct elimination from FISSURE Playground 3 already at the early stage of the group stage.
What’s next?
magic advance to the Lower semi-finals of Group B, where they will continue the fight for survival in the lower bracket and the chance to move closer to advancing from the group stage.
FaZe end their run at FISSURE Playground 3. After the loss to Alliance in the Opening round, the team could not use its second chance in Lower round 1 and leaves the tournament in 13th–16th place.
Match summary
FaZe ended their run at FISSURE Playground 3 after an extremely tense series where two of the three maps went to overtime. magic first took Ancient, then allowed the opponent to tie the score on Dust2, but on Cache managed to withstand another long closing stretch.
The key difference was magic’s ability to play the decisive rounds better under maximum pressure. As a result, the team earned a 2:1 victory, +59 VRS points, and a place in the Lower semi-finals, while FaZe leave FISSURE Playground 3 early.
