Counter-Strike has seen its share of Cinderella runs, but nothing quite like this.

The stage: Cologne. The damsel: SAW.

In an arena dominated by FaZe jerseys — seriously, 8 out of 10 fans were repping FaZe — SAW pulled off what everyone was secretly thinking but wouldn’t dare to say.

The underdog magic was in the air, and we could feel it. What if?

Inferno was supposed to be a breeze for FaZe — it’s one of their strongest maps, so it should have been easy, right? Wrong.

They got steamrolled by ewjerkz, who put up an absurd 1.97 rating. SAW dominated, taking space at will and playing with confidence. FaZe looked lost.

After that first map, the crowd began to warm up to SAW. They had just witnessed what this team was capable of, and for many, it was their first real taste of SAW’s game.

Despite Anubis being a shaky map for FaZe, they managed to scrape by with a hard-fought 13-11 win. It was one of those games where pretty much every round could’ve gone either way.

A missed smoke in a post-plant situation likely cost SAW the 12th round — and possibly the 2-0 sweep — but they didn’t let it rattle them.

The squad came back rejuvenated for Nuke, with MUTiRis leading the charge. His 1v4 clutch was nothing short of artistry, pulling SAW back into the game after a lackluster four-round CT side. It was a moment of pure brilliance that had the crowd erupting — so much so that we even spotted some FaZe fans cheering.

After a tense OT, SAW pulled off the upset, sending their small group of Portuguese fans into a frenzy that completely overshadowed the sea of red and black.

Strong fundamentals and beautiful CS — at the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about.