It’s everything we could dream of: s1mple back on the Major playoffs stage in 2025, led by the shepherd of stand-ins, and an American on home soil.

Well, that was until s1mple threw FaZe’s comeback on Mirage by going for a no-scope.

FaZe started the series like lightning, giving The MongolZ no chance as they attempted to burst onto the A site of Mirage in the opening round. Soon finding themselves with a 4-1 advantage, FaZe were looking good, but The MongolZ started shooting back. And that’s where it got messy.

As the second half of Mirage opened with the scoreline squared at 6-6, The MongolZ took six rounds in a row to secure a 12-6 lead. mzinho had A-site locked down, 910 carried B, and no amount of crowd noise got to them.

FaZe looked like they were fighting back, getting three rounds and pushing maaRaa to use every second of his time. Then s1mple did this.

s1mple opened the second map of Anubis by buying several XM1014s as a way to afford more AWPs, which didn’t pan out as he got a grand total of eight kills in a 7-5 CT side.

frozen and rain did the heavy lifting on the extremities and opening duels, with EliGE delivering a chaotic clutch to close their 7-5 half. But that wasn’t enough to stop the Mongolians as they truly ascended to greatness.

Anubis went to the end of regulation, with Senzu finally overcoming his stage fright as he posted a 1.45 rating to secure the 2-0 win over the crowd favorites.

910 also remained impossible to dislodge as time and again FaZe walked right into his traps. FaZe kept running into triple-stacked sites and getting caught off by lurks as the rounds slipped away.

Clearly, s1mple wasn’t the piece FaZe needed to get their stride back, and there’s no telling if they win this match with broky instead, but the GOAT ended up looking more like SIXER than his old self.

Questions loom for FaZe, if they feel they should make changes over the break is yet to be known, but one thing is for certain: The MongolZ are gaining power in strides and they’re showing it in Austin.