FaZe were the team of 2022. While it may have taken them until 2023 to cement their era with their Intel Grand Slam win at ESL Pro League Season 17, they were the last team to truly be dominant in CS:GO and their run of tournament victories in the first half of last year will always be remembered for that.
Very little has changed in FaZe since then. They still have the same players, and they still largely have the same playstyle, yet now the scene has been blown wide open.
Of course, that is largely down to the strengthening of teams such as G2, Heroic, and Vitality, but as we enter the final Major of CS:GO, FaZe still remain one of the elite teams mentioned in the same conversations as those aforementioned.
One of the favourites of every event they attend, we sat down with their North American import Twistzz to discuss just that and began our time with him with some quick-fire questions:
No.
Definitely.
G2, Vitality, Heroic, NAVI, and ourselves.
Number one.
Twistzz finished those questions with absolute self-confidence in his response, and continued to say “We're always the favourite when we're fully prepared. That's my mentality."
In the previous Major, IEM Rio, things were going as expected for a team of FaZe’s calibre. With a perfect 3-0 record in the RMR, the team would enter the Major in the Legend’s stage, looking to defend their Major crown, Rio also looked to be the perfect venue for them to finish their story and win their Intel Grand Slam.
Unfortunately, those expectations quickly came crashing down.
Potentially a victim of the format, FaZe would lose consecutive BO1s at the hands of Cloud9 and VItality before falling 2-1 to Bad News Eagles. Considering their form in the first half of the year, it was disastrous.
“Thinking back, we could’ve travelled earlier to adjust to the schedule and climate. We could’ve just been more prepared for that sort of out-of-game stuff because that's what ended up killing it for us. We played well after Rio, and we didn’t change anything, we just used the same stuff and it worked,” he said.
The performance is now months behind FaZe, and with a fresh mind and a tournament win once again within recent memory, Twistzz already feels confident about the BLAST.tv Paris Major. “We feel way better about this event already.” The Canadian told BLAST.tv.
When asked what the X factor will be in order for FaZe to lift the trophy once more, he added: “I think believing in our tactics, our bootcamp, and the individual form we've built up, and just having fun knowing it's the last CS:GO Major and enjoying that moment.”
FaZe now are categorised as a team riddled with inconsistency. When they go far in an event, it’s down to the strength of their components, but when they have an early exit, the blame is always put upon inconsistency. When asked about that element of their game, Twistzz had this to say:
“For us, it’s just very hectic schedule-wise. We could've been favourites for Kato and when we're given a lot of time to prepare we show great things. Pro League was a great example of that.
We had a lot of time to put a lot of work into an event and show that we could close the Grand Slam out, but, following that, there just wasn't the same amount of time.
We had a good start to the RMR but couldn't keep the energy up, so then we made the best of practice in between RMR and LCQ. We can play good CS if we put our mind to it and work for it so when you then have tournaments like Rio and have no time to do anything but travel and hope for the best it doesn't work too well for us. but this time around we had time off, we had a bootcamp, and we're well prepared.”
Inconsistency has become a staple of tier-one CS in the past year, yet only FaZe are the team attributed as being inconsistent, a factor that Twistzz pointed out to us. “If you look at CS right now, you could say every team is inconsistent because no one wins consistently.
We were the last true team to win consistently back-to-back. I think the community has a memory of two weeks and that's basically it, what happened in the last two weeks is the most relevant to them but honestly, if you look at it and the competitive landscape, you could say everyone is inconsistent.”
Inconsistency of modern CS aside, it’s undeniable that FaZe are one of the favourites to take home the BLAST.tv Paris Major crown. With a team of stars used to playing on the biggest stages, there’s no place like the Major for them to shine.
Still, it was almost a Major without FaZe, as a disappointing run of BO3s in the RMR saw them knocked down to the Last Chance Qualifier, a second-chance bracket that doesn’t normally exist in the RMRs.
“Technically the LCQ wasn't even meant to exist and we were given a second chance to be in the Major and we're just happy to be able to be here and take part.” Twistzz told BLAST.tv.
A fortune that isn’t lost on FaZe, especially when it involves them playing against a team like Cloud9, Twistzz says the fact that they’re here because of the LCQ gives them extra motivation to succeed in France.
“The big goal is to win, but we have to take small steps. I think we proved our worth to be in the event by beating them [Cloud9].”
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