By his own admission ropz and FaZe Clan had a “terrible first day.”. 0-2 down following losses to Heroic and vast underdogs Into the Breach, it was a position that very would have expected to see the team in before the games kicked off.
Despite the poor showing on day one, FaZe bounced back today with a victory against 9INE. It’s a heartbreaking loss for the Polish team, but the game offered a glimpse at the FaZe yet to come, a team who performs best when their “backs are against the wall.”
After the game versus 9INE, BLAST.tv sat down with ropz to talk about the series, nerves approaching the game, and FaZe Clan’s future in the tournament.
FaZe strike back
You started 0-2, bounced back with a win there, how are you feeling after it?
Feels good to win. It was a rough day yesterday. I think it's the worst when you start like that, 0-2, you have a really shit day and you can't get anything going, and then you're one match away from elimination. But I think we play our best when our backs are against the wall and it showed today that we are all feeling good and on fire.
Was there any nerves approaching today?
For me personally, not so much. I just played with the mentality that I just didn't care. We've been here before in this scenario, so it's a bit easier, I would say. But yeah, my thoughts were "don't give a fuck and shoot hard."
Michal KonkolThe game looked comfortable, did it feel that way?
Oh yeah, it was comfortable for sure. We had strong leads on both maps, I think that was key obviously. We won both maps after the first half basically, it was just a matter of closing it out. I'm really proud of the team today, I think we all played perfect as a team, we had good comms, we made good plays, and we listened to each other as well.
Anubis looked very strong, is that a map you've been working on a lot?
Anubis is kinda 50/50. I think we've had a rough few official matches actually before this one, this was probably our best Anubis win so far. We've been putting work into it though, so I'm glad it's working out.
Michal KonkolLooking ahead, are you feeling confident now of coming back to 3-2?
Yeah definitely. The road is there, we just have to realise the opportunity. It's obviously going to be tough, there's some teams that are good as well that are going to face us, but as long as we play like today we have a solid chance. The first day was absolutely terrible by all of us, and I think if we repeat the performance of today then we have a good shot.