NEO on why FaZe are struggling: "I don't even know right now"
FaZe came into 2025 with high hopes after reaching the final of the Perfect World Shanghai Major and signing EliGE to be their new superstar.
However, now four months into the year, results haven't gone FaZe's way so far, and although they come into BLAST Rivals as the fourth seed for the event, their coach NEO admits that their confidence is shot.
Ahead of the event, we sat down with NEO to discuss FaZe's current issues, broky's form, and the confidence levels within the FaZe camp.
"It's a different FaZe right now"
We're sure this hasn't been the start to the year you were hoping for, how are you looking at the first four months?
Well... yeah, that's for sure. It's a disappointing place where we are right now. Obviously, we knew that the beginning might be rough, but we felt at some points that we would pick up and find our consistency. We know we can play some good CS, but we can't find it to be always there. Something is off a lot of the time.
Given that FaZe is always regarded as doing better in arenas, do you feel like the year would be looking different if you had more opportunities on stages?
I haven't even thought about it, honestly. The thing is, we didn't get there so...
We've lost some of these games where we've had an advantage. Just now, in Australia, we had advantages on both maps [against GamerLegion], but we threw, so it's like... maybe in the end we didn't deserve it.
It's hard to say. But, we haven't been in the arenas, so it's a different FaZe right now, that's for sure. We've been talking recently that in the last year, even though we've had some good runs, we've never actually won a group stage. With this new lineup, we went 3-0 in the groups at PGL Cluj-Napoca, and then we lost in the playoffs.
It's a different FaZe right now.
EliGE hasn't yet elevated FaZe in the way it was hoped he would. Photo: Stephanie LindgrenWhat do you think is causing the slow start to life with EliGE? Is it form? chemistry? A tactical thing?
I think it's all of the above, I guess. It's never easy when you change a player, the whole dynamics change and people have to adjust here and there. It took us a while to understand each other better, but maybe we just discovered some differences between characters and personalities. Maybe it's something we can't overcome right now.
It's really hard to say, if we knew what it was then we'd probably work on that and get rid of it, but for now it just seems to be there all the time. We just play really good CS against 3DMAX and then on the same day against GamerLegion, something happens and we start losing and we can't stop them from coming back.
It's a mix of many things. After some time of struggling, your head isn't where you want it to be. So, if you start losing in the game, all the bad memories start coming back and it gets even more difficult. But I guess it's just part of the Counter-Strike pro life.
rain and EliGE both also spoke to us before about the different ways EliGE liked things to be called, or how he liked more protocols than what FaZe had previously, could that be something to do with it?
I honestly think he just started feeling more comfortable in the team. He's played really well, and we could feel that as a team member, he's becoming part of the group right now.
But, there has to be a balance between everything, right? Obviously, we didn't want to go too far from the FaZe we've been, but we've lost ropz who has been one of the key players for us, so it's never easy. We've just been trying to find the middle ground for everyone with the right amount of protocols. It's just been part of a process with adding stuff, naming things, and just getting to know each other.
But yeah, I don't even know right now. I've got some things on my mind but it's all inside info, we're just going to keep trying to work on things. The Major is coming, we'll try our best to get better for that.
broky's form has been a big talking point recently. In previous iterations of FaZe, the playstyle was always back-heavy, there was a lot of clutches and a lot of emphasis placed upon the more passive elements within the team, do you think that some of broky's struggles might be linked to having a change in playstyle in response to a more aggressive star like EliGE?
That might be one of the things, for sure. Like I said, once you change a player, the dynamics change and some things have to be adjusted as well. Maybe this is one of the reasons, yeah.
We're just trying to figure it out right now. We're trying different things, different places for broky. He's still able to be one of the top AWPers out there, he just needs to find himself in the new environment.
ropz has won his second ESL Grand Slam since departing FaZe for Vitality. Photo: Stephanie LindregnEarlier on you mentioned the dip in confidence that comes with the results you've been having, do you also get a negative mental impact based on other teams, especially Vitality, picking up other players and doing well straight away?
Yeah, it's.... I don't really think that... I mean, you can see when you watch other games, you can see that some teams are stepping up, sometimes it's a surprise for you. Maybe not everyone believed in MOUZ after changing siuhy, but they've proven themselves. With Vitality, ropz was obviously an upgrade for them, it was the change they wanted to have.
Every one of the other teams has there own journey, we don't really look that deep. We're just focused on ourselves and trying to understand us and our struggles. I don't think we go that deep into watching them. We know where we are at, we're all unhappy about that, and we're just trying to overcome it.
We're now in the run up to the Major, you have two tournaments before then with the first being BLAST Rivals, how are you feeling about it?
Well, after recent results, we're not that confident right now. Maybe it comes down to lowering the expectations, but at the same time, we sometimes play some good CS, so it's hard to say, especially with travelling so much and not having enough time to practice. We just got back from Bucharest, then we went to Australia, so with the schedule we can not really find practice days.
It makes it more difficult because we just can't get the time to go back to the drawing board and work on the things that aren't working. You just go to the next tournament and hope the same thing doesn't happen again. Of course, we have some talks and all that, but you need to have the practice time as well. Without it, it's not easy to go to the next tournament and keep believing after failing a couple of times already.
So, yeah, it's another tournament. We will just try being the best that we can be, and maybe we can squeeze in some practice games before we start the tournament. We play Falcons in the first game, so that isn't an easy one, they're on a good run, they've just added one of the best players in the world. It's not easy.
Looking ahead to the Major, FaZe were almost like a surprise package in Shanghai at the previous Major, in the month until the BLAST.tv Austin Major, how do you get the confidence back? How do you get back to the point where you can pull off the FaZe magic again?
That Shanghai run was... even for us, kind of surprising. We didn't really think we would go that far, and then we got to the final and we felt like we could have won it.
Maybe it comes down to the team that we have, we have some of the most experienced players out there. When it's the Major, that's maybe when they will play to their full potential. It's really hard to say.
But, definitely going into the Major, everyone is going to bring more than 100% of their strength. Everyone is going to play as much as they can. It's not easy to bring back the confidence and say that we just have it now, we're just going to take it step by step like we always do and just see where we're at.
