FaZe Clan is one of the most titled and well-known organizations in esports. At the same time, they entered CS:GO in an atypical way and immediately aimed for the top. In our article, we will tell you everything you need (and want!) to know about FaZe: from the path of formation and lineups to the skins that players use.
Rewind
If you still remember those times – a few years ago, G2 Esports had an international team. FaZe Clan, which came from Call of Duty, decided to enter CS:GO from a position of strength and, in January 2016, bought out the roster of G2.
By that time, FaZe Clan was already one of the most notable esports organizations, and the decision to take the top team seemed more than logical. The Americans bought the G2 roster for $700.000 – this is how much one player may cost now, and four years ago, this amount for the entire list seemed unrealistically huge.
Rain, Maikelele, fox, aizy, jkaem – this is the five that originally joined FaZe Clan. And so far, only rain plays in FaZe, as the only permanent player.
But something went wrong. The organization paid a lot of money and demanded victories immediately (it is logical because you do not build a team from scratch, but buy a full-fledged roster), but the guys just stopped showing the high-level play. FaZe still participated in the S-tier and A-tier tournaments, but there were no real results.
Aaaand… it’s gone. Allu, jkaem, kioShiMa – no one fitted the team.
Things calmed down with the arrival of an incredible prospect, Nikola Niko Kovač. With the advent of the Ladislav “GuardiaN” Kováč team, FaZe showed a decent level of play for several months, and the guys at least got a little respite from the constant pressure.
When results went down, the problems with the line-up continued: on December 16, 2018, Finn “karrigan” Andersen was benched, and for a while, FaZe was saved by stand-ins in the faces of NEO and AdreN. In September 2019, Natus Vincere bought out GuardiaN from FaZe, which led to the formation of the 2020 current line-up.
Playstyle
No matter how the lineup of FaZe Clan changed, no matter what happened, their focus always was on personal skill. The concept of FaZe was to break up opponents in duels and trades and then just finish off the remaining players.
Not bad, but with the overall growth of the level of play on the professional scene, over time, the advantage of FaZe Clan in individual skill level disappeared.
But this is not all – even the best performers have downturns and circumstances that prevent them from showing their full potential. So, NiKo was the team’s in-game leader for several months and was denied the chance to show his best level of play.
At the moment, FaZe have not abandoned their concept but have begun to pay more attention to the tactical side, look for balance, and work hard on tactical training.
In many ways, this is since the team’s coach, Janko “yNk-” Paunović, has a very flexible mind, and long-term work with the squad works out. The current line-up is much more flexible than all previous versions of FaZe.
Significant moments
- kioShiMa’s buy out from EnVyUs in April 2016. It seemed that the Frenchman has the potential to successfully replace Maikelele, but in the end, everything went wrong and shortly Fabien was guilty (at least in the opinion of the team) of the failures of FaZe and left them;
- Olofmeister’s injury in 2018. For this reason, FaZe were forced to play with stand-ins in the first half of the year and missed a whole window in development. The Swede was temporarily replaced by cromen and Xizt;
- karrigan’s departure at the end of 2018 – as a result, it went to the plus of both FaZe Clan and mousesports;
- The signing of broky in September 2019 was the beginning of the current, quite successful era of FaZe, in which the team has enough prospects for improvement.
Key victories and defeats
Let’s recall three major successes in the history of FaZe, and three significant failures.
Victories:
• 1st place at ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier 2017, $500.000;
• 2nd place at ELEAGUE Boston Major, $150.000;
• 1st place at EPICENTER 2018, $125.000.
Defeats:
• 9th-12th place at MLG Columbus Major 2016, it was this failure that instantly led to changes in the lineup;
• 15th-16th place at PGL Krakow Major 2017, all other shortcomings pale in comparison with this terrible result. FaZe haven’t shown absolutely nothing and did not pass (not even got close!) for the Major playoffs. Inexcusable for a team of this level;
• 12th-14th place at the StarLadder Berlin Major 2019. FaZe tried, FaZe struggled, but took the matches not too dangerous but, fortunately, was able to secure a slot at the major in Katowice.
Current lineup
Håvard “rain” Nygaard – permanent player of FaZe Clan since January 2016. rain is stable, patient, and calm. He is a great teammate and a smart player, which makes his position in FaZe very strong and allows him to stay at the top level of the game for a long time;
Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer – the Swedish and world Counter-Strike legend has been playing for FaZe for more than two and a half years. Despite his age, Olof keeps himself in good individual shape, and his in-game flexibility opens up FaZe opportunities for ingame-role rotations.
Nikola “NiKo” Kovač – the shining star of the line-up. The incredible reaction time, crosshair positioning, individual skill level – all this describes the young Bosnian prospect. But there is also a minus: NiKo is a hot and emotional guy, which sometimes affects his stability severely.
Marcelo “coldzera” David is a Brazilian veteran who put a LOT of effort to start playing in FaZe Clan as he did in good old days. But Marcelo has done an excellent job and does not sink in the team either on the game or on communication. And this even though he is not playing with a sniper rifle!
Helvijs “broky” Saukants – when you think about the fact that the main star of FaZe is NiKo… Well, in a year or two, the status of the team may well change. Young Latvian talent perfectly fits the game FaZe Clan. Despite his inexperience and age, broky totally does not scare to play at the highest level.
Skins and inventory
rain
We can’t say that Norwegian is a big fan of skins. It has one kit that it uses (AWP | PAW, AK-47 | Vulcan, USP-S | Caiman, M4A4 | Radiation Hazard, SG-553 | Cyrex, Glock-18 | Fade). These skins have been with him for a long time, rain is not fond of trading, but he has one love – knives.
In the inventory, rain already has 3 knives, one of which is a Karambit with the name tag “MY QUEEN”.
olofmeister
Olof pays more attention to his inventory – he has 30 pages of inventory in CS:GO, and (you will be surprised), he even played Dota 2 fantasy at the International 2013.
Of interest, we would like to note a big amount of USP-S | Torque (no, really, why, Olof?!), and AWP | Asiimov with the name tag “BOOSTMEISTER 2014”, which is a reference to the legendary moment on Overpass:
coldzera
From the inventory of the Brazilian, we would like to note 3 different knives that coldzera periodically changes, and a favorite sniper pair: AWP | Asiimov and P-250 | Asiimov.
broky
Even on BLAST Premier Spring broky was performing well with AWP | Redline, and now he has a new sniper device in his inventory – Asiimov. The Latvian is a fan of futuristic skins. So then, in his inventory, he has: Desert Eagle | Light Rail, FAMAS | Mecha Industries, and SG-553 | Phantom.
