FaZe Clan back to being #1 — What they did right?

FaZe Clan have spent much of 2022 being the number one team in CS:GO. Their rise was meteoric and the first time they achieved this was on April 11. That was the first time when the community realized that their IEM Katowice trophy was probably not a fluke.

FaZe then went on to win another trophy, at ESL Pro League Season 15. And then, just one month later, they won the PGL Major Antwerp against Natus Vincere, with one of the best performances we’d seen from them in years.

Thanks to these results, FaZe stayed at the top for several months, between April 11 and July 4. That was when Natus Vincere claimed back what was rightfully theirs by being slightly better than FaZe. But it only took one week for Finn “karrigan” Andersen’s team to be back on top.

What FaZe did right

Over the last few months, the rivalry between FaZe and Na’Vi has looked a lot like an MMA fight on the ground. The two competitors are trying really hard to stay on top and when one fails to win an important trophy, the other is there to take it for himself.

FaZe Clan’s latest confirmation of strength came at IEM Cologne, which ended on July 17. That was when they defeated Natus Vincere in one of the closest Grand Finals in the history of the game.

Then came the BLAST Premier: Fall Groups tournament, which nearly ended poorly for FaZe. The team qualified for the Fall Finals but only in the Last Chance Matches. Meanwhile, Na’Vi won group B and then smashed Team Vitality in the play-in Finals.

This tournament ended on August 28 and its results were regarded as being sufficient to put Na’Vi back on top. Since then, we haven’t really seen FaZe competing in official matches. So one could argue that they did nothing to deserve their number one position, which was offered to them again on September 5.

The question we might ask is: what happened there? And the answer is simple.

What other teams did wrong

Natus Vincere recently played five matches in ESL Pro League Season 16. They started the tournament well, with victories against Team Spirit and Fnatic. But then they went on to lose three consecutive matches, even against opponents like Endpoint and Ninjas in Pyjamas, who are considered to be much weaker than them.

Na’Vi still qualified for the playoffs, but their reputation was tarnished by the losses. Therefore, CS:GO analysts decided to give the number one position back to FaZe Clan.

Header: FaZe Clan