FaZe Clan Eliminate Team Spirit from The Copenhagen Major

Nobody could foresee this shocking result. But now we fully understand why s1mple and ZywOo, despite being the best Counter-Strike players in the history of the game, needed years to win their first CS Major.

It’s not as easy as it seems. On the surface, you’re tempted to believe that a formidable player will be able to maintain his superhuman form and will just go on breaking records for years. And since his part of a good team, that team will win many S-tier tournaments including Majors. But in reality it doesn’t work that way.

Why Team Spirit Lost

Our captain @chopperis has some words for you. pic.twitter.com/Tcz1hZuzOx

— Team Spirit (@Team__Spirit) March 28, 2024

Competitions are tough and stressful. Opponents are highly experienced and adaptable. And it’s often your own expectations that bring you down in the end.

Team Spirit’s failure at PGL Major Copenhagen was foreshadowed by their defeat against MOUZ in the qualifiers for the tournament, and also by their map loss against Natus Vincere at the event itself. Despite looking unbeatable, Spirit crumbled against the German organization completely.

Any team functions based on a strategy and a set of tactics. In Spirit’s case, because they hadn’t done anything spectacular prior to IEM Katowice 2024, nobody bothered to fully understand how they played. And nobody looked deeply into donk’s methods, analyzing replays and learning everything about his map movements.

But after Katowice, the best teams in the world started to take Spirit seriously and prepared for them really well.

On top of that, FaZe Clan had three full days at their disposal to study their opponent and prepare for the quarterfinals of the Copenhagen Major. When the match started, we immediately knew that karrigan had done his homework. FaZe Clan’s approach to the match was innovative and highly effective.

The Match

The match between Spirit and FaZe started with a dominant victory for FaZe on Mirage (7 – 13), followed by a dramatic victory for Spirit on Nuke (19 – 16). FaZe should have lost the second map without reaching 10 round wins. But after losing the first half 8 – 4, they made a great comeback and nearly won.

On the third map, Vertigo, the exact opposite happened. FaZe Clan finished the first half 4 – 8 and were leading 5 – 12 at one point, needing just one more round win to advance to the semifinals of PGL Major Copenhagen. Against all odds, Spirit equalized. But they ended up losing in overtime, 14 – 16.

Donk ended the match with 77 kills and 67 deaths. The next best player on his team was sh1ro, who had just 49 kills and 57 deaths. FaZe Clan were carried by broky (71 – 48).

Header: Team Spirit, FaZe Clan, PGL