FaZe Clan fail to win the Intel Grand Slam at IEM Katowice

IEM Katowice was a great opportunity for FaZe Clan to win another S-tier CS:GO event and complete the Intel Grand Slam.

They already have three S-tier titles that count for the fourth season of Intel’s competition, whose rules state that the first team with four S-tier titles wins the trophy. But before IEM Katowice even began, everyone expected FaZe to fail.

Why the expectations were low

People were pessimistic about FaZe Clan’s chances to win IEM Katowice for two reasons.

First of all, the team hadn’t won anything significant since July 2022. And at IEM Rio Major they failed miserably, finishing 15^th – 16^th. A series of decent results followed, including the second place they won at BLAST Premier: Fall Finals and the third-fourth place they won at BLAST Premier: World Final.

But these results were a clear indication that FaZe Clan no longer had the ability to win big trophies.

More recently, one of the team’s most important players, Havard “rain” Nygaard, had to deal with some personal responsibilities that prevented him from taking part in an important tournament and probably made him change his priorities a bit.

However, despite all of these problems, some people were still confident in FaZe Clan’s ability to at least reach the playoffs of IEM Katowice and give themselves a shot at the title. But it didn’t happen.

In the group stage of the competition, FaZe encountered G2 Esports in the upper bracket and then Team Liquid in the lower bracket. Both matches were tough and FaZe were not that far from winning. But in the end, they lost each time and were eliminated from the tournament.

The second reason why people were skeptical about FaZe Clan’s chances had to do with the level of ability demonstrated by competitors like G2 Esports, Team Vitality, and Natus Vincere. From the first few matches of the group stage, these teams looked really hard to beat and it was clear that FaZe Clan had little hope against them.

What’s next for FaZe

FaZe will get another shot at winning the fourth season of the Intel Grand Slam in the coming weeks. And in fact, they won’t get just one chance but three. One of these opportunities will be BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023. This will be the team’s most realistic chance of completing their IGS journey.

Until that point, there’s very little hope for FaZe because they simply cannot beat the likes of G2 in their current form.

Header: ESL