Why missing the Major should free FaZe from the tyranny of belief

The bigger they are, the harder they fall is a proverb that, unlike many others, is both literally and figuratively true, and there are few bigger in Counter-Strike than FaZe Clan.

Less than six months ago, FaZe had a brief moment of high energy after months of malaise, and sadly, anyone who has seen terminal illness knows exactly what that means. It’s known as ‘terminal lucidity’, and it’s exactly what this false dawn has turned out to be for FaZe.

A brutal loss to fnatic - a team who aren’t exactly the juggernaut they once were either - has FaZe out of Major contention before April (though their attendance at HLC Belgrade PRO could, in theory, change things, it almost certainly won't), and karrigan’s career on life support. We’ve been here before, sort of, but this time it truly feels like it might be his time to retire.

Only the Lord knows why he didn’t retire in the glow of a miracle finals run in Budapest.

And yet, somehow this feels like it might be a positive in the grand scheme of things for FaZe, who can finally let go of the miracle that has stopped them moving forwards. This line-up simply does not work any more. The dream is dead; long live the dream.

It’s no secret that broky is a massive problem on this team. He’s not the only one, but man, he’s just not very good any more. Be it a motivation issue, a counter-stratting issue, a simple loss of form or struggles with adapting to CS2, broky is not The Guy any more. That hurts, because I was the one championing him less than a year ago to go and be a big fish in a smaller pond, and now even that seems like a bad idea.

You don’t need advanced stats to tell you that - the simple ones, and your eyes, will tell you everything you need to know about his drop off - but that’s kinda our thing, so here’s some more data that essentially says: no. Please stop.

All stats graphics by Sam 'LuzRaposa' Carder:

There are a handful of AWPers worse than broky, but what makes it particularly worrying is broky’s playstyle should be consistent, he should be a star player on this team, and he just isn’t.

He’s a refragger who rarely takes space, always in the pack, supportive so tasked with throwing util (which he routinely misses) but means he’s often alive late in the round, and gets lots of resources (with the caveat that pretty much all AWPers do). There’s no excuse for not being any good.

This is his style compared to sh1ro, a notably consistent AWPer.

No excuses. He gets to trade more than any other AWPer and still doesn’t frag out, which is embarrassing.

As previously mentioned, mind you, he’s not the only one. His duel swing is poor because he misses shots he should hit, and yet it’s still not as disastrous as jcobbb’s.

He doesn’t get much in the way of nice roles or favourable duels, but he’s underperfoming quite badly even against other players who are sacrificial lambs. He simply is not good enough at this level of play at winning duels, or having great impact, and is useful only as cannon fodder most of the time.

When the guy going first doesn’t win any duels, and the guy trading him doesn’t kill anything, you’re not a very good team.

And out of respect, I won’t talk about karrigan’s absolutely awful duel swing because he’s a legend of the game. But if he keeps doing this it might tarnish his legacy. That leaves at the absolute minimum two players who need replacing, and to be honest, karrigan should probably retire now as well. The magic is gone.

The reason that missing out on the Major is essentially a silver lining is because they are no longer beholden to the madness of the VRS system and can rebuild around the two players who are still obviously top tier, and maybe the IGL can have one last shot at it if he’s sure. The Major final instilled in them the idea that something broken can work with the power of friendship, but that belief has held them hostage for far too long.

It is that belief that has plagued them, an inescapable tyranny that only certified failure could break, and we are at that breaking point.

I won’t speculate on who they should replace them with - that’s for another article - but I wanted to make the point that while this stings, and a Major without FaZe doesn’t feel complete, it’ll be better for them in the long run.

Now they don’t have to worry about losing VRS points because they don’t have any. They don’t need to feel proxy loyalty to jcobbb and broky because they’ve been as important to this disaster as they were to the previous success, and that one swallow has not a summer made.

The long-awaited FaZe rebuild cannot wait any longer - their hand has been forced, and that’s almost certainly a positive for everyone.

Eventually.