FaZe crash out in opening to 2026 season - BLAST Bounty day one recap

FaZe Clan. Mate.

It might be an online game. It might be the first game of the year. It might be completely inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.

But for crying out loud, you lost to JW in 2026.

EYEBALLERS came back from one map down to eliminate FaZe from BLAST Bounty in their first series of 2026, with FaZe’s post-Major hangover looking a lot like their pre-Major hangover, perhaps predictably.

No stage, no FaZe. frozen was the only player to come out of this game with credit, though jcobbb contributed at least more than anyone else. broky went back to the bottom of the scoreboard, and even Twistzz was off his game.

bobeksde topped the scoreboard for EYEBALLERS, which is concerning for FaZe as he didn’t really look like a superstar in the making. Not to take anything away from him, he played well - it just wasn’t like we were watching a new donk.

It was a bright debut for ryu on Astralis as he led the charge in map two to get Astralis back on track after losing a wild Mirage game.

Astralis pulled it back from a 2-10 half to make it to Overtime, just for fnatic to win four unchallenged and steal the map back anyway. Astralis, though, were undeterred, and won a tight map of their own 13-11 on Overpass thanks to an aforementioned performance from ryu, who led the map in both kills and assists, and seemed to be popping up everywhere. phzy had his moments too, picking up four opening frags for zero.

That took us down to Ancient, where it was simply a no-contest. This time it was jabbi who went crazy, helping Astralis to a 9-0 start on their T side, which was swiftly converted eight rounds later. jackasmo, who was controversially picked up to replace CYPHER before the Major, did not have the best of games, finding just two kills and routinely dying in useless ways.

FUT continued their impressive rise with a solid 2-0 win over OG, whom we were excited for going into the season. We're not ready to write them off based on this, but it wasn't the best start.

Aurora should have had a pretty routine win over HOTU, but bottled a 3v1 at 12-11 and lost map two to force a decider. Fortunately for them, they then recovered and finished them off in map three.

Tomorrow sees Passion UA take on a surprisingly in-tact GamerLegion roster, Friendly Campers (a late sub for NRG) against HEROIC, Monte's bizarre roster facing off against NAVI, and the pick of the bunch: VP vs Vitality.

We will be there.