After failing to live up to the expectations after forming the seemingly ultimate CS:GO team by adding olofmeister to a roster that already consisted of the likes of NiKo and GuardiaN, FaZe finally lived up to the hype these roster moves created.

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It seemed to be written in the stars for FaZe: Ultimate All-Star team, eternal Tournament-Favorites, future Major Champions. Big hopes from the players, analysts and fans, yet it took ups and downs in online play and a loss to the Major Champions Gambit at DreamHack Masters Malmö to finally make it happen in New York: FaZe blasted through the opposition at ESL One.

Going 2-0 straight through the groups into the playoffs left a good impression, as they had to beat Astralis on top of a struggling Virtus.Pro, enabling FaZe to wait for Cloud9 in the Semi-Finals, where they got rid of them 2-0, not dropping more than four rounds per map.

Just as helpless seemed Team Liquid on Inferno, the first map of the best-of-5 grand final, where FaZe didn’t drop a single round on their CT side to go 15-0. karrigan had to experience his first death only in the 13th round, going 15-0 before that.

FaZe closed out Inferno with a solid 16-3 scoreline, followed by a 16-14 almost-comeback for Team Liquid on Overpass and a convincing 16-4 on Mirage, leaving the Best-Of-5 Final with a shining 3-0 score.

Overall, FaZe just looked really solid. karrigan seemed to have built a solid foundation of basic, yet effective teamplay that leaves enough room for all of these strong players to flex their in-game muscle.

Even when it looks like they’re choking, like on Overpass, NiKo stepped up to finally end the map in their favour and you can basically interchange NiKo with any name from FaZe and gain the same result.

Is it enough yet?

Yet, at least so it looks like to me, they still haven’t proven themselves. Sure, they were pretty dominant in this tournament, but they still haven’t bested big teams like Astralis, G2 and SK in offline best-of-3s.

If liquid got this close to a comeback, then maybe other teams might actually make it in the future. Maybe karrigan is prone to choking because he was the head of Astralis during the time they choked the most after all. Surely four top-tier players like olofmeister and rain should help you prevent such chokes, right?

There is still a shroud of mystery surrounding FaZe and their true potential. Everything about this team is still speculation. They’ve taken the first step, but they’re not the best yet.

Not all the work is done yet and I hope FaZe knows this. They need to work on their flaws, which are already few and far between, and then we will maybe lay our eyes on the best team in Global Offensive history.