We interviewed Fabien "kioShiMa" Fiey ahead of the SL i-League StarSeries Season 3 finals and discussed with him FaZe's recent improvements and their goals for the event ahead.

FaZe cleared all doubts about their ability to incorporate Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač into the team by finishing in second place at IEM Katowice, their first event with the new lineup.

With fewer than 100 points separating them from third-placed SK Gaming in our ranking, FaZe will be hoping to gain some ground on the Brazilians with another strong showing in Kiev. Their first match of the tournament will pit them against HellRaisers, who have been in great form of late and will have in StarSeries the first of three international events in little over a month.



kioShiMa lauds FaZe's potential

In this interview, Fabien "⁠kioShiMa⁠" Fiey discusses NiKo's impact since his arrival, the team's struggles against Astralis in Katowice, their current ranking position and even the recent French shuffle.

IEM Katowice was the first event with the new lineup, and you were just one match away from winning the tournament. Were you surprised with the level the team reached so quickly? No, I wasn't surprised because we had not changed that much in terms of playstyle, we had just upgraded it. We know we have a lot of potential, and this was just proof of that. Astralis were the only team that you dropped maps to (once in the group stage and then thrice in the grand final). Was there really a big difference between them and the other teams you faced? What was the reason you could not take them down? We could feel a big difference, yes. Astralis did not make many mistakes or at least it was harder to take advantage of them. It did not feel that we could not take them down, we had a big chance to take some maps from them in the final. We lost rounds that we were not supposed to lose (many anti-ecos and key rounds). That kind of rounds is our focus at the moment. After finishing second in Katowice. Do you think that this could be your tournament? What are your expectations? Every tournament could be our tournament. I am not saying we will win every tournament, but we have the ability to win some. Overpass and Nuke had specific situations where the momentum shifted in Astralis’ favour. Was it disappointing to lose a match because of small details? Yes, obviously it was disappointing because we knew that without those rounds the victory could have been ours. It is always harder to lose 16-13 or 16-14 than 16-2 because you are so close to actually winning, but then it does not happen.



Will this finally be FaZe's time to shine?