FaZe unveil intercontinental roster

With a couple of different mysterious unsigned rosters floating around in the upper tier of competitive Overwatch right now, it was a great relief to hear that fan favourite Swedish DPS superstar Mendokusaii had finally found a home. Although the gossip merchants had long been peddling rumours of Mendo's team we now find out it that it was CLAMP's team all along and they have just been signed to one of the biggest names in North American eSports, FaZe Clan.

FaZe Clan made their name with the Call of Duty series, building a huge following in console gaming over the last 6 years before extending their reach to PC eSports, picking up one of the hottest rosters in CS:GO (recently qualified for July's Cologne major) and now an Overwatch team stacked with talent old and new.

In their press release FaZe have highlighted the competitive pedigree of their new acquisitions:

"The biggest reason we’re so excited about this roster is they come with a strong eSports background. CLAMP, the Captain, won multiple World Championships on Quake, & fRoD won multiple World Championships on Counter Strike: in addition to being named North America’s eSports Player of the Decade. On Overwatch, Mendokusaii went 57-0 in it’s first season before coming on to form this roster."

Although I'm not sure if you can give Mendo credit for all of IDDQD's 57 record wins there is no doubting his ability. He finds himself reunited with his former Experiment teammates Veineless and evokje who themselves have been honing their craft for months since the Closed Beta. Their 7th place finish at the TaKeOver offline event came with barely any practise, but yielded four map wins against Melty and Graviton Surge. What can they achieve now with the backing of FaZe and legendary eSports competitors like fRoD and CLAMP?

More than that, I was still curious about their tank - Wonderfuls; a relative unknown to me. Although I had previously heard he was unearthed by Mendo, when I asked the Swede for comment he just threw up a gang sign and repped his new team colours with a "#FazeUp"!

Luckily team captain CLAMP was on hand to provide more insight:

"He [Wonderfuls] was an LCS challenger player briefly before switching to Overwatch. As far as the "tank" position goes, high level MOBA players seem to transfer very well to the role, creating a great fit for Wonderfuls and our team. Our roster came together as both me and Mendokusaii had scouted out players we believed had great potential during the beta phases. Through that extensive process, we were able to hand select each and every player that's now on our team, including each other of course. Our team is in a unique position where we have a split roster of 3 North American players and 3 European players, however fans of FaZe can count on us attending all major Overwatch tournaments going forward. Our roster hasn't competed in any tournaments yet however will be competing in the JoshOG invitational this weekend for our debut performance as FaZe."

Like the man says, you can catch these guys in their first competition this weekend, battling for a slice of JoshOG's $25,000 - which should be a pretty good indicator of what the future holds for them with eight of North America's best teams invited to compete. Could we see them follow in the footsteps of fellow continent straddlers, EnVyUs, with a move to their North American organisations team house? Time and results will tell!

The FaZe Clan roster is: