FaZe Ups and Downs: A History

“[My time with FaZe] will help me be a voice of reason or a peacemaker going into Overwatch League.” — Reflecting on one year of FaZe Overwatch with the roster’s longstanding members

In August of 2016, FaZe Clan cemented their names in the rapidly growing competitive Overwatch scene with the acquisition of a roster that united fresh faces with established OW talent.

At the core of this new roster were three players who would quickly prove themselves to be among the biggest and brightest in Overwatch:

George “ShaDowBurn” Gushcha, long heralded as among the best projectile players in the game despite his continually competing on high ping;

Shane “Rawkus” Flaherty, a masterful flex support player who helped carry the USA’s 2017 World Cup team to easy victories in group stages this August;

and, also of Team USA, Russell “FCTFCTN” Campbell, a skilled main tank who is praised for his proficiency on both Winston and Reinhardt.

A little over one year after donning their FaZe jerseys — and with the help of their new and notable teammates Spree, Carpe, and Joemeister — the trio punched their tickets to their third LAN event since the game’s release last May.

Left to right: ShaDowBurn, FCTFCTN, zombs, Forsak3n, TwoEasy, Rawkus

Yet a bottom place finish in Overwatch Contenders Season 1 would not have been completely out of character for this particular group — because, despite their individual talents, inconsistency and disappointment have been FaZe’s calling card.

The team’s competitive history is a messy, inconclusive patchwork of wins against the best teams and losses against the worst; bottom finishes in minor tournaments and top three in majors. Casters and analysts dubbed them “consistently inconsistent” — a team that could never be counted out of events, nor counted on to perform.

“When we could work together, we could challenge the best teams in Overwatch, but those days were few and far between.”

Fans were hopeful that the team’s hard fought second place finish at MLG Vegas in December would be a turning point, but the next six months proved to be FaZe’s worst as they struggled through roster changes and internal conflicts. Even a brief hiatus from competitive play did seemingly little to improve their teamwork.

Via Liquipedia

Their first place finish in the quarter one qualifier for Contenders Season 0 was a much needed win in a string of losses, but the high was short lived; FaZe barely scraped by into Contenders Season 1 with a 5–6th placement.

“We knew something had to change [for Season 1],” said Campbell. “When we could work together, we could challenge the best teams in Overwatch, but those days were few and far between.”

Internal leadership, whether too much or too little, has been the team’s greatest weakness.

Campbell cited the clash of FaZe’s multiple strong leadership personalities as a significant contributor to the team’s inconsistency pre-MLG Vegas, and a motivator for post-MLG Vegas roster swaps.

“Honestly, I think [TwoEasy] is the strongest leader [I have played with],” said Gushcha, referring fondly to his former teammate. “After replacing TwoEasy, we didn’t even have a captain.”

But in hindsight, Campbell defended FaZe’s roster swaps, saying “I’ve always preached that I think roster stability is one of the most important things in a game like Overwatch, where team synergy trumps raw skill in most cases. However, I do believe in hindsight that the roster changes were necessary [because] our previous rosters had a few strong personalities all vying for control at any given moment.”

Amidst the rumored creation of “super-teams” for the impending Overwatch League, FaZe’s recent successes are a reminder that player synergy; strong in-game leadership; and, knowledgeable support staff are vital components of a winning team. Gushcha, Flaherty, and Campbell are three highly mechanically skilled players who are bursting with individual talent, as are their current and former teammates, from TwoEasy to Carpe, zombs to Spree, and Forsak3n to Joemeister.

But individual talent can only carry a team so far.

As such, the addition of support staff has been revolutionary for FaZe.

Luke “iuKeEe” Dainton and Se-Hwi “NamedHwi” Go both joined the organization ahead of Contenders Season 1 as coaches/analysts. As Campbell paints it, the coaches’ presence has allowed FaZe to analyze their mistakes as a team like never before.

“They’ve changed the way we think about the game and amped up our teamwork,” said Campbell.

Similarly, Gushcha attributed part of the roster’s recent success to the inclusion of Joemeister and NamedHwi, saying: “Things changed in a good way for us mostly because of Joemeister joining us as a captain and [in-game leader], and NamedHwi joining us as head coach. … I can’t imagine someone being more impactful as a coach.”

The results speak for themselves: FaZe finishes Season 1 group stages with a 6–1 match score, having lost only to the tournament’s top seed, Team EnVyUs.

Via OverwatchContenders

And if you were wondering if incorporating a Korean player into a team of Americans and Europeans has been difficult? “Carpe knows calls in English,” said Guscha, bluntly.

After playoffs in October, the players will shift their focus to their respective Overwatch League teams.

The League will be the first time in over a year that Gushcha, Flaherty, and Campbell have seriously competed under an organization other than FaZe.

FaZe competes at MLG Vegas

“Like any group of teammates, there was definitely some growing pains. However, throughout any of our arguments, I could always see Rawkus’ passion and I always respected his drive,” said Campbell.

For [my relationship with Shadow], I think the best way to describe it is one of mutual respect. … It’s these sorts of relationships I have with Shadow and Rawkus that kept me committed to FaZe.”

When asked why he remained committed to a North American organization despite his routinely having to compete on high ping, Gushcha was candid: “It’s more like I didn’t have much of a choice. Back then, the best teams were signed by NA organizations and the most competition was happening in NA as well because of that.”

He continued: “Playing for a NA team was a really good and useful experience for me. … FaZe management is really good at motivating people to win and inspiring people to keep trying and trying even harder after struggles.”

While the last year has not been all smooth sailing for the team’s veteran members, FaZe has endured in competitive Overwatch longer than most, and the players’ dedication has paid off.

“ It has definitely been a crazy long trip, but very satisfying, to say the least,” said Campbell. “[After working with a truly international team], I think about the world way differently now than I did just a few short years ago.”

Europeans think differently from Koreans who think differently from North Americans, and it really puts everything into perspective for me. I think for me, it’ll help me be a voice of reason or a peacemaker going into Overwatch League.”