Late 2017 saw the fallout of one of the organisations backing one of the top 5 teams within ESEA’s Invite division for TF2. While having only been in TF2’s competitive scene for somewhere over a season, Faint have found a warm reception to the TF2 competitive community, especially within teamfortress.tv’s forums. The history of the team is one filled with internal strife, disputes, and an eventual end that led the amateur organisation to pull their sponsorship from their Invite team and the Team Fortress 2 scene as whole.

“I think everyone knew we were a volatile team and we would have our extreme highs and extreme lows, as in not staying consistent,” Faint Gaming COO KKredible told us. “Beating EVL and going up 3–0 against Froyo on Viaduct showed that Sandblast and Goldfish were definitely able to bring something new to Invite in terms of playstyle and shotcalling. However in Season 26, with a very skilled team, personalities probably clashed and the best way to build team chemistry is to win, and that didn’t happen.”

On June 6th, Faint Gaming signed the roster of mario party 4 to compete in ESEA Season 25’s Invite division. The team found success in their very first game of the season, managing to upset against EVL 5–3 on Process. Whether this win can be attributed to Faint’s skilled players or maybe rando’s unusually low damage and excessive use of Engineer is unknown, but a win against one of the top teams in Invite certainly caught the attention of anyone who was watching them closely. And with the addition of EvilMrMuffinz to the team, the team began to look promising in their potential.

Faint Gaming would find further success within the season, managing to take down the likes of hibbleton, Velocity eSports, and Meat Market within the regular season. Despite these major wins, they were still in a close neck race with Velocity eSports and Gnomercy, two teams who were both focused on making playoffs. Gnomercy crushed Faint both times in the Regular Season, and Velocity managed to pull out a victory against Faint in Week 7 of the regular season, but the plight of Velocity was too little too late: Faint had made it to playoffs.

With the win over EVL in the first week, Faint had managed to pull through to playoffs, beating Velocity eSports by being tied 9–7 in the regular season and managing to accumulate more points won over the entire season. Playoffs soon began afterwards and Faint found the misfortune of being 4th seed against froyotech. Froyotech pummeled them with consecutive 5–2 and 5–1 victories, and despite the impressive 31 frags by Happycool, Faint were unable to convert those frags into points. Faint were going to have to proceed to the lower bracket and face off against the one team in playoffs they had the ability to upset: Gnomercy.

The series started promising, as sandblast’s leadership and DM pulled Faint Gaming through the first match on Snakewater, 5–2. But trouble struck in the second match of the series, as Faint suffered a crushing loss of 1–5. Despite sandblast’s best efforts to keep his team afloat, the damage output of Gnomercy and the superiority of their scout combo proved too much for Faint. Onto the last map of the series, Faint weren’t going to go down without a fight. On metalworks, Faint pulled through an excellent first half, managing a 3–2 scoreline and what seemed to be an almost guaranteed ticket to the Lower Bracket Finals. But after the first mid of the second half, Faint had already lost. Faint were unable to convert any pushes into caps, despite their excellent efforts in the former half. They suffered a crushing 0–3 loss for the second half, putting the final score of 3–5, and officially knocking Faint Gaming out of the Invite season at 4th place.

Faint Gaming’s roster at the end of Season 25

Despite the lackluster performance in the season prior under the banner of mario party 4, Faint Gaming managed to impress in their first season, managing to beat EVL Gaming and putting up a close fight with Gnomercy. But despite the promising showings from the team, the roster could not maintain its stability and slowly, the pillars of the team began to crumble.

After the end of the Season 25, phlps, EvilMrMuffinz, and ranga quit the roster to join other teams and focus on real life commitments. To fill the void, sandblast brought in laz, tambo, and former Gnomercy captain, yight. But with these changes, the internal strife between the team members began to grow. According to inside sources, yight and campy threatened to quit the team amidst disagreements between players and other unspecified reasons sometime after the shuffle. While they did both quit the roster on ESEA, they eventually rejoined just a few days later and the situation was considered to be resolved.

The results of Season 26 failed to quell the team’s growing pains. Faint began Week 1 with a 3–5 loss on Sunshine against SVIFT NA. Despite the strong showing by sandblast, Thaigrr was able to pull through with the ping disadvantage, accumulating 43 kills, nearly 50% more than of that of his teammates. Their morale failed to improve going into the second match of the week against myanimelist dot net, who brought the match down to the wire in a 5–4 victory. Their future results didn’t fare much better; while they managed victories against The Sparkle Gang and Black Swan, they failed to manage victories over their two main adversaries: Velocity eSports and Ascent. While they managed an initial 4–0 victory against Velocity on Product, they were crushed by Ascent in the following match and crushed again by Velocity just a week later on Process.

Things got worse as their team captain, sandblast, stepped down from the team to focus on real life commitments. While he was replaced by bo4r of Cat Noises, the lack of a team captain such as sandblast began to make the team more and more unstable. Roster changes ensued, as tambo was cut for dingo, formerly of Gnomercy, on Demoman, campy was cut for aim due to lack of commitment, and meyy was replaced by mason. The roster of Faint Gaming resembled little of the original team that had been acquired in Season 25.

As tensions between the teammates began to pull the team apart, as did the tensions between the players and the organisation. According to an inside source, the Faint Gaming roster agreed to an 80/20 cut under sandblast in the players’ favor. Despite the monetary investments the organisation had made into the players, such as purchasing a 144hz monitor for EvilMrMuffinz, the player mason decided to oust Faint Gaming, claiming that Faint were taking 35% of the team’s prize money, which was later debunked in the same thread mason had posted the accusation.

On October 31st, Faint Gaming released their roster and severed ties with the Invite squad. In a press release, Faint Gaming stated no reason for the departure from Invite, but it can be assumed that arguments between the players and the organisation and the little benefit the team gained from the sponsorship lead to them pulling out. Kredible stated that their other teams, notably their ESEA Open team, would continue to play under the Faint Gaming banner for the remainder of their seasons. Faint Gaming’s former roster continued to play in the season under the name of Woodpig, but would finish in fifth place, despite an impressive 5–2 victory over SVIFT NA.