Photo by ESL / Adela Sznajder

FaZe Clan active roster:
Ricardo “fox” Pacheco
Mikail “Maikelele” Bill
Havard “rain” Nygaard
Joakim “jkaem” Myrbostad
Philip “aizy” Aistrup

Recent accomplishments:
3rd-4th ESL One Cologne 2015
3rd-4th Dreamhack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015
3rd-4th IEM San Jose 2015
5th-6th Dreamhack Leipzig 2016

Brief overview:
Just a few months ago, the first thing that would come to mind for a CS:GO fan when they heard FaZe were garishly over-edited CoD frag movies and irritating trolls in matchmaking games; so when FaZe Clan revealed they had signed the then-G2 line-up through a record breaking $700,000 buyout in January, the community was understandably surprised. They joined a now growing list of Call of Duty teams that have begun to shift their focus to competitive Counter-Strike, with high profile teams such as OpTic, EnVyUs, and SoaR now all invested in the scene.

The base of FaZe’s current roster was first established in May 2015, when Kinguin endeavoured to bring together an international line-up that could compete for a top spot in the world, bringing in players from Sweden, Portugal, Belgium, and Norway. Growing pains were abound early on, with teams struggling to show any resemblance of synergy and losing maps to teams that on paper were far worse. Just a month later the team’s in-game leader Alexander “SKYTTEN” Carlsson was dropped from the roster in an attempt to help the situation, bringing in Dennis “dennis” Edman in his place.

Without an IGL, the team struggled for a period before finding their form near the end of the year, reaching the semi-finals of ESL One Cologne 2015 before being knocked out by TSM (now Astralis), and then the next month taking first place at Gamer's Paradise. The team then changed organizations again, this time to G2 eSports, losing Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom to Titan and then signing Joakim “jkaem” Myrbostad. It was with this roster that the team came 3rd-4th at DreamHack Cluj-Napoca, but they lost a critical member a week later, dennis, to yet another buyout and had to settle for Philip “aizy” Aistrup of dignitas, bringing the team to what was bought by FaZe Clan now, which has of yet to accomplished anything particularly significant. With the team recently being put under the coaching of CS 1.6 legend Robert "RobbaN" Dahlström however, it is uncertain what the team will be able to accomplish coming into Katowice, but with the history of strong placements at past majors, we can expect only good things from this international line-up.

Fun facts:

  • In the last nine months, FaZe's roster has changed names four times, from Kinguin to Gamers2, then G2 eSports and finally FaZe.
  • Titan reportedly paid $150,000 to G2 in order to buy out Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom.
  • FaZe's Ricardo “fox” Pacheco is the highest earning Portugese CS player of all time, with just a total $22,000 in winnings according to eSportsEarnings.