Sulfur
In the wake of FaZe Clan qualifying for the Playoffs of ESL Pro League by the skin of their teeth in Group B, we walk down the memory lane of FaZe Clan’s greatest ever victory: The Katowice legend.
Drenched in squad drama, skeptical crowds, and a history of poor performances, FaZe Clan defied all odds to create one of CS:GO’s greatest ever storylines.
XVI Katowice 2022Poland, Katowice, Spodek
FaZe Clan
G2 Esports
HeroicThe jks Plotline
FaZe Clan had to play IEM Katowice in three distinct rosters due to COVID issues. COL’s benched player, jks, filled in the golden boots of some of the most accomplished players in the CS:GO scene, and shone and ran in them like a gold-plated Usain Bolt.
His journey started in the Play-In, where ropz was out because of the virus. jks stepped in to replace FaZe’s star signing in a matter of a few days. jks did not take a lot of time to grow into this team. After a poor performance against Sprout, he started elevating his performance, and map by map, he became better. In the final Play-In map against MOUZ, he ended up being the top fragger for the squad, with a great 1.36 rating performance.
FaZe Clan reached the Group Stages with few worries.
jks played in the first Group Stage match against Liquid. Though FaZe Clan won and jks performed fairly up to expectations, there was indeed a tactical blunder regarding jks that lost FaZe the first map on Mirage.
jks had done more than enough to convince the world that he deserves more than a COL bench, and he was bowing out in full grace.
Except he was given one more chance to shine more in this FaZe jersey, wearing a Canadian flag. (Yeah, he’s Australian, but since he was last-moment, they gave him Twistzz’s jersey. XD)
ropz came back for the final two Group Stage matches, but it was rain that fell victim to the sidelines this time. jks, who hadn’t played at a competitive level for so long, was being asked to play in front of a crowd against the topmost teams in the world. jks was being asked to fill in the shoes of an NA legend like rain. jks was being asked to not let down icons like karrigan.
And he exceeded all expectations.
Against Gambit in the Quarterfinals, jks filled in rain’s positions masterfully. The entries, the site hits, the multikills…. It was a sight for sore eyes. Despite flailing chemistry and last-minute tactical adjustments, jks had slid into this system like a hot knife through butter. He went one step beyond, too, by becoming the MVP of the match.
The Semifinal was against Heroic, and jks aptly performed his duties. He wasn’t a star fragger and wasn’t expected to be one, either. He was just expected to survive his new roles. He was thrust against a wall when Heroic picked Nuke, a map strongly based around team play and chemistry, something FaZe ideally should’ve lacked. It was a high IQ move by Heroic…… Heroic lost 16-5.
jks put in a 1.38 rating performance on Nuke, and FaZe steered their way into the Grand Final with ease.
jks was great again in his first-ever top-tier Grand Final. It was his clutch that put an end to a 58-round Mirage series, winning FaZe their second map.
“I don’t wanna be the reason these guys drop out of the tournament.” jks definitely was one of the key reasons FaZe Clan won the whole damn thing.
Pretty cool guy, huh?
karrigan’s Redemption
karrigan! The supposed “all brain no aim” in Finn Andersen has silenced all critiques and done the impossible. The Batman has cleaned the Katowice streets off any potential Ukrainian or Danish or French crimes and has solidified his place in history.
One of the most legendary IGLs in CS:GO history has finally won that standout event of his long career. That’s not to say that the 31-year-old hasn’t won anything before. ESL Pro League Season 10 comes to mind. The Sydney victory follows suit as well. But Katowice is different.
Katowice is an unofficial Major. Katowice is grand.
After that harrowing defeat in the Grand Finals in Boston, another heartbreak in Katowice the same year, and the exhausting move to mouseports after that, everyone thought that was the end of karrigan. Just another IGL.
But all karrigan did in the background was plot a masterful return to FaZe Clan; an elaborate scheme to oust the world’s greatest to steal the golden crown.
An important factor in this success was karrigan’s mouseports bred star teammate, ropz. ropz joined FaZe Clan in early 2022 and was instrumental in FaZe’s 1st-3rd place in BLAST Premier: Spring Groups in January.
After spending 2021 on the cusp of glory, always one step away from greatness, karrigan finally weaved everything for an iconic win. And what a way to do it. He had to suffer the loss of his protege, ropz, early on. He had to integrate jks for the Play Ins and early Group Stage. A player that had been out of server for 2-3 months. When he got his full squad back, he could only play 2 games before rain was on the sidelines.
Playoffs had arrived. Against the best in the world, karrigan now had to integrate jks into a new role and keep the dream going. He had to bring out the best in broky, all while handling the individual stars in ropz and Twistzz. All of this in front of a roaring Katowice crowd.
And he did.
He did everything.
karrigan is a hero, and we’re never going to see such a legend again.
The Future is Here
The most optimistic and exciting part of the Grand Finals was the two young AWPers going head to head. broky and m0NESY were the standout players for their respective teams in the matches leading up to the Final.
Had G2 won the tournament, m0NESY might’ve bagged the MVP over NiKo and huNter-. In his “debut” in front of the crowd in Katowice, he dropped a 45-kill bomb in his very first map. He was the MVP of that match, needless to say. He was also the MVP in the semifinals against NaVi, and against Team Liquid in the Group Stage. He even out-AWPed s1mple 9-8 in that semifinal.
m0NESY was absolutely phenomenal, and the fact that he’s just 16 only makes his performances crazier.
broky was shockingly top-tier as well. FaZe’s MVP winners were more dilute, though. Twistzz, rain, and jks won their share of MVPs besides broky. But the Latvian was a star in his own right in all the matches. Even in the match FaZe lost, against NaVi, broky was the top fragger with 87 kills. Not only did broky defeat s1mple in total kills, he even beat him in head-to-head: broky 24 – 21 s1mple.
Hence, it’s barely a surprise that broky was the MVP of IEM Katowice 2022 when FaZe Clan secured that win.
2021’s World Number 20 has had the brightest possible start for 2022, and the youngster is fiercely threatening to displace someone from their Top 10 position this year.
Battle Against A Fellow Flailing Squad
FaZe Clan were not the only one hit by squad issues. G2 was another team that had to adjust at the eleventh hour to keep their journey going.
In the Playoffs, G2’s coach, XTQZZZ, had to be sidelined due to COVID, and Amanek stood in for him. It was definitely a weird dynamic, and the absence of their powerful coach strongly sabotaged their chances to make a deep run in the Playoffs.
Their Playoffs journey did not start as smoothly as they would have liked. It took them three overtimes to win on the first map against Virtus Pro, and in this form, defeating NaVi in the semis looked like a distant dream.
G2 did recover soon, and their second map was flawless, ensuring a 2-0 Quarterfinal win.
As Aleksib later admitted, Amanek was expected to be just a shallow stand-in for the books, but his voice had a lot of weight during the intense timeouts. His motivation, encouragement, and the constant push of someone always having to be a utility player far exceeded the relative lack of tactical nous, compared to XTQZZZ.
This was true, especially against the NaVi game. It’s a secret to none who and what NaVi is and G2 had a special rivalry against them, thanks to Katowice 2020, Cologne 2021, and of course, the Stockholm Major. So when the time came when G2 was close to a 2-0 victory, but NaVi seem to have revitalized themselves and staging a comeback, Amanek’s timeouts really helped the team calm down.
G2 did end up thwarting the comeback and ensuring a 2-0 win against the mentally weakened CIS side.
Of course, the Grand Final didn’t go G2’s way, but it was a closely fought battle all the way.
Props to Amanek.
The Only Play-In Team to Reach Playoffs
FaZe Clan started their journey all the way from the lower rung of Play-In matches. They defeated Sprout 16-12 and then MOUZ in a comeback 2-1 victory to reach Group Stages.
Amongst the 8 Play-In teams that reached Group Stage, only one reached the Playoffs. FaZe Clan, of course. Teams like Astralis, NiP, OG, MOUZ, Fnatic, all missed out and were sent home early.
FaZe Clan started their Group Stage journey against Team Liquid. They lost the first map and were expected to lose the match altogether, but they persevered. They upped their CT side, and what followed were two maps with unmatchable defensive scores. FaZe Clan had a 12-3 and 10-5 lead going into the second half in the two maps that followed, both scores CT-sided.
broky was a class apart on all maps, especially the decider, Inferno, where he posted a 1.62 rating.
Next up was fnatic, the team that defeated FaZe Clan in the Grand Finals in Katowice 2018. Of course, the players now are completely different, so there’s no real grudge to hold. Anyway, rage or not, FaZe Clan got the job done against the now-British team. They won 2-1 and the story here was similar to the Liquid one. Two maps with a strong defensive showing, and one map with a poor defense. 2-1.
And with that, FaZe Clan had qualified for the Playoffs. The winner against NaVi was to get the Semifinal place, the loser Quarterfinal.
FaZe Clan put up a great fight, but the Ukrainian force was too strong to be defeated. FaZe did manage to win one map and take the decider into double overtime.
More importantly, we saw glimpses of strong mental fortitude from FaZe. Sure, they threw away a 15-10 lead in the decider map, but there were fingerprints of veteran maturity smeared all over the match. This quality proved to be key in that legendary Grand Final against G2.
The Playoffs started against a mentally weakened Gambit. Again, FaZe’s defensive capabilities were their biggest asset. Against Heroic, FaZe wasn’t having the greatest CT side on the first map. But that didn’t matter since they had already won the T-sided first half 10-5. Even if FaZe had fluffed their first map, they still could’ve easily reached the Grand Final since the decider map was Overpass, and FaZe Clan had defeated the mighty NaVi on it.
Well, the Grand Final it was. On every map, a different psychological quality was tested for FaZe.
On the first map, FaZe were down 11-4 after the first half. Luckily that poor half was their attacking side. It was time for their defensive side to shine. In the whole tournament, we hadn’t really seen FaZe Clan making a comeback after falling to such a deficit.
But at the grandest stage here, they did. They trusted themselves and the high-flying CT side made zonic’s law come true. Almost, at least. FaZe had forced overtime after making a comeback from 15-7 down. In overtime, they won all 3 CT rounds and closed it out 4-0.
FaZe Clan had shown their ability to reverse a heavy deficit.
They continued this CT side havoc onto the second map, where they won the first half 11-4. But this time, they messed up and let that lead slip, something we saw against NaVi. It was 15-15.
This is where FaZe Clan showed us their perseverance ability. To stay strong till the last breath and not give up until the fight is over.
Five overtimes, and FaZe Clan fought valiantly in every single one of them, eventually winning the fifth.
The final map was a battle to close it out. To put an end to this fight and not let the enemy back into the game.
Both halves ever so close, FaZe Clan managed to ward off a late orb of energetic round wins by G2 to win the map, match, and tournament.
FaZe Clan were thoroughly tested to their very limits, and they came out victorious every single time.
Thus ends the tale of CS:GO’s greatest ever event; the legendary story of the estranged pieces glued together by one of the most iconic IGLs.
