Barring exceptional circumstances, their 0-2 loss to Fnatic today means that FaZe will miss the Major for the first time since entering CS in 2016.
At the start of the day at DracuLAN Season 6, a $15,000 tournament in Romania turned effectively into a Major-qualifying event, FaZe was up 9-5 against Passion UA on the decider map of Dust2.
There was a real chance that they could come back into Major contention by winning this match, despite only managing three series wins overall in this season. At the start of the day, they had a 33% chance of still making the Major, according to MischiefCS2’s analysis. Winning this match wouldn’t have made it anywhere close to a guarantee, but it kept their chances alive.
As per Udknud, another VRS analyst, all FaZe needed to do was place 2nd or 3rd in a tournament with only Liquid and Aurora from the top 20 HLTV ranking in attendance.
From 9-5 and Major hopes alive to 14-16 and thrashing from Fnatic
FaZe surrendered that lead to Passion UA, losing 14-16 and dropping into the lower bracket. There, they played fnatic, who have not attended IEM Krakow or PGL Cluj-Napoca this year, but managed to beat FaZe 2-0. They beat them 13-5, 13-6, with only frozen getting a positive K-D.
FaZe Clan were out of contention of attending a Major in Counter-Strike for the first time since they entered the esport1. But now they have signed up for HLC Belgrade PRO in April in a last-ditch attempt. To do so, they cannot participate in PGL Bucharest, which overlaps with the Belgrade event.
FaZe have been in playoffs of last 7 of 8 Majors
Despite difficulties getting consistent results, FaZe has been a consistent stalwart at Majors since signing ropz at the start of 2022.
Barring an outlier at the IEM Rio Major 2022, they have made at least the playoffs of all of them (seven out of eight, overall). In a 2025 where they signed EliGE looking at trophies and couldn’t even get through group stages, they were still in the playoffs at tbe BLAST Austin Major with s1mple in their jersey.
At the Starladder Budapest Major, this same roster that lost 0-2 to fnatic, was competing against prime Vitality in the grand final, challenging them on some maps.
Now, FaZe is likely to miss the Major for the first time in their history, and the financial benefit that comes with it. The organization has only made a pure player signing (with no trade for another player) once at the start of 2025 in the last two years.
- Corrected on 1/4/2026 when FaZe signed up for HLC Belgrade 2026 ↩︎
