FaZe Clan’s captain says he has been the one bringing the mood down, and two clean sweeps in Belgrade have nearly secured a Major invite that looked shaky after two last-place finishes this autumn.
FaZe Clan topped Group A at RLG Tesla Cup 2026 in Belgrade on Tuesday without dropping a map, beating Alliance and K27 2-0 each. The two wins gave them a 97.1% chance of a PGL Major Singapore 2026 invite on Tuesday night, according to HLTV’s simulation. On Monday morning, before the event, the same model had them at 74.9%.
FaZe2-0
AllianceStatsAncient 13-6, Mirage 13-2
avidFaZe2-0
K27StatsDust2 13-10, Nuke 13-7
| FaZe | K-D | +/- | ADR | KAST |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Twistzz | 47-25 | +22 | 101.0 | 74.4% |
 JBOEN | 35-22 | +13 | 90.2 | 79.1% |
 Neityu | 31-26 | +5 | 75.0 | 76.7% |
 jcobbb | 19-28 | -9 | 52.4 | 72.1% |
 frozen | 19-28 | -9 | 65.3 | 76.7% |
| K27 | K-D | +/- | ADR | KAST |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 clax | 32-27 | +5 | 75.2 | 72.1% |
| kashl1d | 30-29 | +1 | 81.6 | 72.1% |
| X5G7V | 28-31 | -3 | 71.1 | 60.5% |
 xeedo | 25-33 | -8 | 59.9 | 67.4% |
| qw1nk1 | 14-31 | -17 | 47.7 | 62.8% |
Alliance had beaten FaZe 2-0 at FISSURE Playground 3 in September. This time the Swedes reached double figures on neither map.
A captain who wants to stop sinking the mood
Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken told HLTV in Belgrade that he and David “frozen” Čerňanský are trying to be better role models for their younger teammates. Asked where the energy in Tuesday’s two wins came from, the Canadian started with himself.
I’ll be honest and say that sometimes I’m the one dampening the good mood. Me and David, we have high standards for how the team should play, and when things are not going well or mistakes are made, both of us have a really bad habit of getting down in the dump kind of.
He said the change is meant for the rest of the team rather than for his own game.
These young players don’t deserve to have bad vibes around them always, so now I’ll just bring in the good vibes. It doesn’t matter if I’m 4-15 or if I’m having a good game; I want to make sure these kids are feeling the game and feeling good about themselves, and they play with confidence. I want the best for them.
The line about a bad scoreline was not hypothetical. Twistzz was the only FaZe player with a negative K-D against Alliance, at 12-20 and 45.7 ADR, while frozen and jcobbb carried the series. Against K27 a few hours later, the 26-year-old was the top fragger on the server with 47-25 and 101.0 ADR.
According to Twistzz, frozen is working on the same thing, after what he called an honest reflection following the team’s recent events. Since DraculaN, he and coach Niclas “enkay J” Krumhorn have spent their time on the playbook while the players rested. He sees the run of smaller LANs as useful practice for a lineup that needs matches together, and pointed to 1win and Nemiga as teams that have grown from playing a lot of official games. Three Bo3s in a day at DraculaN was part of the appeal, in his view, and playing those events is “not something to be ashamed of”, even if the goal is to leave them behind.
From last place to a title in a month
FaZe reached the final of the last Major, StarLadder’s in Budapest in 2025. Since then the team has changed around Twistzz. NEO left as coach in March and enkay J took over in April, the same month karrigan moved to Team Falcons and Twistzz took over the calls. broky was benched in June for JBOEN, on loan from BIG Academy, and Neityu, a stand-in since April, signed permanently in August.
The best results of 2026 are three semi-final finishes, at BLAST Rivals Season 1, XSE Pro League Guangzhou and BLAST Bounty Season 2 Finals. The autumn was worse. FaZe finished last at FISSURE Playground 3 in September, after losses to Alliance and magic, and again at Stake Ranked Episode 4 in Barcelona at the start of October, after losses to Nemiga and Astralis.
The turnaround started a week later. FaZe won Roman Imperium Cup IX without dropping a series and then beat ASTRAL, Envy and HEROIC at DraculaN Season 7 before going out to BC.Game in fifth to sixth place.
Five open places in Europe
Valve hands out the Singapore invitations from the Regional Standings on 2 November. In HLTV’s model, updated at on Wednesday, 13 of Europe’s 18 places were all but settled, with 17 teams fighting over the last five. FaZe sat 16th in that projection at 95.2%, a little below Tuesday night’s number as other results came in. In roughly one simulated season in 20, results elsewhere still push them out.
The teams just behind them are spread across three events this week.
| Team | Event this week | Invite chance |
|---|---|---|
| FaZe | RLG Tesla Cup, semi-final on Thursday | 95.2% |
 B8 | RLG Tesla Cup, Group A decider | 47.7% |
 100 Thieves | FiRe Last Chance, from 29 October | 47.4% |
 BIG | Stake Ranked Episode 5 | 31.3% |
| Inner Circle | Stake Ranked Episode 5 | 31.2% |
 fnatic | Stake Ranked Episode 5 | 28.5% |
| HOTU | RLG Tesla Cup, Group B | 18.6% |
The closest of them is in FaZe’s own group. B8 lost their opener 2-1 to K27 and then beat Alliance 2-1, and on Wednesday they met K27 again in the Group A decider, where the winner joins FaZe in the semi-finals and the loser goes home. At the series was level at 1-1: K27 took Nuke 13-3, B8 answered 13-11 on Dust2, and Mirage was still to be played. In HLTV’s model, a place in Thursday’s final would take B8’s invite chance to 92%; anything less leaves it at 22%. For the background to the race, see our overview from Monday.
A random veto that worked for HOTU
Group B began with a curiosity. HOTU did not show up in time for the map veto against Luminosity, so their bans and picks were randomised, as noted on HLTV’s match page. The draw removed Anubis and Nuke for HOTU and gave them Mirage as their pick, while Inferno was left as the decider. That was HOTU’s permaban, NarT pointed out.
They never had to play it. HOTU won Mirage 13-11 and Ancient 13-4, with David “n0rb3r7” Danielyan on 40-22 and 95.6 ADR across the two maps. Luminosity, who had booked two events in four days to chase a Major place, are now at 1.8% in HLTV’s model.
Wednesday in Belgrade
HOTU play GamerLegion at in the Group B winners’ match, and the winner goes straight to the semi-finals. Luminosity and Envy meet at , and the loser is out of the event. The Group B decider follows at .
FaZe play their semi-final on Thursday against a team from Group B, with the playoffs starting at and the final the same day. Their next tier-one test comes a few days later at IEM Beijing, where their first scheduled match is against FURIA on 2 November. Twistzz said FaZe can compete there and will play their own game whatever the name on the other side.
