FaZe Vegas discuss ‘midseason turning point’ that propelled Major II championship

Coming into Major II, FaZe Vegas was hot on the tongue of many people, but few had them as favourites. With OpTic Texas unanimously leading the predictions, teams like Miami Heretics, Riyadh Falcons, LA Thieves, and FaZe were all considered to be part of the chasing pack. 

Yet on-stage, FaZe’s formidable Search and Destroy record served as a catalyst for repeated set wins, and it was only a matter of time before the red-hot guns started clicking across all game modes. Lo and behold, it was the biggest stage of all where iconic duo Chris “Simp” Lehr and Zach “Drazah” Jordan came alive again and, with help from takeover MVP Jovan “04” Rodriguez and clutch king Jordan “Abuzah” François, came together at the right moment to drop a nuke on OpTic Texas and be crowned Major II champions.

The trophy lift capped off a remarkable turnaround from the start of the season, and it was all thanks to a change of philosophy in the middle of the Major II qualifications.

Speaking to Hotspawn, the FaZe Vegas roster discussed that pivotal turnaround that catapulted their season.

Half the Terror, Twice the Reward

For Simp, this season started in a way that he has never faced since 2017. Ever since being recruited to James “Clayster” Eubanks’ eUnited roster, the ‘Tiny Terrors’ have run the Call of Duty scene. Mainly marshalling the SMGs, Simp and Tyler “aBeZY” Pharris might have only been five foot tall in stance, but their stature soon surpassed anyone in the game and rivalled the legacy of Seth “Scump” Abner and Matt “FormaL” Piper. 

But after maintaining the most dominant record of all time, averaging a finish of 2.93 (a better position than top three for seven years straight), Simp and aBeZy went their separate ways with their worst Champs result to date (T6) and an even worse Esports World Cup (T12). 

Missing his other half, Simp has needed to learn and lead two younger and ‘hungry’ stars that have either flopped in last place or hit a Major final in almost every event they participated in during their rookie season for Vancouver Surge.

But the modern-era ‘GOAT’ has quickly got FaZe firing, with a 3rd and 1st finish so far, and claims the adjustment wasn’t as hard as he thought it would be.

“I wouldn’t say it was difficult, but it was definitely a little different, obviously, after teaming with the same people for six years,” he told Hotspawn. 

“I feel like I’m pretty versatile as a player myself, so I wasn’t really too worried about picking anyone up and especially people that can actually, like, play the game right – just good at the game – and it makes it easy to do what I do.”

• Read More: OpTic Dashy and Huke on Overload mastery, online attitudes, and the UK ‘mecca’ of Call of Duty

Mid-Season Adjustments Changed the Tide for FaZe Vegas

For all this talk about success, FaZe Vegas started off Major 2 Qualification dismally, only inching out of the bottom half and the Play-Ins gauntlet by three consecutive wins in the last two weeks. 

Week four of the qualifiers was where FaZe realised that they were in jeopardy of not qualifying for the Major at all, and they took a moment to adjust, rather than let the pressure boil over and overexert.

“I feel like the middle of the stage was definitely like the turning point for us,” Simp said. 

“We loosened up a little bit, put more confidence in each other, and just trusted that if, even if we’re making a bad play, if we say it, then we can react to it, and we can win either way. 

Abuzah added, “We put a lot of work on that stage. It was definitely not easy at the beginning. We had like some struggles during the beginning of Stage Two, but we all trusted the process. We trust each other.”

Most notably, FaZe Vegas is adopting the legacy of Jeremy “Neslo” Olsen, who once coined the philosophy that ‘Search and Destroy wins championships’. The game mode, always being the deciding map in a Best of 5 or Best of 7, is pivotal to success, and Neslo lived by the idea that if you could perfect your tactical SnD strategies to win maps two and five, you only need to get the guns hot for one more map to win the game.

FaZe Vegas currently boasts a 59% Search and Destroy win rate, the second highest in the league, and it proved to be the nail in the coffin for OpTic Texas in Major II as the FaZe map pick of Exposure won the Grand Final.

“We put a lot of preparation into Search,” 04 explained. 

“I think that’s definitely our strongest game mode right now, and I think the four of us are actually insane at SnD, individually. So you put four players that are insane, get a little prep going, and we win.”

• Read More: Drazah: “There’s nothing more I want to do than shut them up”

Vanguard Lessons and the Moulding of Champions

For the new FaZe recruits, the difference in caliber between their previous roster and serial winners like Simp and Drazah has been a revelation.

“Last year, it was pretty frustrating because we’ll get either 2nd or 12th – so as long as we got past the first round, we knew we were gonna get either second or first,” 04 said.

That’s not hyperbole either. A second-place finish in Major 2, Major 3, Champs, and the Esports World Cup was joined by a first-round crash out in Major 1 and Major 4. Still, even during the better tournaments, that trophy lift elided them.

“But joining Faze and teaming with two vets who actually win, when we get to the finals, they lead us. We had the skill to win. We just needed the right vision, and we came out with it in Major II,” he continued.

Abuzah agreed, adding, “Last year was. Was hell. Was getting those top two every time was like something like, I don’t want to like, feel again in my life.”

Crucially, Simp has faced a similar scenario. While having an outrageous success rate in Majors, the FaZe stalwart couldn’t add to his chip collection in the Vanguard season, narrowly missing out at every event. 

Despite finishing the League standings in first, it counted for nought as one third-place finish and four seconds (including at Champs), left the org win-less that year.

But Simp has taken those learnings and applied the right teachings to Abuzah and 04, who have quickly broken their duck under his wing.

“I’ve been there. I had the whole Vanguard season where I was kind of just fighting for that win the whole time,” Simp said. 

“I knew how it fell and I knew that they had the hunger coming to this event that would get us the dub. They are hungry.”

FaZe now head back to the West Coast for a few weeks to set up their next outing, where they will fly across the country again to touch down in Atlanta and hunt for more silverware at Major III.