s1mple on stage: FaZe head to the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 Playoffs

I’ll admit it. When FaZe first announced s1mple was going to join their lineup in a gung-ho attempt to win the BLAST.tv Austin Major, I was sceptical. More than sceptical, in fact. I believed it would be an unmitigated disaster for a player out of the game for so long to return and instantly be expected to reach an unreasonable individual level, GOAT or not. His performances at IEM Dallas last month did little to sway my opinion on the matter.

Yet I have to sit here and admit that I’ve been somewhat made to eat my words a little. FaZe have qualified for the Playoffs of the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025, progressing through Stage 3 with very little fuss whatsoever. At the heart of it, s1mple, who now officially boasts a 1.15 rating in matches across the last three months. All things considered, it’s a vastly impressive performance, a place on the big stage in front of an adoring Austin crowd his guaranteed prize – more perhaps lying in wait.

s1mple continues to heat up

As s1mple spends more and more time on the server, we’re seeing not just flashes of the player he once was, but consistent spells of excellence that are, game by game, transforming doubters into believers. Me included, I should add. There were two early best-of-three matches in Stage 2 against Legacy and 3DMAX in which s1mple didn’t exactly cover himself in glory, but since that, he’s been in golden form.

You only need to look at his form in Stage 3. His 1.35 rating puts him in the top five for players in Stage 3 at the time of writing, catapulted into contention by a fantastic 1.47 in FaZe’s Playoff-qualifying win over The MongolZ. A formidable opponent, but s1mple was able to stand up and be counted regardless.

What has arguably impressed me most is how he has handled adversity. After all, we can all roll with the punches when the going is good. However, during the aforementioned MongolZ game, he actually started the series 0:6 on Ancient, as the Asian team romped to an early 7:1 lead. Despite this, he fought back to finish the map 18:11, sparking a comeback that eventually allowed FaZe to take the overall series 2:0. He’s proven he’s no passenger, maintaining that champion’s trait of being able to bounce back from the canvas. I was wrong about s1mple.

Could FaZe actually win the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025?

With a top-eight finish secured at the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 and at least one match in front of a crowd guaranteed, the mind starts to race. Could FaZe actually win the Major with s1mple? Is FaZe bullsh*t really that powerful? frozen seemed to think so when I spoke to him recently.

It’s the Playoffs, and we all know that anything can happen there. The right things go their way, and FaZe are suddenly real contenders to go on and win the entire thing. And yeah, it’s still unlikely. But it was equally unlikely they’d make Playoffs in the first place, given their form this year. All of a sudden, the FaZe fans out there are dreaming big, and with all of the team’s stars performing, rightfully so. We talk a lot about aura in Counter-Strike, and that’s precisely what s1mple has given in spades during this run.

It could be that reality hits, and FaZe crash out at the next opportunity. But nothing can take away from the fact that they got people believing all over again, and that’s enough to already make this run a memorable one.