Will Faze’s Hardpoints Improvements Result in a Champion?

Faze Have Improved Significantly in their Worst Game Mode and Looks to Reclaim The Top Spot

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The Competition

Major 5 is here and the question rises of who will be crowned the Major 5 champion in Toronto. There are three favorites but really one heavy betting favorite and that’s Optic Texas and for good reason. They once again went 5-0 in stage qualifiers and look unstoppable most times. However, they’re 0-2 in grand finals this year, resulting in some questions about their ability to clutch up and finish the tournament.

Toronto Ultra are in their hometown and has already won a Major, that being Major 3, in which they beat Optic Texas 4-2. They’re playing much better after a surprisingly la

ckluster Major 4 stage where they started in the loser’s bracket. With Ultra performing better and the crowd behind them, they’re certainly dangerous. What could hold them back is some inconsistent play that plagues them occasionally and having to beat Faze on LAN which they hold a record of just

1-3.

How has Faze Turned it Around

Atlanta Faze is number one in overall seeding this season, has won a tournament at Major 2, and has never finished below 3rd. The greatest search team in CDL history and yet some people have counted Faze out as a true contender for Major 5 and then Champs. That’s mainly due to their respawn struggles, specifically Hardpoint. How can a team that consists of truly some of the greatest of all time, the last two CDL MVPs Simp and Cellium, and the frontrunner for this year’s award, Abezy, struggle in the fastest-paced game mode? Single pushes, bad setups, not rotating, and not communicating well enough are all reasons that can be contributed to their issues. It’s not slaying, they have no issue with gun skill and winning their one on ones. It’s just been fundamentals. Despite the Hardpoint issues, they’ve been consistently a top team, so what would happen if they turned the corner on the game mode and become a top Hardpoint team, well, they might’ve already done that.

Throughout the Major 5 qualifiers, Faze went a whopping 6-1 in Hardpoint, by far their best stretch this season. They started by playing Fortress, a map that has not been kind to them this season, their worst Hardpoint map, and they looked strong against LAG, having a beautiful break on P3 on the second rotation to grab all momentum and secure the win. Next was another Fortress, this time against Optic, and despite the 250-172 loss, a lot of good from that. Optic are untouchable on that map and if wasn’t for two bad P3 collapses out of Faze, they definitely could have walked away with the win.

They moved to a Hotel Hardpoint against Vegas, where they started slow on P1 & P2 like they always do and finished very strong for a dominant win. The breaks were just two easy for Faze as Simp fried to a 29-14 stat line. Then against London, it was easy pickings on Mercado Hardpoint, a 250-145 win. That had nothing on the Embassy Hardpoint, which has always been Faze’s best Hardpoint map where they won 250-74, too easy for Abezy as he went 26-10.

The last two Hardpoints came against a face-paced Boston Breach team, starting with a competitive Fortress in which Faze managed to squeak a win on 250-243. Lastly, they played another Hotel Hardpoint, now against Boston and it was simply the Simp show. He just took over and looked like the former MVP that he is, going 42-18 to close out the qualifiers.

Will it be Enough?

So what changed? Fundamentals and even more slaying. Finally, it looked like Faze were playing alongside each other instead of trying to make hero plays, they were more patient on breaks instead of trying to perform a highlight play. The slaying also kicked up even if Abezy took a slight backseat in the slaying, Slasher had a huge jump this stage to a 1.19 KD in Hardpoint while Simp was back looking like the best sub in the game with a 1.27 KD in Hardpoint. If Faze keeps up this Hardpoint play and either manages to beat or avoid Optic, the Major 5 champion will be theirs.