The Atlanta FaZe have become a Call of Duty dynasty ever since joining the CDL in 2020. This was cemented last year when they took home the COD Champs title and were hands down the best team in Cold War. However, even though the FaZe boys, Chris “Simp” Lehr, Tyler “aBezy” Pharris, McArthur “Cellium” Jovel and Alec “Arcitys” Sanderson are just as good as they were last year, their invisibility in the biggest stages seems to have been lost.

[Related: Is the GOAT of Call of Duty Done?]

Early Success

So far this year in Major tournaments, the Atlanta FaZe has appeared in three of the four Grand Finals (not including Kickoff Classic).

In Major 1, after falling to the elimination bracket early, FaZe easily recovered and made it to the Grand Finals. Unfortunately, they ran into an equally talented team and red hot team in OpTic Texas, eventually falling in seven maps. Although they may have lost, it was to an equally talented team who was having a great weekend.

Their Championship to Win

After dominating their way to the Grand Finals in Major 2 and watching OpTic get eliminated. FaZe knew that this one was theirs. While they were cruising through their matches in the winner’s bracket, a struggling, but talented LA Guerillas team were doing something special. Starting in elimination round 1, they went on a 5-match win streak behind an incredible SND (Search and Destroy) map win streak of 7. So, heading into the Grand Finals, people knew LAG were making an impressive run. However, teams still must take down the final boss in FaZe before they win anything.

Things went different this time, FaZe couldn’t win a map. After Map 1, LAG went on a 4-map win streak before FaZe finally won in Map 6. Unfortunately, FaZe couldn’t slow down LAG in the next map and ended up falling again in seven maps. One could blame the Volk for changing the meta and helping LAG win a lot of their matches. Although maybe true, one can’t get lucky and win 10 SND’s in a row. Any team that has an auto-win in a game mode, especially search, will always make it far.

Another Chance at Victory

This leads to last week’s Major 3 tournament. FaZe once again made it to the Grand Finals with relative ease. Although coming from the elimination bracket, FaZe were still the outright favorites heading into the match. Facing a Seattle Surge team that is talented but not to the likes of FaZe or even other teams in the league. Everyone knew the Atlanta FaZe were a better team and should come out as champions. However, FaZe lost in eight maps and once again failed to clutch up when the lights shine brightest in the Grand Finals.

Despite finishing second in multiple events against the best competition in the world, it is still a great achievement. But as a competitor, racking up those second-place finishes can hurt more than the last-place finishes.

There is no doubt that the boys will figure it out and show that “ice” fans all know they have at the next major.

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