
FaZe Clan was founded on May 30, 2010. The organization was created by Eric “CLipZ” Rivera, Jeff “House Cat” Emann, and Ben “Resistance” Christensen. At first, it was a Call of Duty content team, but the club entered Counter-Strike in January 2016, when it signed the G2 lineup and instantly started playing big tournaments. After that, FaZe went through a long road of rebuilds and “star” additions, with the main peak coming in 2022 after winning PGL Major Antwerp and picking up ESL titles.
FaZe often delivers in the late rounds: force buys, 1vX clutches, and comebacks even after a bad pistol round. Below are the key wins and the most notable placings in Counter-Strike (based on public prize money stats).
| Tournament name | Host city and dates | Placement | Prize money |
|---|---|---|---|
| IEM Katowice 2022 | Katowice, February 17–27, 2022 | 1 | $400000 |
| ESL Pro League Season 15 | Düsseldorf, March 9–April 10, 2022 | 1 | $190000 |
| PGL Major Antwerp 2022 | Antwerp, May 14–22, 2022 | 1 | $500000 |
| IEM Cologne 2022 | Cologne, July 7–17, 2022 | 1 | $400000 |
| ESL Pro League Season 17 | Malta, February 22–March 26, 2023 | 1 | $200000 |
| BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 | Paris, May 13–21, 2023 | 5–8th place | $45000 |
| IEM Sydney 2023 | Sydney, October 16–22, 2023 | 1 | $100000 |
| Thunderpick World Championship 2023 | Online, October 27–November 5, 2023 | 1 | $250000 |
| CS Asia Championship 2023 | Shanghai, November 8–12 | 1 | $250000 |
| IEM Katowice 2024 | Katowice, February 3–11, 2024 | 2 | $180000 |
| PGL CS2 Major Copenhagen 2024 | Copenhagen, March 21–31, 2024 | 2 | $170000 |
| IEM Chengdu 2024 | Chengdu, April 8–14, 2024 | 1 | $100000 |
| Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 | Shanghai, December 5–15, 2024 | 2 | $170000 |
| PGL Bucharest 2025 | Bucharest, April 6–13, 2025 | 3 | $75000 |
| BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 | Austin, June 12–22, 2025 | 5–8th place | $45000 |
| StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 | Budapest, December 4–14, 2025 | 2 | $170000 |
FaZe is strongest over the long haul, when you need to stay in form for months, not just hit one hot playoff bracket.
Prize money shows how consistent a season really was. Below are the team totals in Counter-Strike (CS:GO and CS2) from a public results database.
| Year | Prize money for the year |
|---|---|
| 2023 | $2370000 |
| 2024 | $901500 |
| 2025 | $673700 |
| 2026 | $16000 |
FaZe has almost always leaned into international five-man lineups. Sometimes that meant pure firepower, but sometimes the discipline dipped and the team dropped “free” rounds. Most of the time, FaZe either fought for trophies or went back into a rebuild.
FaZe’s first Counter-Strike roster looked like this: Maikelele, rain, jkaem, aizy, and fox.
At the start of 2016, the team was still getting used to the tier-one scene and building experience at major events. The most notable early result was 9–12th place at MLG Major Columbus 2016.
They were grinding big stages and learning to manage the economy without taking unnecessary risks.
By 2018, FaZe had already become a “superteam.” The starting five were karrigan, NiKo, rain, GuardiaN, and olofmeister. The biggest drama of that era was the ELEAGUE Major Boston 2018 final, which they lost to Cloud9. FaZe took second place and earned $150,000.
That same year, the team won IEM XIII – Sydney, ESL One Belo Horizonte 2018, and EPICENTER 2018.
| Player (first and last name) | Nick | Join date | Leave date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nikola Kovač | NiKo | February 10, 2017 | October 28, 2020 |
| Ladislav Kovač | GuardiaN | August 03, 2017 | September 20, 2019 |
| Olof Kajbjer | olofmeister | August 20, 2017 | January 03, 2022 |
| Marcelo David | coldzera | September 25, 2019 | September 09, 2021 |
| Robin Kool | ropz | January 03, 2022 | December 31, 2024 |