Star CS:GO rifler rain and head coach Robert “RobbaN” Dahlström have returned to FaZe Clan’s active lineup today. Their returns come just in time for the team’s debut at the $1 million IEM Katowice 2023 group stage tomorrow in which they have the opportunity to take the Intel Grand Slam season four title.
Rain missed BLAST Premier Spring Groups in January 2023 because of the birth of his first child and RobbaN didn’t attend the tournament due to personal reasons. During their absence, FaZe played with stand-in Patrick “es3tag” Hansen and the director of esports operations Edward Han as their temporary coach. Although the team did well, the return of rain and RobbaN leave FaZe in a prime spot to close out their Intel Grand Slam run as only Heroic, G2, and Vitality arguably look capable to beat FaZe nowadays.
FaZe have been one big tournament win away from the Intel Grand Slam title and its whopping $1 million prize since IEM Cologne in July 2022. The star-studded international team also won IEM Katowice in February 2022 and ESL Pro League season 15 in April 2022, as well as PGL Antwerp Major in May, but the latter didn’t count as the Intel Grand Slam only considers tier-one tournaments organized by ESL.
FaZe were so focused on preparing for IEM Katowice 2023 and the next events of the year that they didn’t even practice without rain ahead of BLAST Premier Spring Groups in January, karrigan revealed in an interview with HLTV. The last time FaZe won a tier-one tournament was in July 2022, when they defeated Natus Vincere to win IEM Cologne.
The first adversary of FaZe in IEM Katowice group stage still has to be determined. The match is scheduled for tomorrow, Saturday at 9am CT.
Should FaZe miss the opportunity to finish their Intel Grand Slam season four run during IEM Katowice, their next chance will be at ESL Pro League season 17 between mid-February and March.
