It’s difficult to express how FaZe Clan play VALORANT using words. The best way to do so prior to their impressive run at Challengers and Masters would be “balls to the wall aggression.”
But something changed over the past month, stemming from bringing in coach Thomas “Trippy” Schappy.
FaZe’s Jett star Andrej “babybay” Francisty spoke to Dot earlier in Masters about the structure he provided to the team. After their second loss to Sentinels in the grand finals, babybay elaborated on why Trippy was the right fit for FaZe in the beginning.
“He was the only coach who didn’t want to change how we play naturally,” babybay said in the post-game press conference. Indeed the style that FaZe brought to Masters was similar to how they played at events like First Strike but more refined and patient.
Trippy himself refers to this style as “anti-CS style” on Twitter, and with the exception of Sentinels, it was successful in downing all manner of opponents. Throughout Challengers Three and Masters, they defeated T1, NRG, Luminosity, 100 Thieves, XSET, Envy, and Gen.G. In fact, through all those wins, they only dropped one map to NRG.
But Sentinels cracked the code and won both series against FaZe at Masters; 2-0 in the upper bracket final and 3-0 in the grand finals. Zachary “ZachaREEE” Lombardo praised them for their “really fucking good info-gathering skills,” and the whole team expressed their fondest desires to beat the team that’s always had their number.
Multiple members of FaZe remarked that they’ve already scrimmed against other teams mimicking their own unique style, but coach Trippy hasn’t been impressed by what he’s seen from other teams.
“You can copy the jello but you won’t ever have the mold,” he remarked post-game.
Not even his own players knew exactly what he meant by those words, but it’s this man’s knowledge and coaching abilities that have made FaZe look like the consensus second-best team in NA with only one significant flaw to still work out. And he’s only been officially coaching them for a few weeks.
Despite the tough losses to Sentinels, FaZe’s VALORANT roster still came away with $30,000 and 70 critical VCT points to go towards qualifying for Champions. They now turn their eyes to the second phase of VCT, with the goal of making it to the Masters Two LAN in Iceland ahead of them.
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