FaZe Vegas is back on top: MerK & Maven on CDL Major 2

The Dreamhack crowd roared when FaZe Vegas slammed the door closed on OpTic Texas, sealing the deal on a dominant Grand Finals performance. Simp and Drazah, legends in Call of Duty, were back on top while 04 and Abuzah finally broke their streak of silver medal finishes as part of Vancouver Surge. 

Aside from the players and coaches, MerK and Maven might have been as close to the action as you get. Monster Gaming sat down with the two commentators to reflect on FaZe’s brilliant run, what went wrong for OpTic, the new CDL formats, and what the MVP race looks like right now.

Maven, when I asked how you saw things proceeding in the void before Major 2, you told me you saw it being a two-team league until someone proved that they were good enough to hang with OpTic and Gentle Mates. Do you think FaZe's run was enough? 

Maven: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. It seems to be them and OpTic for now. They seem to be focused around 04 and letting him make plays and setting him up. Well, you saw he had an absolutely unreal final. Simp’s still been nuts. Abuzah has been rock solid. And if you get a decent Drazah, it feels like this team can beat anybody. I think we knew the ability was there with the squad. We just hadn't seen a ton of it yet. They were really tested and had some rough patches, but it feels like being tested paid off at the Major.

Joe, as a player, does getting one under your belt change the year for you? Can that be a catalyst on its own? 

MerK: It depends on their team's goals. Back when I played, it was a little different than how we see the season nowadays. I always wanted to win one per year. It was an achievement: at some point, I can say my team and I were the best in the world—even if it's for a weekend, it's awesome to say. FaZe has been such a winning organization; if you ask these guys, they're going to say, ‘We want to win the world championship'.

Maven: Yeah, there's some nuance to it, especially for somebody like Simp, who has won the last four Major 2s in a row—It's definitely more about the end of the year. It’s been funny to see the criticism of Simp, because people forget he went 1st, 2nd, 1st, 3rd, at Champs in his first [five appearances], but it's been back-to-back top sixes. 

For him, it's about the end of the year. But I do think there is some nuance in the sense that it is a very big win for a couple of reasons. One, because you get the first win for 04 and Abuzah, which is obviously massive. For Simp, that's a legacy type of win. No aBeZy, no [Cellium], wins a tournament. I'm sure he wants more but from a spectator POV, that's a big deal.

What is it about Major 2 and Simp?

MerK: In the past, they're a team that came out so hot early in the year, because of the talent of their previous rosters. Early on, they're ahead of the game. Even if other people are catching up,  if people do catch up, FaZe can simply out-talent them as they have in the past.

I think Major 2 last year was a good example of it, where they heavily relied on their Search and Destroy in Major 1 and Major 2. That's always been a FaZe thing. But for this one, it's different. The fact is, they had a slower start. The Gentle Mates [series], they were a round away from being in the final, right? It feels like they needed a kick in the butt, and the timing worked out. 

@teamgentlemates vs @FaZeVegas | Major I Tournament | Elimination Finals

Maven: Now, similar to how I think OpTic losing Major 1 might be a good thing in the long run, I feel like FaZe getting tested throughout qualifier two was probably big. They had a brutal one; they had to bounce back at the end of it and got hot heading into the major. 

How much stock do you put into a Lower Bracket advantage, versus OpTic just needing to find a way to close up some of these series? 

MerK: This is sort of like the discussion around the winners and losers bracket. Should it be a double best-of-five? Should it not be? That is a whole different discussion. I think if you look at Major 1, it was tough because they went down 0-2. I think you can look to - maybe OpTiC WAS a little cold, and needED to get warmed up in the series. But this one was tied at one a piece. 

Shotzzy talked about that Scar Overload that went into OT. They feel like if they win, they have a much better shot in the series, they control the series, they're up 2-1. Then that momentum, the Green Wall gets behind them, and maybe this is a totally different look. Maybe we're talking about OpTic being Major 2 champions. So I think you look at that map more than it was them coming in hot or cold. The only similarity is that map one is Colossus Hardpoint both times, maybe OpTic, if they get back to the final and have the choice, maybe they don't start there.

Maven: I'm surprised they went Team A, too. I don't put that much stock in the whole hot-or-cold thing. It's not like we go right from a series into another series. There's like a half-hour break. It's not a hot-cold thing to me. There should probably be a bigger advantage [for Winners Bracket]. As Joe says, that’s a whole different conversation. 

They're both winnable series for OpTic. I mean, it’s kind of a ‘welcome to FaZe’s Vanguard year’. [OpTic] fans are getting a lesson. It doesn't matter how good you are. It doesn't matter how good your qualifier is. It is hard to win.

If Shotzzy doesn't [solo challenge] the plane wing, maybe that's an entirely different game.

Maven: Well, he had thought he had help from Dashy in Green Window. But it's just the angle of it. I think he thought he was like double challenging it, but it wasn't really a double challenge.

@OpTicTexas vs @FaZeVegas | Major II Grand Finals

Then, if Simp doesn't check the corner…I saw him afterwards. I'm like, “bro, what was that?” He was like, “I saw him Plane side so I knew that’s what he's doing.” Okay. Got it. Your brain's different than my brain.

What did you think of the format of this past Major, and then what we're heading into? They're both a little bit different than what we've traditionally experienced in the CDL. 

Maven: Overall, Joe and I would love to see the Black Ops 4 season replicated, but that's a little different than what you're asking. I think it's been neat to have different formats for the majors. I don't hate it. I do wish we had one true Open, versus what we're doing next qualifier. I still think it's cool to get some [amateur] teams involved. I think it was [CDL Stats Producer] Easy Mac who said he wouldn't hate it if we had a different format every major. I don't disagree as long as they're within the realm of sanity.

MerK: Yeah. I think in terms of LAN, it's cool to go from an 8-team double elimination to this one. Where, having a pro-am, amateurs getting a shot versus the pros is going to be a massive story throughout that weekend. In terms of the online qualifiers, when you're playing everyone in a true Round Robin, like we saw [in the] last stage, you're just seeing more of the teams. I feel like there's more of a storyline

The cool thing is the minor tournament. We will have some tournament play, but it feels like with 11 matches, you're seeing all the teams play. It's kind of awesome. Now there's going to be some nuance. You're playing five matches. What was your strength of schedule? How does that affect you going into the next major? 

Do you have a way too early MVP pick out of any of these squads that have been performing well?

MerK: You probably have to go with someone from OpTic or somebody from FaZe. Right now, you'd probably go for Simp for FaZe, just for how consistent he is in every single game mode. Even when they are off, he's just putting up insane numbers. Then, on the OpTic side, Huke had a really good Stage 2, but I think Mercules is the one who stands out to me.

Maven: I would have said basically what you did, almost verbatim. Simp has been unreal, and you add the fact that it's this new roster around him, without aBeZy and Cellium. I think that adds more to it for me. He probably should have been the MVP of Major 2. He probably had the best tournament, 04 just had such a good final, but Simp had like a 1.2 as well. Probably Simp, Huke, or Mercules is the [conversation] as of now.