FaZe Marved: ‘We knew we were going to win this match’

FaZe Clan dominated XSET in its first match in the VALORANT Champions Tour Masters One tournament. This was not a surprise, according to Jimmy “Marved” Nguyen, though.

XSET could not compete against FaZe’s aggressive playstyle, and FaZe quickly won the series 2-0. This was very different from the previous match between the two teams during the VCT Challengers 2 main event. XSET defeated FaZe on the same two maps they played today, but FaZe was prepared this time. 

Marved explained that FaZe improved since the team’s last match against XSET. 

“We became a lot more sophisticated the way we play as a team,” Marved told Dot Esports. “Other than that, my team did become a lot better since then. We got the coach, we’ve just become better. It just clicked.”

Marved also confirmed the team “knew they were going to win” and that they have been feeling good for a while. FaZe is also prepared to face any team in the rest of the tournament and will focus on its strategy and game in each match. 

FaZe will face Envy in its next match in Masters One. Many consider Envy the top team in the event, but FaZe is not concerned. 

“I think every team we play now is going to be the same, as in how our mindset is going into it. We’re just going to go into it playing our own game. We know what we’re doing. We’re not really afraid of them, we should be good.”

A strong mindset is not the only secret FaZe has up its sleeve as one of its star players, Andrej “babybay” Francisty, has consistently dominated the competition. During FaZe’s match against XSET, babybay finished with 42 kills and 18 deaths across both maps. He continuously pressured XSET each round and was one of the best performers on his team. 

“He’s playing Jett, he knows what to do, he’s locked in,” Marved said. “So basically, we let him make the intuitional plays, but we don’t just let him run in and fight everybody. There is a way in which we do that makes sense, and we have the utility to cover him.”

A wildcard FaZe might have to deal with later in Masters One is the new Sentinels roster featuring former Cloud9 player TenZ. TenZ replaced Sinatraa on the starting roster after he was suspended in response to sexual abuse allegations. This left Sentinels with an empty spot in its roster, but TenZ is a fantastic replacement. 

The sudden change does require the Sentinels roster to adjust quickly, but Marved still thinks it will perform well. 

“TenZ, I’m pretty sure he plays Jett, so I’m pretty sure they’re going to move ShahZaM to Sova and TenZ to Jett. It could work out, but at the end of the day, it’s a team game,” Marved said. “They could be really good if they’re just all individually on that day, but they don’t have a lot of strats, but I’m sure they’ll do fine. It’s going to be good games from them.”

FaZe will face Envy in the semifinals on March 14 at 3 pm CT.