FaZe Clan går glipp av en major for første gang i historien

FaZe Clan won't be at IEM Cologne Major 2026. For a team that has never missed a major in its entire CS history, that's a strange sentence to type.

It happened after a loss to fnatic at Digital Crusade DraculaN Season 6, where FaZe finished 9th-12th place — a result that knocked them down the VRS rankings far enough to cost them an invitation. They're currently sitting 31st, outside the cutoff. No path in through rankings, no major.

The timing is brutal. At StarLadder Budapest Major 2025, FaZe made it all the way to the Grand Final. They lost to Vitality 1-3, came home in second place, and were probably already thinking about the next run. A few months later, they won't even be in the building.

There's no way to sugarcoat it — this is a bad look for an organization that built its identity around being a constant presence on Counter-Strike's biggest stage. Missing a major isn't just a bad result; for FaZe specifically, it's something that simply hadn't happened before. Until now.

Whether this is a one-off rough patch or something more serious is the question FaZe will need to answer over the coming months. The VRS points are there to be recovered. The form, hopefully, too. But the absence from Cologne will be noted, and it'll sting a lot more than a second-place finish ever did.