FaZe and NaVi limp to sorry exits at IEM Chengdu

Darragh Harbinson, Senior Editor

Last Updated: 04/11/2025

FaZe and NaVi have both been eliminated from contention at IEM Chengdu 2025.

The legendary organisations slumped to 0-2 exits from the double-elimination group stage, finishing in joint last place at the event, alongside Tyloo and 3DMAX.

The form of the two rosters provides ominous signs for the teams as they prepare for the StarLadder Budapest 2025 Major.

Outstanding Twistzz has not solved FaZe’s latent issues

FaZe felt the bitter taste of elimination after defeats to Mouz and Virtus,pro. The opposition FaZe fell to is a hard pill to swallow, as Mouz, for so long, could not overcome FaZe, but so easily did at Chengdu.

Still, Mouz are an extremely good side, but falling to Virtus,pro is a true blow to FaZe’s organisation.

Perhaps the most painful aspect of FaZe’s Chengdu run to swallow is that they were reigning champions of IEM Chengdu.

Their 2024 IEM Chengdu victory closely followed the PGL Copenhagen Major, where they finished runners-up to NaVi.

At the time, the victory was a reflection of the quality that existed in the roster persisting beyond that painful defeat.

Yet, it was the only trophy FaZe won in 2024, despite making the final of the Perfect World Shanghai Major later in the year.

The early elimination in Chengdu seems to only be a continuation of FaZe’s trend from 2022’s dominant roster, to a successful but inconsistent 2023, to a one-trophy 2024, and now a waning force.

Yet, FaZe have made efforts to reverse that trend, in re-signing Russel ‘Twistzz’ Van Dulken, a veteran of the 2022/23 success.

The counterintuitive aspect of FaZe’s current form is that Twistzz is performing exceptionally well and also adapting to FaZe’s needs perfectly.

In comparison to his recent stint at Liquid, Twistzz is taking far more risks and individual responsibility in the early rounds, and he is delivering impact in spades.

The Canadian is adeptly filling the aggressive gap left by Jonathan ‘EliGE’ Jablonowski, yet FaZe look worse than ever.

Fans will quickly point to the removal of Håvard ‘rain’ Nygaard, FaZe’s traditional glue man, and the relatively weak performances of Jakub ‘jcobbb’ Pietruszewski.

That being said, at IEM Chengdu, Helvijs ‘broky’ Saukants averaged a truly abysmal 0.62 HLTV rating, echoing his performances prior to his benching, which saw him miss the BLAST.tv Austin Major.

But just as FaZe have not been turned around by one strong performance, neither are they failing because of one poor one.

The chaos that defined FaZe Counter-Strike has become easy read and easy to contain and destroy.

FaZe were once the most unpredictable entity in Counter-Strike, but at IEM Chengdu 2025, their failure was sadly predictable.

NaVi crash back down to earth after small event success

For NaVi, the exit in Chengdu is a reality check. NaVi had managed to gain some confidence at StarSeries and backed that result up with a decent run at the Thunderpick World Championship, which saw them finish second.

Yet the reverse-sweep they suffered against Furia in the Grand Final was more reflective of where NaVi were, especially displaying the latent problems the roster has with its map-pool.

The Ukrainian org once again struggled to find a comfortable set of maps, dropping their own map pick of Ancient to Heroic on their way to exiting the event after defeats to Astralis and Heroic.

If Thunderpick and StarSeries were intended to lift the confidence of NaVi’s struggling squad, but in the IEM Chengdu defeats, they may have already lost all of that earned confidence boost.

It is hard to overstate just how bad NaVi’s elimination is in the context of their opposition. Astralis are effectively playing the second half of the year with a stand-in after Martin ‘stavn’ Lund took ill.

Emil ‘Magisk’ Reif’s individual form has been strong so far in Chengdu, but NaVi should simply not be losing to an understrength Astralis, who have not had a great year either.

Heroic have been nothing special either, struggling to stabilise after losing Álvaro ‘Sunpayus’ García to G2 in the summer, and their star rifler tN1R to Spirit.

NaVi have consistently encouraged patience amongst fans, emphasising that the major is the true test of the roster.

If Chengdu is anything to go by, they will fail that test spectacularly.

Darragh Harbinson, Senior Editor

Darragh Harbinson is an esports writer specialising in Counter-Strike. He has written for Esports News UK, Esports Insider, UKCSGO, Dexerto, and Rush B Media.

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