Should fans be worried about FaZe’s SND?

Atlanta FaZe has long been synonymous with dominance in Search & Destroy, but their Stage 2 performances have raised some concern. Once considered nearly unbeatable in the mode, FaZe has struggled to find consistency, dropping a map on each of the 5 active SND maps. Is this just a temporary slump, or is there a deeper issue at play? In this article, we’ll break down FaZe’s recent struggles in Search & Destroy and whether fans should be worried about their form moving forward.

How they played in Stage I

The team finished the opening stage of the Black Ops 6 season with a 14-7 record in Search & Destroy, which helped the team to win Major I in Madrid. They ranked in the top 3 in both attacking & defending, while having a league high 61.3% opening duel win percentage.

Notably, the team was terrific on defense. They had the 2nd best win rate (60%) and ranked in the Top 4 in defensive win rate on every map but Hacienda. That was powered by a league best 64.4% opening duel win rate on defense and 49.2% retake win percentage. FaZe was great at getting the early round advantage and capitalizing. 

They did however also struggle in Stage I. To start the season, Atlanta lost their first four maps and was at 3-6 at one point. They were able to turn it around though, ending the stage 14-3 after the 0-4 start.

📸 Photo by @ATLFaZe

Concern or Testing in Stage II

Now in the second Stage of the season, FaZe has started off slow yet again. This time they are 3-5 and had a 3-map losing streak, which was only the 2nd time losing multiple maps in a row this year. In each series, the team has been playing on different maps, trialing to see how they look on each going into the Major. So, is this a slump where the team is struggling or testing occurring across the map pool to see where they need to focus?

Well, there are red flags that have shown bright. Chris “Simp” Lehr & Co have the 12th ranked defense this Stage, a long fall from being 2nd in the opening Stage. Their retake win percentage fell mightly to just 35%, which ranks 9th in the League. While they are still performing well in opening duels, their win percentage went from 61% to 53%.

The positives? Atlanta is still a force on Red Card, as shown on Sunday against Boston Breach. Simp has maintained form even if his teammates haven’t, currently sitting at a 1.28 K/D in the mode with 0.87 kills per round & 59% opening duel win rate. Even though the squad has lost some maps, they have gotten repetitions on every single map in the pool. These experiences should give plenty of VoD to dig into to fix the underlying issues.

📸 Photo by @ATLFaZe

Last week of Practice

With just one last weekend of Major II Qualifiers before the LAN, it’s the last chance for FaZe to get their SND back on track before the LAN in Texas. We know that they are a great Red Card team, but there needs to be signs of life on some other maps. Currently, this is how the map pool looks for FaZe:

○ Hacienda: 0-1
○ Protocol: 0-1
○ Red Card: 2-1
○ Skyline: 0-1
○ Vault: 1-1

The two remaining matches for the 4-1 Atlanta squad are:

Saturday, March 15th against LA Guerrillas M8 at 7:30 pm EST
Sunday, March 16th against Cloud9 New York at 6:00 pm EST