FaZe aBeZy: ‘Scary moment where we didn’t know if we were gonna make Champs or not’

The Atlanta FaZe winning the 2021 Call of Duty League championship in customary dominant fashion might have seemed like an anticlimactic finish to the season, but there was a legitimate fear the team wouldn’t even be able to participate at the event.

Buried beneath debate over whether FaZe were a burgeoning dynasty with their victory and where the group ranks among the greatest in competitive COD history was an internal drama that unfolded behind the scenes during the lead-up to Champs.

And it wasn’t even related to their stunning, swift defeat at Major V that left some viewers questioning whether they were still the prohibitive favorites to win it all.

“There was that scary moment where we didn’t know if we were gonna make Champs or not,” Tyler “aBeZy” Pharris revealed to Nerd Street.

After the dust had settled and FaZe had dispensed of the Toronto Ultra 5-3 in the grand finals, aBeZy posted to Twitter that roughly 75% of the team had come down with COVID-19 in the weeks prior.

Nevermind Atlanta had earned the top seed in Champs with an otherworldly 34-7 match record and .699 win percentage on maps -- 11 full percentage points better than second-place Toronto.

FaZe were battling an illness that impacted their ability to prepare for Champs and could have potentially prevented them from competing in the tournament altogether.

Not an exaggeration

Photo credit: Atlanta FaZe / Hunter Braine

“Three-fourths of us got COVID,” aBeZy said. “Me, [Alec “Arcitys” Sanderson] and [McArthur “Cellium” Jovel].

“And it was terrible.”

ABeZy described symptoms commonly associated with the illness that lasted for more than a week -- precious time with only 18 days between the last major in Arlington, Texas, and start of Champs in Los Angeles.

“I had really bad body aches and cold sweats during the night for literally like four days straight,” he said. “That really hindered our practice at points, but the good thing about our team is we still wanted to play and scrim every single day, and we still did because we wanted to win Champs more than anything.”

Despite soldiering through, there was also the ever-present concern members of the team wouldn’t test negative in time.

“Our coaches kept telling us, ‘Yo, listen, we’re gonna make Champs, we’re gonna keep putting in 100% effort on scrims. Don’t even worry about that,’” aBeZy recalled. “Thankfully, right before the event we all tested negative, but it was definitely not fun.

“Me and Alec were down really bad. MC wasn’t that bad, but he still got pretty sick.”

Blip on the radar

Getting healthy wasn't the only obstacle FaZe had to overcome en route to Champs.

They had to get their game right.

The upset at Major V took everybody by surprise, and not simply because Atlanta took three of the previous four majors and were runner-ups in the other.

FaZe were bounced in two consecutive matches -- first by the eventual champion Minnesota ROKKR, who seemingly caught lightning in a bottle for a weekend, followed by their elimination at the hands of the Seattle Surge, a crew that missed Champs and saw their entire roster dropped.

“What happened at Major V was very good for us because it happened at the best time,” aBeZy said. “Don’t get me wrong, it sucked because it was with fans on LAN for the first time, and for us to get knocked out that fast, it was definitely a s---ty feeling.

“But I think it was really good because afterwards we had a big team talk and basically put everything out on the table of what we need to get better at, what each of us can do individually better leading into Champs.”

Regardless of any appearance earlier in the season that FaZe’s march to a world championship was inevitable, aBeZy insisted the team never felt that was the case.

“I never really thought that we had it in the bag because Champs time is when every single team is putting in 100% going into that event,” he said. “You never know when a team is going to come out and catch fire and smoke another team.

“I knew we had to put in more effort than any other team leading into the event and that’s exactly what we did.”

Greatest of all-time?

FaZe enjoyed a bye in the first round of the upper bracket, then swept the New York Subliners and reigning world champion Dallas Empire en route to the grand finals, where Ultra put up a fight but were ultimately no match, either.

Their run in Champs combined with an unstoppable regular season and run over the last three years that includes several members of this team winning a championship on eUnited in 2019 and a runner-up finish for FaZe last year has people discussing the roster’s place in COD history.

Yet, aBeZy -- already a two-time world champion before his 22nd birthday -- is still focused on grabbing more.

“I don’t really put a lot of time into thinking about the dynasty talk and all that stuff,” he said. “Hopefully we’re just gonna put our heads down as a team this next year and try to win as many events again as we possibly can.”

With their current lineup expected to remain intact, it’s certainly plausible. Keeping that group together and motivated long-term is the unknown.

Chris “Simp” Lehr was named the Most Valuable Player in the Call of Duty League during the regular season. Cellium was a candidate for the award, too, and Arcitys is no slouch. There are a lot of accolades to share and a lot of unseen challenges that come with such overwhelming success.

ABeZy was named Champs MVP as well, though his reaction speaks to a squad that is putting egos aside in pursuit of much larger goals.

“The good thing about our team is we always are gonna give credit to the other teammates,” aBeZy said. “I think Mc deserved Champs MVP -- he was literally frying. It was definitely cool to definitely get it, but I think that he deserved it.

“I really hope this team can stay together for a long, long time. We all are really good friends in and outside [the] game, and we all want to win.”

Lead photo credit: Atlanta FaZe