Opening the new year with a bang, EYEBALLERS has taken down FaZe Clan to kick off 2026 with a shaky win in the BLAST Bounty Stage 1. Having closed their season with a miraculous run at the Major, the new FaZe lineup will have a lot to prove coming into the season, and their journey starts here.
VETO
- EYEBALLERS removed Nuke
- FaZe removed Anubis
- EYEBALLERS picked Ancient
- FaZe picked Mirage
- EYEBALLERS removed Dust2
- FaZe removed Overpass
- Inferno was left over
Map 1: Ancient; Pick: EYEBALLERS; Winner: FaZe
Starting on the defense with three convincing rounds, FaZe Clan has put JW’s side on the back foot before running a two-minute mile on their CT side. While EYEBALLERS came up with clever ideas to find gaps in the FaZe defense, the sheer individual brilliance of FaZe couldn’t be exploited, leading to a dominant half before JW won a 1v1 clutch against jcobbb to bring home a 9-3 scoreline. Making FaZe sweat on the pistol, EB managed to win 3 rounds in a row, but FaZe were too far in the lead for them to mount a comeback. Winning back-to-back rounds, FaZe closed the lead and started the series with a convincing 13-6 win.
Map 2: Mirage; Pick: FaZe; Winner: EYEBALLERS
Starting the map with a pistol win, FaZe dropped the ball against an EB force buy. Most unbelievably, EB managed to put together 10 rounds in a row as the FaZe offense failed to win a single gun up until the very end of the half, where they doubled their score and secured a 2-10 half. While FaZe are no strangers to stunning comebacks, it wasn’t supposed to happen this time around. Failing to win the pistol, EB put the hammer down to FaZe’s shot at winning the second map and hit the map point before FaZe won two more rounds before taking the series to a third map.
Map 3: Inferno; Pick: Decider; Winner: EYEBALLERS
3-0 start for EYEBALLERS put FaZe on the backfoot before both teams started trading rounds as EYEBALLERS edged out a narrow lead by the end of the first half. Switching sides with a 7-5 scoreline, FaZe managed to cut the lead in half with the pistol round win before EYEBALLERS managed to pick up the second anti-eco of the series and rally up to double digits, with FaZe winning a round in between, upon which the Swedish side put together three in a row to pull off a magnificent win.
Being the Major runner-ups and losing to EYEBALLERS is quite disappointing, but some slack can be cut, given this is the first event of the year. Only time will tell if FaZe Clan improves with the current squad, but until then, EYEBALLERS will have a win to remember.