FaZe Clan’s Counter-Strike roster is set to play an off-season Chinese LAN, XSE Pro League 2026, after the tournament organizer announced their invitation to the event.
The event will take place from July 1-12, falling in the traditional four-week player break which follows the Majors in the current calendar format. That means that FaZe are effectively forgoing at least part of the break to attend the event.
Xin Sai Esports has been slowly revealing the invites for the event, with the following teams so far invited to the Guangzhou tournament:
- Legacy
- BetBoom
- 9z
- FaZe
- Ninjas in Pyjamas
- Eyeballers
- Nemesis
- Alliance
XSE Pro League attendance signals the declining strength of the player break
FaZe’s attendance raises a variety of questions regarding both FaZe as a team and the future of the player break.
The player break was initially formally adopted after the establishment of the Counter-Strike Professional Players’ Association (CSPPA) in 2018.
The body sought to collectively represent Counter-Strike players’ interests, lobbying for a player break to manage player workload and prevent burnout. However, the CSPPA has been inactive over the last couple of years, with the body’s website going offline in 2023.
Following the formal adoption of the Valve Regional Standings ranking system at the start of 2025, commentators and analysts pointed out that the player break was not a part of its structure; in fact, playing during the player break is intrinsically incentivized as more recent results count for more in the VRS system.
FaZe are looking to take advantage of that fact by attending the $1,000,000 tournament, with wins at the event potentially providing a significant rankings boost for the roster, who currently sit at 25th in the VRS standings.
While that attendance may prove valuable in the short term, the potential risks to the well-being of the players in removing the player break may prove more damaging in the long run.
What kind of FaZe will we see in China?
FaZe’s attendance at the event also raises questions regarding what the FaZe roster will look like at that time. The event starts only 10 days after the end of the IEM Cologne 2026 Major.
While FaZe will not be attending the Major, the players they are looking to sign may well be.
The roster is expected to make changes in the ‘off-season,’ but when those changes take place, and what changes FaZe will make are not known.
Now that FaZe has accepted the invite, the roster will at least have to keep its core intact to attend XSE Pro League in July. Considering the quick turnaround from the Major, will this be a new look FaZe or still four-fifths of the roster that failed to reach Cologne?
Regardless of what changes FaZe may be pursuing, the roster’s main goal for CS’s traditional transfer window will have to be convincing David ‘frozen’ Čerňanský to stay if they wish to remain competitive.
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Darragh is an Esports Journalist for Insider Gaming specialising in Counter-Strike. He loves to explore how esports teams work, or why they very often do not.
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