FaZe win $1 million Intel Grand Slam prize after ESL Pro League title
ESLThe Intel Grand Slam is a million-dollar prize awarded directly to the players on the first team that takes home a first-place finish at four top-tier CSGO events, and FaZe has managed to do just that.
The Intel Grand Slam is something very few teams can say they’ve earned. It’s a race against every other team in the world to find out who can claim four titles at Premier tournaments. These include events like the BLAST Premier, Intel Extreme Masters, Majors, and ESL Pro League Finals.
Despite current controversy about FaZe as a whole, their Counter-Strike team is exceptionally good. They’ve been dominating the international competition in CSGO’s final days, and going into the ESL Pro League Season 17 Finals, FaZa was poised to take the Intel Grand Slam.
Only three teams have earned this accolade in the past, and after their win over Cloud9, FaZe has cemented themselves as the fourth.
FaZe take down Cloud9 to earn Intel Grand Slam $1 mil bounty
It’s been a fantastic run for the current FaZe Counter-Strike roster. They’ve got a team that just works and will surely be remembered as a lightning-in-a-bottle team that had a reign over CSGO during 2021 and 2022. But they’ve struggled to take home a first-place finish since winning IEM Cologne.
With Counter-Strike 2 on the horizon, winning the ESL Season 17 Finals was one of their last chances to take the million-dollar bounty attached to the Intel Grand Slam.
This is an especially big deal for Russel ‘Twistzz’ Van Dulken, a player that already has an Intel Grand Slam. He’s the only player to have taken two Grand Slams, with his first being taken during his time on Team Liquid in 2019.
Robin ‘ropz’ Kool is also a big winner here, taking home his third ESL Pro League title on top of being voted the MVP of their series against Cloud9.
The first two maps against C9 were incredibly dominant, but the next two maps saw them drop a round to C9 on Mirage and really having to work for their win on Ancient.
The trophy raise for FaZe Clan was followed shortly by each player getting awarded a solid gold bar for claiming the Grand Slam bounty.
This leaves the door open for the best Counter-Strike 2 team to claim the fifth Grand Slam. Or for FaZe to try and take it again in the next era of competitive CS.