The invited teams for Intel Extreme Masters Sydney 2017 are being revealed one by one, as FaZe Clan are announced to be the fifth invited side.
The European mixture joined SK Gaming, Renegades, Astralis and OpTic as the fifth team to receive an invite for Intel Extreme Masters Sydney 2017 which will be the largest prize pool CS:GO tournament to be held in Australia. With FaZe's addition, the number of invited teams raised to five, leaving just one more side to receive an invite. Apart from six invited teams, two teams from regional qualifiers, one from China and one from Oceania will fight for their share of $260,000AUD (~$200,000) on May 3rd - May 7th.
Intel Extreme Masters Sydney 2017 might mark FaZe's first, long-awaited international trophy. Despite being considered as a team with high potential for a long period of time, FaZe never managed to break into the elite level before Finn "karrigan" Andersen and Nikola "NiKo" Kova?'s signing. The European mixture fielded the likes of Mikail "Maikelele" Bill, Philip "aizy" Aistrup and Joakim "jkaem" Myrbostad, but never quite achieved an international title. They were criticized for lacking teamplay, instead relying on raw firepower and talent. However, starting from karrigan's transfer last October, FaZe seemed more and more like a solid team under the right leader's guidance.
FaZe finally found the missing part last month in the face of NiKo and the Bosnian prodigy immediately delivered, carrying his team to the Grand Finals of Intel Extreme Masters XI: Katowice 2017. The future looks bright for NiKo's new home, they won eleven out of fifteen maps played with NiKo and more impressing fact is that all their losses came against Astralis, arguably the World's best team as of March 2017.
FaZe will travel to Sydney under these circumstances and the competition will be fierce for them with the likes of SK Gaming and Astralis standing in their way. Australia's biggest CS: GO tournament seems to be offering lots of stories to fans, even with just five teams confirmed:
 SK Gaming |  Renegades |
 Astralis |  OpTic Gaming |
 FaZe Clan | TBA |
| Chinese qualifier | Oceanic qualifier |
Image courtesy of FaZe Clan
