AYYJAYY On Achieving Childhood Dreams And Ambitions For WePlay Inivitational
Every child who picks up a gaming console dreams of signing on the dotted line of a contract labelled "FaZe Clan". The conditions are clear – get paid to play games for the most prestigious organisation in gaming culture, and bring home titles to place on their ever-growing cabinet.
For Rocket League stars, this has never been possible before. Until now. Until the hashtag of "pick up the peeps" was wrung dry. Until the titans came to conquer yet another field and acquired a trio of former knights.
For Austin "AYYJAYY" Aebi, joining FaZe Clan was "a childhood dream coming true" and the chance to represent such a team still hasn’t dawned upon him. "I couldn’t actually believe I actually got into FaZe Clan," he continued.
The journey wasn’t without any battle scars though, as the young Rocket League prodigy described the long process which started with a simple DM.
As the I’s were dotted and the T’s crossed, formalities were concluded in time for the makeshift end-of-season Regional Championships. Alongside Jirair "Gyro." Papazain and Braxton "Allushin" Lagarec, the first chance to sport a FaZe jersey was one that AYYJAYY wasn’t too disheartened by - rather he was more disappointed that he couldn’t showcase the brand colours live on-stage.
"It was a bummer because it felt like our playstyle would have been good on LAN," he started. The cancellation of the World Championships saw any immediate effect of the FaZe badge dwindle, which "truly sucked" in his opinion.
But the new RLCS season is upon us, and whilst the finer details are being thinned out ahead of an October 15 kick-off, the WePlay Rocket League Invitational has crept upon us, and AYYJAYY is eyeing some early success after adding a superstar to their formidable FaZe flamboyancy.
Jason "Firstkiller" Corral joined the organisation in a drawn-out chapter of a somewhat quiet NA off-season, replacing Gyro, who in turn, finalised a deal with Rogue. "Allushin and I are very excited to work with a good friend and player, Firstkiller, and we know our potential," said AYYJAYY. As they’ll be "working hard to achieve it", the former Pittsburgh Knights pop-off player admitted that "the best roster move in the off-season was our team, with Firstkiller. It’s pretty hard to top that, he’s so good."
Despite the omission of Allushin, who is on vacation, The WePlay invitational will give FaZe fans a first proper look at their new dynamic duo. AYYJAYY is now looking to relish this opportunity.
"I’ve heard good stories about WePlay’s LANs and Production Team, and although it’s not a LAN setting I’m sure WePlay’s production will be just as good as their offline events.
"With Firstkiller, our playstyle is changing to be more fast-paced and aggressive. When we played with Gyro, we were a little slow, which Allushin and I weren’t very comfortable with.
"It’s hard to say how we’re going to do with Allushin on vacation. We have Dappur filling in and we haven’t scrimmed or anything, so we don’t know how we’re going to play as a team yet. But, hopefully, we will be good and go far – the goal is to win."
Historically, both AYYJAYY and Firstkiller fit the FaZe persona down to a tee. The duo that will be on display are high-octane characters, often valuing mechanical and individual skill to overcome teams. Ever since FaZe’s early days of quick-scoping on Call of Duty, it's evident that their focus is on entertainers that can also perform to the highest standards.
For AYYJAYY personally, his rise to the top of Rocket League has been devoted with that stylistic in mind, although only in ebbs and flows. Now, alongside another talented trickster, the goal is to find consistency at the highest level, which, in Rocket League, is often difficult to come by.
"The ambitions for this season is to play solid and consistently all year" began AYYJAYY. "As for the team, we’re hoping for top-three overall and to win some events on the way."
Following the revamp of the RLCS World Championships, top three will likely be more than enough to appear on the world stage (on home soil too), which would see FaZe back on the theatre that they helped define.
Entertainers, competitors, upcomers. Will this side live up to the hype at the WePlays Invitational? Or will we have to wait until the RLCS to see them in their true colours?
