Cellium and aBeZy shut down critics and speak perfecting fundamentals

Both Tyler "aBeZy" Pharris and McArthur "Cellium" Jovel have been jacketed up with All-Star bling in the Call of Duty League World Championships, having been voted by peers, casters, media, and fans as two of the four greatest players this season.

But despite being a top-two team all season, and for pretty much their entire careers when they're not donning trophies and more sparkly hand-focused jewellery, FaZe has been subjected to some heavy criticisms in the lead-up to champs.

Matthew "Nadeshot" Haag opened up the discussion on Cellium's performance in particular, claiming that his play-style "needs to change" after collecting massive K/D's but not being able to push FaZe into for event wins.

Was it mind games though? Planted on social media as a ruse to unsettle the FaZe camp. Or is it true? Does Cellium actually need to throw away this K/D mentality and pick up more hill time?

Well, the man himself has now spoken, as he tells GGRecon that the comments haven't bothered him at all, and he trusts his teammates' opinions above any outside noise.

Cellium hits back at playstyle critics

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After skating through a comfortable 3-1 win in their opening match against Seattle Surge at the 2023 World Championships, and being honoured on stage as part of the All-Star team, Cellium has now hit back at the critics, claiming that he "doesn't care about the outside noise" and believes his teammates' opinion is the most valuable.

"I mean, since I'm the one getting critiqued, for me, I don't really care," Cellium told GGRecon in a post-match interview. "If my team had had an issue with how I play they would tell. I tell my team, 'if you have an issue with how I play, just tell me'," he added.

"My coaches, my team, they all trust me to do the right thing. So I don't really care about the outside noise, to be honest."

aBeZy talks perfecting the fundamentals and moving away from the SnD comfort blanket

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For FaZe, it's been the Search and Destroy performances that have been carrying them through the season, with some slight wobbles in their Control and Hardpoint that hasn't transpired to Championship chips when the prolonged Grand Final games come into play.

But ahead of Champs and their upper bracket run, aBeZy has claimed that they are ramping up their focus on respawn fundamentals

"We knew this year that some scrims, and translating scrims into matches in the earlier stages of the year, we weren't doing a good job [on respawns]. So yeah, we have been really hammering down on the little things like the fundamentals and stuff like that in scrims. That way when we get into these matches we know we can clutch up what we need to," said aBeZy.

FaZe is also a hot-shot favourite at every event that we have, with their consistent core finding Grand Finals with absolute ease. But if this has put a target on their back as the team to beat, aBeZy and Cellium aren't feeling the heat.

"We're so used to it, you know? Over the past four years, we've been like one of the top teams every single year - in the top two every single year - so I feel like for us we're so used to that, it doesn't really affect us in any way," aBeZy said.

"It's pretty much like the same thing every year. I feel like our teams are the team to beat, so it's not going to change, to be honest," added Cellium.

The FaZe duo now look to face either Toronto Ultra or LA Thieves in their upper bracket run, but all that's on their minds is "the ring. That's why we're here, the rings."