FaZe Clan, the esports organization that once rode the crypto wave hard enough to ink a partnership with MoonPay back in 2021, just pulled itself off the mat in Guangzhou. The team defeated SINNERS Esports 2-0 on July 3 in a must-win match at the XSE Pro League Guangzhou 2026, avoiding what would have been a deeply embarrassing early exit from a $1 million tournament.

The match: clean enough to matter

FaZe entered the day with an 0-2 record. A loss to SINNERS, a Czech roster that earned an invitation to the event, would have sent FaZe packing.

FaZe took Mirage 13-7, a comfortable margin that suggested SINNERS never really found their footing on the map. The second map, Ancient, also went FaZe’s way, making the third map, Nuke, unnecessary.

SINNERS head home. The Czech squad’s tournament run ends here.

Why this matters beyond the scoreboard

Back in 2021, FaZe partnered with MoonPay, the crypto payments infrastructure company that was processing billions in transactions during the bull market frenzy. That deal placed FaZe squarely in the crypto ecosystem at a time when esports organizations were scrambling to find Web3 revenue streams.

The tournament landscape

The XSE Pro League Guangzhou 2026 runs from July 1 through July 12, hosting 16 teams. FaZe’s 0-2 start had put the organization in a precarious position, meaning every subsequent match became an elimination scenario, which is exactly where FaZe found itself against SINNERS.