#10 O4: Top 20 Players of Black Ops 7

The #10 player of the Black Ops 7 season is FaZe Vegas SMG & World Champion, Jovan "O4" Rodriguez.

O4 spent two years chasing a title with Vancouver Surge, coming up short in the finals more than once before the team ultimately disbanded. He found that breakthrough almost immediately in Vegas, capping his first year with FaZe with two tournament wins and the best individual stretch of his career at Champs.

Season Review

FaZe underwent a full teardown after Black Ops 6. McArthur "Cellium" Jovel and Tyler "aBeZy" Pharris, both fixtures of the franchise dating back to its founding as Atlanta FaZe, were moved on from, and the organization brought in the Vancouver Surge duo of Jordan "Abuzah" François and O4 to replace them, pairing them with Zack "Drazah" Jordan and Chris "Simp" Lehr. Surge had disbanded after a string of runner-up finishes in Black Ops 6 without ever closing one out, leaving both players looking for a new shot at a title. Right before the season began, the franchise relocated as well, shedding the Atlanta name entirely to become FaZe Vegas. It was a complete reset for the organization, and one that plenty of fans still viewed as a notch below OpTic Texas and LA Thieves heading into the year.

The Monster Energy Kickoff Invitational offered a murky read on the new roster. FaZe opened with a 3-0 win over Cellium's Riyadh Falcons, added a 3-2 win over Toronto KOI in Winners Round 2, then lost back-to-back matches to OpTic Texas (0-3) and G2 Minnesota (2-3). It made for an eventful preseason, but one that left expectations modest heading into Stage I, with Paris Gentle Mates looking like the team to beat at that point.

📸 Photo by @CODLeague

Any doubt got quieted fast once the Major I Qualifiers began. FaZe went 5-2 with a 16-10 map count, taking down OpTic (3-0), Gentle Mates (3-2), and Toronto (3-2). Nobody was calling them the favorite entering the Major in Texas, but they were undeniably in the top tier. The event opened poorly, with a 0-3 loss to Paul "Mamba" Solano and G2 Minnesota in Round 1, but FaZe answered with a four-match tear through the Lower Bracket, beating Boston Breach (3-1), Falcons (3-2), Thieves (3-0), and G2 again (3-2) in a rematch. The run stopped just short of the title, falling 2-3 to Gentle Mates in the Lower Final.

The Major II Qualifiers were far bumpier. Across 11 matches, one against every team in the league, FaZe finished 6-5 with a 22-19 map count, enough for the 6th seed and clear of the Play-In bracket, but nowhere near the standard they wanted. Losses to Boston (1-3), Minnesota (2-3), and Miami Heretics (0-3) exposed real cracks. Those cracks disappeared once the Major started, though. O4 and FaZe opened by beating LA Thieves 3-2 and sweeping Paris Gentle Mates 3-0, setting up another eClassico with OpTic in the Upper Final, which OpTic won 3-1 to reach the Grand Final. FaZe wasn't far behind, taking down Toronto 3-1 in the Lower Final to force a rematch, and this time flipped the result entirely, dismantling OpTic 4-1 to win the title. It marked O4's first professional tournament win after a string of runner-up finishes the season before. He delivered multiple takeover maps along the way, including a 37-21 (1.76 K/D) performance with 4,066 damage in Map 1 of the Grand Final, and a 35-23 (1.52 K/D) showing with 3,701 damage in Map 4. For the event as a whole, O4 posted a 1.08 overall K/D with a team-high 96.7 Slayer Rating and a 1.19 SND K/D.

📸 Photo by @CODLeague

Major III Qualifiers were another grind-it-out stretch. FaZe handled the lower half of the standings, beating Boston (3-0) and Carolina Royal Ravens (3-2), but dropped matches to Miami (1-3) and OpTic (2-3), locking in the 4th seed at 3-2. Minor I brought a split result, a 3-1 win over Riyadh Falcons in the Quarterfinals followed by a 0-3 sweep at the hands of Miami in the Semifinals, not the tune-up FaZe wanted heading into the Major. Despite the Major II title, FaZe still weren't the favorites entering the Pro-Am Major III in Atlanta. Pool Play was unremarkable: a win over AM squad ROC Esports, a 0-3 loss to Riyadh, and a 3-0 win over Cloud9 New York in the Lower Qualifier Match to escape the group. The bracket opened with a tough draw against LA Thieves, which FaZe survived 3-2, before an upset 1-3 loss to Toronto KOI in a match most expected them to win. O4 and company answered with a 3-1 win over Gentle Mates, but fell 1-3 to LA Thieves in a rematch, finishing 4th. A solid points day, though not FaZe's sharpest showing. O4 closed the event with a 1.03 overall K/D, a 93.5 Slayer Rating, and a 1.08 Hardpoint K/D.

The Major IV Qualifiers wrapped the regular qualifying slate at 3-2, with losses to LA Thieves (2-3) and Miami (1-3) standing out, though LAN form remained the real priority. Minor II brought a 3-2 win over Vancouver Surge in the Quarterfinals before a sweep at the hands of LA Thieves in the Semifinals, eliminated Top 4. The season's final Major sent FaZe to Paris, where they opened against the hometown Gentle Mates and won 3-1, before falling 2-3 to LA Thieves in the next round. FaZe rebounded against Toronto in the Lower Bracket, but Paris exacted revenge in Lower Round 4, eliminating FaZe in 4th. With the new MPC meta in effect, O4 posted a 1.03 overall K/D and a 97.0 Slayer Rating at the event, continuing to establish himself as a reliable LAN performer.

📸 Photo by @FaZe_Vegas

FaZe finished the regular season with the 3rd seed behind OpTic and LA Thieves, but Champs landed on home turf in Vegas, raising the question of whether that would give them an edge. Early results suggested yes. FaZe rolled through Winners Round 1 with a 3-1 win over Minnesota, then beat Riyadh Falcons 3-0 in Winners Round 2. That set up yet another eClassico in the Winners Final, a five-map battle FaZe won 3-2 to reach the Grand Final. The two rivals met again there in one of the season's best matches, and just as they had at Major II, FaZe overwhelmed OpTic, closing out a 5-2 series win. As Miles put it afterward, "Don't you know? The house always wins in Vegas." Champs turned out to be the best tournament of O4's career. He finished with a 1.16 overall K/D, a 100.6 Slayer Rating, a league-best 1.30 Hardpoint K/D, a 1.28 SND K/D, and a league-best 71.6% non-traded kill percentage, a dominant performance that came with his first CDL ring.

The question then turned to whether FaZe could repeat as champions the way OpTic had the season before. They cleared Pool A at EWC cleanly, beating amateur squad The Pit 3-0 and Movistar KOI 3-1. The Quarterfinals brought a brutal draw against OpTic, who exacted their revenge for the Champs Grand Final with a dominant 4-0 sweep. Even with that early playoff exit, it was a career-defining year for O4, who walked away with two tournament titles and his first championship ring.

How Good Was O4 in 2026?

Hardpoint

O4 finished the year with a 1.03 K/D in Hardpoint, adding 26.2 kills per 10 minutes, 3,223 damage per 10 minutes, and 49.4 seconds of hill time per 10 minutes. His game jumped to another level on LAN in the biggest moments, claiming 3 of the Top 5 single-map K/Ds on LAN all season: a 2.27 K/D against ROC at Major III, a 2.20 K/D against OpTic Texas at Champs, and a 2.14 K/D against LA Thieves at Major IV. He posted the 2nd-best kills per 10 minutes on LAN (27.0), the 8th-best K/D (1.07), and the 10th-best damage per 10 minutes (3,337). He was also one of just three players in the league with five or more 40-kill Hardpoint games in the season. The cherry on top: O4 turned into a monster specifically against OpTic Texas, finishing the year against them with a 1.16 K/D, 28.9 kills per 10 minutes, and 3,473 damage per 10 minutes.

Search & Destroy

O4 built a strong SND reputation during his rookie and sophomore seasons on Surge, but his first year with FaZe was more inconsistent in the mode. He closed the year with a 1.00 K/D, 0.71 kills per round, 97.2 ADR, and a 46.5% opening duel win rate, adding 13 clutches. He still left his mark on the record books, finishing 2nd in the league with 7 maps of four or more opening duel wins, and became the first player to record five in a single game, a mark JoeDeceives would later break at Champs.

📸 Photo by @CODLeague

Overload

In the league's swing mode, O4 finished with a 0.96 K/D, 54 goals, 23.5 kills per 10 minutes, and 2,926 damage per 10 minutes. He carved out his own place in the record books here too, posting the 2nd-most kills in a single Overload game (45 against Miami in Minor I), the fewest deaths in a LAN Overload map (10 against ROC at Major III), and the best single-map LAN K/D in the mode (2.50, also against ROC at Major III).

A Look Ahead to Modern Warfare IV

There are plenty of open questions surrounding FaZe's roster heading into Modern Warfare IV. Rumors have connected the organization to a pursuit of Thomas "Scrap" Ernst and Paco "HyDra" Rusiewiez, though LA Thieves and Gentle Mates are chasing the same pair. With Simp considered a lock to stay regardless of how that plays out, the uncertainty centers on the rest of the roster. Should Scrap and HyDra actually land in Vegas, FaZe would need to find an AR elsewhere, with names like Abuzah, Alluka, or Drazah all mentioned as possibilities.

If the roster stays intact instead, O4 is in position to take another step forward in his development. He's improved in each of his two CDL seasons so far, growing more consistent along the way, and there's little reason to think that trend stops now.