Not long before the start of BLAST Open Spring 2025, karrigan openly commented on how FaZe had been trying to shake things up in their system. He wasn’t sure if it would bear fruit or backfire. Well, we got our answer yesterday perhaps too loud and clear, when FaZe got 0-13’d by Virtus.Pro in the decider map of their opening game. But is this truly what you will expect to see from FaZe? Or it was a fluke. Let’s peel back the layers and find out.
The changes karrigan was referring to, at least from my perspective, were mostly on the T-side. The CT side seemed to be business as usual, except for rain taking over the anchor duties on A site from karrigan, a change that, in my book, was for the better. But on the T-side, the winds of change were blowing strong. The biggest shift I noticed was karrigan’s personal approach to positioning.
Starting from square one, when EliGE replaced ropz, FaZe found themselves in a tight spot trying to stabilize their roles. Swapping a passive player for a hyper-aggressive one threw the team dynamic into disarray, leaving them with three entry fraggers and no dedicated lurker. FaZe tried to repurpose rain as the new lurker, but now it feels like perhaps karrigan felt that rain can be utilised better in some scenarios. Against VP, we saw some new tricks up his sleeve. Let’s dive into them.
Filling the Ropz Void on T-Side
The absence of a missing lurker has been a pain point for FaZe and one they are struggling to fix. On some of the T-side rounds, I noticed when FaZe worked with a call off spawn, karrigan would sometimes choose to take on the lurker role. This allowed the main pack to push with more firepower, but more often than not, it backfired on karrigan. For example, the pistol round on Anubis and round five on Ancient, where he died too early in my opinion as the lurker, which ultimately costed FaZe the rounds.
If we move to other cases, like the 3-2 splits, karrigan and rain found themselves on one side, while broky supported frozen and EliGE on the other. This setup seemed to be FaZe’s bread and butter, with karrigan and rain alternating between supporting and entry roles. During standard rounds, FaZe took map control with rain and karrigan playing on opposite ends. Depending on karrigan’s leanings, they decided where to execute. One would take the plunge as an entry, while the other stayed back as the lurker.
And FaZe did pretty well on the T-side, I’d argue. Getting 8 rounds on Anubis, 6 rounds on Ancient, and Dust2, well, they only got one round to show. And this was despite EliGE not finding his footing, but frozen and broky doing the heavy lifting. But it was karrigan with the most signs of struggle, as he could manage 6 kills combined in the two T-halves.
FaZe’s disjointed CT side lost them the series
I’ve beaten this drum before, but losing ropz has left a gaping hole in FaZe’s CT side. His ability to be left to his own devices helped FaZe cut the map in half and focus on their own game plan. Now, there are too many aggressive pieces on defense, each going rogue, making FaZe as predictable as clockwork. Round 23 was a textbook example, karrigan had been so aggressive in cave that Virtus.Pro practically had him on a leash. They knew that faking A would bait a reaction out of him, and like clockwork, it did.
But there’s another missing puzzle piece with ropz gone: the second voice. In the past, ropz and Twistzz were on the same wavelength as karrigan. Now, FaZe’s CT side is a house of cards, threatening to collapse at any moment. Without a peek into their comms, it’s hard to say for sure, but from the outside looking in, their CT sides feel disjointed.
The Dust2 0-13 whitewash wasn’t just a fluke, it was a communication breakdown. FaZe’s performance swings like a pendulum. When their comms are crisp, they thrive in the chaos and look unstoppable. But when communication falters, they fall apart like a house of cards, as we saw against VP. In these high-pressure rounds, karrigan’s hands are tied, and the ball is in the rest of the team’s court to step up.
Talking about the solutions now
Starting with the CT side, I think the player best suited to fill ropz’s sturdy shoes is broky. Even in the new age of CS2, where the AWP’s impact is waning, it’s still a linchpin on defense, and FaZe needs to make the most of it. I don’t think they’re blind to this fact, but the execution is not ideal.
From what I’ve seen, broky often pairs up with EliGE, providing utility support and then, if EliGE falls, FaZe leans on broky’s AWP to hold down the fort. But this setup sometimes leaves broky in no man’s land, unable to make an impact. Whether it’s an issue with his positioning or how he’s being set up, it’s clear something needs to change. karrigan and Neo need to put their heads together and find a solution. My two cents? Let broky be as dynamic as ever, locking down a portion of the map while FaZe unleashes EliGE elsewhere to gather info. The ideal pairing for EliGE should be frozen, it’s a small shift but a meaningful one. It can’t be karrigan; you don’t want both vocal players stationed at the same site.
T-side solutions..is where I am left gasping. I could sit in my chair and say that frozen should take over as the lurker in ropz’s place while karrigan plays bait. The logic being a simple one: karrigan, having spent years being the fly in the ointment, might struggle to just sit back and hold angles without getting antsy. Plus, in 3v4s, you want your heavy hitters alive, not karrigan. But theory and practice are two different things, and you won’t know what works until you test it in official matches.
FaZe could sink valuable time into this experiment, only for it to blow up in their faces. I had high expectation of them in my power rankings for this event but if they continue like this, we could see a group stage exit. On the flip side, this approach could be the ace up their sleeve against teams like Vitality and Spirit.
