karrigan: "ropz is cooking and he let me finish the cook"

FaZe has hit the ground running in their first showing on Counter-Strike 2.

FaZe continued their resurgence with a convincing 2-0 win over ENCE in IEM Sydney's quarter-final, showing some electric form that culminated in the first 13-0 win at a Big Event on CS2.

The long-standing lineup and best team of 2022 have persevered through a tough year, in which they could grab just one trophy in the form of the ESL Pro League title that granted them their Intel Grand Slam.

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Five more IEM Sydney moments that wouldn't have happened in CS:GO

Motivation has been hard to come by, especially after CS2 was announced. But with the new game, a fire has been lit under their belly: FaZe has innovated the CT side of maps like Inferno, with a meta-changing grenade already christened as the "FaZe smoke," and are now in their first semi-final since IEM Dallas.

We sat down with Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen in Australia to ask just how the switch was flipped, the importance of Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool in the theory room, and his hopes to win a trophy in three different iterations of Counter-Strike.

Note: This interview was conducted before the news broke that FaZe would be acquired by Complexity's parent company GameSquare.

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Congratulations, you speed-ran yourself to the semi-finals. How does that feel?

It feels super good, I guess it was the first 13-0 on LAN so we made some history here today. I think we just came in, we were very hungry, you could feel like it's us playing in an arena. I think it's the third time we've played in an arena this year, which is kind of insane in some sense. So I think we are here to enjoy and embrace the moment and that's what we did today.

Like you said, only the third time in an arena this year, something that's not super common for FaZe. Can you tell me about that journey to getting back here, from some of the recent struggles to now?

Obviously, our team has been through a rough patch. We won the Grand Slam in May and before that, we didn't do much and after that, we didn't really do much.

Coming here to the first CS2 event we did what we could, we didn't have as much time as people think because we were staying in Malta until the final was over, and then we traveled home.

I think everyone had the same amount of practice for the game but we have been waiting and waiting for a long while for this moment to happen. We have been grinding the game, spending a lot of hours on theory and I think that has come into play here, especially against ENCE tonight.

Tell me a bit about the theory, and working through this game. As you said, not many teams have had a lot of time to practice, most tier ones had maybe a week maximum. What was your practice like? There was a lot of individual practice, but walk me through getting started practicing and how you changed the environment and adapted to CS2.

It's very strange how we did it, but I think it was worth it. We only played four maps a day in practice, normally you would play five or six maps and get so much practice in, but we really focused on at least two hours a day of theory on the different maps, how we wanted to play, how we think the map's going to play in the meta, plus then we did review and in the evening people, on different times, spent time in the server finding grenades and trying to update everything.

We just spent a lot of time thinking about how it's going to play, learning from practice, and being self-reflective. ropz has helped a lot in finding some cool grenades and helping me create something, so he's cooking and he let me finish his cook so it's pretty good. I just love to have this guy on my team right now.

You're a very tenured player, you've played through multiple versions of CS. How does it feel leading in this version of it now?

It's funny, I played three different Counter-Strikes now and in all of them, I've been the IGL. Coming into CS2, it's pretty awesome I have the chance to grab a trophy here and there, we're doing our best to evolve as fast as possible and you never know what's going to happen, right?

I know I need to spend a lot of time to understand the mechanics but also in theory to help my team achieve the best results so right now, it's going in the right direction. I want to win a trophy so badly so that I have won different trophies in three different games. It would just be amazing to add to my career.

Because of the results recently, there have been people wondering if there are roster changes happening, and what's going on internally. For a long time you've talked about communication issues, you've talked about not having a home map. Where is that at now?

Everything is up in the air, but we know each other very well now. We know each other's weaknesses, we know each other's strengths. We're kind of trying to do everything we can to connect us as a team again. This year we haven't been able to connect as a team, we lost RobbaN at the worst time possible. With a new game coming out, NEO can take an extended role in the coaching and try to help the team there.

We have a lot of issues in the back, we've stayed together for a long time, and it's just super nice to see that we can connect when it matters. This new game, it's making people more open-minded. Everyone has been part of the team for two years, and it's very hard to stay open-minded because of a lot of baggage as a player, you've lost and you've won. But I'm super proud that everyone is open-minded, moving themselves, and has to find themselves in the game. We have to create a structure for the team as fast as possible.

I'm glad you mentioned RobbaN, he was a huge part of the team. He brought a lot of intangibles to it as well, we've talked about the loss of him before, but what's it like working with NEO as a replacement?

NEO had a rough first month coming into the team. Our first tournament was in Cologne, and he saw first game how great we are and he saw second and third game how bad we can be as well. He has developed a lot in the last few months, getting comfortable in the team and getting to know the guys, getting to know who he can push, and getting deep into their game now with CS2, finding a lot of grenades, helping me.

He's so calm, he just enjoys how we played today. The first time on the stage and he can see what everyone talks about when we play on stage, it's a different FaZe and I think he saw that today, and just had a good day at the office.

With these smokes, you have to communicate more. You've talked about communication issues before, do you think that these smokes and the way the game has changed a bit has helped bring you guys back up?

Maybe, it's hard to say how the meta will develop and how communication will evolve. All the communication issues we have sometimes are just low energy, 5% less communication but with the new game, everyone wants to be the best version of themselves. They're bringing a lot of energy, a lot of motivation into the game.

We always had communication issues when things have been bad, it's how an international team is, but once we hit that level the communication today we had in this game was the best we have had in the last three-four months. I think when it comes to the arena games, everyone is super calm but super chaotic at the same time and that's when we play at our best.

Tomorrow, game against MOUZ, obviously your former organization but not really any familiar faces except frozen. How does it feel going into that game, against a stand-in, but it looks like siuhy is doing what you have done before, you know what I mean?

Biggest respect for what MOUZ has done so far this tournament. They haven't played the best best teams but they can only beat who is in front of them, and they're playing great CS. They've come in with a lot of confidence from CS:GO, winning the last tournament in Malta, and now they are bringing that to the game. It's going to be a great game tomorrow, a lot of chaotic CS. They're not fully structured because of the stand-in but with CS2 it's even easier to play very fast in this game.

I'm just looking forward to it, I'm super happy that either our team or frozen is going to be in the final because I love that guy, I've been teammates and roommates with him for a long time. So just looking forward to it, let the best team win.