ropz on changes: "No one knows what's behind those doors, a lot is hanging around the Major"

"The progress is always positive, the results maybe not so much, but inside of the team the feeling is good," the Estonian rifler said of FaZe's form as the year reaches its end.

FaZe were once a powerhouse at Big Events, often a team that could lose a match early in the group stage but level up once they reached the arena stages to remain among the title contenders.

Now, the team is counted as a dark horse for a title at the Perfect World Shanghai Major, with inconsistency from its individuals and shaky overall form in recent months allowing for the likes of Vitality, Natus Vincere, and G2 to eclipse them as favorites. Conversation has swirled about whether the team will make changes to curb their trajectory in 2025, with everything hinging on the all-important Shanghai Major.

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G2 vs FaZe, Spirit vs HEROIC headline Elimination Stage day 3

FaZe have been doing their utmost to recover from their down period to end the year and are one match away from reaching the Major playoffs after beating MOUZ in the 1-1 round, helped by a continued return to form by Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool after his performance dipped in the summer.

"I've had a slump for some time now, it is what it is," the Estonian rifler told HLTV after his 1.33-rated performance against MOUZ. "People are saying, 'At one point, you're going to run out of saying '"It is what it is,"' you've got to stop saying that' (laughs).

"But I'm trying to look on the positive side and at one point there's going to be an end to it, and I'm going to be good again."

If you cannot see the SoundCloud embed above, you can listen to the interview here.

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Congrats, 2-1 for the day after that win. Got a little close but got it over the line in the end. How does it feel after going 1-1 yesterday and getting through to the qualification games today?

The Major cycle is always a rollercoaster, you never know how it's going to end up in the best-of-ones. We had a good start yesterday with winning against Wildcard, but a disappointing end with losing against HEROIC. It was... not so good, what we did on Ancient against HEROIC. We had some talks after it about how to fix some stuff and get rid of some frustrations.

Resetting for today, we came with as much fire as we can. The thing is we went to bootcamp in Europe so we feel the jetlag still, but even if we have bad sleep we're trying to bring as much energy, hype, and fire as we can.

I was going to ask about that, you were one of the few teams who went back to Europe and decided not to bootcamp here. rain mentioned in the interview after you qualified that he wasn't sure how the practice quality would be here either, so what was the experience like going back and getting practice there instead?

We always had practice partners, we never missed having someone to practice or something like that. I discussed it with another team here, it goes both ways. You can stay in China and you can play against a lot of good teams, but then at the same time when we came back we also practiced here for a couple of days and we had to hide some stuff because you are expecting to face some of these teams and you can't really show everything.

When you go back to Europe you can play anything you want, so it goes both ways, there are pluses and minuses on both sides. But yeah, we had to go back to Europe due to some personal reasons.

Any regrets, just on the practice side, of going back to Europe?

I don't think so. We had a round here on Inferno today which we came up with in practice in Europe, we practiced it against the teams back in Europe, and it worked fantastic today. It was an execution on B site on T side.

We could test a lot of new stuff in Europe, so that is actually the main point that is working for us. Some of the new strats we're coming up with, we had one yesterday on Ancient as well, a B execute we did, and today also on B site Inferno. Those were small things that we implemented that are helping us a lot. No regrets on that side.

This Major has had a few upsets already, a couple of favorites losing with NAVI even going to the elimination pool today. Being among those names but not the same kind of favorites you used to be, how do you feel reaching the qualifying matches and about your potential to win the Major with some other favorites struggling?

It is a different environment for us. It's been rough for us to face top teams, we haven't got many wins against the top five teams. All of them are playing fantastic CS and the quality of CS is really high currently. A lot of players are in form in the top teams and you're going to have a hard day when you face one of them.

And our form on the other side, not so good, right? So that is probably the main factor which is causing us to not be a favorite nowadays, but 'Form is temporary, class is permanent,' as they say (smiles). If we bring it here at the Major, that's all that matters.

Do you feel like you're... maybe not peaking, but coming back at the right time?

It's definitely been an upward trajectory in the past 3-4 months, we've mentioned it quite a bit. Even if we bomb out of a tournament, the progress we're showing in practice, outside of the server, we're doing things with motivation and we're trying a lot of different things, coming up with new things. We're trying all kinds of stuff, experimenting with stuff. The progress is always positive, the results maybe not so much, but inside of the team the feeling is good.

Part of that upward trajectory in the last four months has been your return to form. You had that really good period at the start of CS2, dip in the summer, but now you've been back. Something rain said to me in Rio was that it 'feels nice to have the old Robin back,' can you speak to that?

Not much to speak of. As I said before, if you're not ZywOo, you're not m0NESY, your form is going to dip at one point. I've had a slump for some time now, it is what it is. People are saying, 'At one point, you're going to run out of saying "It is what it is," you've got to stop saying that' (laughs). But I'm trying to look on the positive side and at one point there's going to be an end to it, and I'm going to be good again.

Do you feel like we have the old ropz back yet?

Well that... depends on the day, you know? (laughs) If you get wrecked against HEROIC and stuff like that, it's looking a bit depressing, but today we won against MOUZ and that's a really good note for me and for the team. We're all happy with this result.

Because this Major is at the end of the season, there's been a lot of build-up to it, a lot of teams are wondering whether they'll make changes after this and setting their plans for 2025. FaZe is among those conversations because of some of the struggles we've talked about, what is it like with that in mind going into the end stage of this year for you?

It's part of the job in a way. No one knows what's behind those doors currently, I think a lot of it is hanging around the Major. You never know, if you win the Major I think no one wants to touch the roster, but then again, you see what happened to other teams in the past. Like they won a Major with a dying team and that team kind of went away. Anything can happen, it's hard to speak on it currently. For now the Major is in everyone's mind and that's our number-one focus.

Before any of that happens, you're 2-1 now, so one match from the playoffs. How do you feel going into tomorrow, how bad do you want it?

We want to go to playoffs. We've had a fantastic track record in China, that's the number-one confidence thing holding us in. We won at CAC, we won in Chengdu, we even won back in MOUZ in 2019 with karrigan, so we're having a good time in China. The fans here love us and I really appreciate that. I just want to go to playoffs, get to the bigger stage, and see what we can do.