karrigan: "You might see some different things from us in the details"

The Danish tactician warned fans they shouldn't expect a full-strength FaZe just yet.

FaZe enter BLAST Open Lisbon looking to erase the bad taste left by a fourth-place finish at PGL Cluj-Napoca, where they looked like genuine title contenders before the semi-final match against Falcons, in which they turned in a below-par display on the second map.

"I believe we never showed up on the second map, and that's normally not how we do it on FaZe Clan," Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen reflected, adding that he wants to see improvements to the team's B-game in this tournament.

Three weeks might seem like enough time for FaZe to get their things in order, but the team's preparation for the event was less than ideal because of different factors. Moreover, karrigan is still trying to determine how to bring out the best out in Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski, who was brought in to replace Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool during the off-season.

With those being two very different players, karrigan acknowledges that his job is to try to make sense of what on paper is a dysfunctional lineup. As BLAST Open Lisbon kicks off, FaZe remain a work in progress, but karrigan expects to see some signs of improvement in this tournament. "I think we are moving in the right direction," he said.

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It feels like it's been forever since you last played a game. Almost a month now, a little bit over three weeks. Can you tell me what you've worked on since that last game in Cluj?

So there has been a lot of talk about why we skipped Pro League. EliGE had to move into Europe on a resident visa and find a place to stay in Poland, so we ended up taking a break of seven to nine days for him to go back to the US and pick up some of his stuff and come back to Europe. And three of us decided to take a small vacation. It was actually really nice because it has been a stressful few months. After the Major we had to find a new player, so there was no break for me over Christmas.

After that, we worked on some different stuff and I had time to reflect on roles, maps, the things you need to work on, what has worked and what hasn't. And obviously those things have been focused on for BLAST. Still a work in progress.

How do you look at your results this year so far, especially in Cluj? Because you were one of the favorites to win the tournament and things were going well for you at the beginning.

The results started really bad, in BLAST Bounty online, but I think we had a good shot in Katowice, I think we were really close to beating Vitality on the third map, up 12-7 on Dust2. Didn't manage to close it out and they ended up winning the tournament. In the lower bracket, we beat G2 and then lost this long game against Eternal Fire on Nuke. Classic FaZe.

Coming into Cluj, we had really good preparation. We played really well in the group stage, managed to win it, and then we had a really bad day against Falcons, and I think that carried over to the Astralis game for the third-place decider. And I was not in it mentally. I had other dreams than playing for third place at that tournament. So it was a mixed result. I see very positive things but I also see some issues. And that's the thing that we have to work on as a team.

I knew with the role changes and the player we got and the player we lost, that this would take more time and on paper it doesn't make sense. But my job and the coaching staff's job is to try to make sense in this tournament and in the other upcoming tournaments.

After the match against Astralis, EliGE said that there was a lot of tension both in the match against Falcons and the one against Astralis. Can you tell me what happened there?

 I think tension comes down to the pressure maybe rising a bit [with] having a chance to win a trophy, going deep in the tournament. The dynamic in the team has changed, with a different player with a different role and a different voice. But also it felt way more calm in the group stage when it came to maybe a little more tension. And I think that's just because we all want to win and we all want to do well.

There's tension in every team when you lose and when you play the game. But we've always been really good at resetting mentally as a team, even if it's a bad half or a bad first map, we will always come back and try our best on the second map. So that was the disappointing part of the Falcons game. I believe we never showed up on the second map, and that's normally not how we do it on FaZe Clan.  We can have a bad map here and there, but then we come out and play a really good second map.

Even though you replaced just one player in the off-season, it was not a one-for-one trade, ropz and EliGE are different players. And the idea seems to be that Bounty, Katowice and Cluj came a little bit too early for the team. Would you say this is a good tournament to assess where FaZe is at, or do you think, given the issues you had with practice after Cluj, that this might not be the best one for you?

I think it's good to assess again. We have changed some things again, and, like I said, I have no idea how it's going to work yet. That's the beauty and the hard part about the job right now, we changed most stuff and we see a positive effect. But it might also have a negative effect on something else, and you can only see that in official games. Coming into this tournament, I feel we are a step closer to the direction we want to play and how we want to conduct ourselves, what maps we want to play and how we want to play off each other. It feels more natural now. So I think we are moving in the right direction.

We might need to assess again. And I don't think we are going to be a hundred percent for this tournament. For the Major, we will need to be hard on ourselves. I've told the team we will need to be ready for the Major. There will simply be no excuses for us not to be ready for the Major. But it's still trial and error. And I think we have learned from the errors in Cluj and tried to change small stuff again. Not making sure we are constantly changing big stuff, but you might see some different things from us in the details. Not everything is new, but in the details.

Can you lift the veil a little bit on those role changes that you've tried to implement since the last tournament? Because there has been a lot of discussion about how you're utilizing EliGE on the T side and whether you should use rain or frozen as the anchor on the CT side. Can you tell me a bit more about what you've been working on?

I think, first of all, we have to figure out how aggressive EliGE wants to be in certain areas of the map. How aggressive he is, who is going to take a step back, what kind of aggressin he likes and doesn't like.  And I think you only see that as a leader in high-risk matches. Then it's easier for me to adjust in terms of who can be more aggressive or who can be more passive.

 I think one of the main things I have spent a lot of time on is integrating EliGE into the team. I have turned my focus to the whole team now, to rain, broky and frozen, too. How we can elevate them with what we're doing with EliGE. There are always small changes. I think the most important thing, and why rain is fine playing anchor, is that frozen feels comfortable in the role.  I think he's playing super well this year, so changing him to completely anchor, completely lurk on all maps, doesn't make sense when he is comfortable and getting a good output and good numbers.

So it's about adjusting the small details. I don't want to say too much but we obviously changed yard on Nuke during Cluj from the first game we played there to the second game. We changed it overnight. Everyone was down to see it because I came up with the idea why I thought it was better. That's what I'm saying, trial and error. And now we've had more time to integrate EliGE into CT side Nuke than we had in Cluj.

And would you say that everyone on the team is on board with experimenting and switching stuff around in order to try to facilitate EliGE?

 I think everyone is on board when it comes to giving space to EliGE, but it also has to be in a certain scenario where he has to adapt to how we play and how we see the game.  We are giving a lot of space to EliGE. He is performing, I think, to a good level. I think he can perform better. But we need everybody to perform well. This team is not gonna rely on only EliGE or only frozen. We need everyone to be comfortable, to put out good numbers, including myself.

It is very hard. How aggressive should I be? Should I always run for EliGE? Should I let him take some of the duels at the tempo he wants? There are a lot of things constantly adapting. I think it's super exciting, but then you're looking at results and you are a little unhappy with them. I think everybody on the team is on board, but there are always concerns about how much we want to change to facilitate EliGE and how much we might be making some players uncomfortable. So that's the balance we're finding right now where we are taking maybe some other looks at other players to be honest about how to think about something and what we can do to change it, to make someone else take a different spot or a different role in specific rounds.

At the BLAST Bounty, EliGE said that sometimes there was a lot of chaos in communications. He was trying to reduce the number of words that he was using and also trying to adapt to how Europeans call certain spots. Do you think that since then communication has got more fluid in the team?

 I think yes and no. I think, first of all, it is hard to constantly work on communication. We are non-native English speakers except for EliGE. I know Twistzz had the same when he came into the team. I think it can never be perfect. That's why it's always been hard for international teams in Europe.  Because you need the players to uplift some of the communication errors there will be, or not direct communication. It's something we tried to work on. And I think maybe what we did was try to take a lot of ideas from EliGE and put them on the team. And I could feel our communication had got worse in certain areas because it didn't feel natural yet.

And I think what we have done is take a step back now, try to fix the basics. We can build over time, how to shorten communication. But at this point, it is FaZe Clan. We are known to play a bit chaotic because I also believe that when we play a bit more energized and chaotic, we are acting really well off each other. We have this long dynamic, and three of us have been playing together for a long time. So I think it's a balance we're trying to find where I don't want to put too many new things into the team because I think we have a core idea of what works for us, but we need the performance to help us with that. EliGE has some good ideas, but some ideas are harder to implement and some are easier to implement overnight.

 Losing a player like ropz is never easy. And it seems that his move to Vitality has made them an even better team. Did you expect him to start playing this well so quickly with the team? And have those improvements in Vitality made his departure more painful?

I always knew that it was going to be hard to lose a player like ropz and that he could be an upgrade for many teams with the way he sees the game. He's also very motivated now. He has a chance to build a new era or however you want to say. Build a new dynasty with Vitality. He did really well in FaZe Clan, and I think having new, fresh ideas, you learn so much playing with four new players, it's a different system. So I think it's very exciting and I think they're playing really well.

And I knew Vitality was going to be very scary with Robin joining. Having a player like ZywOo is something we couldn't offer him in FaZe, where he had a lot of responsibility to perform in certain areas. When you have a player like ZywOo, it is easier maybe to have a slightly bad start but get into the game because he's going to win you rounds. And so I expect him to do really well because ropz and ZywOo are a very dangerous duo and seeing them clutching together… I think I expected it.

Painful? I don't think so. I knew it was going to be hard losing him, but I have known the guy for a long time. I know that what he wants to do is to win, and I'm just happy to see him succeed. Of course, not against us, but I think he deserves it because I think he had a really rough year with us in 2024. We could have done so much, but in the end, we did so little.

You are now going up against Virtus.pro, a team you haven't faced in almost a year. This is a new version of Virtus.pro, compared to the one that you faced back then, with a new IGL in electronic. What are your thoughts on this matchup and the new system they have?

 I think it's going to be a rough match, actually. I think they're shooting really hard, they have really good players in their roles. And I think ICY has been a great AWPer for them. It's going to be important for us to stick to the basics and just believe that what we are doing is the right thing because if you give them too much momentum, they are hard to handle because they can play the fast pace or slow pace CS,  So they have a mixture of everything in the team.

Date	Matches
BLAST Open Lisbon 2025
19/03/2025	FaZe 19:20 Virtus.pro	Match

I think electroNic has been struggling a little in the role, but I think having a month off to perfect in practice is going to make them look a little more new coming into the tournament. So it is for sure going to be a hard challenge.

You got really down on yourself last year after some of the tough moments of the season. For example, after the BLAST Spring Final you said, 'I take big responsibility is us failing. If there is anyone to blame, it's me and not others'. What was your mindset heading into this year? A fresh start with a new player, I guess. And would you say that this is one of the toughest challenges you've had in your career, trying to make this version of FaZe a team that can contend for titles once again?

I think it is one of the harder jobs. First of all, coming out of 2024, when we did some things right but couldn't finish the job. Last year was really rough on confidence in myself. Not finishing the job is very hard for me when I go that deep in a tournament. Coming into this year, when I saw that we were going to get EliGE instead of ropz, I knew there was a lot of work ahead. I also mentioned to FaZe that I didn't think we should expect any results before Austin. It is a big change, people have to adapt.  I don't know how the player likes to work when he comes in. He's going to get a lot of impact on the way we control and the way we play.

It is about having that mindset that it's baby steps, but God damn, it's very hard to constantly tell the team, 'This is fine, it's a step back, but we have to take two steps forward.' I want results, but I have to be honest. I think the teams above us are very hard to beat.  They have very strong firepower. They have roles that make sense on paper, and right now we are in a rebuilding phase of roles within the team, and obviously that's very hard.

 So I think I'm doing everything in my power, and I know I'm doing everything I can from my perspective, and I have the trust of my teammates.  But in the end, I think it's very hard to take some responsibility for where we are now as a team because on paper it is not making sense.  And that makes me excited to have this hard challenge, but we need some results soon because [otherwise] that's going to pretty much hurt the team and the confidence.

 What are your expectations for this event? Given all the changes that you are going through and the practice limitations you had leading up to this event, is there a minimum goal that you'd be satisfied with?

 I think we have to put playoffs as the minimum goal. But then you look at the group, we are in a group with MOUZ, Vitality and Spirit. I think they're all top three or top four in the world. No matter what happens, we have to take down one of those teams. And I think we can do it, of course, but we need to make sure we hit a good day. For me, this tournament is about how we play when we are playing our B-game. That's what I was disappointed with in the Falcons game in Cluj. We cannot have a completely off day where we can't even get a map or play well as a team.

So that's the main point for me, us playing well as a team, because I know the individual [level] in the team is going to come and they just need a good groove. I think we have very interesting pieces in the team. So now we just need to make sure everyone is helping each other to perform well on the server.