Growing pains still the story for FaZe after Lisbon elimination by Spirit

"Basics in the bin," reflected karrigan as a humbling group stage exit sends the team back to the drawing board.

FaZe are out of BLAST Open Lisbon after a 0-2 defeat to Spirit in Group A's lower bracket.

The win was a strong return to form for Spirit after a painful overtime loss to MOUZ yesterday, as they scored their fourth victory in a row over Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen and company.

Virtus.pro await Spirit in the lower bracket final to decide the final playoff team from a tricky Group A.

Date	Matches
BLAST Open Lisbon 2025
24/03/2025	Virtus.pro 13:45 Spirit	Match

The group stage exit for FaZe could, on a generous reading, be written off. It was a tough draw, facing world number two Spirit in the group of death's lower bracket. There was visible ring rust: Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski moved to Europe last month and three players took "mini-vacations", so a lack of practice was inevitable.

But the reality is that, three months and five events into 2025, we are no closer to seeing a FaZe comfortable in their roles and with any semblance of a new identity. The group of death excuses also falls flat considering it was a loss to Virtus.pro, with a stunning 13-0 in the decider, that put FaZe in Spirit's path.

Anubis saw karrigan beat Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets 5-2 in head-to-head opening duels but even that unlikely result in Canals and E-Box couldn't take FaZe to a map win as retake after retake went Spirit's way.

Spirit defused the bomb seven times on their 10-2 CT side, a sign that FaZe were getting into decent positions but were let down in the late round — an area that always used to be their strength with the three musketeers of Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken, Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool, and Helvijs "⁠broky⁠" Saukants.

This new FaZe Clan, with EliGE in tow, was an attempt to remold karrigan's chaos ball into an early-round force but the American opener has rarely matched his Complexity impact and that was the case again today.

Clip: karrigan was a rare bright spot for FaZe on Anubis

Nuke began with a 3-0 lead for FaZe but Spirit won seven of the next nine rounds on a T side that smothered EliGE in the yard. Some fortunate smoke spams from Myroslav "⁠zont1x⁠" Plakhotia helped, as did a 3v5 victory late in the half, but it would be hard to argue FaZe deserved anymore from a half that lacked fluency and synergy throughout.

That is not a problem that can exist long-term, especially on a map like Nuke where EliGE has taken Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard's iconic Yard position as his own.

FaZe, with their lack of practice time, have valid excuses for this event. But as time goes on, it will only be more concerning to karrigan that any improvement done behind the scenes remains invisible in official servers.

magixx the key on Anubis once more as the supporting cast step up

Boris "⁠magixx⁠" Vorobiev had six poor maps on Anubis in a row coming into Open, but has turned it around with two identical 23-10 K-Ds in wins over The Huns and FaZe.

The maps were similar too, in that B rotator magixx was often Spirit's saviours in retakes as holes continue to be poked in the team's setups.

That step up is applying a much-needed bandaid over a CT side, and there are valid questions to ask around the sustainability of a defensive strategy revolving around usual fourth man magixx and that allows so many bomb plants.

But, with Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov and zont1x in good form too on Nuke, it is a promising sign that Spirit's supporting cast are finding more impact at a time where the floor of the team, in direct comparison to Vitality, have been under pressure.

EliGE: "I'm not feeling that confidence right now"

EliGE's move to Europe has brought with it a "stressful" few weeks for the American, and life in the server hasn't brought any respite.

"There's some discomfort still," EliGE said on the desk after FaZe's elimination. "If there was an easy solution we would have done it. For me its a matter of confidence in the role, when you're playing these roles you have to be 100% certain about every move you're doing, every strafe, and unfortunately I'm not feeling that confidence right now."

Roles are also a persistent conversation that FaZe cannot shut down at the moment. rain's conversion to anchor roles could be going worse, but the team are more than aware just how far out of his comfort zone he is.

"We have a lot of conflicts naturally as players," EliGE said. "It's a delicate balance and it's hard to find that. We don't want to overstep, but if you understep then you don't perform well enough."

David "⁠frozen⁠" Čerňanský was also asked about the topic pre-game, and admitted that he had willingly played full anchor roles in practice before the team decided to go down another route, calling the team's state a "weird spot."

"Maybe we see that someone needs to take a step back on a map, and someone has to take a step forward, we’ll do it and we’ll try it out," the Slovakian added.

Captain karrigan had an even more damning assessment on X: "This is a disappointment, the way we lose way too many advantage positions and rounds is insanely bad in this tournament. Basics are in the bin, back to practice again again again again."