karrigan: "Sometimes a small punishment can help a player"

"So far I'm really happy with the mentality and hunger he brought," karrigan added.

The story surrounding FaZe's arrival in Germany for IEM Cologne is the return of Helvijs "⁠broky⁠" Saukants, who was benched two months ago amidst a down period for the team as a whole.

FaZe played IEM Dallas and the BLAST.tv Austin Major with Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev as a stand-in, but didn't turn the deal permanent, with Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen explaining why to HLTV shortly after his team's opening win against BIG.

"There were scenarios where I missed Helvijs [broky] in the team, and that shows the fire Helvijs has during games and boosting everyone else is a key factor and is needed in this team," karrigan says. "Sasha could do the same, but he would do it in a different way."

The Dane expanded on those thoughts, touching on broky's need for a break and his change in approach during the off-season, and spoke about how FaZe hopes to resolve some of their issues moving into the new season.

"The communication has been what we focused on in the seven days," karrigan says. "I didn't focus on tactics, I focused on hunting people down when their comms are bad. I need feedback, I need ideas in my head to do mid-round calls, and when nobody is contributing I'm calling them out."

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Congratulations on your first win in Cologne. It looked straightforward from the outside, was it also like that from the inside of the server against BIG?

Yeah, I think we lost all four pistols and won a forcebuy here and there to turn the momentum, but I kinda felt in control most of the game. Maybe here at the end of Ancient it's about closing and getting a little bit too tight, but we managed to close it. I don't think there was too much stress today about winning the map or closing the maps.

Let's go back to the break. FaZe went into it after this awkward period where you decide bench broky and bring in s1mple as a stand-in. Now, after the break, the only change we see is broky coming back. Can you explain what was going on in the break, what were the talks like?

I think it was pretty simple. During the Sasha stint, when this was brought to the table and we thought about it, I knew in some way Helvijs needed a break, but it's very hard to come in and right before the Major when the stress is highest, the team is not performing. There was some team synergy, team chemistry I didn't really understand, and benching Helvijs right before the Major was obviously not the best scenario.

But then Sasha comes in and some of the things didn't change that I thought might change, and we also let Helvijs know that he might come back and that he should use this break to think about things and trying to figure out some health things. He went a lot to the gym and is having more discipline now so that when the season gets tight he is more focused.

So far I'm really happy with the mentality he brought and the hunger, and sometimes a small punishment can help a player. We let him know that the decision would be after the Major, and I talked to him already during the Major that we want him back.

s1mple was on jL's stream saying effectively 'why would FaZe want me, I didn't show that much, I dropped the ball in the playoffs game.' Was there never any world where that was going to be a permanent signing?

In a scenario where we go to the Major final, we win and Sasha is the MVP, there are things that we need to discuss, the price and everything, right? But there were scenarios where I missed Helvijs in the team, and that shows the fire Helvijs has during games and boosting everyone else is a key factor and is needed in this team. Sasha could do the same, but he would do it in a different way.

I think we all needed to look in the mirror after the Major and just being straightforward with each other with feedback. I think that's been a problem for us in the season that we had so many close games, so many stupid rounds we lost in key moments.

I didn't see an end of it, but having a different player, that changes the view of the players, and then bringing Helvijs back with a fresh mindset and us being ready, I think it can be really good. We still have a lot of things to work on, it's not like magically all the problems we had in the season disappear, but sometimes starting on a fresh season with a player that had a longer break can be good for us.

As you say, before all this happened, you looked out of answers after trying everything you possibly could, and this s1mple move was a Hail Mary to end the season. It's difficult to see how things will change, and you said it just then as well, so what makes you believe that this can bring the team back to a level it wants to be at?

Honestly, everyone on the team was being down. Me as a leader, the last two tournaments, my famous vlog from FaZe showed a really bad side of my leadership, it was not the best or proudest moment of my career, and that also had to do with all the pressure building on us, not performing, looking good in one game and the day after we look really bad.

I think it's about fixing yourself, and I think everybody had a team talk and asked everyone what they wanna improve on individually, and now I'm gonna keep them up for the whole season that that's what you wanna focus on to bring to the team. We have to talk a little more about that.

We have to play some of the top teams to see how we're doing. It's very hard to say, but I know there are so many brilliant players on the team. I'm trying everything to make it work, and with a new map in the map pool, the map pool looks different, it's interesting times ahead, but we need results. The last 12-16 months have been really bad for us overall, so we need to step up for this season, that's for sure.

So what is it that you need to see from the team in these couple of months to see you're on the right path again and that this could be the solution?

Oh, one thing we all agreed on was mentality. FaZe was known for never giving up, finding a bullshit way to come back in the game, but more the mental side I think is the key thing because we broke down in some of these games.

We would be 12-12, lose a stupid round and then we lose that map and we get wrecked 13-2 next game or 13-0 by VP. Strange stuff that never really happened to any iteration of FaZe I've been in. Of course, I'm also to blame there, but I need the whole team to buy in and that, no matter what results we have here in Cologne, we just need to work on ourselves and be proud of the mentality we had.

The communication has been what we focused on in the seven days. I didn't focus on tactics, I focused on hunting people down when their comms are bad. I need feedback, I need ideas in my head to do mid-round calls, and when nobody is contributing I'm calling them out. If they want me to be really good at calling, they also need to help me in that way, especially with the freedom we have and the players want to make moves. A lot of things have changed - if it's gonna work I have no idea, but I've been in many teams and I've seen some great things in the past week. But it is what it is and we need to show it in official games now.

You touched on the map pool change with Overpass coming in for Anubis, which started being a map you guys dabbled in quite a bit, it was gaining in popularity in your map pool. Does this hurt the team, having to bring in Overpass instead?

I think Anubis was always a hard map to play sometimes. The last month or two we found a way to play it, but it's also easy to counter that. I think we had one of the best CT sides stats-wise, and that's why we had a good Anubis.

With Overpass, it's a completely different map, but I've been playing Overpass my whole career, it's been in and out of the map pool, I know how the map is being played out. It is a map where you need more structure, you need to do those individual moves sometimes to help the call because it is too easy for the CTs to read the game, and you need to be unpredictable, and that's what I like to do as well. It is a mixed map and I think really good for us.

Obviously, we have some A players in our team, that's the main issue, so it's gonna take some time for us to adjust on it, but I think we found a solution for now, and we have to see how we perform on the map. It's still new, but I also expect they want to play the same style that Overpass was being played at the beginning of CS2.

What about the other changes? The MP9, economy, also the incendiary change - do you feel like it's gonna have a significant impact on how the game plays out?

Yeah, I love to see the CT update. I think the economy and the CT molo is also better, so I love those changes, I think it's one of the best changes I've seen. It has quite some impact in practice that you can get those $200 on every player, that means you can suddenly buy hero M4s and do a lot more damage.

I still hate the $1,400 loss bonus, it really kills the game and momentum of both teams, but besides that a beautiful update. Thank you, Valve.