karrigan: "We've brought some of that DNA back. Is that gonna lead to trophies? I have no idea"

Adding jcobbb has helped put the team back on the same page and "refreshed" karrigan as a captain.

Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen and FaZe have had a tough 2025. But after bringing Helvijs "⁠broky⁠" Saukants back and swapping Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski for young gun Jakub "⁠jcobbb⁠" Pietruszewski, they have made it to the arena playoffs of BLAST Open London.

Whether they have truly turned a corner remains to be seen, but a win over Natus Vincere had more of the markings of the old FaZe than we have seen in a while.

Date	Matches
BLAST Open London 2025 Finals
05/09/2025	FaZe 20:15 G2	Match

For a team — and captain — so used to success, not being able to find a solution before now took its toll on karrigan, with frustration showing in FaZe vlogs and the team's results failing to improve.

"The past nine months have been a blur," karrigan told HLTV on BLAST's media day. "Going from Shanghai where I went through a personal loss to changing a player, changing the system, having the guy living with me — I don't think people realize how much I had going on in FaZe at that period of time."

Bringing jcobbb in acts as a reset, to a time where FaZe are more aligned in tactical vision. broky, fresh off a break, is having his best event since BLAST Fall Final 2024 and sits on a 1.32 rating so far. The sunshine, finally, is breaking through the clouds.

We have not seen FaZe magic in a while, but who's to say it cannot make a return in London?

Watch the interview here.

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First of all, what is it like to be here, back in an arena, back in your favorite place to play?

Feels good. Obviously a little bit strange to play an online game and then go straight to an arena, but it feels good. We haven't had many arena games this year, and the ones we had was a really nice feeling to play, so looking forward to play. I've played a few times in this arena and it's pretty loud.

It's the first time we've spoken to you since EliGE left the team. What are your initial thoughts on that move and how it has played out?

I think it's very hard to say at the beginning, but obviously the environment and the feelings in the team are better. It's no secret that we weren't on the same page. We tried everything to work it out as a team, everybody sacrificed a bit, Jon sacrificed, I sacrificed, everyone else did something to kinda make the philosophy and the vision work.

In the end we tried a lot of different stuff, we also tried it with Sasha coming in, to see what dynamic that would create, but in the end we always have to be on the same page. For now it feels really good, it feels refreshed, and hopefully we continue building on something here. It's a very inexperienced player, so it's a different mindset we need to have as a team, and try to build from each game and learn.

The quote from rain was something about lots of different ideas from everyone in the server. Was that the thinking behind the move, you taking a bit more control back in terms of how the team plays?

I always had control, but I love to listen to players, what they think, what they can do well and what they like to do in the server, trying to find a balance where everybody can get a map or have a feeling where they can control a little bit more. But in the end, for example Jon had really good T side stats and played really well and had great impact in the server, but we couldn't transform that into winning rounds, and some rounds were unnatural for us, how they ended with how we started. That was very hard for the team to adapt to. Trust me, we tried everything.

One reason why we brought in Jon was to refresh the way we wanted to play, but in the end everyone has to be happy in a team, and it didn't work out. Results were decent to some degree, but we always crashed for some reason in the server. Ideas, I think so a little bit, but I don't think it was full chaos. We had a vision we tried to keep working on, but in the end it was very hard to keep track of that and move in the right direction instead of going around in circles most of the time.

Tell me a little bit about the thinking behind bringing jcobbb. You had a lot of options in this rifler market, you could have put rain in spacetaking, but jcobbb is a pretty aggressive guy as well, like EliGE was. What's the thinking behind getting another aggressive player and keeping rain a little bit less aggressive?

I talked with Håvi, but he feels [good] in the new roles. He took a few months to learn them and he really enjoys some of these roles. Some maps are a little harder, some are a little different, but bringing in jcobbb we can now give him a few roles. I'm not gonna sit here and say what roles he's playing, but he's fresh to play everything. He has strengths and we try to play to them on some maps, but we also have many strengths in the team.

frozen can play some control, but Håvi can as well and maybe I can as well. We're trying to mix it up a bit with the star roles, so to say, but we are gonna use jcobbb as an aggressive player, entry or a second guy in, in some of the things. Especially on Nuke, I saw how good he is at entrying out Hut, and that's something Twistzz was really good at in the old team. In certain areas he was really good at something specific. It's up to me figure out what jcobbb is very comfortable with and where we can put him in some of these comfortable roles without destroying the dynamic on the team.

What's his personality been like? You got a bit of an inside view from your wife [Anja Suder was jcobbb's sports psychologist on Apogee] - how important is it when you're scouting a player, especially one as young as he is, to know about him first?

My wife hasn't told me much, there are certain things that they don't talk about. I have watched Apogee on the TV a lot, I was also in their practice room in Bucharest and talking with them. We practiced them so much, and the first thing I saw in the practice against them was that he was shooting really hard, he could jump through a smoke and kill two of our players even though they're aiming at him, and for me that's very crisp aim. That's the first thing, he was shooting very hard.

Already knowing him and seeing how he was on LAN, he is more of a quiet person, and I think that was also how broky was when he came into the team while he was developing in his own way. However he is, personality-wise, is always in some ways easy to fit in our team.

We will adapt and we will do things and also make up, if he's more quiet, more people have to take more control and step into a more leading role in the team. That's something I talked with rain and frozen about. They have to be very strong in the way they think and how they feel about the game. Hopefully the dynamic is gonna work out, and we're gonna see how he's gonna develop over time. It's his first LAN with us, we have seen he's a little bit shy, but that just comes with the pressure of being in FaZe Clan, first of all. Even though I tell him not to think about it, it's very hard. When you join FaZe Clan, it's all about getting trophies.

And I have to ask, Temperr talked a bit about it in a podcast with CYBERSHOKE - he mentioned Twistzz, rumors around his return. Is there anything you can say on that?

Not really, because I think everything was up in the air the past few months - how we wanna develop, how the market and everything is gonna look. I think some of the things Temperr said... I'm not controlling the team, let's just get it out there. I am being asked about my input, how I see things, how the future is gonna be in the team.

I'm gonna give my vision, but I also told FaZe Clan the last year that every time they wanna make a change, they should talk to every individual player. They have a good vision as well of how they see things, and then they can make a decision. For now this is how we're gonna play it, this is how we see it, and I'm just excited to show what we can do with finding a younger player who can prove himself in FaZe Clan just like broky did many years ago.

What is it like, compared to these super organizations with a million staff for every event and everything? I know you're saying you're not in control of all the decisions, but is it different to those types of orgs?

For me, it's good. I like to be in control of the vision, how the practice and schedule's gonna look with tournaments. What I like the most is that FaZe trusts me in many aspects of the team and everything, but in the end it's their decision. It would be nice to have full control of the team, but I also believe we have a lot of experience on our lineup, me and rain, and NEO as well, how we see things over time with burnout, tournaments and when to push a little bit harder and not to.

I just feel very welcomed in FaZe and also just comfortable that I can say my opinion and it will never be taken badly, or they'll never go fully against it, but they will challenge on certain areas. I think it's a very healthy relationship. In the past, 2017, yeah, we were kinda left alone, but we have Eddie with us, who is controlling a lot and helping a lot, and doing the structure of the day as well. The rumors of, 'they don't care about CS' is honestly completely wrong. Maybe it was 10 years ago, but for now they are trying to help us perform on the highest level.

Just how tough has 2025 been for you? We've seen some of the frustration in vlogs and everything - on a personal level, how tough has it been?

Oh, it's been very tough. I think there were many things during the season where I didn't understand why it doesn't work. I also looked inside to myself, but there are also certain things, when you have to lead a team that's not a team, I think people don't understand how hard and frustrating it is. You envision something, you go in and you work together, and then we change it and then we change something else, then we change positions, some comm system... There are so many changes during the season that it was very hard to keep track of one thing we wanna work on. I had a very bad period as well, March, April when the vlog came out, we got to see how I was as a leader from a different perspective, and that was not what I've been for the past few years.

There's been a mental struggle because of the pressure and everything. The past nine months have been a blur, going from Shanghai where I went through a personal loss to changing a player, changing the system, having the guy living with me - I don't think people realize how much I had going on in FaZe at that period of time. I'm just seeing this new young blood come in that wants to learn and adapt to us, that's gonna refresh me as a leader as well because I have a big responsibility to help this guy. He listens a lot to me, and that makes it very easy for me to work with the guy. Hopefully, we can help him succeed as well. So far he has done great things for the team, and that was my main point from the beginning. The rest will follow in his career.

You've talked a bit about the broky move, but is that on that level also to bring back the vibes into FaZe? We know how important he is from the comms videos and everything, is that part of that process?

broky went through a hard period as well. We lost ropz, and I think they were really good, close friends. We come in, everything is changing, the leadership, the calling is very confusing, and when you also hit an individual slump at the same time where nothing works... After he came back he had such a positive impact on the team, a positive energy. I think we all did something wrong in the last nine months.

We tried to see what the dynamic would be [with s1mple], and it just wasn't working without broky, because in the last few years he has been what is FaZe Clan. The energy, when the game comes on, he goes for the plays, he goes for the freedom. That's why it's natural to have him back, and it's also a fresh start where he needs to be a veteran of the team, and he needs to show jcobbb how to be a professional and how to develop as a player. He has been through what jcobbb is now most recently as a rookie, and that's why it's great to have him on the team.

In this group stage, we've seen flashes of the old FaZe again. Does it feel like you've turned a corner, or is it too soon to tell?

I think we showed mentality we haven't shown for the last nine months. I think there were so many rounds against Vitality where I felt like, 'damn, this is FaZe Clan, losing a 3v1, then winning a forcebuy, losing another forcebuy, then we had a 2on2 where we killed one guy in the molotov in heaven...' I'm like, this is fun. This is exciting.

In some way I think the brand of Counter-Strike we have played reminds me of high-risk, very explosive, and you don't know what's gonna happen all the time. We have brought some of that DNA back. Is that gonna lead to trophies? I have no idea, but just feeling like we're playing in a certain way where everyone is on the same page, that's a start for any team, for any captain, for any coaching staff, to see everybody following something and buying into it. Some of the old FaZe Clan is back, but what it is, it's very hard, it's been a long time since we've seen it.

And it's your third arena of the year, but the first with that kinda DNA back in your system? Could that electrify the team again, as we've seen so many times?

I think we can do something. The playoff we have on paper is easy, but it's a very dangerous bracket. G2 has really powered up. The way they beat Spirit was very surprising, you don't just beat donk or sh1ro in that way. FURIA has been really, really good. I think they're a dark horse for the Major already. In my opinion, there's gonna be the perfect teams to play right now, where we are trending up and they have been on an upwards trend for the past month, so I'm just excited to go and play.

We're gonna play our Counter-Strike and we're gonna learn from it. We'll see how jcobbb does on the stage. I'm trying to share some experience, talk with him as well, so we're setting up for the best possible success. But in the end, let's go and have some fun, that's what FaZe Clan has been about, the smiles, the energy, and mini-comebacks, mini-throws and everything. So let's just have some explosive Counter-Strike on stage.

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