FaZe forfeit ESL Pro League match against G2
A behind-the-scenes dispute over what lineup FaZe is allowed to field has led to the team forfeiting the first match in Stockholm.

FaZe have decided to forfeit their first ESL Pro League Stage 2 match against G2 just hours before it was scheduled to begin, according to ESL.
Neither the tournament organizer nor the team explained the reasoning, but HLTV knows that it came in the aftermath of a dispute between the two sides over what lineup FaZe is allowed to use at the event.
Following the decision to replace Håvard "rain" Nygaard with Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken, the lineup FaZe arrived with at ESL Pro League only includes two out of the five players that featured on the July 7 Valve Regional Standings, the ranking used for invites to the event.
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TwistzzESL's General Rules and Roster Restrictions rulebooks require teams to retain at least three out of five players (or "a majority") from the invitation ranking:
ESL Pro Tour CS General Rules, Rule 2.28
Teams invited based on the Valve Regional Standings must retain at least three out of the five core players listed in the VRS on the Invite Date.
ESL Pro Tour CS Roster Restrictions, Rule 2.4
Once a participant plays for the first time in a qualifier, their lineup has to contain a majority of that first lineup until the end of the main event, throughout all qualifiers and stages of the event. This also implies that an organisation that tried and failed to qualify with one team is not allowed to sign a new team to still take part in the event.
The above lineup restriction also applies for participants that were invited to the event or a later stage of the qualifiers, in that case the default lineup of the participant at the time of the invitation or a specific lineup named in context with the invitation is relevant. Invited participants are considered the same as if they had played throughout the entire qualifier process up until the stage that they have been invited to.
The starting roster FaZe submitted for the tournament includes rain and it would have satisfied the majority rule, but the rule would be broken once he was replaced as planned with Twistzz, who is listed as a substitute.
Questions remain why the situation wasn't resolved earlier when FaZe's intent to use Twistzz was made clear.
HLTV has reached out to FaZe and ESL for a comment.
ESL Pro League Season 22

Nemanja 'huNter-' Kovač
Mario 'malbsMd' Samayoa
Álvaro 'SunPayus' García
Nikita 'HeavyGod' Martynenko
Eetu 'sAw' Saha



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