FaZe Clan have suffered another exit as their ESL Pro League Season 23 run was ended by Astralis in a close 2-1 defeat which saw their dramatic Map 3 comeback fall painfully short.
FaZe were defeated 7-13, 13-3, 16-14 on Dust 2, Ancient, and Inferno in the 1-2 bracket to exit Pro League in 12th-14th in Stage 2, the second online stage of the event.
The exit is another in a long string of sorry results for one of Counter-Strike’s most celebrated and decorated teams, a streak only interrupted by a miraculous Grand Final run at the StarLadder Budapest 2025 Major.
FaZe adjustments not enough to stop rot
FaZe’s run at Pro League was ended by Astralis following losses to G2 and paiN, with FaZe’s only win coming against Monte, who had advanced from Stage 1 of the competition.
The loss will be a bitter pill to swallow, as Astralis made two changes coming into the year, adding Love ‘phzy’ Smidebrant and Gytis ‘ryu’ Glušauskas, switching comms to English. FaZe, by contrast, made zero changes in the off-season, but is seemingly still struggling to find its map pool, positions, and balance in the roster.
The run continued a series of disappointing results since veteran FaZe rifler Håvard ‘rain’ Nygaard left the organisation in October last year.
FaZe tournament results since rain’s departure:
- CS Asia Championships 2025: 7th-8th
- IEM Chengdu 2025: 13th-16th
- StarLadder Budapest Major 2025: 2nd
- BLAST Bounty 2026 Season 1: 17th-32nd
- IEM Kraków 2026: 9th-12th
- PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026: 12th-14th
- ESL Pro League Season 23 Stage 2: 12th-14th
While many of the above events saw FaZe stubbornly plough on despite poor events, Pro League saw FaZe make several adjustments in an attempt to change their fate.
FaZe have now moved to Dust 2 as their ‘home’ map, picking it in all series in Pro League besides the Monte match, where Monte picked the map first. Dust 2 gave FaZe wins against paiN, Monte, and Astralis, though it also saw them lose 13-1 in their opening Pro League showing against G2.
Additionally, FaZe are now targeting Overpass, a map they notably struggled on in Budapest despite the strong result there. FaZe defeated Monte on the map 13-11, in a series which saw them pick the map.
The win followed an adjustment at Cluj-Napoca, which saw Russel ‘Twistzz’ Van Dulken and David ‘frozen’ Čerňanský swap positions, with Twistzz taking the more proactive A Bathrooms role and frozen moving to B Rotate.
Whether Overpass is ultimately a strong map for FaZe is still unclear, but the swap certainly improved their CT-side balance, a vital aspect of the largely defence-favoured map.
It was the rest of the map pool that let FaZe down in the end, losing Ancient twice, Inferno once, and suffering defeats on Nuke and Mirage to paiN.
After almost 200 days together as this five-man roster, it seems that FaZe can still not find the right balance in their roster across the six maps they need to play to compete. Taking energy to focus on Overpass and Dust 2 may have led them to neglect issues elsewhere.
Indeed, focus on preparation was cited by Twistzz as a reason for his individual form looking relatively weak at Pro League, posting, “Went in the right direction with the prep I do, but lost some of myself individually.”
The Canadian averaged only a 0.93 HLTV rating at the event, but in truth, Twistzz, alongside frozen, are the least of FaZe’s problems. The question looms large, ‘Can this roster work?’
You can discuss that question and more on Insider Gaming’s Discord Server.
For more Counter-Strike esports news, have you seen that jL is standing in for Liquid at Roman Imperium Cup VI?
Darragh is an Esports Journalist for Insider Gaming specialising in Counter-Strike. He loves to explore how esports teams work, or why they very often do not.
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